Twentieth Century Limited Book One - Age of Heroes. Jan David Blais
arm on my shoulder. “Well, how do you like it?”
I was speechless. It was a miracle!
He glanced at his watch. “I gotta get back but maybe Roland will let you watch a couple innings.”
I looked at Mr. Lemieux, “Can I?”
“Sure, you bet. You’re the first one, my own kid hasn’t even seen it.” Mr. Lemieux dragged a stuffed chair over. I watched until the fourth when I had to go back up the hill for my own game. When I left it was Sox three, Tigers nothing, thanks to Ted’s homer with two on his next time up. I don’t remember anything about my own game.
The next week a red QUALITY RADIO SALES AND SERVICE – ALL WORK GUARANTEED truck appeared in front of our house and two men staggered up the steps with a huge carton. Of my friends I was the first to have a television. My father moved the furniture around so we could all watch it. We began having more company. Television changed our lives – only later did I come to realize how much.
ONE EVENING AFTER DINNER I wandered back to the lot. This older kid named Jerry Shields was sitting on the rock in back of home plate, smoking a cigarette. Jerry was on the basketball team and smart, an altar boy, even. My mother was friends with his mother. I took a seat next to him on the rock. “Want one?” he asked. He held up a pack of Luckies, big red circle with a black rim. I had never smoked before but I thought, why not? I’d seen lots of people smoke – my mother and father, Jim snuck them in the back yard all the time – so I knew how it was done.
He tapped the bottom of the pack. A new pack, they were in there tight. I pinched one out, which kind of messed up the tip. I put the other end in my mouth and Jerry handed over his matches. I tore one off and struck it, holding it against the tip, breathing deeply. Suddenly I coughed and the match went out. Jerry nodded. “Windy, ain’t it?”
Another match. This time I kept my mouth closed and was able to get the thing going. I puffed a few times then took it out of my mouth. The paper stuck to my lips. “Great,” I said, my mouth hot and dry, “really great. Thanks.”
Jerry looked at me. “Not inhaling tonight?”
“I was getting to that.”
I raised the cigarette to my mouth and sucked, letting the smoke collect in my mouth, then inhaled. Again I began to cough. The fit went on until my eyes were watering like crazy. So were Jerry’s. He couldn’t stop laughing. “It’s a rotten habit, Paul.” He ground his butt under his foot. “Take my advice, don’t start.” A few minutes later he lit up again, this time with special flair. I was in awe of Jerry. He knew how to do things – practical, manly things. Something had been on my mind for a while. “Jerry,” I said, “mind if I ask you something?”
“Be my guest,” he said.
I hesitated. Again I’d be showing my ignorance but this I needed to find out. “The word ‘fuck.’ I was wondering, any idea what it means?”
Jerry started to speak but held up. “I could tell you,” he said, “but I won’t.”
“Why not?”
“It’s a bad word. You don’t say it around people, especially grownups.”
“Come on. I won’t let on you told me.”
“No,” he said, inhaling thoughtfully. “Besides, you’ll find out soon enough.”
He knew but wouldn’t tell me? I’ll find out? “At least tell me what it’s about.”
He blew a cloud my way. “Girls and babies. That’s all I’ll say.”
Girls and babies. So that was it. But what did that mean?
Looking back, it was fitting. My first cigarette, same time as my first talk about sex, though I didn’t know that’s what it was. I had stumbled across an idea of great power that could have made me rich and famous. Too bad the advertising people beat me to it.
6. Through A Stained Glass, Darkly
I AM HEADING FOR THE DECK when the phone rings. “Professor Flynn?”
“Speaking.”
“This is Susan Leone, Paul Bernard’s assistant. Sorry to bother you but it’s about Paul’s papers. I had a call yesterday from a lawyer for Rudolph Latimer, you know, LTN. He said he was sending somebody to pick them up. Says they’re Latimer’s property and they want them back.”
“That’s ridiculous! How do they even know about them?”
“Beats me, but he said Paul worked on them when he was on Latimer’s payroll so they belong to LTN.”
“That’s bullshit! ... Sorry.”
“I’m familiar with the word. I told him to buzz off. He said ETVN would be hearing from him at a more appropriate level. The asshole! What a nerve!”
“We’ve never met, Susan, but I love you already.”
“Paul always spoke well of you, too.”
“We need to make sure those papers are safe. They’re Paul’s personal papers, they’re nobody’s business.”
“And now they’re yours. He dictated a document making you his literary executor.”
“He never told me that.”
“He never got around to signing it. I don’t know if that matters, but I have the tape.”
“How much stuff is there?”
There is a pause. “Sixteen boxes, would you believe.”
“No wonder it was taking him so long. Where are they now?”
Another pause. “Professor Flynn, you owe me – you really owe me. My roommate and me, we moved them last night. They’re in our spare room, in Cobble Hill, you know, in Brooklyn. All we have is a little car, one of those minis. Three trips, it took. I got to bed at two-thirty.”
“Susan, you are something else.”
“That call really shook me up. I didn’t want Paul’s stuff sitting here. No way Latimer or his asshole lawyer’s going to get their hands on them, not if I have anything to say about it.”
“You used to work for Latimer.”
“Twenty-three years. I came over to ETVN with Paul. ”
“What about ETVN? Will they claim them too?”
“They’re cool. There’s no love lost between them and Latimer, you can imagine.”
“Well I owe you. What about dinner for you and your friend at a nice place, a very nice place?”
She laughs. “That’ll do, for starters. No, seriously, I’m happy to do what I can for Paul’s memory.” She was quiet a moment. “I hear you’re working with some writer. To me the important thing is give people a chance to know the real Paul. He was a peach.”
“Whatever you do, hold onto those boxes. I’ll talk to my lawyer. Larry Cahill, he’s in Boston. He’ll take care of everything.”
“You want me to send them to you?”
“Hang onto them for now. I’ll call you when I reach him.”
“Okay. Nice to meet you finally, even if it’s on the phone.”
“Likewise, and count on that dinner. I can’t believe you did all that.”
“No problem. I work out at Golds, three, four times a week. I figure that was my weight training for the week.”
“That lawyer better not mess with you.”
“That’s for damned sure.”
I