Chapter 40

"What's going to happen?" Aurelio said.

"Don't know," I said.

"I think there's going to be a big fight," Jeannie said.

"Do you think so?" Aurelio said to me.

"I don't know," I said.

"I don't like that Leo," Jeannie said.

"What's going to happen?" Aurelio asked. "If everybody starts fighting, you can't protect me from all of them."

"They might not be so interested in you alone," I said.

"But you'll stay with me?" Aurelio said.

"Yes."

"I don't like that Leo," Jeannie said again.

"No," I said. "I don't like him either."

"How old do you think he is?" Jeannie said.

"Sixteen," I said. "Seventeen."

"You think he really works for his father?" Jeannie said.

"He didn't know my father and my uncles. If he did much in the business, he'd know them. They do a lot of work for Roemer."

"I bet he just hangs around the office," Jeannie said.

"Could be," I said.

"I'm scared about all this," Jeannie said.

"I don't like it much either," I said.

"Are you scared?" Aurelio said.

"Some," I said.

"But you'll stick with me?" Aurelio said.

"I will."

"What are you scared of most?" Jeannie asked me.

"It's gotten awful big," I said. "And . . . I never had a fight with a guy sixteen, seventeen years old. That's a pretty big difference."

"Maybe you won't have to fight with him," Jeannie said.

"Maybe," I said.

"But you think you will," Jeannie said.

"Yes."

"Why?" she said.

"Because he didn't scare me," I said. "At least not that he could tell."

"So?"

"So he was supposed to, I mean, it's why he came over. The guys wanted me with them, and I wouldn't do it, so they bring in big bad Leo, and I still won't do it."

"But," Jeannie said, "I should think if you weren't scared of him, he'd less want to fight you, you know?"

"Guy like Leo, there's a reason he hangs around with younger guys," I said. "Maybe the guys his age don't think he's such a big deal."

"Like the guys at the construction company?" Jeannie said.

"Maybe," I said. "Maybe he needs to be a tough guy and they won't treat him like one."

"That doesn't make any sense to me," Jeannie said. "Is it because I'm a girl?"

She looked at Aurelio.

"Does that make any sense to you, Aurelio?" she said.

He shook his head slowly.

"No, but I know a lot of boys need to be macho," he said.

"Are you like that?" Jeannie asked me.

"I suppose," I said. "Some."

"But you don't pick on people," Jeannie said.

"No," I said. "It doesn't make me feel brave."

"Is that what it's about?" Jeannie said. "Feeling brave?"

"Maybe," I said. "But you can only feel brave if you face up to something that you need to be brave about, you know?"

"Like with my father?"

"Yes."

"And like trying to protect Aurelio," she said.

"Yes."

Jeannie shook her head.

"You are not like any other boy I know," she said.

"I was brought up a little different, I guess."

"Because you didn't have a mother?" Jeannie said.

"I don't know. I never had a mother; I don't know what that would be like. But being brought up by my father and my uncles, the way they treated me."

"Which is how?" Jeannie said.

"Like I wasn't a kid," I said. "Like I was a person."

"And they're all brave," Jeannie said.

"They are," I said.

"Is it so important feeling brave?" Jeannie said.

"I guess it is," I said.

"God," Jeannie said. "Being a boy must not be easy."

"No," I said. "No easier than being a girl."

"Being a kid," Aurelio said, "is especially not easy."

Загрузка...