Christ, that couldn’t be, could it? It was too horrible to think about.
Rionda was still looking at the St Gabe’s boys with her hard and rather dangerous smile.
‘You three fellas wouldn’t’ve been picking on kids younger and smaller than yourselves, would you? One of them a girl like your own little sisters?’
They were silent, not even muttering now. They only shuffled their feet.
‘I’m sure you weren’t, because that would be a cowardly thing to do, now wouldn’t it?’
Again she gave them a chance to reply and plenty of time to hear their own silence.
‘Willie? Richie? Harry? You weren’t picking on them, were you?’
‘Course not,’ Harry said. Bobby thought that if he spun that ring of his much faster, his finger would probably catch fire.
‘If I thought a thing like that,’ Rionda said, still smiling her dangerous smile, ‘I’d have to go talk to Father Fitzgerald, wouldn’t I? And the Father, he’d probably feel he had to talk to your folks, and your fathers’d probably feel obliged to warm your asses for you . . . and you’d deserve it, boys, wouldn’t you? For picking on the weak and small.’
Continued silence from the three boys, all now astride their ridiculously undersized bikes again.
‘Did they pick on you, Bobby?’ Rionda asked.
‘No,’ Bobby said at once.
Rionda put a finger under Carol’s chin and turned her face up. ‘Did they pick on you, lovey?’
‘No, Rionda.’
Rionda smiled down at her, and although there were tears standing in Carol’s eyes, she smiled back.
‘Well, boys, I guess you’re off the hook,’ Rionda said. ‘They say you haven’t done nothing that’ll cause you a single extra uncomfy minute in the confessional. I’d say that you owe them a vote of thanks, don’t you?’
Mutter-mutter-mutter from the St Gabe’s boys. Please let it go at that, Bobby pleaded silently. Don’t make them actually thank us. Don’t rub their noses in it.
Perhaps Rionda heard his thought (Bobby now had good reason to believe such things were possible). ‘Well,’ she said, ‘maybe we can skip that part. Get along home, boys. And Harry, when you see Moira Dedham, tell her Rionda says she still goes to the Bingo over in Bridgeport every week, if she ever wants a ride.’
‘I will, sure,’ Harry said. He mounted his bike and rode away up the hill, eyes still on the sidewalk. Had there been pedestrians coming the other way, he would likely have run them over. His two friends followed him, standing on their pedals to catch up.
Rionda watched them go, her smile slowly fading. ‘Shanty Irish,’ she said at last, ‘just trouble waiting to happen. Bah, good riddance to em. Carol, are you really all right?’
Carol said she really was.
‘Bobby?’
‘Sure, I’m fine.’ It was taking him all the discipline he could manage not to start shaking right in front of her like a bowl of cranberry jelly, but if Carol could keep from falling apart, he guessed he could.
‘Get in the car,’ Rionda said to Carol. I’ll give you a lift up to your house. You move along yourself, Bobby — scoot across the street and go inside. Those boys will have forgotten all about you and my Carol-girl by tomorrow, but tonight it might be smart for both of you to stay inside.’
‘Okay,’ Bobby said, knowing they wouldn’t have forgotten by tomorrow, nor by the end of the week, nor by the end of the summer. He and Carol were going to have to watch out for Harry and his friends for a long time. ‘Bye, Carol.’
‘Bye.’
Bobby trotted across Broad Street. On the other side he stood watching Rionda’s old car go up to the apartment house where the Gerbers lived. When Carol got out she looked back down the hill and waved. Bobby waved back, then walked up the porch steps of 149 and went inside.
Ted was sitting in the living room, smoking a cigarette and reading Life magazine. Anita Ekberg was on the cover. Bobby had no doubt that Ted’s suitcases and the paper bags were packed, but there was no sign of them; he must have left them upstairs in his room. Bobby was glad. He didn’t want to look at them. It was bad enough just knowing they were there.