Outside, I found just what I had half expected I would find.
The other two jocks were trying to talk Mapes into going to another bar with them. I decided to stick my nose in where it didn’t belong one more time.
“Okay, fellas, Eddie and me have a previous engagement to attend. Why don’t you go on your way and we’ll go on ours.”
They were a little hesitant, but a hand against the small of each of their backs helped them along.
“Thanks an awful lot, guys, “I added, to help them along. The older one glared at me, but off they went.
Of course, Mapes didn’t appreciate my help one bit.
“You again? Man, you’re always buttin’ into my business, ain’t you?” he demanded angrily.
“You keep drinking tonight, Eddie, and you’re going to blow that race tomorrow — and a big paycheck. One of those jerks might even win,” I told him, indicating the retreating backs of the other two jocks.
“A lot of people are going to have their two’s, five’s and ten’s on you. I think you owe them a decent ride, don’t you?”
“Decent ride!” he spat. “Honest ride! You think they’d let me — Ah, fuck it! And fuck you too! Kiss off!”
He started off down the street and I let him go. He was reasonably steady, so I figured he’d get home all right, wherever that was. If he decided to stop in another bar on his own, that was his business. I couldn’t follow him around all night and babysit him.
Coincidentally, he was going in the same direction I would have to go to get home, so I gave him a little bit of a head start before starting that way myself.
As I was about to start I heard somebody call out softly from the shadows, “Hey.”
I turned and saw Debby, standing in the doorway of her place. I walked back and stepped into the doorway with her. That close, her smile and blue eyes were almost overpowering. The doorway wasn’t that wide and our shoulders rubbed together. She was about five-six, which was a nice height for a woman — unless you were a female jockey.
“If you’re making a bet for me, shouldn’t I know your name?” she asked.
“Henry,” I told her. “Henry Po.”
“Like Edgar Allan?” she asked.
I shook my head. “P-o, no ‘e’ — like in Henry.”
She laughed.
“Henry, I lied to you inside.”
“Did you? About what?”
“I don’t have a boss. I am the boss. I own the place.”
“A kid like you? How’d you get this place?”
“I’m no kid, I’m twenty-six. As far as how I got this place, I live right upstairs. Come on up for a drink and I’ll tell you about it.”
I smiled at her and said, “I’d love to, Debby, but right now if I did it would be for the wrong reasons.”
She arched one eyebrow, something I’ve always wished I could learn to do.
“Someone else?” she asked.
I shrugged. “On my mind, right now.”
She smiled and told me, “Come back when your mind is clear.”
“Or when your horse comes in,” I reminded her.
She put her hand on mine, a friendly gesture, and started to go back inside.
“Hey, what’s the name of this place, anyway?” I asked.
“It doesn’t matter, “she told me. “Call it what you like.”
“How about, ‘Debby’s Place’?”
She shrugged. “Why not?”
“And what’s the owner’s last name?”
“Gannero.”
“Goodnight, Debby Gannero. Thanks for the favor.”
“Anytime, Henry. Good night.”
Yeah, good night, Henry Po — Dummy!
I decided to make sure that I didn’t flub the ball next time. That meant doing something about Brandy Sommers’ playing on my mind.
Being against any form of permanent relationships, as I was, I could not afford to have one woman occupying my mind for any length of time.
I started to remedy that situation during the walk home. I had not one, but three women on my mind: Brandy, Debby and Penny Hopkins.
I turned down Eighteenth for the walk home and was passing an alleyway — one of those you have to walk down a few steps and through a doorway, or archway, to get to — when I heard voices raised in a soon-to-be violent, argument.
I took the steps quietly, not that they would have heard me anyway. As I reached the bottom step the violence happened. I ran down the tunnel to the courtyard beyond, no longer mindful of the noise I was making, and there I saw three men, two noticeably larger than the third, upon whom they were making very liberal use of their fists.
The third man was Eddie Mapes.
I reached out and grabbed the first thing within my reach: a trashcan cover. I took a few steps forward and changed the shape of the cover on one of the larger men’s heads. His friend turned away from Mapes, whose face was rapidly changing shape also, and looked down first at his buddy, then at me. He was big enough to make me feel like a jockey, but if there was one thing I’d learned about fighting while growing up in New York, it was to hit first and think later.
The cover was on the ground, so I hit him with my fist, but instead of falling down like he was supposed to, he hit me back and knocked me down. I was starting to feel sorry that I had stuck my nose into the business — again — of a guy who only moments before had invited me to fuck off.
When attention had been diverted from Mapes, he had slid down to the ground. Now he got up, retrieved my misshapen weapon and straightened it out on my opponent’s head. I rolled over so he wouldn’t fall on me.
Both men were now temporarily out of commission and Mapes was practically out on his feet. My jaw hurt, but I was in the best shape of the bunch. I grabbed Mapes and almost carried him down the tunnel and out onto the street.
“C’mon, Eddie, snap out of it. Take deep breaths, you’ll be fine.”
He was bruised — with the day he’d had it was understandable — but I had gotten to him before they had a chance to hurt him too badly.
“Eddie, c’mon, those guys aren’t going to sleep forever.”
“Fuck off! “he snapped, pulling away from me and promptly falling on his face.
“Shit!” I snapped back. If I left him to his own devices he would never make it off the block by the time those two turkeys woke up. They’d just start in on him all over again.
I picked him up off the ground and said, “C’mon, Eddie, we’re going to my place, and if you tell me to fuck off one more time I’ll take up where those two left off. Got it?”
He squinted up at me and asked, “You got anything to drink at your place?”