ALL BOXED UP PARTTWO of chapter one

"Anyhow, when I got over my coughing fit, a Mexican guy showed me to a toilet, where I cleaned myself up to be a bit more respectable lookin'.  I came back out looking for that food. Jake wasn't around the kitchen anymore, so I sat back on the stool hoping somebody would feed me before I hit the floor.  Sis, it's an awful thing to sit still, smelling all that food knowing that I couldn't just grab some, ya know?  Sis I hope ya never do know."1

"Well, lucky for me the Mexican guy handed me a fork and a plate full of food that I ate so fast, to this day I don't know what it was, but the smells in that kitchen I'll know tell the day I die".2

"But, I probably ate a little to quick, cause I had to go back to the toilet and when I came back out to the kitchen, it was without much of that food in my stomach.  That's when I saw Jake again, grinning at me.  He handed me a coke and laughed saying,(You don't look up to a beer kid you...) then he stopped mid sentence, like he was a teacher added up the score.  Jake took a long pull on a cigarette and looked at me square (well kid,I was going to have you wash some dishes and mop up for your keep, but  I guess you could use a little sleep, before you trip over those big feet of yours again). 3

" He pointed me toward the back stairs and said", (You will find a bed up those steps, first door on the right).  " I remember climbing up those stairs but I'm a bit fuzzy still on how I found the bed.  The next I recall was wakin' up in the dark tryin' to think out just where I was and then drifting back off back to sleep before figuring it out."4

"Crazy Huh squirt, God squirt you sure do live up to that name, you're a crybaby already and I haven't gotten to the good stuff yet."5

I blushed at the reference to my ability to tear up more easily than most kids do and also with a bit of hidden anger.  I had known Willy to cry upon occasion, plus I just saw him watering my plants with his tears before he started this barrage of brag-ga-docio, that he was 6

so proudly reporting to me.  I turned away from him and picked up the watering can to hide my confused resentment.  I dipped my head and eyed each seed pot sucking up their water, while the dry ones waited patiently for their turns.  I'm afraid pursuing this divergence has led to my missing parts of his story, even though I sorely did need an intermission.  I put the watering can down and turn to listen with greater care.7

"Doing those odd jobs around the restaurant and being Jake's runner at night left me only mornings to sleep.  Squirt are ya listening to me?"8

I shook my head yes and looked back up into his reddened excited face.  "Uh ha" I lied, though I was now trying hard to reconstruct some of what he had said.  Willy does have long legs, so I guess he was a good runner, although at night, in the dark, I don't see how he kept himself from falling over his own big feet again.9

...Do in' kitchen chores in the afternoon, sweepin' up, washing down the floors and other boring stuff.  I eat in the kitchen and then I go to my big jobs, running packages to and from lots of places for all kinds of people, even the cops ah the police watching the Jazz Club that Jake has a couple of buildings down from the restaurant.  Boy, let me tell ya Sis,I sure wished I had lived over that place. But it was only girls living up there , young ones too, some of your age Annie." 10

Willy turned his head and coughed, his face getting redder and strained looking.  Something must have caught in his throat.  "Sis"? Willie looked oddly down at me and said, "well I uh really liked that Jazz Club, the music was great, like nothing I ever heard before.  I made a lot of friends in that place,I sure learned a lot from them.  This girl, she was a singer, she sang like I never heard before and she couldn't stand still she was in the music, in the moment oh God I miss her.  I wish I could stay with her forever,my God, life is awful sad, people are all wrong to keep us apart."11

"I really didn't know how dumb I was until I went to that Jazz Club and I want to go ...."    "Willy slow down" I begged him, "I don't understand" my mind was grasping for the meaning of what he was saying.12

Why aren't those girls in school if they are my age? I don't understand I13

do not know what he has been doing or what he went looking for, out there in St. Louis. But Willie was on a roll and all I can do is try and keep up.14