I nodded.
'I don't hang with them,' I said.
'Good idea,' Petey said. 'You gonna tell anyone about this?'
'Nobody you'd care about,' I said.
'Nobody at all,' Petey said.
'Might talk about it with my father and my uncles. They won't say anything if I ask them not to.'
'You can trust them?'
'Certain sure,' I said.
'You gimme your word?' he said.
'It ain't about me,' I said.
'Your word?' he said. 'Nobody tells Roemer?'
I nodded.
'My word.'
'I think your word's good,' Petey said. 'It ain't, you'll hear from us.'
'It ain't my fight,' I said. 'I got nothing to say about it.'
'Make sure,' Petey said.
'I'll do what I can,' I said.
Petey nodded and turned and walked away. I watched him go.
Tough kid, I thought. Lot tougher than Leo Roemer.
Chapter 42
'Sun's down,' Susan said. 'And it's getting chilly. I think we should go across the street and have a glass of wine at The Bristol Lounge.'
'What a good idea,' I said.
We walked off the little bridge and headed past the last of the cruising swan boats toward Boylston Street.
Susan took my hand as we walked.
'Was that Mexican boy's name really Petey?' she said.
'Pedro,' I said.
'Did they fight?' she said.
I smiled.
'Yep,' I said.
'And?' Susan said.
'The Anglos got outthought,' I said. 'The Mexicans sent one of their smallest guys down back of the Y. He let Roemer and his group see him, and he fired an apple at them and ran. Of course they chased him. He ran across the street to the Public Works parking lot, full of trucks and plows and tractors, and hid in there. Leo Roemer and his troop come after him and start looking for him, which causes them to split up into small groups looking in and around the heavy equipment, which is parked in rows with an aisle in between. The Mexican kids are in there waiting. When the Anglos get in among the trucks, Petey's boys jump them, and, because the Anglos are split up, they are always outnumbered by the Mexican kids, and they get their tails whipped. The fight ends with Leo, with a
