Pete Hamill - Brooklyn Noir

“See you next time,” she said.

No one was going to Coney a dozen years ago. It was really at its low point. So when I bought the carousel, I didn’t expect to make any money. I’d retired from my city job with some savings. When you start at twenty-two, you can stop work pretty early. My wife and I didn’t have any kids, and we didn’t enjoy each other, either. She doesn’t like traveling, and I don’t like going out to dinner. I needed something to do. One day, I was walking down the boardwalk, trying to remember what it’d been like as a kid. There was a For Sale sign.

I talked to the Russian who was taking care of the ride. He obviously didn’t give a shit. The paint on the horses was chipping off, the poles were rusted, and the room was decorated with a faded mural dating, at the latest, to 1965, but probably further back than that. It was dingy and depressing.

“Who wants to ride a fake horse, anyway?” the Russian said.

He was asking a little more than I had available, but what the hell? I went to the bank and pulled some financing together. A guy I knew from the city was able to grease the walk-through inspection. After I closed the deal, I went home for dinner.

“Where’ve you been?” asked my wife.

“I just bought the Coney Island carousel,” I said.

She looked at me hard. I’ve never been able to figure out why she hates me so much.

“So?” she said. “You think you’re special?”

I’d definitely made the right choice.

The heating system was old but still pretty efficient. I spent the winter — which was miserable, with winds like knives — chipping away the rust. I bought some industrial cleaner and gave the whole place a scrub, which took about ten days. Then I hired some mural painters, real cheap, students from Parsons. They did up the horses beautifully. I wasn’t as happy with their work on the mural, but it was fresh paint, so it didn’t really matter. I hammered together a comfortable little booth to sit in. Someone came out and worked on the organ. Before I knew it, April had arrived.

I went up to Martha’s Vineyard for a few days, and didn’t take my wife. Told her I was going to visit mother in the home. The carousel operator on the island couldn’t have been nicer. I was a quick study. The day after tax day, 1992, I opened the ride.

The girls came back two weeks after their first visit. It was around the same time of night. They looked even cuter than before, if that was possible.

“Remember us?” asked one of them.

“Yes,” I said.

“I’m Katie, and this is Diane.”

I took Katie’s hand. “Hello,” I said.

“Can we ride the carousel tonight?” said Diane.

“Of course!”

She handed me a twenty.

They got on together this time. But they didn’t ask me to take a picture. They just rode around. Katie pulled out a little flask, and they sipped from it. I didn’t usually allow drinking on the ride, but it was late and no one was going to get in trouble.

They got off when the song ended.

“You want to ride with us?” Diane asked.

“I can’t,” I said. “I have to operate…”

“I can do it!” she said. “For one song! You can show me how.”

For some reason, I said okay. It didn’t take a genius, after all. She picked it up pretty quickly. Did a practice spin. Then Katie and I got on. We sat together on a bench.

The carousel started going round.

“This is so fun!” she said.

“Yes,” I agreed.

When the ride stopped, Diane got up from the booth. Katie and I were sitting on the bench. Diane pointed the camera at us. And then Katie kissed me, hard, on the lips. I felt her tongue tickling my teeth, and I opened my mouth gratefully. My eyes were closed. Through the lids, I could see the flash going off. She kept kissing me. It felt wonderful! Another picture. And then it was over.

“Hey,” she said, “you’re a great kisser!”

“Thank you.”

She got up. Diane was scrolling through the pictures. Katie went over to look.

“Holy shit!” she said. “Did I really do that?”

“You did!” Diane replied.

“We’re gonna win this one!” said Katie.

They walked away, giggling.

“Wait!” I called out. “You’ve still got one more song!”

“Next time, handsome,” said Diane. She whispered something in Katie’s ear. Katie laughed like crazy. They turned around and looked at me and laughed even harder. I laughed back. I wanted them to know I understood.

I got home around midnight. My wife was still awake. She was always awake.

“What are you smiling about?” she asked.

“Nothing,” I said.

Sometime in the last ten years, Coney got hot. The people attending the Mermaid Parade started getting younger. Lines got longer at the freak show. Riding the Cyclone became cool again. I saw a headline, “Not Your Father’s Coney Island,” in that Time Out rag. I raised my prices by a dollar. Summers became extremely active. Then they opened the ballpark, and things really went nuts.

The new kids seem desperate to me. For fun, or for something. I spent the sixties behind a desk at the Water Department. My kid brother took me to a Springsteen show in 1975. It was okay, but I never really had a taste for rock-n-roll. Not like I want to deny other people their good time. Life just doesn’t seem like a party to me, and it never has. Except with those girls.

I couldn’t stop thinking about the girls and their scavenger hunt. First, I’d never had a kiss like that. Second, the whole idea of a scavenger hunt as an adult activity baffled me. I thought it was something for a child’s birthday party. Just a dumb activity for dumb times, I supposed, like goldfish-swallowing, pole-sitting, or telephone-booth-stuffing. Maybe they’re trying to forget that there’s a war on. Or maybe they don’t know.

Still, I couldn’t wait for them to come back.

They showed up late on Sunday night of Labor Day weekend. There were still a few people riding the carousel, because it was a holiday. Katie winked at me. Diane waved. I smiled. They leaned against the entrance, smoking.

It took about half an hour for me to get everyone else out of there.

“Hello, ladies,” I said, approaching them. “Good to see you.”

“Good to be seen,” Diane said.

“Another scavenger hunt?”

“Yeah,” said Katie. “High-stakes. Winner gets ten grand.”

“No kidding?” I said. “How can I help.”

Diane looked around.

“Pull down the gate,” she said.

“We don’t close for a little while.”

She sidled against me, and I felt something stick into my ribs. Her eyes glared.

“You’re closed,” she said.

I pulled down the gate.

“Shut off the lights,” Katie demanded.

“What?”

“Shut down everything.”

“Aren’t you going to ride?” I asked.

Diane pulled the gun out of my ribs and waved it in front of my face.

“Do it!” she said.

I turned the lights off and shut the power down. The grate was closed. Diane nudged me into the booth. She pointed the .38 at my head. Katie stood behind her, with the camera. “Open the cashbox,” Diane said. She then took a picture. The flash went off. “But…”

“Open the fucking cashbox!”

I did, and took out the money: $275.

“Throw it on the floor,” Katie said.

I hesitated. Diane pressed the gun hard into my ear. I threw the money. Katie took a picture. Then she bent over and started picking the money up. There was enough light coming in from the boardwalk that she could find most of the bills. I looked at her face, back-lit by neon, and she didn’t seem so beautiful anymore.

“Now get on the floor yourself,” Katie said. “On your back.”