Chasing the Bear by Robert B. Parker Read Free Book Online Page B

said.
    “Sure,” I said.
    “Want to stop on the way and buy me a Coke?” she said.
    “Sure,” I said.
    We walked along Main Street to Martin’s Variety, which sold bread and milk and canned foods and had a lunch counter down one side of the store. Most of their earnings probably came from the lunch counter, because the kids had pretty well taken over the store as a hangout, which meant that generally nobody else came in.
    Jeannie and I said hello to some other kids as we walked down the counter and found two seats at the end where it curved.
    A guy named Croy said to me, “Hey, Spenser the river rat.”
    “Just as smart,” I said. “But not as good looking.”
    Croy gave it a big haw and elbowed one of his friends. He was a year older than I was, a big kid, fat mostly, but big enough to bully the younger kids.
    We sat. Jeannie ordered a Coke. I had coffee.
    “You don’t like Coke anymore?” Jeannie said.
    “Like coffee better,” I said.
    She nodded.
    “Lotta kids know about us on the river,” she said.
    “They got the story straight?” I said.
    “Mostly,” Jeannie said. “Nobody seems to know about you moving the sign.”
    “Good,” I said.
    Croy yelled down the counter at me.
    “How about Jeannie the Queenie,” he said. “Have any fun with her in the woods?”
    “You shut your mouth, Croy,” Jeannie said.
    “Bet you did,” Croy said. “She hot, Spenser?”
    I looked at him silently, the way I’d seen my father do when people annoyed him.
    “No sense shouting back and forth,” my father used to say. “If it’s not worth fighting about, then it’s not worth a lot of mouth. If it is worth fighting over, then you may as well get straight to it.”
    So far it wasn’t worth fighting about.
    But it was close.
    “Look at that, Barry,” Croy said to his friend. “Spenser the river hero is giving me a cold stare. Hot damn, is that scary or what?”
    Barry was not a threat. He was a tough guy by association, hanging around with Croy probably made him feel important. He nodded.
    “Scary,” he said.
    “I’m betting it’s ’cause he don’t know what to say, ’cause they did it and he don’t want to admit it.”
    “I’m betting that too,” Barry said.
    “He do it to you, Jeannie Queenie?”
    I stood up.
    “I’ll be back,” I said.
    Jeannie’s face had an odd flush to it. I walked down to where Croy was sitting and jerked my head at the door.
    “What?” Croy said. “You want to go outside?”
    I nodded and kept walking toward the door.
    “You little twerp,” Croy said. “You want to fight me?”
    “Yep,” I said, and went out the front door and walked down the three steps and turned and waited. In a minute Croy pushed the door open. His face looked a little tight. He was mostly mouth and probably deep down he knew it.
    “You sure you want to do this, kid?” Croy said.
    “Yep.”
    “I don’t want to hurt you,” Croy said.
    I put my hands up, like I did every weekday evening with my father and my uncles and had done every weekday evening with my father and my uncles since I was six.
    “Good,” I said. “But I want to hurt you.”
    He didn’t like the boxing stance. But he was too far into this to back out. People had crowded out of Martin’s to watch. He was stuck. He came down the step and walked at me.
    I stuck a left jab onto his nose to stop him. It did stop him and it made his nose bleed. He shook his head and swung at me with his right hand. I blocked the punch and hit him with a straight right on his nose again. This time I broke it.
    He yowled and took a step back and covered his face with his hands. Then he took his hands away a little and saw the blood and stared at it. Then he stared for a moment at me. Then he turned and pushed through the people watching and went away, walking very fast.
    “Wow,” Barry said. “You can really fight.”
    I dropped my hands and nodded to him.
    “Keep it in mind,” I said.
    And went back into Martin’s.

Chapter