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.""Yeah, that sounds like a good idea—""Coe Wayland always has a bottle of whiskey in his trunk," Jake said, and after a moment he came backwith it.Mario poured some of the whiskey into a paper cup and put his hands firmly on Angelo'sshoulder."Drink up.Come on, Uncle Angelo, orders.""I don't want it." Angelo pushed his hand away."You drink this, or I'll hold your nose and pour it down your throat," Mario commanded."And then getyourself dressed.We got a hell of a lot to do before the night show!"Angelo swallowed, choked painfully, and coughed.He still looked dazed, but now awareness wascoming through.He took the glass in his own hand and swallowed the rest of it with a grimace.His handswere still shaking, but his voice steadied."All right," he said, coughing, "I'm all right.Thanks, Matt.I—"He swallowed, hard, but he said, "I'll get dressed.There are arrangements; I better go make them.""Oh, Lord," Tommy said suddenly."Stella.Nobody told Stella.And Johnny went to—went with PapaTony." Then, looking at the shaken Angelo, clinging to Mario's arm, he knew he had to volunteer."I'll go tell Stella."Walking across the grounds to the women's dressing tent, he realized that the performance was stillgoing on, the band and the applause as loud as ever.Were the people in the audience all ghouls? Couldthey see something like that and not care? Could they watch a bunch of clowns flipping around and laughas loud as ever?He found Stella near the entrance of the women's dressing tent, and even then a flicker of relief struckhim that she had saved him the necessity to speak to the matron and ask her to pass the word for StellaGardner; even if she had been his own wife, he could not have entered the women's tent.She was achildish, vulnerable little figure, all alone at the entrance, an old gray corduroy coat pulled over her dress;but somehow the fact that she alone had had the presence of mind to dress fully, when Johnny andTommy had only pulled on pants and shoes over their tights, was a hardening, bracing thing.She ran to him and caught his hand, holding it hard."Tommy," she whispered, "is he okay? What happened? Is his neck broken? Johnny couldn't wait andtell me—one of the girls told me he went in the ambulance.What is it?"Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlThere was no way for Tommy to soften it, and he didn't try."He's dead, Stel.He was already deadwhen he hit the net.""Oh, no!" Stella blurted, and crossed herself."Oh, God, how awful for Angelo—""He's taking it bad, Stella," Tommy said, and put his arms around the girl, holding her tight.They clungtogether, once again aliens flung together on the outside of their strange world.Then, quickly straightening herself with an odd, grownup little gesture, Stella said quietly, "Mario's got tostay with Angelo, then, and Johnny went with the—went with Papa Tony.But Joe and Lucia have to betold, and we ought to send them a wire right away before somebody hears it on the radio or something.Or—look, Tommy, it would be awful for Lucia just to get a telegram.Have you got any money? I'll callher long distance, and—and try to break it to her kind of easy."For the first time Tommy realized the hard steel core of this young girl.He reached into his pockets;there were only a few coins."Not enough to call California with.You better call collect, or ask the boss for some money to phone.""Is there anybody else I ought to call?""Liss," Tommy said."I can get her number out of Mario's address book.She lives in San Francisco—""No," Stella said, shaking her head."Liss is going to have a baby, and a telegram or me calling wouldupset her too much.I'll tell Lucia and let Lucia break it to her.I'll have to go off the lot to find a payphone—no, wait, I bet Woody would let me use the phone hookup in the office—""For something like this? Sure.You want me to come with you, Stel?"She shook her head gravely."No, you better go back and stay with Mario and Angelo."He watched her walk away toward the office, looking like a child in the shabby old coat.Then he wentback to the men's tent, bracing himself for what lay ahead.It was like a nightmare that went on and on.There was the quiet, painfully present curiosity andsympathy of all the men in the tent.There was the necessity for Angelo to talk to the police, even to signa paper authorizing an autopsy so it could be officially determined whether Papa Tony had died ofinjuries from the fall, or from heart failure or heat stroke."No, no, I will not do it," Angelo insisted."It is not decent or right he should be cut up and mutilatedafter he is dead!" Only after a Catholic priest, a police chaplain, had come to speak with him did he,reluctantly, sign the consent form.Tommy found a moment to whisper to Mario that Stella hadtelephoned the family.Supper time came and went, but none of the Santellis had time or wish to go to the cookhouse.Therewere papers to sign; the police chaplain stayed to help Angelo through the dreadful formalities.Thepolice came back and asked Angelo a few more questions—this time, mercifully, in the office, away fromthe eyes and ears of the dressing tent.To Tommy, this questioning added the final grotesque, almostindecent note, hearing plain-clothes detectives ask them all if Angelo had been on good terms with hisfather.Finally, in a bullying way, they asked Angelo himself:Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html"How about it, Santelli? Were you and the old man on good terms, huh? You fight a lot?"Angelo's face still looked gray and pinched."No, Papa and me, we always got along fine." And then,delayed, the shock registered in his face." Dio mio! You mean you think I could have hurt him? I, his son?""It does happen," the cop said flatly."We get plenty of cases where a son wants to be rid of his old man.And it looks like you might have had a good chance, an old guy like that in a dangerous act."Angelo stared and crossed himself." Dio! Have you people no decency?" he exploded, and Tommy wasafraid he would burst into tears again.But he managed to control himself."I loved my father," he said at last, when he could steady his voice."All my life I worked with him—howlong? Since I was a little boy twelve years old.And ever since my brother, Joe, fell in the ring with mysister, I have been his catcher, all these years—all these years—" he repeated."So many years I amcatching him in the act, and you think, you dare to think I could hurt Papa—"Tommy had never heard even a trace of accent in Angelo's rough voice before this, but now it camethrough, almost as strong as Papa Tony's [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]