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I

THE BOYS WHO ESCAPED FROM WOLVES

(1975)

1

THE POINT AND THE FLATS

WHEN SEAN DEVINE and Jiether at the Coleman Candy plant and carried the stench of warm chocolate back home with them It became a permanent character of their clothes, the beds they slept in, the vinyl backs of their car seats Sean's kitchen ssicle, his bathroom like a Coleman Che bar By the time they were eleven, Sean and Jimmy had developed a hatred of sweets so total that they took their coffee black for the rest of their lives and never ate dessert

On Saturdays, Jimmy's father would drop by the Devines' to have a beer with Sean's father He'd bring Jimmy with him, and as one beer turned into six, plus two or three shots of Dewar's, Jimmy and Sean would play in the backyard, soirl's wrists and weak eyes as always telling jokes he'd learned from his uncles From the other side of the kitchenscreen, they could hear the hiss of the beer can pull-tabs, bursts of hard, sudden laughter, and the heavy snap of Zippos as Mr Devine and Mr Marcus lit their Luckys

Sean's father, a foreman, had the better job He was tall and fair and had a loose, easy ser more than a few times, just shut it down like a switch had been flicked off inside of her Jimmy's father loaded the trucks He was sle and so in his eyes see too quickly; you'd blink and he was on the other side of the room Dave Boyle didn't have a father, just a lot of uncles, and the only reason he was usually there on those Saturdays was because he had this gift for attaching hi his house with his father, show up beside their car, half out of breath, going "What's up, Jimmy?" with a sad hopefulness

They all lived in East Buckinghahborhood of crarounds, and butcher shops wherein the s The bars had Irish nae Darts by the curbs Women wore handkerchiefs tied off at the backs of their skulls and carried arettes Until a couple of years ago, older boys had been plucked from the streets, as if by spaceships, and sent to war They came back hollow and sullen a year or so later, or they didn't come back at all Days, the hts, the fathers went to the bars You knew everyone; nobody except those older boys ever left

Jimmy and Dave came from the Flats, down by the Penitentiary Channel on the south side of Buckingham Avenue It was only twelve blocks from Sean's street, but the Devines were north of the Ave, part of the Point, and the Point and the Flats didn't mix much

It wasn't like the Point glittered with gold streets and silver spoons It was just the Point, working class, blue collar, Chevys and Fords and Dodges parked in front of simple A-frames and the occasional small Victorian But people in the Point owned People in the Flats rented Point fans on street corners during electionlike animals sometimes, ten to an apartment, trash in their streets? Wellieville, Sean and his friends at Saint Mike's called it, fa their kids to public schools, divorcing So while Sean went to Saint Mike's Parochial in black pants, black tie, and blue shirt, Jimmy and Dave went to the Lewis M Dewey School on Blaxston Kids at the Looey & Dooey got to wear street clothes, which was cool, but they usually wore the same ones three out of five days, which wasn't There was an aura of grease to thereasy collars and cuffs A lot of the boys had buirls wore raduation

So if it wasn't for their fathers, they probably never would have been friends During the week, they never hung out, but they had those Saturdays, and there was so out in the backyard, or wandered through the gravel dumps off Harvest Street, or hopped the subways and rode don? not to see anything, just to h the dark tunnels and hear the rattle and brake-screahts flickered on and off? that felt to Sean like a held breath Anything could happen when you ith Jimmy If he are there were rules? in the subway, on the streets, in a movie theater? he never showed it

They were at South Station once, tossing an orange street hockey ball back and forth on the platform, and Jimmy missed Sean's throw and the ball bounced down onto the tracks Before it occurred to Sean that Ji about it, Jimmy jumped off the platform and down onto the track, down there with the mice and the rats and the third rail

People on the platform went nuts They screaar ash as she bent at the knees and yelled, Get back up here, get back up here now, goddamnit! Sean heard a thick ru the tunnel up at Washington Street or could have been trucks rolling along the street above, and the people on the platform heard it, too They waved their arms, whipped their heads around to look for the subway police One guy placed a forearhter's eyes

Ji into the darkness under the platforri on the yellow line, extending their hands doard the track

Dave nudged Sean and said, "Whew, huh?" too loud

Ji the center of the track toward the stairs at the far end of the platfor and dark, and a heavier ru fists into their hips Ji really, then he looked back over his shoulder, caught Sean's eyes, and grinned

Dave said, "He's s He's just nuts You know?"

When Jimmy reached the first step in the cement stairs, several hands thrust down and yanked hi out and to the left and his head curl and dip to the right, Jirasp, like he was filled with straw, but tucking that ball tight against his chest even as people grabbed at his elbow and his shin banged off the edge of the platfor beside hi Jimmy up and he didn't see worry or fear anyo He saw rage, e, like they were going to lean in and bite a chunk out of Jimmy, then beat him to death