Chapter 14

Donna's house was dark, and Spud wondered if she'd decided not to have the meeting after all.

When he stepped up on the porch, two big-muscled fellows grabbed him.

"Hold it, Mac," one of them growled.

Spud, panting and gasping, said, "I've got to see Donna! I'm a friend!"

Behind those two brutes, the inside of the house loomed indistinctly. Spud supposed the meeting was being held in the basement. He had to get down there.

He made his voice sound rough. "Fuck off!" he said. "I'm going in!"

One of the fellows shoved him.

Spud doubled up his fists and caught him on the chin, sending him reeling. But the next thing he knew, both bastards had grabbed him. He kicked and fought viciously, but the two men were too much for him. He pounded one of them in the gut, but the other fellow's fist slammed into Spud's belly, and, for a long time, he couldn't get his breath.

He gasped as if he were drowning, and they shoved and boxed him around like a plaything while he struggled for air.

He felt his lungs fill up, and his strength rushed back to him. Two men against one, however, was no fair fight. Spud had taken about all he could endure when a female voice demanded, "What's going on out there?"

"Donna!" Spud cried.

With a smile for Spud, and a string of obscene words, she ordered the two brutes to let Spud in. His jaw felt as if he'd just come from the dentist's chair. With effort, he told Donna, "I've got to find Coach!"

Donna's grin was evil. "I'd like to find the fuckin' bastard, too!"

"You mean, he's not here?"

"Somebody stole him!"

"Who? Where?"

"Maybe Mrs. Rankin can tell you!" Donna said nastily.

Somebody handed Spud a can of beer. The can was opened, and its sides were frosty. He took a quick swallow, then tossed the can and the rest of its contents away.

The precious minutes were ticking by, and still he hadn't found Coach. He didn't want to think of the terrible pain Mrs. Nichols was going through, but he couldn't help it. He hoped the doctor had eased her some.

He started to leave the porch, but Donna grabbed him.

"Hey, Spud, where are you going? The action's here!" she said.

He didn't tell her. He just jerked away and started running.

He was only a few blocks from Donna's house, headed for the Rankin place, when he heard sirens screaming in the distance. Pretty soon, two police cars sped by. Then two more followed. He wondered vaguely if there was a fire somewhere.

To hell with fires! To hell with everything and everybody until he found Coach! He beat it on toward the Rankin house, thinking his lungs were going to burst. When he got there, the place was dark.

He ran back to City Hall. He didn't expect to find Coach there, but he wanted to know where Jake Sears lived. He asked, and the fellows down there started kidding him.

"What do you want ole Jake for?" somebody asked. "Want him to take your picture?"

"It's serious," Spud tried to explain, amid their laughter. "I've got to ask if he knows where I can find Coach Nichols!"

"Yeah, them two's been whoring around together lately!" another man said, "Might try Mamie's Parlor, eh, kid?"

Spud knew about Mamie's place of business. He was sure Coach wouldn't be there. Finally, somebody gave him Jake's address, and he lit out like he was going to a fire.

It was the address of a large apartment building, not far from City Hall. Spud got into the self-service elevator, and as he was lifted up to the fifth floor, he prayed that Coach would be up there.

He didn't bother to knock when he found Jake's apartment number and saw that the door was ajar. He pushed and went on in.

Jake, Coach, and some strange woman were there. Jake and the woman were naked, and Spud supposed they'd been fucking around. Coach, however, was fully dressed, and, at the moment, was engaged in conversation and didn't hear Spud come in.

Coach looked at Jake and laughed, "It's business, I guess," he said.

"I like monkey business better," Jake said, with a broad grin. He groped Coach, and the woman groped both men.

"Cool it!" Coach cautioned. "It's monkey business that's got a lot of kids in trouble."

Jake offered, "I'm wondering if they'll really arrest Donna Overstreet and her gang tonight." Then he added, "I felt it wise to skip her party."

"Yeah," Coach said, taking the woman's hand from his cock, "I'll settle for a can of beer and TV."

"I'll settle for this!" Jake said, unzipping his fly and pretending to beat his meat.

"Don't neither of you boys want no pussy?" the woman whined. "I thought, when I came up here -" Disgusted, Spud saw that Jake was hot and ready for some action. But it wasn't the woman he was after. It was Coach.

"Cool it," Coach advised. "Better be careful. These walls may have ears."

"It's not likely!" Jake was now beating away at his cock, trying to entice Coach.

"Here, let me," the woman said, taking Jake's hard little rod in her hands.

"Zip yourself up!" Coach ordered harshly. "Christ, you've got a willing woman, yet you want to jack it off! Better give up that stuff!"

"I'll let you do it for me!"

"Jake, you ought to get married!"

"Marriage didn't break you of the habit!" Jake teased.

"Fuck it to me, Jake," the woman begged.

Jake ignored her.

Coach said, "When I mentioned marriage, I wasn't kidding. Just be sure you find the right girl-" "Ain't you gonna fuck me?" the woman asked Jake.

"I'm not ready to settle down," Jake told Coach. "Anyway, women get pregnant, and that's messy!"

"Cut it out, Jake! Let's slip down to City Hall and see if they've brought in any of those kids yet."

Jake continued playing with himself. The woman tried to help him, squeezing her fingers around his hard cock.

Spud didn't believe Coach had indulged in any sex that evening, and he was glad. He stared miserably at him, then hacked in his throat to get Coach's attention.

The two men, and the woman, turned, looking frightened and shocked.

"Coach," Spud managed, his voice only a hoarse whisper, "It's your wife. She's having the baby -" Coach's face went suddenly white. He started making odd noises that sounded a lot like sobbing, then asked where she was.

"At the hospital," Spud said.

"I'm a gutless wonder," Coach got out brokenly.

Jake had stopped his jacking off and now he offered Coach his car.

The woman whined, "Ain't one of you fellows gonna fuck me?"

"Not tonight," Coach said.

He and Spud drove by the house to pick up Frani, and on the way, Spud told him the details.

Frani looked sick with fright and worry, and there were dark circles under her eyes. On the way to the hospital, she turned to Spud and asked, "Did you hear all of those sirens right after you left me, Spud?"

Spud said he had and he guessed there'd been a fire.

Coach cried out, "Oh, God, no! And I left Donna's house just in time!"

The east was rosy with the promise of dawn as they reached the hospital. Together, each with his own silent thoughts, they went up the steps and through the entrance which led to the information desk.

At the desk, a white-clad nurse told them the baby had been born.

"May I see my wife, please?" Coach asked.

"She's sleeping now," the nurse told him. "But if you'll follow me to the big glass window, I'll introduce you to your son!"

Coach beckoned Frani and Spud to follow.

Awed by the quietness in the huge building, Spud tiptoed behind Coach and Frani, down the carpeted hall.

The nurse had slipped a mask over her nose and mouth. She went behind the glass enclosure, and when she lifted a tiny bundle from its crib, Coach was the proudest man in the world. His chest swelled until Spud thought the buttons would burst off his shirt.

He tapped his fingers on the glass and cooed at the baby. But the baby just slept there in the nurse's arms.

"Gosh, he sure is pint-sized!" Coach exclaimed.

"I guess hell grow," Spud said. To him, the little wrinkled, red-faced piece of humanity looked just like any other newborn baby, nothing to make a fuss over.

Coach kept trying to get the baby's attention through the glass. But it yawned and never opened its eyes.

The nurse laid it back in its crib.

Spud and Frani remained there at the hospital with Coach. A long time later, another nurse came to them in the waiting room and said Mrs. Nichols was awake.

"You may see her alone, briefly," the nurse told Coach.

Coach's face was pain-wracked now. Spud could tell he'd suffered over his wife. He remembered what Hazel had said - about his wife's pregnancy being too much for a hot-blooded man like Coach. And she'd been right. Spud was sure now there wasn't a thing wrong with Coach his wife couldn't cure, and he was glad.

For the first time in several weeks, a good, wholesome feeling took over in him.

He was glad for the chance to be alone with Frani. He took her arm and led her through a door, to the balcony. She looked up at him out of dark, mysterious eyes, and her lips were red and damp. A groan of desire escaped Spud's lips as he clutched her to him.

He controlled the rising passion in him, brought on by Frani's nearness, and begged, "Marry me, Frani! Right now! Right this day!"

Gently, she pushed him back.

"Not now, Spud. We're not ready for marriage. Maybe some day -" "I've quit school, Frani! I'll get a job -" "Spud, listen! What happened last night proves we're not ready for adult responsibilities. But, Spud, dear, soon we will be."

Her words sounded like a promise to Spud.

And, as if to seal it, she put her lips close to Spud's ear and whispered, "In a year or two, Spud. We can wait, can't we?"

For an instant, Spud thought he couldn't. Then he knew he could. He could wait a long time for Frani. . .

The moment was sacred, and it lifted Spud to the heights of heaven.