But here, in the quiet peace of the nave, beneath the silent, sorrowing Virgin, there was calmness and emptiness and oblivion.
Johnny Burke was bored.
He took a last drag on the butt and spun it out into the gutter.
The pimply-faced boy next to him said,
"Let's go over and see if Tessie is busy."
"Tessie is always busy.
Besides, I hear she give a feller a dose. I ain't takin' any chances." Johnny took out another cigarette and lit it, his eyes nervously looking up the street.
"Just for once, I'd like to get me a dame that nobody else has banged."
"How yuh goin' do that, Johnny?"
"There are ways, Andy," Johnny said mysteriously. "There are ways."
Andy looked at him interestedly.
"You talk like yuh know."
Johnny nodded. He tapped his pocket.
"I got a little somethin' in here that'll make any girl put out."
"Yeah, Johnny?" Andy asked quickly. "What?"
Johnny lowered his voice carefully.
"Mosca cantharides."
"What's that?"
"Spanish fly, yuh dope," Johnny said.
"I stole some when Doc asked me to watch the store while he went upstairs."
"Gee," Andy said, impressed. "Will it work on any girl?"
Johnny nodded.
"Sure.
If yuh can slip it into her drink. Just a little an' she's as hot as a biscuit right out of the oven."
The druggist stuck his head out of the doorway.
"Johnny, watch the store for me, will you?
I want to run upstairs a minute."
"O.K., Doc."
They watched him turn into the entrance next door, then went into the drugstore.
Johnny walked behind the counter and leaned carelessly against the cash register.
"How about a Coke, Johnny?"
"Uh-uh," Johnny said. "No handouts while I'm watchin' the store for Doc." Idly Johnny opened and closed some drawers under the counter. "Hey, Andy," he called. "Want to see where Doc keeps all the rubbers?"
"Sure," Andy said. He walked around behind the counter.
"May I have a Coke, please?" The girl's voice came from the soda fountain.
Both boys looked up guiltily.
Quickly Johnny snapped the drawer shut.
"Sure, Jennie."
"Where's Doc?"
"He went upstairs for a minute."
"She saw us," Andy whispered. "She knows what we were lookin' at."
Johnny looked at Jennie as he walked over to the soda fountain.
Maybe she did.
There was a peculiar smile on her face.
He pressed the plunger on the Coke-sirup pump and watched the dark fluid squirt into the glass.
"Yuh hear from the Champ yet, Jennie?"
She shook her head.
"We were supposed to go to the movies tonight but he didn't get back from Berkeley.
I hope nothing went wrong with his scholarship."
Johnny smiled. "What could go wrong with it?" he said. "He already took the state finals."
Andy came up behind him.