Hearts in Atlantis(28)

Yvonne Loving pointed at the red back in the middle.

'Is she right?' the man in the bowler asked the little party gathered around his table.

'So far,' Rionda said, and laughed so hard her uncorseted belly jiggled under her sundress.

Smiling at her laughter, the low man in the bowler hat flicked one corner of the middle card, showing the red queen. 'One hundred per cent keerect, sweetheart, so far so good. Now watch! Watch close! It's a race between your eye and my hand! Which will win? That's the question of the day!'

He began to scramble the three cards rapidly about on his plank table, chanting as he did so.

'Up and down, all around, in and out, all about, to and fro, watch em go, now they're back, they're side by side, so tell me, dollface, where's she hide?'

As Yvonne studied the three cards, which were indeed once more lined up side by side, Sully leaned close to Bobby's ear and said, 'You don't even have to watch him mix them around. The queen's got a bent corner. Do you see it?'

Bobby nodded, and thought Good girl when Yvonne pointed hesitantly to the card on the far left - the one with the bent corner. The man in the bowler turned it over and revealed the queen of hearts.

'Good job!' he said. 'You've a sharp eye, dollface, a sharp eye indeed.'

'Thank you,' Yvonne said, blushing and looking almost as happy as Carol had looked when Bobby kissed her.

'If you'd bet me a dime on that go, I'd be giving you back twenty cents right now,' the man in the bowler hat said. 'Why, you ask? Because it's Saturday, and I call Saturday Twoferday! Now would one of you ladies like to risk a dime in a race between your young eyes and my tired old hands? You can tell your husbands - lucky fellas they are to have you, too, may I say - that Mr Herb McQuown, the Monte Man at Savin Rock, paid for your day's parking. Or what about a quarter? Point out the queen of hearts and I give you back fifty cents.'

'Half a rock, yeah!' Sully-John said. 'I got a quarter, Mister, and you're on.'

'Johnny, it's gambling,' Carol's mother said doubtfully. 'I don't really think I should allow - '

'Go on, let the kid learn a lesson,' Rionda said. 'Besides, the guy may let him win. Suck the rest of us in.' She made no effort to lower her voice, but the man in the bowler - Mr McQuown - only looked at her and smiled. Then he returned his attention to S-J.

'Let's see your money, kid - come on, pony up.'

Sully-John handed over his quarter. McQuown raised it into the afternoon sunlight for a moment, one eye closed.

CHAPTER 6

'Yeh, looks like a good 'un to me,' he said, and planked it down on the board to the left of the three-card lineup. He looked in both directions - for cops, maybe - then tipped the cynically smiling Rionda a wink before turning his attention back to Sully-John. 'What's your name, fella?'

'John Sullivan.'

McQuown widened his eyes and tipped his bowler to the other side of his head, making the plastic sunflower nod and bend comically. 'A name of note! You know what I refer to?'

'Sure. Someday maybe I'll be a fighter, too,' S-J said. He hooked a left and then a right at the air over McQuown's makeshift table. Pow, pow!'

'Pow-pow indeed,' said McQuown. 'And how's your eyes, Master Sullivan?'

'Pretty good.'

'Then get them ready, because the race is on! Yes it is! Your eyes against my hands! Up and down, all around, where'd she go, I don't know.' The cards, which had moved much faster this time, slowed to a stop.

Sully started to point, then drew his hand back, frowning. Now there were two cards with little folds in the corner. Sully looked up at McQuown, whose arms were folded across his dingy undershirt. McQuown was smiling. 'Take your time, son,' he said. 'The morning was whizbang, but it's been a slow afternoon.'

Men who think hats with feathers in the brims are sophisticated, Bobby remembered Ted saying. The sort of men who'd shoot craps in an alley and pass around a bottle of liquor in a paper bag during the game. McQuown had a funny plastic flower in his hat instead of a feather, and there was no bottle in evidence . . . but there was one in his pocket. A little one. Bobby was sure of it. And toward the end of the day, as business wound down and totally sharp hand-eye coordination became less of a priority to him, McQuown would take more and more frequent nips from it.

Sully pointed to the card on the far right. No, S-J, Bobby thought, and when McQuown turned that card up, it was the king of spades. McQuown turned up the card on the far left and showed the jack of clubs. The queen was back in the middle. 'Sorry, son, a little slow that time, it ain't no crime. Want to try again now that you're warmed up?'

'Gee, I . . . that was the last of my dough.' Sully-John looked crestfallen.

Just as well for you, kid,' Rionda said. 'He'd take you for everything you own and leave you standing here in your shortie-shorts.' The girls giggled wildly at this; S-J blushed. Rionda took no notice of either. 'I worked at Revere Beach for quite awhile when I lived in Mass,' she said. 'Let me show you kids how this works. Want to go for a buck, pal? Or is that too sweet for you?'

'In your presence everything would be sweet,' McQuown said sentimentally, and snatched her dollar the moment it was out of her purse. He held it up to the light, examined it with a cold eye, then set it down to the left of the cards. 'Looks like a good 'un,' he said. 'Let's play, darling. What's your name?'