Whistling in the Dark

murderer and molester? Oh, Miss Sally, you have got to get that imagination under control. Why, Paulie could never do nothin’ like that. He can barely get hisself dressed.” She looked over at Troo and said, “Now he coulda done somethin’ like that in the old days, cuz in the old days that man was nastier than chicken poop on a pump handle. I could tell you some stories that would make your hair stand straight up. Back then, Paulie was always drinkin’ up at Jerbak’s and takin’ bets and most of all-womanizin’.” Ethel shook her head like she was so disgusted. “I’m gonna tell you something now that maybe I shouldn’t but I think I’m goin’ to anyway, for Miss Troo’s sake.” She lowered her voice and said, “But you gotta swear that you don’ ever tell nobody. Spit and shake.” Ethel spit into her hand and we did the same and shook on it. “Paulie got hisself arrested that summer for breakin’ the legs of a man who wouldn’t pay him his bettin’ money and then takin’ advantage of that man’s wife. He was gonna have to go to jail for a very long time for doin’ that. But after that car crash with your daddy… your mother, she got Officer Rasmussen to make that work out all right by asking him to give that man and his wife some money so they’d drop them charges against your uncle.”

The O’Malley sisters’ mouths fell right open.

Ethel shook her head back and forth and made her aaahhhaaa sound. “God the Father sure do work in mysterious ways.”

We just sat there and thought about that together until Ethel said, “Why ever did you think Paulie was the murderer and molester, Miss Sally?”

I told her about the first time I got chased down the alley, the night Fast Susie told me and Troo that Frankenstein story. And how I hid under the Kenfields’ bushes and when I was there I saw those pink-and-green argyle socks. And how I found those same pink-and-green argyles soaking in the cold water in Granny’s sink.

Then it was Ethel’s turn to hang her mouth open. “Why in Sam Hill didn’t you tell nobody about gettin’ chased down the alley like that?”

“Because back then I thought it was Rasmussen and I didn’t think anybody would believe me because of my imagination being overactive.”

“Oh Lordy, Lordy, Lordy, I’ll tell Dave about this when he comes home from work, though I’m not sure what good it’ll do now.” Ethel checked her watch. “Mrs. Galecki, she’s gonna be wakin’ up soon from her mornin’ nap. I gotta go give her the new medicine to keep her calm. Been a little somethin’ somethin’ going on with Mr. Gary that I’ll tell you about later at lunch.” Ethel walked toward the screen door, saying, “You two go off now to the playground and come back around when you hear the twelve o’clock church bells and I’ll have some of them peanut butter and marshmallow sandwiches waitin’ for you.”

Troo went after Ethel and put her head on her giant bosoms. Troo wanted to say thanks for telling her about Uncle Paulie, because now she just noticed she hardly didn’t feel that bad anymore. She didn’t say that, but I knew that’s what Troo would say some other time, when it wasn’t so hard for her. Mental telepathy.

When Troo let go of her, Ethel stared us each straight in the eyes and said a little scarily, “ ’Member your promise, you two,” and let the screen door slam behind her.

“You know, Ethel is right. God,” Troo came back and said. “Our Father really does work in mysterious ways.”

And all I could think to say as I was standing in our new kitchen with a chocolate-chip-cookie-smelling breeze coming through the checkered yellow curtains and Junie Piaskowski’s picture hanging on the dining room wall, that clock counting the minutes slow and steady with pussycat feet, “Yes, He does. Yes, He does.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

We didn’t live across from the playground anymore so to get over there Troo and me had to cut through the Fazios’ backyard. Laying on the grass on a white blanket, listening to rock ’n’ roll music, was Fast Susie. She had on her pink polka-dot swimsuit with the pleated skirt, a matching glass of pink lemonade next to her.

“Hi,” I said, coming up next to her. I couldn’t believe she was working on her tan some more. She was past Egyptian dark and almost the same color as Ray Buck.

Fast Susie shaded her eyes and looked up at us. “O’Malley sisters? That you? Where the hell you been?” She laughed like whatever she was about to tell us really fractured her. “Heard the word?”

Troo was so happy to see her that she smiled so big, you could practically see it coming out the back of her head. Fast Susie was Troo’s idol.

Fast Susie grinned like the cat in Alice in Wonderlandand said, “Reese Latour is goin’ into the army.”

“Really?!” I yelled. I just hated Reese Latour and I felt so happy for Artie since Reese couldn’t run around the neighborhood anymore yelling harelip, harelip, harelip. And Reese couldn’t call Wendy the idiot anymore. Or stare at Troo with those eyes that gave me heebie-jeebies while he rubbed the front of his pants. No doubt about it. Reese going into the army was fantastic news! Almost too good to be true.

I said, “You absolutely sure?”

Fast Susie made her eyebrows go up and down like Groucho’s. “You bet your life, little lady.”

Whatever thing with garlic Nana Fazio was making for supper tonight, the deliciousness of it was coming out the back window, and Elvis was singing about “A Big Hunk o’ Love” on the radio when Fast Susie said, “I heard Tony and Jane talkin’ about it.” Those were Fast Susie’s parents. Sometimes though she called them the ape-man and Jane and I didn’t blame her because Mr. Fazio was almost as hairy as Sampson. I am not kidding. Mr. Fazio worked selling silver-ware. That’s what Willie O’Hara had heard. That Mr. Fazio worked for somebody called Frankie the Knife.

“Remember when Wendy fell down the Spencers’ cellar steps?” Fast Susie asked.

Troo said, “Yeahhhhh…”

“And remember how everybody thought she just had one of her silly wanderings?”

I said, “Nooo…” I never believed that for one second. “Reese did it.” Fast Susie popped up, which made me and Troo jump, which was exactly what she was trying to make us do.

“Reese pushed Wendy down the Spencers’ cellar steps?” I asked her.

“Yup. And Wendy finally told on him.”

I thought back to that day when Wendy and me were sitting on the Kenfields’ porch swing and I asked her if Rasmussen had done it to her and then her mother with the opera lungs called her and she ran home. Why didn’t she tell me then that it was Reese?

“Reese is saying Wendy made it all up, of course.” Fast Susie squirted some baby oil into her hand and smoothed it on her legs. She had told Troo and me at the beginning of summer that she was thinking of starting to shave, which I thought would be a very good idea since her legs took after Tony the ape-man. “He’s telling everybody that Wendy is just a dumb idiot and that if anyone believes her, they’re an idiot, too.”

“Oh my God, sweet Jesus, Mary and Joseph,” I said. Reese Latour had been the murderer and molester all the time. I just couldn’t believe that. Why hadn’t I been paying attention to details?

“When he found out what Reese had done to Wendy, Mr. Latour beat the living shit out of him with a strap. I’m surprised you didn’t hear him yellin’ over at your house.” Fast Susie was getting a lot of good feelings out of telling us this news. She hated Reese even more than the rest of us did. Who wouldn’t?

Troo snorted, “Good riddance to bad rubbish.”

“And guess who else is going away for a little trip?” Fast Susie showed her eyeteeth. “Greasy Al.”

Troo started hopping around. “Really? Really? Greasy Al is going into the army, too?”

“No, they wouldn’t take him into the army because of his gimpy polio leg,” Fast Susie said, taking a sip of her lemonade. “He’s going to reform school up north.”

So that’s what Rasmussen meant when he said he had taken care of that subject.

Greasy Al’s departure didn’t really register in my mind just then because I was still so shocked about what Fast Susie had told us about Reese. He’d been the one who chased me down the alley that night, and when he couldn’t get me he musta turned back toward home, and Wendy was doing one of her wanderings and he found her and tried to murder and molest his own sister. She probably got away because Wendy was really strong and that was another one of those things that God gave people when He took something else away. I once saw Wendy Latour pick up Artie when she got mad at him one day and throw him