The Green Raincoat...

by Blanche Small

"Gee, Butch-ain't yu afraid the kid'll get the pitch an' spoil the fun and yu'll be out two bits besides?" asked red-haired Harry all in one excited breath, as he brushed his feet, in their old sneakers, against the dirty stoop of the tenement where he and his friends lived.

"Naw-w-w!" answered Butch, drawing the sound out into a sideways grin. He hiked up his shabby, handed-down slacks, and his dark face showed the crafty anger that thoughts about sex always gave rise to.

It was Saturday, and the piece of mischief he had thought up had better pay off. He had a date lined up for tonight. So he answered cooly, "He don't know nuttin." He's just a joik from Joisey."

Harry shrugged, and with bent head went on scratching the dry old cement from the cracks between the stones with his fingernails.

Chink, the quiet one concerned with growing up in a hurry, was rubbing his narrow chest with his knuckles, as though a great mat of scratchy hair already grew there, under his faded sweater.

"Jeez, Butch, tell me what it's all about, will ya?" he begged. "There's this lame guy-right-and he says he'll give you a buck to come up to his room and play checkers. So ya do. Then, when ya get there he-he-what's the guy do, Butch, anyhow?"

Butch wasn't telling all he knew, but the temptation to strut his knowledge in front of these kids was a little too strong to resist.

"Listen, you dope. If you ever had a big bastard of a brother like I got, you'd know all about it. Mine never leaves me be. Some nights I get so damn mad I feel like snitching to the old man or the old lady. But I know he'd bust my brains out if I did.

"Now, take this lame guy-he ain't bad at all. Sometimes he's kind of a lot of fun." The smile Butch spread over the bitter anger on his face looked real enough to Chink.

"Anyway, it's a hell of an easy way to turn a quick buck, and if he feels like callin' it checkers what's it to me? Besides, he gives me a quarter every time I get some other kid to go up to his place. Only-Kee-rist—remember, you kids, this is a deal they send you up for."

Butch puffed himself up importantly and went through the pantomime of checking the block for cops.

Still Chink felt frightened and uneasy. He didn't like the business, even though Butch had slickly avoided giving him any detailed picture, realizing that he might some day want to coerce Chink himself. If the kid was too scared, he'd never agree to go up there or earn a quarter for Butch!

Just the same, Chink said "Gee!" and his slanting eyes opened wide with admiration for Butch's business ability as well as his easy way with curse words.

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