Gigolo | Page 5

into the July sunlight. Her face became
dull again.
Well, not one o'clock. Guessed he'd shoot a little pool. He dropped into
Moriarty's cigar store. It was called a cigar store because it dealt in
magazines, newspapers, soft drinks, golf balls, cigarettes, pool, billiards,
chocolates, chewing gum, and cigars. In the rear of the store were four
green-topped tables, three for pool and one for billiards. He hung about
aimlessly, watching the game at the one occupied table. The players
were slim young men like himself, their clothes replicas of his own,
their faces lean and somewhat hard. Two of them dropped out. Nick
took a cue from the rack, shed his tight coat. They played under a
glaring electric light in the heat of the day, yet they seemed cool, aloof,
immune from bodily discomfort. It was a strangely silent game and as
mirthless as that of the elfin bowlers in Rip Van Winkle. The
slim-waisted shirted figures bent plastically over the table in the
graceful postures of the game. You heard only the click of the balls, an
occasional low-voiced exclamation. A solemn crew, and unemotional.
Now and then: "What's all the shootin' fur?"
"In she goes."
Nick, winner, tired of it in less than an hour. He bought a bottle of
some acidulous drink just off the ice and refreshed himself with it,
drinking from the bottle's mouth. He was vaguely restless, dissatisfied.
Out again into the glare of two o'clock Fifty-third Street. He strolled up
a block toward Lake Park Avenue. It was hot. He wished the bus wasn't
sick. Might go in swimming, though. He considered this idly. Hurried
steps behind him. A familiar perfume wafted to his senses. A voice
nasal yet cooing. Miss Bauers. Miss Bauers on pleasure bent, palpably,
being attired in the briefest of silks, white-strapped slippers, white silk
stockings, scarlet hat. The Green Front Grocery and Market closed for a
half day each Thursday afternoon during July and August. Nicky had
not availed himself of the knowledge.

"Well, if it ain't Nicky! I just seen you come out of Moriarty's as I was
passing." (She had seen him go in an hour before and had waited a
patient hour in the drug store across the street.) "What you doing
around loose this hour the day, anyway?"
"I'm off 'safternoon."
"Are yuh? So'm I." Nicky said nothing. Miss Bauers shifted from one
plump silken leg to the other. "What you doing?"
"Oh, nothing much."
"So'm I. Let's do it together." Miss Bauers employed the direct method.
"Well," said Nick, vaguely. He didn't object particularly. And yet he
was conscious of some formless programme forming mistily in his
mind--a programme that did not include the berouged, be-powdered,
plump, and silken Miss Bauers.
"I phoned you this morning, Nicky. Twice."
"Yeh?"
"They said you wasn't in."
"Yeh?"
A hard young woman, Miss Bauers, yet simple: powerfully drawn
toward this magnetic and careless boy; powerless to forge chains strong
enough to hold him. "Well, how about Riverview? I ain't been this
summer."
"Oh, that's so darn far. Take all day getting there, pretty near."
"Not driving, it wouldn't."
"I ain't got the bus. Busted."
His apathy was getting on her nerves. "How about a movie, then?" Her

feet hurt. It was hot.
His glance went up the street toward the Harper, down the street toward
the Hyde Park. The sign above the Harper offered Mother o' Mine. The
lettering above the Hyde Park announced Love's Sacrifice.
"Gawd, no," he made decisive answer.
Miss Bauers's frazzled nerves snapped. "You make me sick! Standing
there. Nothing don't suit you. Say, I ain't so crazy to go round with you.
Cheap guy! Prob'ly you'd like to go over to Wooded Island or
something, in Jackson Park, and set on the grass and feed the squirrels.
That'd be a treat for me, that would." She laughed a high, scornful
tear-near laugh.
"Why--say----" Nick stared at her, and yet she felt he did not see her. A
sudden peace came into his face--the peace of a longing fulfilled. He
turned his head. A Lake Park Avenue street car was roaring its way
toward them. He took a step toward the roadway. "I got to be going."
Fear flashed its flame into Miss Bauers's pale blue eyes. "Going! How
do you mean, going? Going where?"
"I got to be going." The car had stopped opposite them. His young face
was stern, implacable. Miss Bauers knew she was beaten, but she clung
to hope tenaciously, piteously. "I got to see a party, see?"
"You never said anything about it in the first place. Pity you wouldn't
say so in the first place. Who you got to see, anyway?" She knew it was
useless to ask. She knew she was beating her fists against