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Columbus Day comes up as cold as Christmas.

I listen to the weather forecast the night before, to see how it'll be for the beach.

"High winds, unseasonably low temperatures," the guy says. He would.

I get up at eight-thirty the next morning, though, figuring he'd be wrong and it would be a nice sunny day.

I slip on my pants and shirt and go downstairs with Cat to have a look out.

Cat slides out and is halfway down the stoop when a blast of cold wind hits him.

His tail goes up and he spooks back in between my legs.

I push the door shut against the icy wind.

Mom is sitting in the kitchen drinking her tea and she says, "My goodness, why are you up so early on a holiday? Do you feel sick?"

"Nah, I'm all right." I pour out a cup of coffee to warm my hands on and dump in three or four spoons of sugar.

"Davey, have you got a chill? You don't look to me as if you felt quite right."

"Mom, for Pete's sake, it's cold out! I feel fine."

"Well, you don't have to go out. Why don't you just go back to bed and snooze and read a bit, and I'll bring you some breakfast."

I see it's got to be faced, so while I'm getting down the cereal and a bowl, I say, "Well, as a matter of fact, I'm going over to Coney Island today."

"Coney island!" Mom sounds like it was Siberia.

"What in the world are you going to do there in the middle of winter?"

"Mom, it's only Columbus Day. We figured we'd go to the aquarium and then—uh—well, fool around. Some of the pitches are still open, and we'll get hot dogs and stuff."

"Who's going? Nick?"

"Nick wasn't sure—I'll stop by his house and see."

I'd just as soon steer clear of this "who's going" business, so I start into a long spiel about how we're studying marine life in biology, and we have to take some notes at the aquarium.

Mom is swallowing this pretty well, but Pop comes into the kitchen just then and gives me the fishy eye.

"First time I ever heard of you spending a holiday on homework. I bet they got a new twist palace going out there."

I slam down my coffee cup.

Ch13. The Left Bank of Coney Island

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