“Stick with me, Box.” The pilot stood up.
“We going again?” Teresa asked. Apparently she and Suzy were their permanent friends, at least for the evening.
“What’re you going to do?” Box wanted to know.
“You with me or not?”
Box drained his San Miguel and stood up. “Lead on, Cool Hand.” He tossed a handful of pesos on the table.
Jake strolled over to the bar, patted Earring on the back, and flashed his friendliest smile. “Shipmate, bring your girl and come on outside. We’re going to feed the ‘gators.” Earring looked blank. The pilot addressed the crowd. “Hey, everybody, let’s go outside and feed the alligators.”
Box chimed in on cue. “Bring the girls and come on outside.” Ten or twelve men started for the door. Grafton steered Earring along and stayed with him. “Do those alligators like chickens and ducks?”
“You bet, man. One gobble. And a hell of a lot of squawking.”
Outside Earring bought a chick and tossed it into the pond. It disappeared in an explosion of water and feathers. Earring cheered wildly. He reached into his wallet, extracted some pesos, and bought two more birds.
As the sailor stepped up to the rail again, Jake nodded to Box, who assumed a position on the other side of Earring. “Give us room,” Jake commanded.
The boy leaned over the rail to toss in a bird.
Simultaneously Jake and Box reached down and each grabbed an ankle. They lifted smartly and Earring went over the rail headfirst. He screamed, a high-pitched wail that cut out abruptly when his head hit the water.
Jake kept a firm grip on Earring’s right ankle, but the Boxman let go and threw up his hands with a whoo The shock of absorbing the man’s weight jerked Jake forward into the rail and his hands slipped. He barely managed to hang on.
He tried to shout but for a moment was not able to find his voice.
Then it came out. “You dumb shit! Get him out of there.”
The Boxman’s jaw tightened. Galvanized, he reached over the rail and got a double handful of trousers. Both men strained, but the weight was too much.
Jake Grafton saw Ferdinand Magellan in the crowd gawking with his mouth open. “Help us, for God sake!” The three of them managed to pull Earring’s head out of the water. Other men grabbed hold.
They hauled him up, choking and sobbing and trying to scream, and flopped him out in the dirt. Bits of slime clung to his hair and paper-white face. He sobbed and looked about wildly. Grafton was shaking and lean on the rail for support.
The Boxman bent over and looked Earring in the eye. “How’d you like it, asshole?”
The boy now looked pathetic to Jake, who turned away into the crowd. The pilot saw a haymaker coming just in time to duck, and the blow glanced off his ear. He swung back with all he had and felt teeth give as the guy went down.
Whistles sounded.
“Shore patrol!”
Jake ran. He bumped into several people but made it through the scattering crowd and raced down the sidewalk. A block later, he was finding his running rhythm when he saw Suzy gesticulating at him. “Up here.” He blasted through the doorway and up a narrow flight of stairs. Suzy and the Boxman were right behind him. On a second-floor landing, lit only by a naked light bulb, Suzy unlocked a door and the three of them tumbled into a dark room. The light coming in from the street was sufficient to reveal the jumbled outlines of furniture, apparently stuffed in wall to wall.
Breathing hard, they crowded against the window and stared down the street toward Pauline’s. The sidewalk and street were empty except for Earring lying in the dirt and the white-uniformed shore patrolmen.
Ducklings and baby chicks wandered about, unsure what to do with their freedom after the hasty departure of their captors. Two shore patrolmen lifted Earring to his feet and escorted him away.
“I’ll bet that teaches the sonuvabitch a lesson,” the Boxman swore.
“We shouldn’t have done it.” The excitement and adrenaline were wearing off.
“Serves him right.”
“He shit in his pants. I noticed it when we pulled him up. We scared him that bad.”
“Maybe he’ll tell them we saved his ass after he fell in.”
“Maybe the sun won’t rise tomorrow. Suzy was grinning from ear to ear. “You teach him big lesson. Not swim alone.”
They roared. “That guy should thank us. We gave him the thrill of his life,” Box said, laughing.
“I’ll bet all he could think of was those greedy ol’ gators,” Jake gasped.
The mirth finally subsided. Grafton’s ear throbbed “Why’d you let go of his leg?”
“Hell, I dunno.” The Boxman scratched his head. “I guess I just sort Of forgot about the alligators. It seemed like the thing to do at the time. Just exactly why did we throw him in, anyway?”
“Because he’s an asshole.”
Suzy hugged Boxman and gave him a dazzling grin. “You wouldn’t throw me in?”
“Oh no! Just sailors.”
“You like me?”
Box put his arms around her and kissed her on the lips. “I think I like you with a little more salt.” She laughed again and placed his left hand on her breast. “Yum yum,” the bombardier told her.
Jake felt his way back through the dark room to the door. When he opened it the light from the single bulb on the stair landing fell on an old lady sitting in an armchair in the corner. She had silver hair and wrinkled face and was very small. He could hear Su giggling. The old lady gave him a toothless grin. he closed the door softly as he went out. Down on the street the shore patrol was still standing outside Pauline’s, so he waited until their backs were turned, then stepped out on the sidewalk and walked away in the opposite direction.
TEN
The sunbeam crept across the bed and woke Jake Grafton. He turned his head to escape it, but the beam continued its march and burned the sleep from him. Somewhere outside a bird was squawking.
Uncomfortable, he sat up against the headboard. His tongue was like a dust rag. The left side of his head was sore, probably from that punch he had almost stopped with his nose. I’ll never smoke another cigarette if I live to be a hundred, he swore to himself, or take another drink. The pain seemed to lessen if he remain absolutely motionless with his eyes closed. He had begun to doze again when the door to the room opened.
“How’s the hangover?” asked Sammy. He pull some aspirin from his toilet kit and placed them in Jake’s hand. “Take these. They’ll help some.”
Jake pried open one eye, regarded the white tablets and weighed their possible benefits against the effort required to transport himself to the water faucet in the bathroom. Finally he heaved himself up, made the tri and returned to the bed. Lundeen had flopped down on his bed in the shade.
“What time is it?” Jake asked.
“Time for you and me to go to Hong Kong.”
Jake glared at his friend.
“That’s right. You heard me. Hong Kong. You and me. I’ve already been down to the ship and seen the Old Man and filed out our leave forms.” Lundeen bounded off the bed and flourished two pieces of paper. “We’re off to Hong Kong for four days.”
“Can’t you see I’m dying of an alcohol overdose? I’m half-dead now. You can’t be serious. Why do you want to go to Hong Kong, anyway? I don’t have the money to go flying all over the Orient. Nor do I have the desire. Let me die quietly, okay?”
“Goddamn you, Grafton,” Lundeen shouted. “Get your butt out of that bed and let’s go to Hong Kong.”
“Okay, okay. Don’t yell, my head’s about to split.”
