Picture Dictionary & Books : Free for English Learner!

"Yeah." Tom suddenly glowers, as if I'd said I didn't like her.

"I don't know why she wastes her time on me. I'll never be any use to her. When her family hears about me, I'll get the boot."

"I could ask my pop. You know, I told you he's a lawyer. Maybe he'd know how you go about getting back into college or getting a job or something."

Tom laughs, an unamused bark.

"Maybe he'll tell you to quit hanging around with jerks that get in trouble with the cops."

This is a point, all right.

Come to think, I don't know why I said I'd ask Pop anyway.

I usually make a point of not letting his nose into my personal affairs, because I figure he'll just start bossing me around.

However, I certainly can't do anything for Tom on my own.

I say, "I'll chance it. The worst he ever does is talk. One time he made a federal case out of me buying a Belafonte record he didn't like. Another time playing ball I cracked a window in a guy's Cadillac, and Pop acted like he was going to sue the guy for owning a Cadillac. You just never know."

Tom says, "With my dad, you know: I'm wrong."

Hilda comes back just then.

She snaps, "If he's such a drug on the market, why don't you shut up and forget about him?"

"O.K., O.K.," says Tom.

The beach is getting filled up by now, so we pull on our clothes and head for the subway.

Tom and Hilda get off in Brooklyn, and I go on to Union Square.

After dinner that night Mom is washing the dishes and Pop is reading the paper, and I figure I might as well dive in.

"Pop," I say, "there's this guy I met at the beach.

Well, really I mean I met him this spring when I was hunting for Cat, and this guy was in the cellar at Forty-six Gramercy, and he got caught and...."

"Wha-a-a-t?" Pop puts down his paper and takes off his glasses.

"Begin again."

So I give it to him again, slow, and with explanations.

I go through the whole business about the filling station and Hilda and NYU, and I'll say one thing for Pop, when he finally settles down to listen, he listens.

I get through, and he puts on his reading glasses and goes to look out the window.

"Do you have this young man's name and address, or is he just Tom from The Cellar?"

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