Algren at Sea Read Online Free PDF

thought they were taxis! Let me help snarl the system by defying local traffic ordinances! Let me lead a wade-in into Buckingham Fountain!”
    Norman came over to us.
    â€œHave you ever written anything that would disturb an eight-year-old?” he demanded.
    â€œI can’t remember.”
    â€œThen don’t bug me,” he instructed me, and walked off.
    â€œDon’t bug me either,” Giovanni added. “I’m going south.”
    I held him by his sleeve. “Take me with you to Atlanta,” I pleaded.
    He removed my hand. “The south of Corsica, Baby,” he corrected me, and turned to leave. I followed.
    â€œBut aren’t we going to fight for the downtrodden everywhere?” I wanted to know. “Isn’t that our responsibility?”
    Giovanni turned so swiftly on me I almost lost my balance.
    â€œOurs?” he asked, as though he had not heard aright, “ours? Why can’t you understand that, as you represent white power, you have deprived me of the right to take any responsibility? Oh, no, Baby, you aren’t putting that on me now. I am a victim of society! You have to make everything up to me.”
    â€œI will! I will!” I leaped at the opportunity. “I’ll immolate myself in the Negro race! I’ll pull a Jim Crow in reverse! I’ll be a white James Baldwin and you be a black Eisenhower!”

    Giovanni looked disgusted.
    â€œGo tell your troubles to the Reverend King,” he advised me. “Now ta-ta and huggy-vous. See you in the Seizième Arrondissement, Daddydoo”—he gave me a small delighted shriek and whirled about. “Normy, you dreadful boy! You goosed me!”
    â€œBoss Johnson can’t cut the mustard!” Normy challenged him, and fled out the door.
    A merry chase! Down the steps went Normy with Giovanni right on his heels, trying to catch him, and I was right on Giovanni’s heels, trying to catch him. At the Fiftieth Street entrance to Central Park, Giovanni almost caught Normy when Normy ducked around a hansom cab and Giovanni did a U-turn on him. I guess he would have caught him at that if I hadn’t gotten between them. That was all that saved Normy.
    The last I saw of him he was heading toward the carrousel in the park with Giovanni gaining on him. I couldn’t follow because I had lost my Ked Gavilan. It was under the cabman’s horse, and when I went to pick it up the horse reared, waking up the cabman. He leaned over and gave me such a crack with the butt end of his whip that for a minute I forgot all about my sneaker.
    â€œWhat the hell do you think you’re doing?” he wanted to know, and I couldn’t blame him.
    â€œI was just trying to be some kind of supremacist, sir,” I explained as best I could.
    â€œCan’t you do that without getting under a horse?”
    â€œI just got carried away, sir.”
    â€œIf I give you another crack as good as the first, you’ll be carried away alright,” he told me, fingering the butt of his whip.
    â€œThat first one was pretty good, sir,” I complimented him. “I want to thank you for it. It cleared my head.”
    A policeman came up at that moment, and I was pleased that he did. He was the same one who had scolded me for looking for a drugstore in Central Park without my shoes. I was relieved that I had one on now.
    â€œI see you’re back,” he congratulated me. “Where’s your other shoe?”
    â€œIt’s there under the horse, sir,” I pointed out.
    â€œThen get it and put it on.”
    I looked at the cabman. He still had a good grip on his whip.
    â€œAre you waiting for me to pick it up and put it on for you?” the officer wanted to know.

    â€œNo, sir.”
    â€œWould you rather go to the station with one shoe than two?”
    â€œNo, sir, I’d rather wear both. If you give me my rathers.”
    â€œThen get it.”
    â€œThe horse