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Show Upstream Nemesis By Richard Hill Wilkinson JOHN WAS ONLY 29 and already life was bitter. Today, with the rain lashing In his face, wetting the newspapers before he could pass them to customers from beneath the oil skin covering, chilled to the bone, envying I those who filed 3 Minute Into the subway riotinn entrance with FlCtl0n their sleek, con- " tented, well fed looks, he hated life. He hated people; peo-ple; hated the world. "Paypare! Paypare! Wuxtra! Wealthy society woman slays husband hus-band and runs off with suitor! Wuxtra!" Wux-tra!" Life had been unkind to him. Life hadn't given him the breaks. That's it. It was life's fault. Either you were born into the easy way, or you didn't have a chance. This stuff about fighting your way to the top. cvercoming obstacles, being a whooping, self-made success Nuts! You can't fight when life is against you, when the crowd is way out ahead and throwing dust into your face. "Rich society woman knocks off her spouse! Buy a paypare, sir." A thousand smackers! Ha! Fat chance! Not when the breaks were against you. A man was a fool to try and buck the crowds when they were against him. Like that guy in the green hat. Look at him, trying to fight his way up those stairs. Didn't the dumbhead know that it was just after 5 o'clock and hundreds hun-dreds of people would be coming down the stairs on their way home? "Hey, gimme a News." There was a man at John's elbow, looking impatient im-patient and irritated. John jerked himself back to earth. "Sure. Evening News. Here you are, mister. Thanks. Paypare! Wuxtra! Wux-tra! Wux " John stopped abruptly. A shot had sounded above the pounding of rain and the rumble of traffic. It came from the direction of the stairs. There was a stir, a wild scrambling, shrieks, curses. The sea of humanity came tumbling down, pausing, shrinking away, horrified, hor-rified, staring at something on the ground. John glimpsed liie figure lying there, grotesquely sprawled across the steps. He heard the name of Silas Berry mentioned. Judge Silas Berry. "Hey, Newsy, how about a paper?" pa-per?" John turned. It was the man in the green hat. John felt his heart pound, then stand still. "Nice stand you got here, sonny. Must make a lot of dough. Must see a lot that happens, facing upstream like that. Didn't happen to see what occurred just now on the elevator steps did you?" JOHN GULPED. "I heard a shot. What happened? Was somebody Killed? I didn't see a thing. I was t$tJMffK "Hi, Johnny! Look, you must have seen who did it, standing here like that. You had a view." selling a paper. Who do yuh suppose sup-pose done it?" The cold light dimmed in the eyes of the man with the green hat. He smiled. A siren sounded. The crowd scattered. John saw Officer Mike Clancey elbowing his way towards him. "Hi, Johnny! Look, you must have seen who did it, standing here like that. You had a view. You were the only one who did, facing upstream up-stream like that. See who done it, Johnny?" Johnny glanced at the man in the green hat. The man's hand was inside his coat. "Sure," he said. "Sure, I saw it all. It was that guy there." Then he jumped. He heard the muffled explosion of a revolver, saw Clancey leap, heard shouts and swearing and knew that other cops were coming. Then he heard more shots. He felt a stinging pain in his arm. He felt something hot running run-ning down inside his sleeve. Things began to reel. He knew he was fainting .... Officer Clancey was bending over him when he came to. "You're all right, kid. Just a scratch. And what a break. That was Moe Consoletti. He had threatened to get Old Silas. They're both dead. And you get the reward, kid. One thousand smackers! smack-ers! Is that a break or is that a break?" Released by WNU Feature! |
