Easter City Read Free Page A

you mean ‘we can’t be
heard’? Main Street’s right there.” I pointed at Main Street, two
yards away with its dead lamplights and clean sidewalks and…
pedestrians. A young couple around Cranston’s age walked past,
heads bent together, murmuring to each other.”
            I
flattened myself to the side of the restaurant or hotel or whatever
the building was—there were rarely windows on the sides of the
buildings that faced side streets—and waved my hand vigorously and
jabbed my finger at the space next to me.
            “Come over
here! Now ! They’ll
see—”. Instead of joining me on the shadowed sidewalk Joq, head
held high, chest pushed out, sort of like that guy who had bought
the airplane awhile back, strutted into the middle of the street
and up to the Main Street side of the sidewalk, which ran across
the side street from my building to the one across from me, and
stopped before the cement, inches away from where the couple was
walking.
            He pulled down his
lower eyelid with a fingertip and stuck out his tongue.
“Eh-eh-eh-nanana- na ! Not so bad, are ya?”
            The couple stopped.
Turned. Turned away from Joq, still giggling, still cooing, and pointed to a
restaurant across the street with flashing, pink doves and a sign
that read Love Bird’s Wings and Fries.
            Joq grabbed his
shredded jeans and shoved them down. His member flopped in the wind
like an overcooked noodle. He then proceeded to “Joq” himself off,
sneering “Not big and bad, yeah? Ha ! You-two-can-go—” He emphasized
each word with exaggerated thrusts and there followed a stream of
curses and short, rapid hand motions. Squirt . A white, aqueous something
else streamed and splatted the sidewalk.
           
The couple waited for a break in the cars and, hair and cashmere
scarfs flying, danced across the road, squawking.  
           
When my brain cranked up again, I shut my jaw, dropped my hand
which had been frozen mid-gesture and blinked a few times.
           
Joq hollered curses after the pair, cackling, then hitched up his
pants, turned and grinned. He waved his hand and skipped down the
street whistling his own, erroneous version of “Luck be a Lady”. I
shook my head and dashed after him, slipping a few times.
           
“Wait! Hold it! Joq!”
            I made to grab for
him. Riiip . Cloth
particles exploded as his rags tore in my fist. Joq gasped. He
jerked his shoulder and slipped. I went with him. We collapsed in a
heap on the slippery asphalt and began to slide down the side
street. We scrabbled at the road but the ice stung and we were
picking up speed. The street was long and winding and culminated in
a square. We swept past the white bricks of the sides of buildings
and down a final hill and collided with the curb.
            I
wobbled to my feet, unscathed, though shaken. Joq wasn’t hurt too
bad, though his lip was busted again. I gave him my sock as
compensation for grabbing him and he accepted it.
           
“‘hat ‘as all that a’out?” He demanded.
            I
shook my head and regarded the buildings in the square. The square
itself was wide, the road asphalt and, like Main Street
establishments, the buildings surrounding the square were crafted
of white brick, though they were less flashy; they lacked lights
and were a good deal smaller. Most of the wood signs were blackened
and a number of the restaurants and boutiques were burnt out.
            I
shook my head again and looked back up the street at the space
between the buildings, at the sidewalk where Joq had taunted the
wealthy couple, and at the passing cars.
            “Say Joq, you
weren’t lying were you? About them not
being able to come down here, or see down the side street or
hear us down here.
It’s… real, isn’t
it?”
           
Joq blinked back tears and nodded. Red blossomed the rough fibers
in my sock fibers as