Escape! Read Online Free PDF Page B

ready for this class,” the old
man said. His thin face was white with the struggle to keep himself
from getting angry.
     
    The arithmetic class was taught by Joe Tenny. To his
surprise, Danny found that he could do most of the problems that
Tenny flashed on the TV screen.
    “You’ve got a good head for numbers,” Joe told him as
the class ended and the boys were filing out for lunch.
    “Yeah. Maybe I’ll be a bookie when I get out.”
    Joe gave him that who-are-you-trying-to-kid look.
“Well, you’ve got to plan on being something. We’re not just
going to let you go, with no plans and no job.”
    They left the classroom together and started down the
hall for the outside doors.
    “Uh... the history teacher told me not to come back
to his class. I... uh, I fell asleep.”
    “That was smart,” said Joe.
    “Well, uh, look... can I take something else instead
of history? Maybe learn Italian.... I already talk it a
little...”
    “I know.”
    Danny felt his face go red. “Well, what I mean is,
maybe I could learn to talk it right.”
    Joe looked slightly puzzled. “I don’t understand why
you’d want to study a foreign language. But if that’s what you want
to do, okay, we’ll try it. Just don’t fall asleep on the job.”
    Grinning, Danny promised, “I won’t!”
    After lunch, Danny went up to the gym. One of the
older boys showed him where the lockers were. Danny changed into a
sweat suit and went back onto the gym floor. He lifted weights for
a while, then tried to jog around the track up on the catwalk. He
had to stop halfway; it got too hard to breathe.
    Got to get one of those pills.
    He went back to his locker and took a pill. After a
few minutes he was able to breathe easily again. He went back to
the gym and found a row of punching bags lined up behind the ring.
No one was using them. Lacey was nowhere in sight. Danny felt glad
of that. Ralph Malzone came from around the corner of the ring,
though.
    “Hiya, Danny. Starting training for the fight? You
only got two weeks.”
    Jabbing at a punching bag, Danny answered, “Yeah, I
know.”
    Ralph looked bigger than ever in his gym suit. He
towered over Danny. “C’mon back here, behind the bags. I’ll show
you a few things.”
    For the next half-hour, Ralph showed Danny how to use
his elbows, his knees, and his head to batter and trip up his
opponent.
    “All strictly illegal,” Ralph said, grinning broadly.
“But you can get away with ‘em if you’re smart. Main thing, with
Lacey, is keepin’ him off balance. Trip him, step on his feet. Butt
him with your head. Grab him and give him the elbow.”
    Danny nodded. Then suddenly he asked, “Hey Ralph...
where can I get a gun?”
    “What?”
    “A gun. A zip’ll do. Or at least a blade...”
    Ralph’s smile vanished. His round, puffy face with
its tiny eyes suddenly looked grim, suspicious.
    “What do you want a piece for?”
    “For getting out of here, what else?” Danny said.
    Ralph thought it over in silence for a minute. Then
he said, “Go take a shower, get dressed, and meet me in the metal
shop. Two floors down from here.”
    “Okay.”
    Danny took his time. He wanted to be sure Ralph was
in the shop when he got there.
    The metal shop smelled of oil and hummed with the
electrical throb of machines that cut or drilled or shaped pieces
of steel and aluminum. Boys were making bookshelves, repairing desk
chairs, building other things that Danny didn’t recognize.
    There was a pair of men in long, shapeless shop coats
wandering slowly through the aisles between the benches, stopping
here and there to talk with certain boys, showing them how to use a
machine, what to do next. Back in the farthest corner, Ralph was
tinkering with some long pieces of pipe.
    Danny made his way back toward Ralph’s bench. No one
stopped him or bothered him.
    “Hi.”
    Ralph looked coldly at him. “I just been wondering
about you. Asking about a gun. Somebody tell you to ask me?”
    Danny shook his head.