Racehoss by Albert Sample

Author:Albert Sample
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scribner

12

It was early December. The rain was freezing as fast as it hit the ground. Icicles hung on the outside window ledges. The radiator pipes that hung along the inner ceiling popped sporadically. Already we had been laying in the building for two days and were getting on one another’s nerves. This was my second Christmas and almost my third year at Retrieve. I’d begun to feel like an old-timer.

The saddest part about the Yuletide season was the way each of us tried to hide our loneliness. If we had the holiday blues, however, it was by choice. Big Devil took great pains to make our Christmas in hell merry. Cons were standing on bunks hanging decorations that Big Devil made the bosses chip in and buy after Hollywood had this festive brainstorm and sold him on the idea.

The outstanding punks on each tank were selected by Hollywood and the building tenders to do the decorating. Afterward, Big Devil would inspect the five tanks to determine which was the prettiest. The chosen tank’s members were allowed into the Friday night picture show first. After the white cons, of course.

Very quickly, the tank activities slowed after the decorating spree. The sound of hard walking and jingling spurs broke the calm. We knew it was Cap’n Smooth even before he spoke. “Boss, open up all ’em tank doors so’s them buildin tenders kin git out heah.”

Boss Humpy hollered down, “You wont one frum each tank or all uv ’em, Cap’n?”

Aggravated that he had asked, Cap’n Smooth yelled, “Ever damned one uv ’em!”

Levers were thrown and the noisy steel doors slowly opened. “That cap’n wonts all uv you buildin tenders ta come on out heah under this picket!”

Three building tenders lived on each lower tank and one on the trusty tank. In a matter of minutes all thirteen had gathered underneath the inside picket for a meeting with Cap’n Smooth. As they stood awaiting his spoken word, each had on his most eager-to-please suck-ass expression.

“Tell you whut I want y’all ta do,” Cap’n Smooth began. “First, how many uv you nigguhs kin read an write?” Several shuffled their feet and looked down at the scrub-polished redbrick floor, indicating they were the ones who could not. “Well, you nigguhs whut kin, I want y’all to go back in them tanks an git the names an numbers uv ever one uv ’em nigguhs who needs a set uv teeth.”

Big George asked, “Cap’n, does you want da names an numbers uv jes dem nigguhs whut ain’t got no teefs atall, or does you want dem nigguhs’ names whut’s got some teefs lef?”

“Naw, nigguh! I don’t want y’all gittin no nigguh’s name whut’s got some teeth in his mouth. That warden wants to take care uv them nigguhs first whut ain’t got no teeth atall. Nigguh, whut made you ask a goddamn crazy-assed question lak ’at in the first place? If a nigguh’s got two or three teeth uv his own, whut the hell does he want

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