Andrew Vachss - Blossom

"Much better," I told him. "But stop punching with your arms. You're doing this…" I stood in front of the bag, feet planted, launched a hook as I twisted my shoulder into the punch. The bag popped. "That look pretty good to you?" I asked him.

He nodded, eyes sharp on the target.

"Looks don't get it in a fight," I told him. "That was an arm punch. Like you've been throwing. The power comes from here." Putting my thumbs on my hip bones, fingers spraying down to my upper thighs. Twisting my hips in slow motion as I got off another hook. "See? Turn your hip into the punch— what you got from the waist up isn't enough to really drive, all right? Watch…" I double-hooked the bag with my left hand, popped in a right, switched back to the left. Virgil nodded approval.

Lloyd came back to the bag, stepped in, and launched a jet-stream hook from somewhere around his ankles. Virgil pushed the bag against him as the blow landed and Lloyd hit the floor. He jumped to his feet and swung even harder. This time he stayed on his feet, but he was so off-balance he couldn't throw another punch. I went back to work.

"Plant your feet. Spread 'em apart. Yeah, that's it…a little more. Don't punch at the bag, punch through it. Yeah! Drive those shots, Lloyd! Balance, balance." I kept my hands on his hips, not letting him get too far out of alignment. "Alternate the punches. Double up on the left. Drive, damn it! Drop down with those shots— lower. There's no below-the-belt crap where you're going. Don't be admiring your work, drive!

"The kid staggered forward, face green. I ripped the tape off. Vomit rushed out. Virgil wiped him off with a damp rag. Patting him on the back. "You doin' good, Lloyd. I felt those punches, son. Hit the showers, okay?"

The mountain man looked at me. "He was throwing up inside that tape…never even thought about ripping it off himself."

"He'll get it. He's got the hate, just needs some technique."

"He's one of us," Virgil said. Pride in his voice.

44

TRAINING A FIGHTER isn't all inside the ring.

"How much time we got?" Virgil asked me.

"I'm seeing the lawyer tomorrow. Tomorrow night, I'll make a call to the city. Ask this cop I know if he'll front me some references. It all comes together, it's time for Lloyd to come in.

"We're good here till forever. Just say the word."

When Lloyd came back inside, we started on the hard part.

45

"PRISON'S NOT like jail," I told Lloyd. "Prison, there's nobody coming to the gate with bail money. You're down for a long time. You count the days. Some guys, they got too much time to count for themselves, so they look to take a piece of yours."

The kid nodded, focused like he'd never been in school.

"It's like the street, only…compressed, you got it? Everything happens close up. There's no place to go. No place to hide. So you give nothing away. Nothing. Never. Look down or look hard. Your face stays flat. You don't smile, you don't cry. And you protect your space…the space you carry around with you…the space around your body."

"Don't take nothing from nobody," Virgil put in. "Nothing good, nothing bad. Inside, it's all the same. Guy offers you a smoke— no, thanks. Guy tells you the only way to get along is get down on your knees, you don't argue with him— you got to hurt him. Before he finishes the sentence. Right then."

"The counselors…"

"Guards, son. Hacks, screws, cops…don't matter what you call them. But they ain't no counselors inside. What a counselor does, you tell him this booty bandit got your name on his list, he asks you maybe you want to talk about it. You talk about it, you end up in PC. Protective Custody. Only it ain't protected, just custody. Close custody. Like solitary."

"Okay."

My turn. "There's three ways to survive inside, Lloyd. Remember what the Prof used to say, Virgil? Cold, crazy, or connected— that's the only way to play."

"I miss that man."

"Who's the Prof?" the kid wanted to know.

"He's this little black dude," Virgil told him. "Tiny. Got the magic in him. Like some preachers got." I felt Lloyd stiffen. If Virgil noticed, he didn't show it, continuing on in the same voice. "Most of the time, he talked in rhyme." The mountain man chuckled. "Like I guess I just did. He's been jailing since they made jails. I never had much truck with black folks till I went down. Didn't hate them or anything, like some did where I'm from. Just never knew one to really talk with, understand? Anyway, the Prof, it's short for Professor. Or Prophet. He's a truth-teller. And a fearless little maniac, I'll swear that to anyone. He's the one who schooled Burke. Used to call him 'schoolboy' when Burke would act the fool."

"You?" Lloyd looked at me.

Virgil laughed. "Yeah, this hard-case was a young fool once. Had to learn. Like you learning now."

"What do I do?"

"When you get inside," I said, "look around. Pick one out. They'll all challenge you, give you those hard looks, try to back you down with their eyes. Even the weasels'll try it, not knowing you. Pick one out, like I said. Watch his eyes. You'll smell it on him. Coward. Hard in a pack, nothing by himself. Then you walk up to him, ask him if he got a problem with anything. He drops his eyes, mumbles something, you let it slide. Anything else, any fucking thing else, you move your left hand fast at the waist, then come overhand with the right. Aim it right at the side of his neck. And drive it. He goes down, don't wait for him to get up, get your foot into his ribs, quick. Don't stop until they pull you off. Don't think about it. That's what you do. What you got to do."

"What if…?"

"There's no 'if' here, kid. What if you go to solitary for a few days? What if they write something down in a report? Don't matter. When they let you back out, they'll wonder. Maybe you're crazy. That's okay. Maybe you're just a cold young man. That's okay too. And while they're thinking about it, they're gonna find out you're connected too."

"Me?"

"Yeah. When you were in, who was the barn boss?"

"Barn boss?"

"The duke. The head man. Every joint's got one, especially the kiddie camps. The baddest guy there. Come on."

"Oh, you mean…like, one of the residents."

"They got such fancy names for stuff now, don't they, brother?" Virgil's chuckle didn't reach his eyes.

"Lloyd," I said patiently, "residents, they're people who stay in hotels, okay? Now, who was the boss inside?"

"Hightower. I never knew his first name. Big black guy. One of the kids told me he was in for a homicide. In a drug deal."

"The others, they get out of his way when he walks?"

"Oh yes."

"He only hang with blacks? Is it a racial thing?"

"I don't know. I wasn't…"

"That's okay. When you go back inside, you find out. This Hightower s still in charge, he got transferred, he got himself replaced by some other boy, it doesn't matter. You just let us know."

"Okay."

46

I CHECKED MY messages before I went back to the motel. Nothing. Virgil would keep the boy up until first light, working. I closed my eyes, asking for Belle to come back to me in the only way she ever could.

After a while, I slept.

47

I GAVE MY NAME to the receptionist at Bostick's. "He's been expecting you," she said, pointing down a dark carpeted corridor.

The sign on his office said Private. I knocked. Davidson opened the door.

"Mr. Bostick?" I asked. Nothing showed in my face.

Davidson laughed, turned to a short, Roman-faced, slim man seated at a kidney-shaped white plastic desk. "Pay up," he said.

Bostick slid a hundred-dollar bill across the clean surface of the desk. Stood up, offered his hand.

I shook hands, sat down, lit a smoke. Davidson's foul cigar was burning in a deep glass ashtray.