The Black Stiletto by Raymond Benson Read Free Book Online Page B

would change, though.
    I killed time walking around the neighborhood. Two blocks south on Second Avenue was a gymnasium. It was called the Second Avenue Gym. Curious, I opened the door and looked inside. It was a pretty large space. There was a boxing ring in the middle of the room, and around the sides were all kinds of workout equipment like punching bags of all types and sizes, wall pulleys, rowing machines, and other stuff. A bunch of men were in there—a couple in the ring sparring and several others just exercising. White men, Negroes, Hispanics. I’d never seen colored men and white men working out in the same room before. That was surprising. For a few minutes I stood there and watched, fascinated by their sweaty, muscular bodies as they punched and jabbed at each other.
    Anyway, I went back to the diner at two o’clock, and the place was much calmer. There were only a few customers in some of the booths. Lucy stood by the counter studying a stack of order tickets, trying to figure out something. She looked up and smiled.“Hi, Judy. You came back, huh? The lunch rush didn’t scare you away?”
    “Nope.”
    She patted one of the swivel stools at the counter. “Have a seat.”
    “Are you the boss?” I asked.
    “No, no. I’m the head waitress. The boss comes in at night, his name is Manny. He’s a pretty nice guy, but he’s strict and doesn’t tolerate laziness or mistakes. That won’t be a problem, will it, Judy?”
    “No!”
    “Good.”
    We spent the next half hour talking about the diner, my background, and how I’d run away from home. I was perfectly honest. At one point she frowned and whispered, “How old are you, honey?”
    I looked down and told her the truth. Lucy took a deep breath and pursed her lips. “I think we’ll just pretend you’re sixteen, okay?”
    “All right.”
    She handed me an application and a pencil and told me to subtract two years from my birth date when I filled it in. Lucy left me alone to fill in the pertinent information. For a residence, I put the YWCA.
    Well, I was hired. I became a waitress at the East Side Diner and learned the ropes. I figured out when it was okay to flirt with customers so you could get a bigger tip, and I learned when to give them sass if they were getting out of line. I got to where I knew the menu by heart. Pretty soon, I was as good as any of the other ladies working there. And Lucy—Lucy Dempsey was her full name—became my best friend. She took me under her wing, so to speak. She lived alone in an apartment on St. Marks Placeand had a boyfriend named Sam, who came in the diner every now and then. I didn’t like Sam. He gave me the same kind of bad feelings that Douglas had. Sam was cocky and full of himself. He bossed Lucy around and acted like she was his property. I could tell she was embarrassed by his attitude but I also saw that she really liked him, although I don’t know why. One day, I think it was in the summer, she confided in me. I had been in New York six months and was still living at the Y, but the city was starting to feel more like home than Odessa ever did. Anyway, Lucy and I were off one Sunday and we went walking around the Village. She told me that Sam could be very mean and hit her sometimes. I told her she shouldn’t put up with that at all. Lucy just shrugged and said, “He’s my man. I love him.”
    “He has no right to hit you,” I said. “Don’t you let him. If he does, you tell me, I’ll kick his butt.”
    She laughed. “You? Judy, how could you kick his butt?”
    “I’m tougher than I look.” And that gave me an idea. “Hey, you know where I can go to learn to box?”
    “What?”
    “You know, box.” I held up my fists and mimed punching.
    “Why do you want to do that?”
    “Self-defense. Wouldn’t you want to be able to defend yourself against Sam next time he hit you?”
    “You mean like fight him?”
    “Sure.”
    “Hell, no. He’d beat the crap out of me.”
    “But that’s the