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Show ^tl ftoott ball against the wall of the station. When Rutter saw &kmm he left the game and XBK followed him in to the pile of bundled papers. "I'm telling the Station Manager," said Rutter. "I'm telling him you're too young to have a route, you little creep, and I'm telling him there aint nobody named Shorty xxixxxxxx Wilkey." He thumped Wmtmtm on the head, leifteott MmWkH took out his wire cutters and cut the wire that bundled his papers. He took off the wrapping and walked it to the trash can, then returned and put the papers in his orange bag with black lettering that said ERIE TIMES NXMH NEWS. Rutter put a hand in his chest. "You little shit," he said. « t . , Suddenly, >w^w»Nfc^M^lb*6»irtr/t understood there was no reason for things. When Rutter walked away, K^IBM^r put down his paper-bag and quietly follwed him out the door and back to the stick ball , game. Rutter stood near the batter, yelling encouragement, /WHBUM looked at the xxx line of sticks and bats leaning against the wall of the firehouse and picked the heaviest one. The sky was low, dark and purple. He xi took the bat in his hands and swung it agianst RcT a„o-tr the back of Rutters head. When Rutter went down, bmtJmmm blasted the head of the bat into his lower spine. After that, everybody just called i him Red. Funster Nobody called Jarvis Jr., Jarvis Jr. People called him Jarvis and called his dad Red. Red was a good man but Helen always said it took him five years to xxxxxxx recover from World War II, to get all the meanness and violence out xx of him. She said xi he'd kill almost anything that wouldn't kill him when he got back and there were several nearly dead people in the town to vouch for that. When^er Red got mad Helen left the house and took little Jarvis/vwith her. Red hated that. It made him feel like he was somebody that had to be feared. It made him pound on the doors. He pounded out the basement door, he pounded out the door to the back shed, he xxxx the Aoor tt pounded out the doors to the bedrooms, the door to the bathroom^ tk«^tti The place didn't have anymore doors. If he weren't an ex-Marine he would have cried. What kind of house has no doors? Little Jarvis was too little to kill Red so had to settle for hating him. As soon as Jarvis was old enough to toddle Red oop-pejfr foo-tball0^in his chest, slapped a baseball gixx glove on his |