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CHAPTER SIX: THAT'S WHAT FRIENDS ARE FOR.

Upon reaching home, and safety, Josh becomes preoccupied with thinking about the two tattooed boys. They fascinate him for reasons he is not fully conscious of or able to explain.

He wonders who they are and where they live. Perhaps they live very close to where he lives? It is a small town in any case. Perhaps he will see them again soon. Perhaps they will like him?

That was not an unreasonable thing to expect. After all, he was definitely a likeable person. He knew that, because it had been brought to his attention on a number of occasions.

People had noticed just how likeable he really was and had said so. They had even said so in words that were so explicit as to leave little room for doubt: "You are the nicest boy I've ever met," was just one such comment. Yes, it was said to him repeatedly: "Josh is such a nice boy." Yes, it was true. It was not just conceit on his part.

It was on an evening just subsequent to his encounter with the urchins and the tattooed boys that Josh saw a particular movie on TV. It was about rich people who were traveling on an ocean liner.

The passengers had to climb a huge, covered stairway in order to get on board. The deck of this enormous ship was an incredible height above the water line. In the estimation of Josh it seemed a hundred feet or more.

That night Josh dreamed he was to travel on just such a liner. He climbed the long stairway to get on board, and began walking along the deck, but he accidentally slipped over the railing and fell a hundred feet to the water below.

The two tattooed boys were also standing on the deck, and, on seeing him fall, were so concerned that they decided instantly to rescue him. They both dived over the railing in magnificent, parabolic swan dives befitting Olympic champion divers. And they saved him gladly because he was such an important person in their estimation.

It was barely a few days later while driving through town with his mother that Josh sees the tattooed boys in the yard of #99 Wolfram Street--the very last house in that street. Wolfram Street is the next street, is the street south of, and perpendicular to, his street (Cadmium Ave).

Josh is determined to go to their place soon with the vague and possibly dubious intention of befriending them, and, within a couple of days, he does just that: He goes to where he saw them last, to the place he surmises is almost certainly their place of abode.

Upon approaching #99, he is reassured about the correctness of his assessment of the situation when he sees both boys there again doing something in their backyard. He walks through the open back gate and walks straight up to the pair.

"Who the hell are YOU?" said the blond one in apparent anger at being taken by surprise.

"I'm Josh, I live on Cadmium Avenue, I'm new in town."

"What the fuck!" said the dark one. "Are you fucken crazy, or just fucken stupid?" He is certainly angry too, but unlike the other, he gives direct expression to his anger by whacking Josh over the side of the head. Josh grimaces momentarily but is undeterred. He stands his ground.

"What are you doin' at our place?" asked the blond one. "You plannin' to knock somethin' off?"

"No, I'd never do that. I just thought I should come over and say hello and maybe make friends."

"How old are you?" asked the blond one.

"I'm nine."

"Are you fucken stupid or something! We are fifteen! We don't hang around with little shits like you."

"But I was thinking, I saw you smoking--"

"And?" The blond one grabs Josh by the collar.

"I thought you might like some smokes."

"You mean a little kid like you can get us some fags. How the hell can you get us fags?"

"Easy, if you give me the money for a Coke, I can go to the gas station, buy a Coke and spend up to ten minutes drinking it. During that time, the guy will be in and out, and I will be able to steal you two twenty-packs of cigarettes--any brand you like."

"So, what if you get caught and we lose our money?"

"But I probably won't get caught anyway, because I'm only nine."

"You're only nine. Big fucken deal! So what?" said the dark one.

"So the guy at the garage will never suspect me."

"Don't use big words, you little shit!" said the dark one, raising his hand in preparation to whack Josh once more, but the blond one intercepts the blow.

"Give him a go."

"What if he pisses off with the money and doesn't come back?"

"Oh I'll come back alright, because I know you'll murder me if I don't."

"You're darn, fucken right about that! Here is twenty cents. Turn that into two packets of Lucky Strikes and it'll be your lucky fucken day."

Josh heads off on his assignment in larceny. The gas station is situated on the Copper Road but within a short section of central business district.

It does, in fact, take him all of ten minutes to down the Coke, during which time he sticks two packets of Lucky Strikes down the front of his shirt. In just half an hour he is back to deliver the booty.

"It was easy," he said, proudly holding the cigarettes up in open display for the two big boys to see.

"Lucky Strikes! You fucken beauty!" said the blond one. "From now on you don't touch this kid. Alright!" he said, looking angrily at his brother (stepbrother} "Or I'll smash yuh fucken face in! Alright?"

From what Josh learns subsequently from Liz and other people in town, the blond one's father married the dark one's mother, but the mother subsequently ran away leaving her son in the care of his new stepfather.

The stepbrothers appear to suffer from an overall lack of empathy: they are not warm or friendly but emotionally distant and indifferent to anything of a personal nature. They don't even tell Josh their names, nor do they ever use his name. They simply refer to him (if they absolutely must refer to him at all) as "that kid from up the next street."

Josh, in turn, comes to think of the stepbrothers simply as 'the Steps' (plural) or individually as 'the blond Step' and 'the dark Step'.

"Next time, I wanna try one pack of Temple Bar and one pack of Camel," said the blond Step. "Get them for me and bring 'em back next Saturday."

"Sure thing!" said Josh, smiling amiably. He then heads for home, with another twenty-cent piece in his pocket in readiness for the purchase of another coke. But he is pleased about so much more than that. He feels good about the whole wide world and everything in it. THIS IS HAPPINESS!

He has been successful in cementing the foundations of an important new relationship. He had accomplished it all himself. He had taken the initiative. He had brought it about entirely by his own efforts. He had ventured something and he had gained something, but exactly what that something was he couldn't rightly say. He only knew that it felt good.

The following Saturday morning, Josh delivers the ordered merchandise directly to the blond Step. He doesn't even have to think about which brother he should give the cigarettes to. There is never a question in his mind about that, because the blond one is clearly the alpha male, the dominant one.

Having now delivered a total of eighty cigarettes, Josh is given a promotion. Over the subsequent weeks, and in addition to his primary duties, Josh now also carries their birdcage. It is a small carry cage made only for transporting birds from one aviary to another. It is about 6" x 6" x 18" in length.

By carrying this cage, Josh also confers an indirect promotion upon the dark step. This not only relieves the latter of the burdensome bother of having to carry it but also the humiliation of having to perform such a servile task. Josh is also contributing to the overall efficiency of the operation by allowing the dark Step to concentrate on his shooting.

The Steps have built an aviary of sorts and have been trying to stock it with any wild birds they can wing with their air rifles. Their strategy is to shoot a bird exactly in the wing so it can't fly, but, according to their line of reasoning, it will still be alive and able to recover from its injuries in good time.

Green rozellas are their favored quarry, because of their showy coloring in shades of bright green splashed with blue and red, but these (and other birds as well) must be very difficult to 'wing' if only for the simple factual reason that their aviary stands empty. Notwithstanding this, they are not as yet discouraged and set off optimistically with Josh in tow on yet another expedition.