'It's a good cheque,' Arnie protested. It would be, too. We had been working all summer for Carson Brothers on the I-376 extension, the one which natives of the Pittsburgh area firmly believe will never be really finished. Arnie sometimes declared that Penn-DOT had begun taking bids on the I-376 work shortly after the Civil War ended. Not that either of us had any right to complain; a lot of kids were either working for slave wages that summer or not working at all. We were making good money, even clocking some overtime. Brad Jeffries, the job foreman, had been frankly dubious about taking a runt like Arnie on, but had finally allowed that he could use a flagman; the girl he had been planning to hire had gotten herself pregnant and had run off to get married. So Arnie had started off flagging in June but had gotten into the harder work little by little, running mostly on guts and determination. It was the first real job he'd ever had, and he didn't want to screw it up. Brad was reasonably impressed, and the summer sun had even helped Arnie's erupting complexion a little. Maybe it was the ultraviolet.
'I'm sure it's a good cheque, son,' LeBay said, 'but I gotta make a cash deal. You understand.'
I didn't know if Arnie understood, but I did. It would be too easy to stop payment on a local cheque if this rustbucket Plymouth threw a rod or blew a piston on the way home.
'You can call the bank,' Arnie said, starting to sound desperate.
'Nope,' LeBay said, scratching his armpit above the scabrous brace. 'It's going on five-thirty. Bank's long since closed.'
'A deposit, then,' Arnie said, and held out the sixteen dollars. He looked positively wild. It may be that you're having-trouble believing a kid who was almost old enough to vote could have gotten himself so worked up over an anonymous old clunk in the space of fifteen minutes. I was having some trouble believing it myself. Only Roland D. LeBay seemed not to be having trouble with it, and I supposed it was because at his age he had seen everything. It was only later that I came to believe that his odd sureness might come from other sources. Either way, if any milk of human kindness had ever run in his veins, it had curdled to sour cream long ago.
'I'd have to have at least ten per cent down,' LeBay said. The fish was out of the water; in a moment it would be netted. 'If I had ten per cent, I'd hold her for twenty-four hours.'
'Dennis,' Arnie said. 'Can you loan me nine bucks until tomorrow?'
I had twelve in my-own wallet, and no particular place to' go. Day after day of spreading sand and digging trenches for culverts had done wonders when it came to getting ready for football practice, but I had no social life at all. Lately I hadn't even been assaulting the ramparts of my cheerleader girlfriend's body in the style to which she had become accustomed. I was rich but lonely.
'Come on over here and let's see,' I said.
LeBay's brow darkened, but he could see he was stuck with my input, like it or not. His frizzy white hair blew back and forth in the mild breeze. He kept one hand possessively on the Plymouth's hood.
Arnie and I walked back toward where my car, a '75 Duster, was parked at the kerb. I put an arm around Arnie's shoulders. For some reason I remembered the two of us up in his room on a rainy autumn day when we were both no more than six years old - cartoons flickering on an ancient black-and-white TV as we coloured with old Crayolas from a dented coffee can. The image made me feel sad and a little scared. I have days, you know, when it seems to me that six is an optimum age, and that's why it only lasts about 7.2 seconds in real time.
'Have you got it, Dennis? I'll get it back to you tomorrow afternoon.'
'Yeah, I've got it, ' I said. 'But what in God's name are you doing, Arnie? That old fart has got total disability, for Christ's sake. He doesn't need the money and you're not a charitable institution.'
'I don't get it. What are you talking about?'
'He's screwing you. He's screwing you for the simple pleasure of it. If he took that car