Summer of '42 by Herman Raucher

Author:Herman Raucher [Raucher, Herman]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3, pdf
Tags: 2015-05-05
ISBN: 9781626818064
Publisher: Diversion Books
Published: 2015-05-03T06:00:00+00:00

14

They sat in the grassy-clumped yard behind Benjie’s bungalow, just Hermie and Oscy, like expectant fathers. Oscy paced about very anxiously. Hermie just let it all roll off him, pleased that his fate was no longer in his own hands. It was at times like that in Hermie’s life that Oscy always proved so helpful. Oscy was a great decision maker. It was Oscy who had determined that they could leap the seven feet that separated the roofs of the two apartment buildings. It was Oscy who had said that they could run blindly out of Jaeger’s icy alley and safely belly whop between the moving front and back wheels of the moving Macy’s delivery truck. And it was Oscy who had said that Hermie could take Johnny Stella if he’d just run out and throw the first punch for psychological purposes. Hermie looked up into the afternoon sky to see if that same Johnny Stella was still hovering around. He wasn’t. Probably off somewhere, eating wet cement for his next shit. Hermie touched his shirtfront. It had hardened to the consistency of linoleum and had wrinkled into a petrified waffle. If his mother couldn’t iron out those wrinkles, Hermie could never wear that shirt again except to accordion player rallies. Oscy ceased his pacing. Benjie’s back door was opening. Oh…so…slow.

Benjie came out, accomplishing the deed with superhuman stealth. For as everyone knew, beyond every such door there was a mother. Benjie had something with him. An object. It was wrapped within the folds of a green, Indian-patterned bathrobe. And it was tied into knots via the fringed bathrobe sash. Oscy grabbed the bundle and set it onto the ground. He had a difficult time untying the sash because Benjie had utilized every knot he’d learned in Cub Scouts. “Why’d the hell you put in so many knots, you moron!”

“I wanted it secure. I don’t know.” Benjie was very concerned with what might be coming out the door at him. “Can you hurry up?”

“No, I can’t hurry up, you dope. Thanks to you, we might be here all day.” Oscy puzzled over the knots, green velvet spaghetti, still alive.

“If my mother—”

“Hermie, do you have a knife?”

Benjie stiffened. “You cut my sash, Oscy, and I call the cops for burglary. That sash is all I have to keep my bathrobe closed.”

“What’re you hiding, your belly button?” Oscy worked feverishly to unravel the Gordian knots.

“Fuck you, Oscy.”

“Oh, shut up.” Oscy finally solved the knots and unfolded the robe. Inside was the eugenics book. Oscy removed his sweat shirt and smoothed it out on the grass. The exchange was speedy. The book was moved from bathrobe to sweat shirt within the blink of a bug’s eye. Quickly Oscy knotted his sweat shirt’s sleeves about the book. Then he picked up the whole bundle and motioned for Hermie to follow him.

Hermie trailed after Oscy, turning only once to look at Benjie, who was sitting on the top step of his back porch, training Oscy’s binoculars on them.

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