Part 10 (2/2)

”Oh.” Joe turned back and began to stagger toward the bathroom.

”Wait a minute,” Johnny called after him. He picked up the paper and showed the items to Joe.

Joe read them and handed the papers back to Johnny. ”So what does it prove?” he asked.

”It proves that I was right,” Johnny said, a note of triumph creeping into his voice. ”Don't you see? Now Peter will have to listen to me.”

Joe shook his head slowly. ”You never give up, once you get something in your nut, do you?”

Johnny was indignant. ”Why should I? It's a good idea and I was right in saying that bigger pictures were coming.”

”Maybe they are,” Joe admitted, ”but where are you going to make them? And how are you going to make them?

”Even if we get all the dough, you know our studio isn't big enough to do it in. It would take all the raw stock we use for six months' production to do a job like that. And you know the combine is dead set against anything over two reels, and if they get wise to us they'll take away our license and then where'll we be? Up the creek?”

”So we give up making small pictures for a time,” Johnny answered. ”We can save up enough film for the picture and make it before they find out what's going on.”

Joe lit a cigarette and blew out the smoke. He eyed Johnny shrewdly. ”Maybe you're right. Maybe we can get away with it, maybe we can't. If we can't, then Magnum's out of business. They're a little too big for us to take on. They'll squash us like you step on an ant. Let Borden or one of the others take them on. They got more dough to do it with, and even with that I don't see any of them falling over themselves to get into trouble.”

”Well, I still think there is some way we can do it,” Johnny insisted stubbornly.

”Still think you're right, huh?” Joe looked at him strangely.

Johnny nodded his head. ”I am right.”

Joe was silent for a moment, then he heaved a sigh. ”Maybe you are, but look what you're riskin'. I'm not worried about my neck or yours. We're alone. We don't have to worry if things go wrong, 'cause we kin get along. But Peter's another story. If we go wrong on this, he's broke. If he goes broke, then what's the guy gonna do? He's got a wife an' two nice kids to look after. He put everything he's got into this business, an' if it misses out, he's finished.” He stopped and drew a deep breath. He looked right into Johnny's eyes. ”Yuh willin' to risk that?”

Johnny didn't answer him for a long while. He had thought about it before. He knew of the risk, Joe didn't have to tell him about it. But there was something inside him that kept pus.h.i.+ng him on. It kept saying over and over: ”The golden fleece lies just ahead. All you need to grab it is the nerve.” The vision of the picture in his mind was like Circe calling to him. He could no more stop following it than he could stop breathing.

His face was set and determined as he answered. ”I got to do it, Joe, it's the only thing that counts. It's the only chance the business has to become really big, really important. Otherwise we're in the nickelodeon business all our lives; this way we're something that really counts. We're an art. Like the theater, like music, like books, only some day maybe we're better and bigger than all of them. We gotta do it.”

”You mean you gotta do it,” Joe said slowly. An odd sense of disappointment tugged at him. He ground his cigarette out in a tray. ”You got dreams of what you want, an' you think that's what the business must have. If I didn't know yuh better an' like yuh so much, I would say you're selfish an' ambitious. But I know differen'. Yuh really mean what yuh say, but there's one thing yuh gotta know.”

Johnny's face had gone white as Joe spoke. With difficulty he forced himself to ask: ”What?”

”Peter's been awful good to us. Don't never fergit it.” Joe turned and walked out of the room.

Johnny looked at his back and then turned to the water boiling on the stove. His hand was trembling as he turned down the gas.

3.

”Whose apartment did you say, sir?” the elevator operator asked as he slowly shut the door and the elevator began to move upward.

Johnny finished lighting his cigarette. He hadn't mentioned any names, just the floor he wanted. He thought to himself that these fancy houses didn't miss a trick. Their tenants weren't going to be disturbed unnecessarily. ”Mr. Kessler's,” he answered. It was a long way from Rochester-where all you had to do was look upstairs over the store-to Riverside Drive.

His mind flashed back to his conversation with Joe that morning. What Joe had said still troubled him. They hadn't spoken very much, and soon after breakfast Joe went out. True, Joe had asked him if he wanted to come along and see May and Flo, but he had said that he was going up to Peter's that afternoon.

The elevator stopped and the door slid open silently. ”Just down the hall to your right. Apartment 9 C, sir,” the operator said politely.

Johnny thanked him and walked down the hall to the door and pressed the buzzer.

The maid answered the door. Johnny stepped in and handed her his hat. ”Is Mr. Kessler in?” he asked.

Before the maid could answer, Doris came sweeping into the hall. ”Uncle Johnny!” she cried. ”I heard your voice!”

He picked her up and hugged her. ”h.e.l.lo, sweetheart.”

She looked into his face. ”I was hoping you'd come today. You don't come to see us very often.”

His face reddened. ”I haven't much time, sweetheart. Your father keeps me pretty busy.”

He felt a tugging at his trousers. He looked down.

Mark was pulling at them. ”Swing me, Uncle Johnny,” he cried.

Johnny put Doris down and swung him up in the air and then onto his shoulders. Mark yelled with glee and dug his fingers into Johnny's hair as Esther came into the hall.

”Why, Johnny,” she smiled, ”come in, come in.”

With Mark still on his shoulders, he followed her into the living room. Peter was there, reading his papers. His s.h.i.+rt was off and with some surprise Johnny noticed he had developed a little paunch. He looked at Johnny and smiled.

”Look at him,” Esther said to Johnny, a smile deep in her eyes. ”With a maid in the house, he sits around all day in his underwear. Mr. Fancy of Riverside Drive.”

Peter grunted. He spoke in Yiddish. ”So what? I know the village she comes from in Germany. There, if they got s.h.i.+rts, it's a miracle.”

Johnny looked blank and they both laughed at him.

”Go put on a s.h.i.+rt,” Esther said.

”All right, all right,” Peter grumbled as he moved toward the bedroom.

Peter came back into the doorway as Johnny put Mark down. He stood there b.u.t.toning his s.h.i.+rt. ”What brings you up here?”

Johnny looked at him quickly and smiled to himself. Peter didn't miss much. This was the first time in weeks that Johnny had come to visit them. ”I wanted to see how the other half lives,” he laughed.

”You been here before,” Peter pointed out with a complete lack of humor.

Johnny laughed aloud. ”Not since you had a maid.”

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