It's like this, cat

e the two of us aren't speaking to each other, and they sort of sheer off the subject. Come Saturday, I sit on the stoop and wonder, what now? There are plenty of othe

e last Saturday before Memorial Day. Getting time for beaches and stuff. I suppose Nick a

half opens his eyes in the sun and squint

recognize the guy, never having seen him in a cle

e's Cat. He's pretty

ll right, but wha

end of mine g

other guy

a fight wit

anymore to say on that subject. "I start work Memorial Day, when the bea

way off. You going

y and goes on: "I suppose you get sick of school and all, but it's rotten having n

have a home or something to go ba

'd like to go somewhere. D

ying to think up some

. I want to walk, or ru

kid told me about it. He said he found an Indian arrowh

you ge

y, I g

wriggles his shoulders like he

ll go tell Mom. Should

d. "Sure, fine, if

her hen. Maybe she figures I got in some gang fight, so she keeps asking me where I'm going and who with. Also, I guess she noticed I don't go to Nick's after school anymore. I come right home.

u come up and I'll introduce you to Mom? Then

ook respectab

ur

r Cat around Gramercy Park, which is almost true, and that he sometimes plays stickball with us, which isn't really true but it could b

around here?"

I've got a summer job in a filling station over

ey could get a job. He gets so restl

fill in about six-hundred workin

-we thought we'd make some sandw

wheads, and we get out the classified phone book and look at the

," says Tom. "We just figured we'd do a little exp

looks at him and nods. She seems to have de

dwiches. She thinks I'm cracked, but I did this once before, and it's good, 'specially i

ye. I'll be bac

" she says.

ay out of fights," say

and Tom says, "Your m

uch about each other's parents. "Yeah, Mom's O

ice to have your mot

they're dead or something; but again, I don't quite want to ask. Tom isn't an

r to get up to Inwood, at 206th Street. The park is right close, and it is real woods, although there are paved walks around through it. We push uphill and get in a grassy meadow,

Then we can go hunting arrowhe

hetti sandwich is

swimming, but cool enough to sleep at night. We lie in the sun awhile after lunch and agree that it's too bad there isn't an o

ever were any. That's the trouble in the city: anytime you have an idea, you find out a million other people had the sa

inside the car. "Hey, as long as we're on the subway anyway, we could go on down to Co

ing out the window and doesn

nd burn ointment and bug dope and bandages, in a khaki meta

Tom. I guess he's kidding, in a sour sort of way. If you haven't got a f

. They've got arctic explorers' suits and old hand grenades and shells and all kinds of rifles, as well as some really cheap, useful clothing. They don't mind how long you mosey

Tom says he's never seen Wall Street, where all the tycoons grind their money machines. The place is practically

ome with me. It seems too bad the day's o

. "I'll send you a card

tarts off. I wish he didn't