OCR Text |
Show 88 and felt stupid. Pat was four inches taller than I was but he was slender, with narrow shoulders; I was nearly as tall as I was going to get, 5'9", but I was broad and muscled from working on the farm. Yet Pat was recklessly bold and had fought plenty, while I'd not been in a fight since Rudy Furstenberger. I waited for the three to stop snapping at each other, at which time we would move on to the next scene, Pat fighting me. I knew I'd get clobbered. Dom was really into his role and he said that since I was with him, if Pat hit me, he would have to take on Dom too. Dom was bigger than both of us and tough. Pat said that was all right with him, he was ready for both of us, and so Darrel said that if Dom hit Pat, he, Darrel, would hit Dom. "I'll knock your god-damned head off," he said. He was the smallest guy there but the toughest brawler, not afraid of anything. For a while they argued about who would hit whom, and I stood by feeling stupid. I felt left out too. Then Betty came out from Dom's car into the lights and told the guys to cut it out. Dom turned angrily on her and told her to keep out of it. They snarled at each other. It was OK for her to interfere in the fights of her man but Dom was required not to listen to her. I waited for someone to smack me but they all ignored me. Then Kate came out of the car and walked back into the light, her face white. She looked deathly white in the glare, her hair never blacker, but she did not look angry, though her face was oddly set. "Stop," she said. "Just stop." It was disgust we heard. We all slowed down. "I'm taking her with me," Pat snarled. In a way I was required to resist him, yet on the other hand he was her steady and he had had a date with her. In the silence Kate looked at him, the disgust still on her face, as if she was going to tell him,, or us all, to go to hell, and then without another word she walked on through the lights and disappeared behind them. We heard the Buick's door slam. |