The Shrinking Man (13 page)

But it didn’t. And that night they’d driven over to Marty’s and Marty had told him that he’d lost his contract with Fairchild and had to cut down operations to almost nothing. The checks would have to stop. He gave Scott a hundred dollars, but that was the end.

Cold wind blew across him. Across the lake a dog barked. He looked down and watched his shoes swinging above the ground like pendulum tips. And now no money coming in. Seventy dollars in the bank, a hundred in his wallet. When that was gone, what?

He imagined himself at the paper again. Berg taking pictures, ogling Lou, Hammer asking endless questions. Headlines uttered across his mind like banners.
SMALLER THAN TWO-YEAR-OLD! EATS IN HIGH CHAIR! WEARS BABY CLOTHES! LIVES IN SHOE BOX! SEX DESIRE STILL SAME!

His eyes shut quickly. Why wasn’t it really acromicria? At least then his sex desire would be almost gone. As it was, it got worse and worse. It seemed twice as bad as when he had been normal, but that was doubtless because there was no outlet at all. He couldn’t approach Louise any more. The drive went on burning in him, banking higher and higher each day, adding its own uniquely hideous pressure to everything else he was suffering.

And he couldn’t talk to Louise about it. The night she’d made that obvious offer, he’d felt almost offended. He knew it was over.

“Laughin’ at the blues!

Laughin’ till I’m crazee!”

He twitched up on the bench, his head snapping around. Squinting into the darkness, he saw three shadowy figures strolling a short distance away, their youthful voices thin as they sang.

“My life is nothin’ but a stumblin’ in the dark.

I lost my way when I was born.”

Boys, he thought, singing, growing up and taking it for granted. He watched them with a biting envy.

“Hey, there’s a kid down there,” one of them said.

At first Scott didn’t realize they were talking about him. Then he did and his mouth tightened.

“Wonder what he’s doin’ there.”

“Prob’ly—”

Scott didn’t hear the rest of it, but from the burst of coarse laughter he could guess what had been whispered. With a tensing of muscles, he slid off the bench and started walking back toward the sidewalk.

“Hey, he’s goin’,” one of the boys said.

“Let’s have some fun,” said another.

Scott felt a jolt of panic, but pride would not allow him to run. He kept steadily on toward the sidewalk.

Now the footsteps of the three boys grew faster.

“Hey, where ya goin’, kid?” he heard one of the boys call to him.

“Yeah, kid, where ya goin’?” said another.

“Where’s the fire, kid?”

There was a general snicker. Scott couldn’t help it; he walked faster. The boys walked faster.

“I don’t think Kiddo likes us,” said one of them.

“That’s ain’t nice,” said another.

It was a race. Scott knew it was a hanging tautness in his stomach. But he wouldn’t run. Not from three boys. He’d never be small enough to run from three boys. He glanced aside as he started up the slope
toward the sidewalk. They were gaining on him. He saw the glowing tips of their cigarettes moving toward him like hopping fireflies.

They caught up to him before he reached the sidewalk. One of them grabbed his arm and held him back.

“Let go of me,” he said.

“Hey, kid, where ya goin’?” asked the boy who held him. His voice was insolent with pretended friendliness.

“I’m going home,” he said.

The boy looked about fifteen, sixteen maybe. He had a baseball cap on. His fingers dug into Scott’s arm. Scott didn’t have to see his face; he could almost imagine it—thin, mean, the jawline and brow peppered with pimples, the cigarette drooping from one corner of a lean almost lipless mouth.

“The kid says he’s goin’ home,” said the boy.

“Izzat wot the kid says?” said another.

“Yeah,” said the third. “Ain’t that somethin’?”

Scott tried to push by them, but the boy in the cap drew him back into their surrounding circle.

“Kid, you shouldn’t do that,” he said. “We don’t like kids that do that, do we, fellas?”

“Naw, naw. He’s a fresh kid. We don’t like fresh kids.”

“Let go of me,” Scott said, shocked at the tremble of his voice.

The boy released his arm, but he was still penned in.

“I wantcha t’meet my pals,” said the boy. No face. Just the flash of a pale cheek, the glitter of an eye in the tiny flaring glow of the cigarette. A black, shadowy figure leaning over him.

“This is Tony,” he said. “Say hello to ’im.”

“I have to go home,” Scott said, moving forward.

The boy pushed him back. “Hey, kid, you don’t unnerstand. Fellas, this kid don’t unnerstand.” He tried to sound gentle and reasonable.

“Kid, don’t you unnerstand?” said one of the other boys. “That’s funny, y’know? The kid should unnerstand.”

“You’re very funny,” Scott said. “Now will you—”

“Hey. The kid thinks we’re funny,” said the boy with the baseball cap on. “D’ya hear that, fellas? He thinks we’re funny.” His voice lost its banter. “Maybe we oughta show ’im how funny we are,” he said.

Scott felt a crawling sensation in his groin and lower stomach. He looked around at the boys, unable to keep down the fear.

“Listen, my mother expects me home,” he heard Himself saying.

“Awwwww,” said the boy with the cap. “His mother’s waitin’. Jesus, ain’t that sad? Ain’t that sad, fellas?”

“That makes me cry,” said one of the others. “Boo-hoo-hoo. I’m cryin’.” A vicious chuckle emptied from his throat. The third boy snickered and punched his friend playfully on the arm.

“Live around here, kid?” asked the boy with the cap. He blew smoke into Scott’s face and Scott coughed. “Hey, the kid’s croakin’,” said the boy, with mock concern. “He’s chokin’ n croakin’. Ain’t that sad?”

Scott tried to push past them again, but he was shoved back, more violently this time.

“Don’t do that again,” warned the boy in the cap. His voice was friendly and amiable. “We wouldn’t wanna hurt a kid. Would we, fellas?”

“Naw, we wouldn’t wanna do
that,”
said another.

“Hey, let’s see if he has any dough on ’im,” said the third.

Scott felt himself tightening with a weird mixture of adult fury and childlike dread. It was even worse than it had been with that man. He was smaller now, much weaker. There was no strength in him to match his man’s anger.

“Yeah,” said the boy in the cap. “Hey, ya got any dough on ya, kid?”

“No, I haven’t,” he said angrily.

He gasped as the boy in the cap hit him on the arm.

“Don’t talk t’me like that, kid,” said the boy. “I don’t
like
fresh kids.”

Dread overwhelmed anger again. He knew he’d have to play it different to get out of this.

“I don’t have any money,” he said. His neck was beginning to arch from looking up at them. “My mother doesn’t give me any.”

The boy in the cap turned to his friends. “The kid says his mother don’t give him none.”

“Cheap bitch!” said another.

“I’ll give her a good cheap—” said the third, breaking off with a convulsive forward jerk of his lower frame.

The boys laughed loudly. “Ya hear that, kid?” said the boy in the cap. “Tell yer old lady that Tony’ll give her a good cheap one.”

“Cheap? I’ll do it fer nothin’,” Tony said, humor submerged in a sudden surge of angry desire. “Hey, kid, has she got a big pair on ’er?”

Their raucous laughter broke off as Scott lunged between two of them. The boy in the cap grabbed him by the arm and spun him around. The heel of his palm slammed across Scott’s cheek.

“I
told
ya not t’do that,” snarled the boy.

“Son-of-a—” Scott raged, spitting blood. The last word was swallowed in a grunt as he drove his small fist into the boy’s stomach.

“Bitch!” snapped the boy in a fury. He shot a fist into Scott’s face. Scott cried out as the blow drove a wedge of pain into his skull. He fell back against one of the other boys, blood streaming darkly from his nose.

“Hold ’im!” snarled the boy, and the two other boys grabbed Scott’s arms.

“Hit me in the belly, will ya, ya little son-of-a-bitch?” the boy said. “I’ll…” He seemed undecided as to what revenge to take. Then he made a sound of angry decision and pulled out a book of matches from his trouser pocket.

“Maybe I’ll give ya a couple brands, kiddo,” he said. “How d’ya like
that?”

“Let me go!” Scott struggled wildly in the boys’ grip. He kept on sniffing to keep the blood from running across his lips. “Please!” His voice cracked badly.

The match flared in the darkness and Scott saw the boy’s face as he’d imagined it.

The boy leaned in close.

“Hey,” he said, suddenly fascinated. “Hey!” a crooked smile lifted the corner of his mouth. “This ain’t no kid.” He stared into Scott’s twisted face. “Ya know who this is?”

“Whattaya talkin’ about?” asked one of the boys.

“It’s that guy! That shrinkin’ guy!”

“What?” they said.

“Look at ’im,
look
at ’im, for God’s sake!”

“Damn it, let me go or I’ll have you all in jail!” Scott stormed at them to hide the burst of agony in him.

“Shut up!” ordered the boy in the cap. His grin returned. “Yeah, don’t ya see? It’s—”

The match sputtered out and he lit another one. He held it so close to Scott’s face that Scott could feel the heat of it.

“Ya see now? Ya
see?”

“Yeah.” The two other boys stared, open-mouthed, into Scott’s face. “Yeah, it’s him. I seen his picture on T.V.”

“And he tried t’make us think he was a kid,” the boy said. “The freakin’ son-of-a-bitch.”

Scott couldn’t speak. Despair had toppled anger. They knew him, they could betray him. He stood drained, his chest rising and falling with convulsive breath. The second match was thrown on the ground.

“Uh!” His head snapped over as the boy in the cap back-handed him.

“That’s fuh lyin’, Freako,” the boy said. His laugh was thin and strained. “Freako, that’s ya name. What d’ya say, freako? What d’ya say?”

“What do you
want
of me?” Scott gasped.

“What do we want?” mimicked the boy. “Freako wants t’know what we want.” The boys laughed.

“Hey,” said the third boy, “let’s pull down his pants and see if
all
of him shrunk!”

Scott surged forward in their grip like a berserk midget. The boy in the cap drove a palm stingingly across his face. The night was a spiraling blur before Scott’s eyes. “Freako don’t understand,” said the boy. “He’s a dumb freako.” He was breathing quickly through clenched teeth.

Dread was the knife in Scott now. He knew there was no reasoning with these boys. They were hating angry with their world and could express it only through violence.

“If you want my money, take it,” he said quickly, buying desperate time.

“Bet ya shrinkin’
butt
we’ll take it,” sneered the boy. He laughed at his own joke. “Hey, that’s pretty good.” The humor left again. “Hold ’im,” he said coldly, “I’ll get his wallet.”

Scott tensed himself in the darkness as the boy in the cap started around one of his friends.

“Ow!” One of the boys howled as Scott’s shoe tip flashed up against his shin. The restraining hands on Scott’s left arm were dropped.

“Ow!” the other boy’s cry echoed the first; his hands dropped. Scott lunged forward in the darkness, heartbeat like a fist driving at his chest.

“Get ’im!” cried the boy in the cap. Scott’s short legs pumped faster as he darted up the broken incline. “Bastard!” the boy shouted, and then he started after him.

Scott was gasping for breath before he reached the sidewalk. He almost tripped across its edge, went flailing forward, palms out, legs racing, then, finally, caught his balance and ran on. A stitch jabbed hotly at his side. Behind him, rapid shoe falls spattered onto the cement. “Lou,” he whimpered, and ran on, open-mouthed.

Fifty yards up, he saw his house. Then, suddenly he realized he couldn’t go there, because they’d know then where he lived, where the shrinking man lived.

His teeth jammed together and he turned impulsively into a dark alley.

He reached out, thinking he might open a side screen door and, still running, slam it shut so they’d think he’d gone in there. But that house was too close to his own. He ran on, gasping. Behind him the boys swept into the alley, their shoes crunching on the gravel.

Scott dashed around the back edge of the darkened house and raced across the yard.

There was a fence. Panic leaped in him. He knew he couldn’t stop. Running at top speed, he jumped at it, clutching wildly for the top. He began scrambling up, slipped, started up again.

“Gotcha!”

A fist of dread pounded at his temples as he felt rough hands clutching at his right foot. His head snapped around and he saw the boy in the cap dragging him down.

A half-mad sound filled his throat. His other foot flailed out and drove into the boy’s face. With a cry the boy let go and went staggering back, clutching at his face. Scott dragged himself over the fence, shoe tips scraping at the wood. He dropped down on the other side.

Jagged lances of pain shot up his ankle. He couldn’t stop. Pushing up with a groan, he ran on, limping. Behind, he heard the two boys join their friend.

He scuttled painfully across the uneven ground until he came to the next street. There, finding a cellar door open, he half slipped, half
jumped down the high steps, turned, and pulled the heavy door shut. It landed on his head and knocked him sideways against the cold concrete wall. He clutched out for a handhold as he rolled down two steps and landed on the dirt floor of the cellar.

He sat hunched over on the first step, trying to catch his breath. The step was cold and damp. He could feel it through his trousers. But he was too dizzy and weak to get up.

Breath wouldn’t come. His thin chest kept jerking spasmodically as his lungs labored for air. There was a hot burning in his throat. The stitch was razor-tipped, a knife stabbing at his side. His head throbbed and ached. The inside of his mouth felt raw and smarting, and there was blood still running across his lips. The muscles of his legs were cramping in the coldness of the cellar. He was sweaty and shivering.