Read Online The Children by Howard Fast - Free Book Online Page A

his eyes, and battle, and battle. The yellow hair was stained with blood; to Ishky he appeared to be the son of some warrior god.
    Then they closed, rolling over and over on the ground, battering, biting, kicking, and clawing. But the strength was going out of their blows, and they were both sobbing with rage and hate. Ollie found Blackbelly’s ear, biting deep into it. Blackbelly tore half the shirt from Ollie’s back.
    Then, hardly knowing why, Ishky began to kick Blackbelly wherever he could. Blackbelly screamed, roared with rage, and Ishky brought his fist squarely into the colored boy’s face. For a moment, he loosened his hold on Ollie, and Ollie slammed his head back onto the concrete. Ishky stamped down on his belly.
    Blackbelly roared with rage. “I’ll killa bot’!” he screamed.
    Then Ollie slammed his head onto the concrete again. Ishky drove a shoe into his thigh.
    â€œGoddamm ya!”
    â€œKillim!” Ishky yelled hysterically.
    By main strength, Blackbelly struggled to his feet, tore himself loose, and all three stood panting and staring at each other. Then Ollie saw two more colored boys running toward them, their hands full of ashes and bottles.
    â€œBeatit, Ishky!” he cried.
    Together, the two of them fled up the street, the colored boys after them. Sobbing and laughing, they ran until they had reached Ollie’s house, where they plunged into the hallway. No safety there. On into the cellar, into the coalbin, where, panting and crying, they perched on top of a pile of coal.
    â€œWhatta fight!” Ollie sobbed.
    â€œGeesus!”
    â€œI beatis ass offana him!”
    â€œSure.”
    â€œGeesus—”
    â€œGeesus—”
    Ishky gulped to halt his sobs, and then he whispered, “Tink dey’ll come down here?”
    â€œNaw.”
    â€œDey dunno where we are?”
    â€œNaw.”
    Ishky began to laugh, almost hysterically. “Boy-o-boy,” he chuckled, “whatta fight dat was! Geesus, I jus’ hope dey come down here, wid all dis coal, Geesus, I’d liketa swat dat nigger in duh eye wid a lumpa coal.”
    Ollie appeared to be lost in thought, absently rubbing the blood from his face with his arm. Through the dusk of the coal bin, he was staring at Ishky—thinking. Perhaps it was there that he first concretely thought of the gang.
    â€œHey, Ishky,” he said.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œHow dya jump offana duh roof?”
    â€œOh—jus’ like dat.”
    â€œGeesus—”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œBetcha it took a lotta guts.”
    â€œI dunno,” Ishky said.
    â€œBetcha it did. I wouldn’ have duh guts.”
    â€œWell, I was scared at first.”
    â€œWas ya?”
    â€œYeah. But now I’d do it agin jus’ like dat.”
    â€œYeah?”
    â€œSure.”
    M AYBE you can understand how I felt, sitting there with Ollie like that. I had forgotten Marie; I had forgotten the garden and dreams, and everything else—because I was happy. Oh, you can hardly understand how happy I was.
    I hurt. Oh yes, but what are hurts, when they pass so quickly? And Ollie is my friend. I know that. And if you ask me how I know it, I won’t be able to tell you. But I have lived here on the block all the time, and this is the first time Ollie has ever been my friend. Maybe you will think that I hated Ollie, but that is wrong. Who can hate Ollie?
    I sit in the coal bin, and I tell Ollie how I leaped from the roof. I can see that it impresses him. Well, we are friends, and who knows what we can’t do together. Anyway, it is better than being a friend of Shomake’s.

THIRTEEN

    I F THERE WAS HATE, WAS THERE NOTHING ELSE IN THE world? Why had Ishky refused to speak to him? Shomake wandered up the block, lost in a misery that was as deep as the sewers under his feet. He had no friend, no companion, nothing at all; and why live?
    He went into the store. Dim and soft and quiet,