Someday, all this would be his, for he was young.
"Get the truck," he said, out of the corner of his mouth.
Needlenose walked down the ramp and across the street to where the truck was parked.
David turned and pushed the big jack over to the nearest wooden rack. He pumped the handle and the rack lifted off the floor.
He came to the edge of the loading platform just as Needlenose backed the truck to a stop.
Needlenose came down from behind the wheel.
"Want a hand, Davy?"
"I’ll manage," David said.
He pushed the loaded jack onto the open platform of the truck and pulled the release. The wooden platform sank to the truck floor. He sneaked a look at the platform boss as he went back for the next rack of heralds.
The man hadn't moved.
A faint hope began to stir inside David.
Maybe he'd been wrong, maybe they'd all been wrong.
He rolled the last rack onto the truck and pulled the release.
There wasn't going to be a fight after all.
He heard a faint sigh come from the people on the platform as he turned the jack around to wheel it off the truck.
He looked up. The platform boss was standing there, blocking the end of the truck. Stolidly David pushed the jack toward him.
As he neared the platform boss, he put his foot on the front of the jack and stared at David silently.
David looked down at his foot. The thick-soled, heavy-toed work boot rested squarely on the front of the jack. David looked up at the man and tried to push the jack up onto the loading platform. The platform boss's foot moved quickly. The handle of the jack was torn from David's grasp and the jack itself skidded to the side, the front half completely off the truck. Its wheels spun in the narrow space between the loading platform and the truck.
The nervous sigh came again from the crowd.
The platform boss spoke in a flat voice. "It'll cost yuh five bucks to get off that truck, Jew boy," he said.
"If yuh ain't got it, jus' stay there!"
David slipped his hand into his pocket. The metal was icy cold against his fingers as he slipped the brass knuckles over his hand.
"I got something for you," he said quietly, as he walked toward the man, his hand still in his pocket.
"Now you're getting smart, Jew boy," the boss said, his eyes turning away from David toward the crowd.
It was at that moment David hit him.
He felt the shock of pain run up his arm as the duster tore into the man's face.
A half scream of pain came from his throat as the metal spikes tore his cheek open like an overripe melon.
He turned, swinging wildly at David, the blow catching him on the side of the head, slamming him back against the side of the truck.
David could feel his forehead beginning to swell.
It had to be a quick fight or the man would kill him.
He shook his head to clear it and looked up to see the platform boss coming at him again.
He braced his feet against the side of the truck and using the added leverage this gave him, lashed out at the man's face.
The blow never reached its target. The platform boss caught it on his raised arm but it spun him backward toward the edge of the platform.
Again David lashed out at him. He sidestepped the blow but stumbled and fell from the platform to the ground.
David leaned over the big hydraulic jack and looked down at him.
He was getting to his hands and knees.
He turned his face up to David, the blood running down his cheeks, his lips drawn savagely back across his teeth.
"I'll kill yuh for this, yuh Jew bastard!" David stared down at him. The man was up on one knee.
"You wanted it like this, mister," David said as he reached for the handle of the jack.
The platform boss screamed once as the heavy jack came down on him.
Then he lay quietly, face on the ground, the jack straddling his back like a primeval monster.
Slowly David straightened up, his chest heaving. He stared at the crowd.
Already they were beginning to melt away, their faces white and frightened.
Needlenose climbed up on the truck. He looked down at the platform boss.
"Yuh think yuh croaked him?" David shrugged.
He slipped the brass knuckles into his friend's pocket.
"You better get the truck out of here."
Needlenose nodded and climbed behind the wheel as David stepped across onto the loading platform. The truck pulled out into the street just as Wagner came up with a policeman.
The policeman looked at David. "What happened?"
"There's been an accident," David answered.