79 Park Avenue (4 page)

The candy was finished, and carefully she wiped her fingers on the wrapper and threw the paper into the gutter. She sUpped the cigarettes into a small purse and stepped

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Book One. Marja 35

down onto the sidewalk. The heat and the sun hit her face and she blinked her eyes rapidly. She could feel the perspiration spring out like a flood all over her body. For a moment she regretted not having stayed in the candy store and played the old man along for a Uttle while. At least it was almost cool in there.

She headed up the street toward her house reluctantly. The clock in one of the store windows told her it was near three. She hesitated. If it weren't so warm she wouldn't be going home, but only a fool would stay out on the street on a day like this. She wished she had the money to go to the show. The RKO 86th Street Theatre had a cooUng-system. Fans blowing over big cakes of ice. For a dime you could stay in there all day and beat the heat.

"Marja!" A girl's voice behind her called.

She turned and looked back. It was her friend Francie Keegan. She waited for the girl to come up to her. "Hi, Francie."

Francie was out of breath from hurrying up the block. She was a big girl, heavy-set, with full, ripe breasts and hips. She was a year older than Marja and had thick black hair and dark-blue eyes. "Where yuh goin', Marj?" she asked, still breathing harshly.

"Home," Marja answered succinctly. "It's too damn hot to stay out."

A look of disappointment crossed Francie's face. "I thought we might go to a show."

"Got money?" Marja asked.

"No."

"Neither have I," Marja said and turned back up the block.

Her friend fell into step with her. "Christ!" she exclaimed- "Everybody in the whole world is broke!"

A half-smile crossed Marja's face. She looked at her friend out of the corners of her eyes. "Now she tells me."

They walked another few steps silendy; then Francie put her hand on Marja's arm. "I got an idea."

Marja looked at her.

"Old Man Rannis," Francie explained. "Maybe we can promote some change outta him."

Marja shook her head. "Uh-huh. I just been there."

"An'?" Francie asked curiously.

"Nothin'," Marja said. "I got a candy bar after lettin' him use his X ray on me."

"So?"

"That's all," Marja continued. "Then he wanted me to go in the back with him an' see the new paint job, but no money. I owe him three and a quarter already. I even gave him a feel, but all he wanted was to go in the back."

Francie thought over her friend's statement. At last she spoke. "Akey's on the candy bar."

Marja smiled. "Too late." She rubbed her stomach meaningly. "1 already ate it."

"Damn!" Francie swore. "I got no luck today at all." She began to walk again. "I guess we might as well go home." She wiped her face on the short cotton sleeve of her dress. "Damn! It's hot."

Marja didn't speak. They walked silently. They were almost halfway up the block before they exchanged another word.

"Who's home?" Francie asked.

"Everybody, I guess," Marja answered. "My mother doesn't go to work until five o'clock." Her mother was a cleaning woman in an office downtown and worked until two in the morning.

"Your stepfather, too?"

A cold look came into Marja's eyes, making them almost black. "Especially him," she said contemptuously. "He wouldn't leave his three cans of beer for all the money in the world."

"Doesn't he work at all? Ever?" Francie asked.

Marja laughed. "Why should he? He never had it so good. Three squares an' all the beer he can drink. He's no dope. Jus' sits aroun' all day an' burps."

A strange look came into Francie's eyes. "He stopped me in the hall the other day."

Marja turned to her. "What'd he want?"

"He asked some questions about you."

"Like what?"

"Like about what you did outside. With boys. That kind uh thing."

"Oh." Marja thought for a moment. "He's always asking me, too. What'd you tell him?"

"Nothin'," Francie answered. "I'm no dope."

A mild sigh of relief escaped Marja's lips. "He'd just love to get somethin' on me. He hates me."

"I know," Francie said. "Sometimes I can hear him hollerin' upstairs." Francie lived in the apartment over Marja.

"He's always hollerin'," Marja answered.

They were almost at the house now. The tenements were all alike on this block. The same faceless brown stone that once had known better days, black and durty windows staring bUndly into the street.

They stopped at the stoop. There was an uncovered garbage can near the entrance. While they stood there, a gray alley cat jumped up onto it, chasing the swarm of flies, and began to rummage through it. They watched him silendy.

Marja wrinkled up her nose. "You'd think the super would have the brains to cover the can in this weather." She sniffed the air. "It stmks."

Francie didn't speak. They started up the steps. A wolf whistle came from across the street They both turned around.

Three boys had just come from the pool parlor opposite their house and were looking at them. One of them called out: "Hey, Francie, who's yer blond friend?"

The girls exchanged looks quickly and a tight smile came to their hps. "Why'n't yuh come over an' find out?" Francie called back.

The three boys whispered something to each other in the doorway while Marja tried to recognize them. The one who had called to Francie she had seen several times before. He Uved down the block. She couldn't remember his name. The other two she had never seen.

The two strangers were both tall. One was fair-haired— brown, almost blond—with an open face and gentle blue eyes; the other, almost the opposite. Dark, good-looking, with handsome Grecian features and a fuU, sensual mouth. After a moment the blond one walked away from the others with a wave of his hand and the remaining boys sauntered slowly across the street

"HuUo, Jimmy," Francie said as they drew near.

Jimmy was a thin boy, his eyes sUghtly protruding, his face covered with the remains of a vanishing acne. He smiled, showing white buck teeth. "Where yuh been keepin' yerself, Francie?" he asked.

"Aroun'," she answered. "You?"

He looked down at the sidewalk a moment before he answered. "Around." He looked at his friend quickly. "What're yuh doiu'?"

"Nothin'," Francie answered. "We were jus' goin' up to get outta this heat."

"Ross an' me were jus' goin' fer a swim," Jimmy said quickly. "Wanna come?"

Francie looked at Marja, who had been silent up to now. There was a glimmer of interest in Marja's eyes. "If we go upstairs to get our bathing-suits," she explained, "we couldn't come back."

The other boy laughed. His laugh was surprisingly deep. "We can get suits where we're going," he said.

"Ross's got a car," Jimmy said. "We were goin' out tuh Coney Island."

Marja spoke for the first time. "Then what're we standin' here talkin' for?"

The other boy reached for Marja's arm. His grip was firm and sure, and she came down off the stoop toward him. The laughter was still deep in his throat. "That's it, baby," he said, his eyes challenging her. "I Uke a girl what knows her mind."

She fell mto step beside him and looked up at him, her own eyes meeting his challenge. "It ain't my mind I know," she laughed. "It's my body. And it's hot."

"Can't be too hot for me," he said.

The others fell into step behind them. She looked over her shoulder at Francie. Jimmy was whispering something to her and Francie was smiling and nodding. She looked up at the boy next to her. "Where yuh parked?"

"Just around the comer," he said. "My name's Ross Drego, what's yours?"

"Marja," she answered.

"Your whole name, I mean," he msisted.

She looked mto his eyes. "Marja Anna Flood."

"Flood's an English name," he said in a puzzled voice.

"I'm Polish," she said quickly. "It was changed from Ruudjmcki."

"I can see why." His smile took the edge off his phrase.

They were around the comer now, and he steered her to a Buick roadster with the top down. He opened the door wi± a flourish. "Your chariot, giris."

Marja stopped and looked at the car, then at him.

"What are you waiting for?" he asked. "Get in."

She shook her head. "Uh-uh. This looks like the wrong kind uh hot to me."

A puzzled expression came into Ross's eyes. "What do you mean?"

"I ain't goin' for no joy ride in a stolen car," she said. "I can get into enough trouble on my own."

Ross began to laugh. "The car isn't stolen," he said. "It's mine."

She looked at him doubtfully. "Oh, yeah? Where do you come to a job like this? That's probably why your friend didn't want to go with yuh."

Ross grinned. "You mean Mike Keyes? He had to go back to work. He helps his old man around the house. He's the super."

She was still skeptical. "I don't buy it," she insisted stubbornly.

Jimmy's voice came over her shoulder. "Go ahead, get in. It's his car, all right. His old man gave it to him."

She stepped back from the car. "Prove it first," she said.

The laughter had left Ross's eyes. "You don't beUeve me?" His voice was flat and cold.

"I beUeve yuh," she said, looking right at him. "But I ain't takin' any chances. I know a girl on the block who also beUeved a guy and she's up in Bedford now."

A flush of anger surged into his dark face. "Then blow,"

he said tensely. "I can get a thousand cheap chips hke you to come with me."

She turned and began to walk back up the street. She was almost to the corner when his voice stopped her. She waited for him to catch up to her.

"Wait a minute, Marja," he said, his hand fishing in his pocket. "It's my car. I'll show you."

He took out a wallet and handed it to her. She looked down at it. There was more green folding money in there than she had ever seen in her life. She looked at him questioningly.

She opened the wallet. On one side was a driver's license, on the other was an owner's regi^ tration. Both were made out to Ross Drfego, 987 Park Avenue, N.Y.C. She glanced at his age quickly. He was eighteen, Silendy she closed it and gave it back to him.

"Now will you come?" he asked.

"Why couldn't you do that in the first place?" she countered.

"I was sore," he said quickly. A smile came to his lips. "I'm sorry. Forgive me?"

She stared at him for a moment. He was a strange guy. She had never met anyone Hke him. He spoke so well, and yet there was a wildness and meanness in him that she could feel. But it disappeared when he smiled An answering smile parted her lips.

She reached out and took his arm "Cmon, hurry," she said. "It's so damn hot, I can't wait to get into the water."

Chapter 3

^'WHAT PART of Concy Island is this?" Marja asked as Ross stopped the car at a gate and tooted the horn.

He looked at her, a smile in his eyes, "Sea Gate. We have a house here."

"What d'yuh mean, house? A locker?" she said.

The smile slipped to his lips. "No. A regular house. This is a private section."

A gateman peered through the grating at them.

"Open up, Joe," Ross called.

"Oh, it's you, Mr. Drego," the gateman said. Slowly the big iron gate began to swing open.

"It's a summer house," Ross explained as he drove through the entrance. "We stay here when Dad is. too busy to get away from the office."

Marja looked around On either side of the road were beautiful houses set on rolling lawns and shaded by towering trees. "Christ!" she exclaimed.* "It's like Uvin' in a park."

Ross didn't answer. She turned around to Francie in the back seat. "Ain't it, Francie?" she asked.

Francie and Jimmy were impressed, too. Both of them were goggling at the homes along the road. Francie nodded, *'I bet onv millionaires live here," she said.

Marja turned back to Ross. "Did yuh hear that?" she asked.

Ross nodded without speaking, his eyes watching the road.

"Is that true?" she asked.

Ross shook his head. "No."

"Your old man must be rich," she said.

He turned the car into a driveway and stopped. He reached forward and cut the ignition. Then he looked at her, his eyes bleak and cold. "Does it make any difference to you what my father is?" he asked. "/ brought you here."

Marja stared at him, wondering what she had said to make him angry. After a moment she answered: "No.'*

Quickly as it had appeared, the coldness left his eyes and he smiled. "Then, come on in and get a suit. The water looks great from here."

She followed his pointing finger past the house. The beach and the rolling ocean were right behind it. He jumped out of the car and held the door for her. She got out and looked at the house.

It was a big house. Two stories. Wood and shingles, painted a cool dark green. She didn't care what Ross said, his old man had to have plenty of cabbage to keep a joint like this.

He led them up the front porch and, taking out a key, opened the door. "Follow me," he said, starting up a flight of stairs.

She caught a glimpse of an elaborately furnished parlor

and dining-room as she went up. She looked down at the steps. Her shoes didn't make a sound on the thick carpeting. She had never known people could live like this except in the movies.

He stopped in front of a door and opened it. 'This is my sister's room," he said. "Come inside and we'll find a bathing suit that'll fit you."

Marja followed him into the room. Behind her, she could hear Francie's gasp. Without turning, Marja knew what she meant. Never in her life had she seen a room like this.

It was all pink and blue satin. The drapes, the bedspread, even the long, funny chair near the bed. The carpet was a warm rose color and the furniture a rich cherry-tinted wood.

Ross opened a closet. "The suits are here," he announced. He pointed to another door. "That's the bathroom." He moved back toward the doorway in which Jimmy stood. "We'll give you ten minutes to get ready."

Jimmy snickered. "Maybe the girls can use some help."