Hop Alley (2014) by Scott Phillips

Author:Scott Phillips [Phillips, Scott]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781619023796
Publisher: Counterpoint
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

WHEN BANBURY ARRIVED he slapped me on the back and set two beers down on the long table in front of us. He had on a brown bowler, and the bandage over his eye was gone. That eye itself was barely discernible between its swollen purple and black lids, but the other was wrinkled with merriment. “You cheap son of a bitch,” he said. “I assumed you’d be buying the suds.” He took a long swig from his glass and belched.

“How’s your eye?” I asked, and took a last drink from my first glass and then another from the fresh one.

“Better than it was,” he said. “I hate like hell having to lie every goddamn time somebody asks me about it, though.”

“Tell them you’ve been set upon by irate subscribers again.”

He took out two cigars, clipped them both, and handed me one. He looked up toward the bandstand, where a polka tune had just ended. “Jesus, Bill, do you see the one in the blue dress?” he said, jerking his head toward my dancer. She was just sitting down on a bench next to her last dance partner, and they shared a kiss and clasped hands as the band started anew.

“You change your mind about Cilla?” He licked some beer foam off of his moustache and then took a puff. “I’m going to keep up payments through the end of the lease in July, and then she’s out.”

“Hell, Ralph, I can’t afford to keep a woman in a separate lodging.”

“You’re a bachelor. She can move in with you and nobody’ll know she’s not your wife.”

“I don’t want to live with her, for God’s sake.” I took a puff on the cigar. It was a good one, better than I’d had in a long time. “Have you told her yet?”

He pushed his hat back to give his forehead some air. “No, and don’t you either. As long as I’m paying for that place, I’m going to get me a piece of ass once a week, and I don’t want to have to worry about her stabbing me in the midst of it.”

“That’s a lovely sentiment.”

“Don’t be high and mighty. Remember you’ll be getting at least as much of that as me until then, and on my nickel, besides.”

We watched the dancers for a minute in silence.

“Say,” he said. “How’s that Mrs. Fenster?”

“She’s all right.”

“You know, her brother-in-law got shot last night. One of my pressmen, that’s how I came to know her in the first place.”

“I heard someone got him outside the Silver Star.”

“That’s right. Gutshot the son of a bitch, and from what I hear nobody’s crying about it. We’re making him out in the paper to be a saint, since it sells a few more copies. All the wife wanted to know when she heard about it was how the hell were they going to pay their bills with him gone. I guess he beat the shit out of her pretty regular, and the kids too. I was there

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