Little Boy Blue Read Online Free PDF Page A

the
accident when Sammy’s mother was killed, turning to booze and bad checks;
he was now in jail. Sammy was aggressive and impulsive, nominally the leader
because he was bigger and stronger. Alex was too young to see that his friend
wasn’t very bright. They roamed the grounds together, throwing rocks at
blackbirds and trying to catch gophers, for which the Home paid a quarter bounty . In the evenings they went swimming.
    The days were easy enough for Alex, and he
was able to avoid Thelma Cavendish’s wrath. But after lights-out he
thought of Clem’s promise and felt both lonely and excited.
    On Saturdays the younger boys were taken to
the movies. The bus carried them fifteen miles into Hollywood, then dropped them off near a group of theaters on Hollywood
Boulevard.
    One time Hollywood Boulevard’s traffic
swallowed the disintegrated group, and Alex and Sammy walked off together
toward the row of marquees, which were nearly side by side. One that specialized
in Westerns had a facade of logs and a hitching post.
    They were looking at the posters in the outer
lobbies when Sammy said, “Let’s not go. I’ve got two
dollars…”
    “Two dollars! Where … ?”
    “I found it.”
    “You found it?”
    “Well… a visitor left her purse
in her car with the window down.” He grinned, shrugged a shoulder.
“What could I do? She had twenty dollars and I just took two. Anyway,
hell, we could hitchhike to Griffith Park and go horseback riding.”
    “No, my father’s coming tomorrow
to take me horseback riding.”
    “What about running away? It’s
still summer and not too cold at night.”
    Alex shook his head, pursing his mouth for
emphasis. “I’m not chicken. I ran away for six days about four
months ago. I was sleeping under a shoeshine stand, and the colored guy who ran
it brought me food every morning.”
    “How’d they catch you?”
    “I went to the movies during a weekday,
and they look through them for truants.”
    “I like running away. Nobody to tell you anything. You just go where you want and
do what you want—like an explorer. The only bad thing is if you get
hungry or can’t find a place to sleep when it’s cold.”
    “If you want to run away, go ahead. You
can have my sixty cents.”
    “It’s no fun alone. Anyway, let’s
not go to a movie. Let’s just fool around here.”
    Alex hesitated, needled by a premonition of
disaster, then nodded agreement. Crossing the street,
they went back up the other side, ducking through alleys, wandering through a
department store, playing. At a hot-dog stand they bought hamburgers and milk
shakes. When they reached the end of the business area, they turned off along a
tree-shaded residential street and walked down to Sunset Boulevard. As much as
anything they were roaming.
    On Sunset they stopped at the window of a
huge store called “Builder’s and Sportsmen’s Emporium.”
A gleaming Schwinn bicycle made them stop and stare.
    “Let’s go in and look
around,” Sammy said, beckoning to his friend and walking toward the door.
Alex trotted behind.
    The vast store had many aisles and
departments, selling everything from bolts to boats— tires, shotguns, hinges, outboard motors, rakes, shovels .
They were wandering around when suddenly Sammy touched Alex’s sleeve and
motioned to a counter laden with sheath knives in leather scabbards. Sammy
picked one up, unsheathed it, returned it.
    The counter had no clerk. Nobody was paying
them any attention. Sammy picked it up again. “Two dollars,”
he said.
    Alex sensed what was going to happen. Sammy
was glancing around; then he lifted his shirt and stuck the knife down into his
waistband. Alex held his breath, looking around in fright, remembering his
promise to his father.
    They were pushing at the door, blinking at
the glare outdoors, when the man came up behind them. “Hold it,
boys,” he said, reaching for Sammy. Alex could have run but didn’t.

The punishment was left to Thelma Cavendish.
The