Chapter 16 Part 1 Chapter 1 Brooklyn (8)

At that moment, the door behind the counter slammed open and the bread van reversed.A man ran over and stood behind the counter.Truck drivers started throwing bread at him, and he caught it and piled it on the counter.All the kids from the street came running up and around Francie when they heard the sound of the truck banging the door open; by this time Francie was at the counter. "I'll buy bread!" cried Francie.A big girl gave her a shove, trying to teach her a lesson and show her who she is. "It's all right! It's all right!" Francie told her. "I want six loaves, and a pie, not too crumbly," she cried.

Seeing her eagerness, the people at the counter were very surprised, hurriedly pushed six pieces of bread and the best recycled pie over to her, and took her twenty cents.She squeezed out from the crowd and accidentally dropped a piece of bread, but it was too crowded to squat down, so it was hard to pick it up. When she came out, she sat down on the curb and stuffed bread and pies into paper bags.A woman walks by with a baby in a stroller.The baby's feet were dangling outside the car.What Francie saw was not the baby's feet, but the smelly feet in the huge old shoes.She panicked again and ran all the way home.

No one at home.Mom was already dressed, and together with Aunt Sissy, they bought a ten-cent public ticket and went to a matinee performance.Francie got out the bread and pies and folded the paper bag for another use.She went into the small windowless bedroom she shared with Neeley, sat down on her little bed, and waited in the darkness to let the tide of terror recede. After a while, Neeley came in, crawled under his crib, and pulled out a battered baseball glove. "Where are you going?" she asked. "Go outside and play ball." "Can I go together?" "no."

She followed him into the street.His three little buddies were already waiting for him outside.One of these kids had a bat, one had a baseball, and the third had nothing but baseball pants.They walked toward a clearing near Greenpont.Neeley saw Francie following, but said nothing.A boy poked him and said: "Hey, your sister is following." "Yes," Neeley replied.The boy turned and shouted at Francie: "Get out!" "This is the free country," declared Francie. "This is a free country," Neeley repeated to the boy.Then they left Francie alone.She continued to follow them.She has nothing to do anyway, and she won't have anything until two o'clock in the afternoon, when the community library reopens.

A few people walked very slowly, playing while walking.The boys would stop to find tinfoil in the gutter and pick up cigarette butts.They would save the butts, and they would smoke them in the basement on rainy afternoons.They also stopped a little Jewish boy going to the synagogue and tried to play tricks on him.They detained him first, and then they discussed what to do with him.The boy was waiting there with a humble smile on his face.In the end, the little Christians let him go, but carefully told him the rules of conduct for the next week. "Don't come to the goddam Rue Duvaux," they ordered.

"Okay, I won't come." He agreed.The boys were a little disappointed.They thought that the other party would compete with themselves.One of the boys took a small piece of chalk from his pocket, drew a wavy line on the sidewalk, and ordered: "Never step on that line." The little boy realized that it was not a good thing for him to talk too much, and instead offended them, so he decided to play in their way. "Can't I just put one foot in the sink, guys?" "You can't even spit into the sink." The other ordered. "Okay then." He sighed helplessly.