Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack! Read Online Free PDF

anymore. He’s in regular school.”
    “So are you now,” Dinky said.
    “I hope so,” Natalia said.
    Tucker said, “Where is this street vendor located on Flatbush Avenue?” His heart was beating very fast, and he had been unable to think of anything else to say. Then he hated himself for butting in with something about a street vendor, when obviously whatever was going on was more important than Dinky getting a cardboard carton of orange sugar water.
    “I don’t care if Tucker knows,” Natalia said.
    “I’m warning you, I’ve only known him about a month,” Dinky said, as though Tucker wasn’t there. “I only know him because Nader gave his father asthma. It’s about all we have in common.”
    “For Pete’s sake!” Tucker said.
    “For Pete’s sake what ?” said Dinky. “I don’t know you.”
    “That’s great!” Tucker said furiously.
    “I trust Tucker,” Natalia said. “I don’t think it’ll make any difference to him that I’ve been in a special school.”
    “It doesn’t make any difference at all,” Tucker said.
    “It’s called Renaissance,” Natalia said. “That means ‘a new emergence.’ That’s where I went for Thanksgiving. Everybody at Renaissance has problems.”
    “You’re all over yours,” Dinky said.
    “Mental problems,” Natalia said.
    “I get it,” Tucker said softly.
    “I hope I’m okay now,” Natalia said.
    “Now that you know about it,” Dinky said to Tucker, “don’t blab it all over Brooklyn Heights.”
    Tucker didn’t even answer her.
    “I’m not ashamed of it, if that’s what you think,” Natalia said. “But sometimes it’s harder when everyone’s looking at you for signs of something.”
    “Another thing,” Dinky said. “When she rhymes, she’s nervous. I just found that out myself, last night.”
    “That’s true, all right,” Natalia said. “True all right, crew all right, you all right, through all right—”
    “Moo all night,” Dinky broke in, “drew all right—”
    They were both laughing.
    “It really does make you feel better,” Dinky said.
    Tucker said, “Chew all right, shoe all right, stew all night—”
    “Whew! All right !”Natalia ended it.
    “One thing still puzzles me,” Dinky said when they’d stopped laughing and were almost to Flatbush Avenue.
    “What’s that?” said Natalia.
    “How did he go to the John?”
    “Who?”
    “Tony. How did he go to the John with his pants on backward?”
    Tucker actually blushed while the girls collapsed with laughter again.
    When Tucker got back to the town house, Jingle had poster boards and poster paint spread out on the living-room floor. He was making signs for the walls of Help Yourself, chain smoking, and listening to a recording of Carmina Burana .
    “Your mother and father are walking across Brooklyn Bridge for some exercise,” Jingle told Tucker. “Sit down and listen to the music. You ought to listen to more good music. Your rock music can make you deaf, did you know that? In fact, I’m going to do a sign about that.”
    Several finished posters were drying across the coffee table:
BONE MEAL CAN RELIEVE ANXIETY
    EACH PUFF OF A CIGARETTE COSTS 45 SECONDS OF LIFE
    YOUR NERVES NEED CHOLINE.
    B12 FOR BETTER EYESIGHT
    Tucker got a Coke in the kitchen and brought in a clean ashtray to replace the overflowing one at Jingle’s elbow. By Jingle’s own calculation, Tucker figured Jingle had used up 900 seconds of his life that afternoon alone.
    “Listen to this record carefully,” Jingle said. “Monks sang these songs in the 13th century, only they’re not religious songs so don’t look like you’re going to toss your cookies, Tucker.”
    “It isn’t the songs,” Tucker said. “It’s the stale smoke.”
    “Listen!” Jingle said, and then Jingle translated the words after the chorus sang them. “‘Pretty is thy face/the look of thine eyes/the braids of thy hair; o how beautiful thou art!’”
    Tucker was just beginning to get interested when