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"She went to a private school last year and this su with h, because she ran out of money She paid for it all with her own bread"

"Must be smart," I said I couldn't remember what she looked like; I had never paid any attention to her "She as smart as you?"

"No," M&M said, still reading He wasn't bragging, he was telling the truth He was a very honest kid

"Let's go over to the bowling alley," Mark suggested The drugstore wasn't exactly juing around "You come too, M&M"

It was a long walk to the bowling alley, and I wished for the hundredth time I had a car I had to walk everywhere I went As if he'd read , Mark said, "I could hot-wire us a car"

"That's a bad thing to do," M&M said "Taking so to you"

"It ain't stealin'," Mark said "It's borrowin'"

"Yeah, well, you're on probation now for 'borrowing,' so I don't think it's such a great idea," I said

Mark could hot-wire anything, and ever since he elve years old he had hot-wired cars and driven theht at it, so now once a week he had to go don on his school lunch hour to see his probation officer and tell hi to steal cars anyto take Mark and put him in a boys' home since he wasn't really my brother and didn't have a fa locked up I didn't need to Mark always ca untouched, unworried, unaffected

"OK" Mark shrugged "Don't get shook, Bryon"

"Bryon," M&M said suddenly, "were you named after the lord?"

"What?" I said, stunned For a ht he meant God

"Lord Bryon, were you named after him?"

The poor kid had Byron and Bryon"Yeah, I was"

"Was there a Lord Bryon?" Mark said "Hey, that's cool" He paused "I guess it's cool What'd this guy do, anyway?"

"Can't tell you in front of the kid," I answered

M&M shook his head "He wrote poetry He wrote long, old poeht to write poetry, just to keep up the tradition of the Bryons"

"You ought to keep your mouth shut," I replied, "before I keep up the tradition of punching wise guys in the mouth"

M&M looked up at me, and I realized fro to be smart So I punched him on the shoulder and said, "OK, I'll write poetry How's this?"--and I recited a dirty lih and turn red at the saht I had ood Can you just pop them off like that?"

I only shrugged and said, "Sometimes," because then I'd take credit whether or not it was really due ht I could get aith it, especially to girls Like telling them I loved them and junk, when I didn't I had a rep as a lady-killer--a hustler I kept up the old Lord Byron tradition in one way So about how rotten I treated some of these chicks, but most of the time it didn't even bother me

"M&M, old buddy," Mark was saying, putting his arht be able to loan your best friend some money"

"You ain'thonesty, "but how much do you want?"

"Three bu

cks"

"I got fifty cents" M&M reached into his jeans pocket and pulled out a couple of quarters "Here"

"Forget it," I said Me and Mark looked at each other and shook our heads M&M was unbelievable

"It's OK I'll get fifty cents again next week, for baby-sitting"

"Is that all you get paid for watching all those kids? Fifty cents?" I couldn't get over it Fifty cents a week?

"I think it's enough I don'tto do it if I don't Both my parents work, so they can't do it Anyway, I liketo have at least nine or ten kids"

"There goes the population explosion," Mark said

"Well, now that your sister's ho to be helpful M&M could tell we thought he was crazy

"Cathy's got a job after school; she can't help I don't knohat I have to do to convince you that I don't mind it"

"OK, OK, I'ot to worrying about hoere going to get three dollars before to nice to people, especially ones who couldn't pay their bills

By the ti alley it was ten o'clock There weren't aot bugged about it and asked hi

"Take a look" He handed ht up to your eye"

I did, and all I saas a bunch of candy

"It's beautiful, ain't it?" asked M&M "I mean, look at all the different colors"

"Yeah," I agreed, thinking, If I didn't know this kid better I'd say he was high

"Let e "Hey, this is groovy Look at all the colors" He gave the candy back to M&M, looked at ed

M&M got up "I gotta go houys later"

"We just got here," Mark objected

"Yeah, well, I just cao home"

I watched him leave "The kid's weird," I said "That's all there is to it"

Mark lit up a cigarette, our last one, so we had to pass it back and forth "I know, but I still get a kick out of hio catch up with him There ain't nothin' to do around here"