The H-Bomb and the Jesus Rock Read Online Free PDF Page B

regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the western hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response...

Toby
    Somebody else finally came along, this kid Ralph and his little sister in their wagon.
    Ralph + Lou Cavaletto it says on the side, like they’re in a business together. They come by about once a week, from the other side of the viaduct, around Parnell Street I think, heading to the Jewel for groceries or the vacant lot for empty pop bottles, for the two-cent refund. So maybe that’s the business they’re in, the returning-empties business. Lot of money in that, I’m sure.
    They said hi and kept going.
    I told them, “Wait.”
    They stopped.
    “C’mere. Show you something.”
    The little one, Lou—funny name for a girl—got out of the wagon and they both came over, obedient. Ralph’s about ten and she’s maybe eight I’d say. They’re both real skinny, Ralph’s nose is way too big, and they’ve got these dark, sunk-in eyes. They look like a couple of gypsies or something.
    I had that fifteen cents I told you about and I took out a dime. “See this?” I said. “This is yours. How’s that sound? Not too bad?”
    They waited, like there had to be more.
    They were right. I tapped on the lid of one of my boxes and told them if they could guess how many baseball cards were inside they would win themselves this bright shiny dime. “Go ahead,” I told them. “Nothing to lose. Take a guess.”
    They stood there looking at the box, thinking hard. I finished up a piece of toast and licked my sticky fingers.
    “Hundred and twenty-seven,” Ralph said.
    I looked at his sister. “What about you?”
    She looked at Ralph, then at me, then at the box. “Hunnerd and...twenty-eight.”
    I had no idea but I told them, “Wow, very close, both of you, very close. Try again. Only, this time I’m gonna need a nickel first, you know how it is.”
    Ralph said they had to be going.
    “Wait,” I said. “Ever see a woman’s titties? Five cents.”
    He said he didn’t have it.
    “All right, for free.” I lifted up my T-shirt. “Check ‘em out.”
    Lou looked at her brother. He just stood there staring.
    “Think I oughta wear a bra?” I said.
    They didn’t laugh, either one of them.
    They’re a little weird, those two.

Ralph
    I saw a picture of some bare-chested native ladies in a magazine this kid Bob Carlisle was showing everyone at the park one day, and I saw my mom once when I walked into her room without knocking and she turned away too late, but those weren’t sins, either one, because I didn’t mean to see, but I never saw a boy with breasts before and I couldn’t help staring. It wasn’t something Lou should be looking at though, so I snapped out of it and dragged her back to the wagon.
    He wanted to know where we were headed.
    “Vacant lot,” I told him.
    Lou got in again.
    “For bottles?” he said.
    I nodded yeah.
    He offered us a nickel if we wagoned him there and back. He said he wanted to get some baseball cards at Morgan’s—that’s the drug store just past the vacant lot—and if we took him in the wagon there and back he’d give us five cents.
    “Each?” I said.
    He asked me if I was out of my mind.
    I started leaving.
    “All right, all right,” he said.
    I stopped. “All right what?”
    “A dime.”
    I looked at Lou.
    She nodded.
    I told him okay, deal.
    “Lemme put these away,” he said, and started stacking his boxes. I counted seven. Seven boxes of baseball cards.
    I don’t get it.
    “And put some shoes on,” Lou told him. He was wearing house slippers.
    He gave her a look. He had all seven boxes in his arms now, with his chin on top, and he stood there giving Lou a long dirty look.
    She looked at me.
    I shrugged.
    He went inside, looking back at her.
    So now we had to wait for him. Then we’d have to wagon him all the way there and all the way back. I wasn’t even sure if we could,