Day XX

Dummies

     We became nicotine junkies, sometimes we debased ourselves, and did some really dumb things for a smoke. At lunch time, lots of kids sneaked out of the building, for a smoke  around the corner, away from school. There was a delicatessen on the corner, and the guy there, Sal, I think, made some awesome Italian heroes. For a buck we got a coke, a hero, which was about six inches long, a candy bar, and...change.

     Sal was cool with us. He knew we weren’t supposed to be there at lunch time. So he kept an eye out for pedagogues. When he saw one coming, he would grab his throat, and sing:

     “Oh sol a meee aaaaaaaaah!” a soprano he wasn’t, but it was our clue to schlep out the side door. Some of us whom he knew to be honest, and not steal from him, he would let hide in the back. So we could hear when some dumb teacher walked in, and say something like:

    “Hey Sal, you should be at the Met, what the hell are you doing here?”

     We would quietly smirk, and smile:

     “Tee hee heeee!”

     We knew, he knew the teacher was patronizing him, hoping he would rat us out. But he stayed true, he wasn't a rat. He was real cool with us.But they weren’t so dumb, eventually the teachers got on to the side door, and they started coming out in pairs. One would go to the side door, usually a big bruiser type, and wait; meanwhile, the other one would go in the front, and play up Sal. Like good cop, bad cop. They usually only grabbed one or two unlucky schmoes because we spread out. Most of us ran back to school, but the dummies would always cut and go home.