I SAID YES, even though I’d probably never see her again. I wanted to be her friend. “Good.” She leaned back and crossed her ankles. She didn’t say anything, just smiled at me.
I smiled back. We sat there for a minute or two, smiling at each other.
“Where do you live?” I could visit her when I left the asylum.
“On a Hundred and Thirty-fourth Stree—”
“Tell for you your fortune?” a parrot squawked.
“There you are, boychik.” Solly poked his head into the stairwell. “With the loveliest lady at the party.”
I wished he’d go away. I wanted to stay here with Irma Lee.
But she smiled happily at him. “My mama says for you to tell her hello.”
“I did already. Come, Daveleh. We’re not heiresses, so it’s time to work.”
I stood up. I couldn’t let Irma Lee see I didn’t know what he was talking about. And did he mean she was an heiress?
“Can I help, Mr. Gruber?” she said.
“No, sweetheart. They all know you. You’d be bad for business. You can see Dave later.”
Irma Lee went back in to the party. Solly knelt down to straighten my tie. “You should close your eyes when I get started. Rocking back and forth is good. If you feel like making a big groan, don’t be shy. But if you laugh, or do anything to spoil my business, that dollar will be out of your slipper before you can say ‘gesundheit.’”
“What’s your business?”
“We tell fortunes.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a deck of worn cards. “With these.” He stood up.
Could he really predict the future? Did he think I could too? Was that why he’d grabbed me on the street?
“Real fortunes?”
“Real-shmeal. Do you think a deck of cards can tell the future?”
I shook my head.
“Smart boychik. Let’s get started.”
So that’s what a gonif was. Somebody who fools people out of their money. A crook. But not an evil crook. I was a gonif too. I had taken the dollar.
“Wait. What time is it?”
“You have another engagement?” He pulled a watch out of his pocket. “Five after one. You have time for a little business?”
I nodded. I had hours. It would only take a few minutes to walk back to the Honking House of Bells. But could I climb back in? I hadn’t thought about that. There had to be a way. I’d worry about it later.
“Let’s begin, then.” We went back into the apartment, and Solly put his arm around my shoulder. “Tell for you your fortune?” he called.
The parrot squawked, “Tell for you your fortune?”
“A quarter a card,” Solly chanted.
A quarter! Just for a card! For a quarter I could buy a hot dog and a double-scoop ice cream cone and an orangeade and a chocolate bar. A delicious meal.
Solly was still chanting. “A half a dollar, a year. For a dollar, your life.”
He wasn’t loud enough. Everybody was yelling to each other.
“Mackey, girl, the last time I saw you—”
“. . . what happened to James—”
A man tilted back his head and drank from a silver bottle.
“Honey, what’s in your potato salad? I never—”
“. . . fell over from that rotgut. Fell—”
“Solly!” A woman waved at us from across the room.
Solly started toward her. “A repeat customer,” he told me.
“I’m so glad you’re here,” she said. “Everything turned out— Who’s he?”
“My grandson. Dave, meet Mrs. Smith, a sweet lady.”
A grandmotherly white lady in a short red dress with sequins smiled at me.
I said hello. Solly went on, “Dave has the power. He’s going to help me in my old age.”
Mrs. Smith said, “You were right last week. I should always listen to Solly. That’s what I tell everyone.”
“How many cards tonight?” Solly said. “For my best customers, two for a quarter.”
“Then I’ll take two. Make them count, Solly.”
“Come to my office.” He led us to the food table, where he moved the cole slaw to make room for his cards. Solly maneuvered so that I stood between him and Mrs. Smith.
She took a purse out of her pocketbook and handed Solly a quarter.
He tapped the deck three times. Then he noticed me watching and passed his hand down over my eyes. “Close your eyes, boychik. Better to feel the power.” He told Mrs. Smith, “He has great power, but he has a lot to learn.”
I kept my eyes open a slit. I couldn’t miss this. Solly turned over a card. A three of clubs. The parrot squawked, “Mazel. Mazel tov.”
“Is it lucky, Solly? Did the parrot say it was lucky?”
“That’s what he said, but he’s just a bird. What does he know? Could be lucky. The cards never lie, but sometimes they aren’t what they seem. Play it. Take a chance.”
“I will. Trouble comes in threes, so why not luck?”
“Are you feeling anything, boychik?” He kicked my shin lightly as he turned over another card.
I was supposed to rock back and forth, groan if I felt like it. I rocked, but I didn’t feel like groaning. Did he want me to rock slow or fast? Forwards and backwards, or side to side? I rocked slowly from side to side.
“Joker!” Mrs. Smith said. “Is that bad?”
“Impossible to tell unless I see the next card. A joker followed by a queen is very bad . . .”
Mrs. Smith opened her pocketbook again. “Two more cards, Solly.”
What a racket! Every other card was probably a joker.
“. . . But a joker followed by a king is good.” Solly pocketed the quarter and turned over a card.
The parrot squawked, “In the cards. In the cards.”
The next card was an ace of hearts. I tried a low moan.
“Why did he moan?”
“An ace,” Solly said, “is the most important card in the deck. That’s why he moaned. You are the ace. You are the one. In this crisis the ace must decide.”
I groaned.
Mrs. Smith groaned and moaned. “Give me a beautiful card. I need a beautiful card.”
It was a nine of diamonds.
“This is good. Not perfect, but good. Your crisis will turn out well.”
Mrs. Smith stood on tiptoe to kiss Solly on the forehead. “You set my mind at rest.”
The parrot shrieked, “Gevalt! Gevalt!”
Solly nudged me with his foot. I groaned deeply.
“If it’s going to be all right, why did he groan?”
“Could be he has reservations. Could be I haven’t seen all there is to see.”
“He’s only a child. How could he know?”
“Let me tell you about this child. A week ago I had such a pain in my side.” Solly clutched his side. “I could hardly breathe. This boychik says to me, ‘Grandpa, until you pay your debt, your side will hurt.’ So, right then and there, I gave my cousin the dollar I owed him, and—pfft!—my side felt like it was sixteen years old. That’s the power in this boychik.”
What a gonif! He was good!
Mrs. Smith took another quarter out of her handkerchief. “I want him to play the next card. Not you, Solly.”
Solly knelt down next to me. “Daveleh, Mrs. Smith wants you to turn over a card. Can you do it?”
I didn’t know whether he wanted me to nod or not. I groaned.
“He can do it,” Solly said. “Nu, I have a better idea. I’ll spread out the cards and he can pick the perfect one for you. But this one card costs a quarter.”
“I’ll take it.”
Solly spread the cards on the table. “Dave, Mrs. Smith needs your help. Can you help her?”
I groaned, like Mr. Doom was strangling me.
The parrot squawked, “Oy vay! Gevalt!”
Solly took my right hand and guided it till it was in the air over the cards. “There, boychik, pick the perfect card.”
I started to pick one. Then I stopped, my hand hanging in the air. What if there was a special card he wanted me to pick?
“What’s he waiting for?”
“He’s waiting for the power to tell him the right card. When his hand starts to tremble, you’ll know the power has come to him.”
I waited a few seconds, then made my hand tremble. I threw in a groan. But I still didn’t know which card to pick. My hand made circles above the cards while I waited for a signal. Then I realized that whatever I picked, Solly would know what to say. I lowered my hand and almost touched a card. Mrs. Smith breathed in sharply. Solly didn’t do anything. I almost touched another card. Then I tapped one.
This was fun!