Mercy Page #6

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but somehow we escape.

And we're running.

And we're running back home.

We get to his house.

Bang.

And there he is,

standing in the doorway,

his old man.

He's like a shadow.

He's like a massive,

black shadow of pain.

The second I saw him,

my first thought was to run back

to the pool hall,

because I thought we'd have

a better shot back there,

but I didn't.

Very calm, very relaxed,

he leans in.

He says,

"You been fighting again?"

He's like,

"No, Dad, I swear to God."

Right?

Turns to me and goes,

"Is that right?"

I'm like, "Ha.

Yeah, Mr. Ryan.

Why would you think that,

you know?"

"No reason.

"Just tell me one thing.

Where'd you get that knife?"

I'm like, "What knife?"

Completely confused, right?

He says, "That knife,

the one stuck in the back

of your f***ing leg."

Swear to God!

Off to the hospital we went.

He probably got beat.

- I did, I did,

but not for fighting; for lying.

- Not for fighting.

- That makes complete sense,

I think.

- It does.

Yeah.

It sounds like our fathers

should go bowling together.

My father used to put boxing

gloves on my two brothers

if they had any problems

and just let them go at it.

- That also makes sense to me.

- All right, all right.

- Sounds fair.

- Sounds good.

For them, but not for me.

My father's very old-fashioned,

you know.

A lady's a lady.

A man's a man.

- Also makes sense.

- It does,

but not if you want to kill

one of your little brothers.

And I did on a regular basis.

So one time, I insisted.

I told my father,

if he didn't let me box,

that I would go and kill Timmy

in the middle of the night.

- I would have let you box

after that.

- Well, it got me in the ring.

So we go into the backyard.

And he was sure

I was gonna change my mind

as soon as we actually

got in the ring,

but I'd been wanting this.

There's no way I'm backing down,

right?

So we're in there, right?

We got gloves on.

We got headgear, mouthpiece.

- I'm done up.

Right?

And my father's just stalling.

He keeps looking at me,

you know, like,

"Robin, please.

Enough is enough.

Just call it off."

Finally, I just exploded.

I go running at my brother

across the ring, right?

And my father,

he swings in there.

He picks me up right before

I could even land one punch.

- No!

- That's not right!

- No, that's completely unfair.

- It's not fair at all.

- Not at all.

It's so not cool.

So actually, that night-

that night, after everybody

went to sleep,

I, uh...

I did.

I-I stabbed

my little brother Timmy.

I thought about it, anyway.

- Fantastic finish.

- That was a good one.

- That was good,

because I seriously

got swept into it.

Well done.

Didn't I tell you?

- Don't.

- I'm not.

- I know.

- Just saying.

- I know.

- Well?

- They're good.

- Right?

- Yeah, don't.

- Come on.

- Don't.

- Come on.

- I mean, I guess it depends

upon where you go, right?

I think there's

great people here.

- I do too.

- It's like anywhere, right?

There's good people.

There's bad people.

- True.

- You got to find

the right ones.

- It's true, true.

- You lived here

your whole life?

- Mm-hmm.

Pretty much, yeah.

- Yeah?

Family's here?

- Um...

- I'm sorry.

- No, no, I'm just-

I'm messing with you.

- Really?

Come on.

What?

- No, I honestly

haven't spoken to my mother

since I was a little kid,

haven't seen her

or spoken to her,

and my father and I

don't speak too much either,

but he's around.

That's kind of it

for family for me.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

- You ever been to Chicago?

- I have.

- Yeah?

- I have, yeah.

I was there once.

I was on a layover

on my way to New York,

and I went outside,

and I smoked a cigarette,

and it was freezing cold.

- Yeah.

Well, there's a lot more to it

than being cold.

- Like what?

- That's part of it, though,

for sure.

- Like what?

- Like the food, the people,

the city.

I don't know.

You know, it's home, you know?

- If it's home,

why did you leave?

- It's a long story.

- You're good at those.

- Really?

- You are good at them.

- Okay.

L-no, I'm-

I was complimenting you.

- Okay.

- I was saying that,

and that's an art,

which you've learned well,

and you're good at it.

So please,

tell me another long story.

- Come on.

- Okay.

I was married,

married my high school

sweetheart.

And we grew up about

three blocks

away from each other.

And we got married at a church

about three blocks

away from that.

And then we lived

in a house together

about three blocks

away from the church

where we got married.

So basically, my whole life

was spent in a ten-block radius

with the same person,

and he passed away

a few years ago.

So it was just too much,

you know?

Just couldn't stay.

- Could you, um-

could you just excuse me

for a second?

- Sure.

- What's up?

- What happened?

- Hey, Pop.

Want to have a drink?

- Yeah, it was amazing.

- Huh.

- What?

- I'm just listening.

- Huh.

It was amazing.

Amazing.

You know, I would tell them

that you were this anomaly

and that you would pick

the right book

because of the warmth

and the scent.

And all these

bullshit intellectuals

gathered to discuss Proust.

And here they are

just watching you so closely,

like you had

this supernatural gift.

- I don't know why

I can't remember any of this.

- How could you forget that?

- I don't know.

- I mean, it was our best act.

Pretty much our only act,

but we owned the room.

- I don't remember.

- Well, I don't-

well, maybe because

you were seven or eight.

I still don't see

how you can't remember.

Anyway, here's what happened.

I'd line up

seven or eight books,

tell you to leave the room.

Then you'd leave the room,

and I'd grab one them,

say, "Put your hand on any book,

one book for five seconds."

They'd do that, and I'd call you

back in the room.

You'd come in all serious,

and you'd play it to the hilt.

And then you'd come out

and inspect the books

really carefully,

and then you'd grab

this person's hand,

and you'd smell it,

and you'd feel the hand,

and you'd feel the book.

And you handled the books

with such care.

It was great.

And then I just waited until

you touched the right book.

- And then you would take

a drag off your cigarette

with your left hand.

- No, no, no, no.

- Yeah.

- No.

- No, what do you mean?

- That was not the signal.

It was much more subtle

than that.

- No, you-

- Any blind man could see

that I switched hands.

- You switched!

- That's a big, physical move.

- That's what it was.

- I never switched.

Stop.

The signal was that

when you touched the right book,

I would take a puff

from the right side of my mouth,

or I would just leave it hanging

from the right side.

Little subtle, okay?

- I was just saying

that I remembered, is all.

It came back to me.

- Well, you should.

I mean, those people went nuts.

I mean, they thought you were

this unprecedented wizard.

- That is amazing.

- No, it was great.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

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