I knew what he meant. I leaned across and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
He smiled the crinkly smile and picked me up, swinging me around in circles till my skirt went up around my legs. ‘Julie, Julie, Julie,’ he said, real fast, swinging me, ‘I love you, Julie!’
I didn’t even know we were in the middle of the sidewalk. I just hugged him so close I thought my ribs would bust.
‘I love you, too, Puff!’ I cried.
He set me down, and looked into my eyes. There was so much happiness in his face, I wanted to start crying all over again. Because no one had ever made him happy before, and I guess the same for me. Right then, I’d have given him my life if he’d asked for it.
‘There’s a Cavvy dance on at the Y tonight!’ he said, snapping his fingers. ‘I forgot all about it! It’s to celebrate all the kids gettin’ outta the pokey. Wanna go?’
The thoughts about how the Cavaliers were always starting fights and hurting people came to me again. I didn’t want to get back in with them as strong as I’d been.
But there was the feeling of belonging to the group, of being one of the crowd. I didn’t want to be left out. And Puff seemed to want me to go so badly, wanted to show how much he loved me, that I couldn’t make up my mind.
I looked at Puff. He could tell I was having a hard time deciding.
‘Please,’ he asked, real softly.
I loved him so much. He was my guy, and I wanted to go everywhere with him, show him I could always belong to the Cavvies if he could.
I suddenly felt light and gay and wanted to dance on the tops of the clouds. ‘Sure!’ I grinned.
We started off down the street, Puff whistling a real cool number, but as we passed Puff’s building, he asked me to wait a minute. If I’d known what he was going after, I’d never have waited a second! ‘’ll be right back,’ he said. ‘Gotta pick somethin’ up.’
I sat on the steps; in a minute I found myself whistling the same tune as Puff. It was the first time in my life I didn’t have to watch out for my kid sister, or have responsibilities I didn’t want. I knew I could rely on Puff’s strength. He was a wonderful guy! And even if some of the Cavvies weren’t the best—well, there were enough kids in the club to like.
Then Puff came bounding down the stairs, out into the street. He jumped over my head as he went across the front stoop! I saw him shoving something into his pocket, but I didn’t know what it was.
‘Let’s go, baby doll,’ he said happily, and we started off again.
We linked arms, and I heard him say, ‘What a ball this is gonna be tonight! Whatta ball!’
It was pretty dim at the Y. They don’t know how to decorate the gym so it’s intimate-like, without being pitch-black; but it was nice anyhow. They had a lot of good records, and everything was going just fine, till the Eagles made it on the scene.
I was dancing with Puff, up close and really in love with him. When the number finished, Puff said, ‘I’ll be right back, honey,’ and he walked away toward the shower room. I moved over to the wall and started talking to a couple of other Cavvy Debs. We were waiting for our drags to come after us, when I spotted one of the boys that had bothered me in front of the drugstore that day I’d first met Puff.
‘Hey!’ I said, jabbing one of the girls in the ribs. Those are Eagles! What’re they doing here tonight?’
‘Oh, man!’ answered the girl—it was Hike—almost rubbing her hands together. ‘What a blast this’s gonna be! The boys’ll kill ’em!’
Right then another record started, and like he was magnetized to me, that kid turned, looked right in my face. I felt my heart stop as he walked over, but I couldn’t say anything. There were three of them together.
‘How’s about a dance?’ he asked, leaning in close to me. I could smell garlic all over him and I wanted to be sick, but before I could even say no, he’d whirled me out on the floor, was dancing real tight.
The other two Eagles had grabbed the debs I’d been standing with.
‘Lemme go!’ I snarled in his ear. He laughed real low, and I hated that slob worse than anyone I’d ever known. ‘Lemme go! My drag’ll be here in a minute and he’ll do what he did to you before.’
He pushed me away a little bit and looked at me carefully, ‘Well,’ he grinned, ‘if it ain’t the little chick that got me put through a window! Where’s this big hero of yours?’
I couldn’t say anything. But out of the corner of my eye I could see a whole bunch of Cavvies, standing together near the wall, talking and pointing my way.
A second later Puff pushed off and came over fast.
‘Get the hell away from her!’ he growled, grabbing the Eagle by his shoulder and flinging him away. The kid fell to one knee.
The Eagle slid back on one knee, reached into his jacket pocket and came up with something long and thin. ‘You’re gonna get split like a pea-pod!’ he said, real dirty. Then he raised his hand real slow, so we could watch the knife come up, and pressed the button. The knife went snick and sprang open, the colored lights in the ceiling glinting off it.
Puff stepped back fast. The Eagle started to rise, crouching. Then Puff let his arm slide loose in his sleeve, and his knife slipped into his hand. The switch clicked open, and I felt like screaming. There was going to be a horrible rumble. And over me!
I didn’t want this. It was like a nightmare. A minute before everything had been okay, now there was gonna be blood all over everything. I was terribly afraid it would be Puff’s blood.
‘No!’ I squeaked.
‘Out!’ snapped Puff, motioning me back.
I stepped back, and they circled. Few people had noticed what was coming off, because it was pretty dim.
Then just when I thought they were going to go at it, the Eagle straightened, said, ‘Not here. Out in the parking lot. Just you and me. A stand!’
Puff straightened up too, and nodded his head. He looked harder than I’d ever seen him, and it frightened me a little. The Eagle went out, and I saw a whole bunch of his buddies follow him. They went outside fast, like someone had pulled their strings.
Then the Cavvies were around us, and Chunk was saying, ‘Okay. If it’s a stand he wants, you stand with him, Puff. They make a move, we’ll cream ’em good! There’s twice as many of us as them! Come on!’
We started moving toward the door, all the Cavvies and their debs. That gym cleared out real fast.
As we were moving out, Puff drew me aside, and reached into his jacket pocket. He took out his zip. “I heard a rumble they’d be here tonight,’ he said, ‘that’s why I used this. Hang on to it, Julie. If they pull a fastie, use it. You’re the only one I can really trust!’
I couldn’t understand that. I thought Puff was a real Cavalier, and they were all his buddies. But he didn’t seem to think he could depend on them in a tight place. I was all confused.
I took the home-made weapon, looked at it real quick before I shoved it into my sweater. I knew how to fire it, of course. Puff had showed me a couple times. It was a sawed-off car-radio antenna on a block of wood, with a .22 bullet in it. It was easy to shoot, but I was scared.
‘Puff,’ I said, ‘let’s get outta here! He might—’
He shook his blond head. ‘Uh-uh. This is for my honor, honey. I won’t get hurt, don’t worry. There’s more of us than of them. Don’t worry.’
We went outside into the parking lot and made a big circle. The place was all lit up from the big spots that bordered the lot.
Puff and the Eagle were in the center of the circle, both of them with switches out. As I watched, unable to breathe, they began circling each other again.
‘We play this man-on-man,’ yelled Chunk to the Eagles. They yelled back that was right, then started yelling for their boy—Budge, his name was—to carve Puff up! I slid the zip out of my sweater, held it close to me, and watched. I hardly felt the thing hurting me as I pressed it close. I couldn’t take my eyes off him. I loved Puff, I really did, and I was scared white he’d
be killed.
They circled a couple of times, tossing their knives from hand to hand, to confuse each other. Then the Eagle took two quick steps forward and slashed out with the switch. He came in low and ripped upward!
It whistled past Puffs neck, but he’d jumped back. Then they were in close, holding off each other’s knife-hands. It was horrible! I was sorry we ever came to that dance, sorry I’d ever let Puff go out of my sight, sorry for a minute that I’d ever joined the Cavaliers!
Then they broke and Puff charged Budge. He came in real low, slashing up with the switch, as Budge had done. But he was faster than the Eagle; it caught Budge on his upper arm, ripping through his jacket and shirt.
Blood started dripping out, and I felt my eyes begin to water, my mouth go dry. I knew I was going to vomit!
They weren’t human beings—they were little killers!
Suddenly I heard a shout, and looked over behind a line of parked cars. About thirty guys and girls were pouring out from where they’d been hidden.
‘Eagles! Eagles!’ somebody shrieked, and the next thing I knew, everybody had knives and zips and bottles; one kid had a raw potato all studded with razor blades, and they were going at one another. The parking lot was filled with screams and the blast of zip guns.
It had been an ambush! The slobs, the dirty rats!
I pulled my eyes back to Puff and the Eagle. Puff had been startled by it all, and had taken his eyes off Budge. I turned just as Budge moved in on Puff, raised the knife, and drove it into Puffs back!
‘Puff!’ I screamed, as he fell over on his side.
I looked down at Puff. His face had the strangest expression I’d ever seen.
He looked as though he’d been spanked, and didn’t know why. He looked as though someone had stopped his doing something innocent. He looked bewildered. I don’t know what he looked like exactly. There was only one thing I really knew, and everything else faded out as I realized it.
Puff was dead.
I didn’t have time to think about it any more, though. The next minute I heard sirens, and police headlights turned into the lot. The cops were all over the place.
Somebody yelled, ‘Break! Leech out! It’s the cops!’
Then a cop moved on the kid that had yelled, and he didn’t get a chance to use his knife. One of the cops smashed him in the head with his nightstick as the boy raised the switchblade. The kid went down, his arms out in front of him like he was reaching for something.
I started toward Puff, not even knowing what I was doing, but a cop grabbed me around the waist, lifted me off the ground, yanked the zip out of my hand.
I thought of when Puff had lifted me up, and started crying worse than I’d ever before. I couldn’t stop the pain in my heart. He was dead, dead, dead!
Then I realized it was a cop, not Puff, that held me in the air. I started kicking and screaming. ‘Lemme go! Lemme go! Puff, Puff!’ I screamed, but he carried me, kicking, to the police wagon and threw me in with the other kids. I was really too numb to know what had happened.
All I could see was Puff lying there.
Then I went through a lineup, and had my fingerprints taken, and what they call a mug shot, and finally Moms showed up at the station.
When they came to get me I was sitting there staring at nothing. I hadn’t said a word to anyone in the cell block. They brought me into the waiting room, and Moms stood up, her face all white like someone had drained all her blood away.
I wanted to die right then for making her suffer so much. I ran to her, and buried my face against her coat, crying like I’d just been beaten. I felt so terrible.
‘Oh, Moms, Moms!’ I cried.
Then I felt her hand on my hair, and I knew everything would work out in time.
I’d fallen in with a bad crowd, run with killers, done things I’d be ashamed of all the rest of my life. I’d seen Puff killed, and that had been the worst of all.
There can’t be anything right with gangs that kill nice guys like him. Right then I felt sorry for every kid in every gang, all over the country, and prayed in my mind they would find out how evil they were. As I’d found out. I only hoped they wouldn’t have to find out the same way I had.
It was all a black nightmare, and I thought I’d cry for the next hundred years. But I felt Moms holding me, telling me everything was all right and that it was all over now.
And somehow, I knew she was right.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Introduction: “2004: Looking Down the Street,” copyright © 2004 by The Kilimanjaro Corporation.
Introduction: “1961: Ten Weeks in Hell,” copyright © 1961 by Harlan Ellison. Renewed, 1989 by The Kilimanjaro Corporation.
“No Way Out” (under the title “Gutter Gang”), copyright © 1957 by Harlan Ellison. Renewed, 1985 by The Kilimanjaro Corporation.
“Matinee Idyll” (under the title “Rock and Roll–and Murder”), copyright © 1958 by Harlan Ellison. Renewed, 1986 by The Kilimanjaro Corporation.
“No Game for Children,” copyright © 1959 by Harlan Ellison. Renewed, 1987 by The Kilimanjaro Corporation.
“The Rough Boys,” “School for Killers” (under the title “High School Kid Gang”), “Stand Still and Die!” and “Gang Girl,” copyright © 1956 by Harlan Ellison. Renewed, 1984 by The Kilimanjaro Corporation.
“A Tiger at Nightfall” (under the title “A Corpse Can Hate”) and “Memory of a Muted Trumpet,” copyright © 1960 by Harlan Ellison. Renewed, 1988 by The Kilimanjaro Corporation.
Copyright © 1961 by Harlan Ellison
Renewed, 1989, 2004 by The Kilimanjaro Corporation
ISBN 978-1-4976-0486-5
This edition published in 2014 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
345 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10014
www.openroadmedia.com
Harlan Ellison, Children of the Streets
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