The Feud Read Online Free PDF Page B

needed a kind of nimbleness he did not naturally possess.
    “I’ll see you then, Eva,” he said again, and he was about to leave when she punched him smartly but not painfully in the belly, giggled, and dashed away, leaving the lighted concrete plateau (tennis courts in the daytime) for the shadowy descent of the surrounding lawn. Her bouncing hair ribbon looked like a butterfly. She had fine sturdy legs, and her skirt was shorter than if it had been brand-new, because it was last year’s and she was still growing. Tony liked everything he had seen of her, and he was thrilled to recognize that she had invented something to do so that he was not forced to pretend he had business elsewhere.
    The night grew darker as they ran, for there was no moon or stars and the park lights, mounted on high standards, were focused on the dance floor. By the time Tony had reached the level ground and its little grove of bushes and young trees, he could no longer see so much as a flicker of Eva’s dress of washed-out blue. Obviously she was hiding somewhere. His bone-on returned in the suspense of tracking her down.
    But defective sight in daytime does not improve in the dark. His lenses barred some of the little light available, and he was none too reckless about peering into foliage, lest his spectacles be caught in the twigs. So after a while what he did was just to come to a stop and stand between two evergreens and flex his thick shoulders.
    “Hey, Eva,” he called softly in admiration. “You’re nuts. You know that?”
    “Oh, yeah?”
    This came from behind him, but when he turned she was not there. A few more such exchanges took place, genial chidings answered by gentle taunts, and then he went around a bush and found her waiting in an attitude of mock defiance.
    “I guess you think you can beat me up,” she said. “Hoho, we’ll just see about that. Put up your dukes.” Her little balled fists were in the air between them.
    “Hoho,” Tony excitedly echoed. “Now you’re in trouble. You’re going to have some trouble sitting down after I get ahold of you.”
    “Oh-oh,” wailed Eva, dropping her hands and putting them in back of her, probably to cup the halves of her round behind: her breasts were thereby made even more prominent. Her gestures invariably fanned Tony’s ardor. He had never known a girl with that knack. She proceeded to increase his sweet torment. “I should have padded my pants!”
    He managed to stay with the style of mock severity. “Well then, little girl, you mind and you won’t get spanked.”
    “I promise,” she piped in falsetto, and then before he was aware of what she was doing, she was pressed against him. She had a sweet, damp smell, like the bathtub after it had been used by his sister, who had left home by now and worked in the city as cashier in a moviehouse, and therefore he hadn’t smelled that in a while: it was not perfume as such.
    Since it was Eva’s idea to embrace him and not vice versa, it seemed O.K. not to retract his crotch as on the dance floor, but rather to allow it to enjoy the rich friendship of her warm belly.
    But then she pushed away abruptly and went running again, out of the park now, across the street, and along the line of darkened shops. Tony did not understand the purpose of these maneuvers and felt at once exhilarated and ridiculous. He was about to be a senior in high school and had earned an all-county reputation at football, and here he was, chasing a girl along streets that did not even belong to his home town. Unknown as he was here, the police might take him for a sex fiend. Nevertheless he continued to pursue Eva until she willfully plunged into the dead end of a deep shop doorway.
    Over in the park the lighted dance floor and its throng had dwindled to miniature, and the recorded music, which blared so loudly when one faced the loudspeakers, was comfortingly faint. The nearest streetlamp provided a discreet glow. No one else was on this sidewalk: