Crossing California by Adam Langer

Author:Adam Langer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2010-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

WILLS/SILVERMAN

Muley

After three months, Muley Scott Wills had gotten more or less used to the relative luxury of living in a new two-bedroom apartment with his mother on the east side of California Avenue. Deirdre Wills had used a chunk of Carl Slappit Silverman’s $5,000 check to furnish the place. There was a dining room with matching chairs and a lacquered oak table. There was a living room with a leather couch, a TV, and a stereo. There was a big kitchen with appliances, kitchen stools, a small breakfast nook, a refrigerator that was always full, and two dozen bookcases.

By most measures, Muley’s life would seem to have improved. In a neighborhood where progress was judged by whether one had moved east or west or stood still, Muley was a mile farther west than he had been in December 1979. His mother was finishing up her credits at Circle; she was substituting in the Chicago public schools, tutoring, and teaching college test prep classes, and though Muley saw her a good deal less than before, at least she seemed happier when he did. Young Town had been picked up by four other public radio stations nationwide and Donna Mayne said it would surely sweep the Jack Benny radio awards. And Muley’s mother had allowed him to sell every gift his father had ever given him, and he’d sold all of them—save for his hockey net, sticks, and puck—to buy the film editors he kept atop his desk. Muley had taken an entrance exam for Lane Tech, the magnet high school nearest his apartment, and though he’d arrived late and left early to get to a Young Town taping, he ranked a respectable 218 out of more than 900. It was not as impressive a score as Jill Wasserstrom’s—Jill had ranked eighth overall—but it was more than sufficient to ensure his admission.

Muley was also enjoying an unprecedented popularity among his peers. With the exception of Jill, he had always found his most rewarding friendships with adults—listening to Knopov’s Bakery manager Bess Vaysberg take on the Iranian situation, drinking ginger ales and, once in a while, beers with Mel Coleman at the Double Bubble. But now girls were calling him—every week or so, Connie Sherman would call just to say, “Hey, Mules” and “see what was going on.” Lisa-Anne Williams had invited him to go with her family to church and then to a Bulls game (he had declined, citing little interest in sports aside from hockey). And often on weekends, Gareth Overgaard would drop by with Michelle Wasserstrom and/or Myra Tuchbaum to see if Muley wanted to smoke a doob on Mt. Warren, grab a grilled cheese at Gulliver’s, or have what Gareth termed a Waukegan Night, which involved buying 32-ounce pops at a 7-Eleven and consuming them in a parking lot. Sometimes Gareth would come on his own to see if Muley wanted to go driving.

About every other time, Muley would say yes and spend his evening listening politely to Michelle’s

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