Last Exit to Brooklyn - Hubert Selby Jr Read Online Free Page A

you. Harry took his
pushbutton knife from his pocket, opened it, locked the blade in the
open position, felt the blade and tip and walked toward Georgette as
she backed away shaking limp wristed hands at him. Stand still and
I/ll makeya a real woman without goin ta Denmark. He and Vinnie
laughed as Georgette continued to back away, her hands limply
extended. You dont want that big sazeech gettin in yaway Georgie boy.
Let me cut it off. It is not big Miss Pinky, trying to suppress her
fears by thinking herself a heroine, and get away from me.
    Harry flipped the knife underhand at her and yelled
think fast! She lifted her left leg slightly, covered her face with
her hands, turned away and shrilled an OOOOOOO as the knife hit the
sidewalk, bouncing off the wall behind her and skipping a few feet
away. Harry and Vinnie were laughing, Vinnie walking over to the
knife and picking it up, Georgette walking away still screeching at
Harry. You big freak! You Neanderthal fairy! You—Vinnie threw the
knife yelling think fast. Georgette leaping, pirouetting away from
the knife screaming at them to stop ( only the benzedrine preventing
hysteria now ), but they laughed, their daring growing with her fear;
throwing the knife harder and closer to her feet; the knife skipping
and billiarding away, picked up and thrown again at the dancing feet
(the scene resembling one in a grade B western); the laughing,
leaping and pirouetting stopping suddenly as the blade of the knife
stuck in the calf of her leg (had it been a board, not flesh, the
blade would have vibrated and twanged). Georgette looked quizzically
at the small portion of the blade visible, and handle sticking from
her leg, too surprised to feel the blood rolling down her leg to
think of the wound or the danger, but just staring at the knife
trying to understand what had happened. Vinnie and Harry just looked.
Harry muttered something about that being a good shot and Vinnie
smiled. Georgette looked up, saw Vinnie smiling at her, looked back
at the knife and screamed that her new slacks were ruined. The
others, watching from the Greeks, laughed and Harry asked her what
she was growin from her leg. Georgette simply called him a fuck and
hopped over to the step leading to the side door of the Greeks and
sat down slowly, carefully keeping the leg stiff and extended in
front of her. Harry asked her if she wanted him to yank the knife out
and she screamed at him to go to hell. Leaning down and gently
holding the handle in her fingertips and closing her eyes she tugged
tentatively, then slowly pulled the knife from her leg. She sighed
and dropped the knife, then leaned back against the door jamb, flexed
her leg slightly and reached down and pulled her shoe off. It was
filled with blood. The effects of the benzedrine were almost
completely worn off and she shivered as she poured the blood from her
shoe, the blood splattering as it hit the sidewalk, the small puddle
flowing off in rills in to cracks in the pavement, mixing with the
dirt in the cracks and disappearing. . . . She screamed and cursed
Harry.
    Whats the matta Georgie? Has the poor little girl got
a Booboo? She screeched. You brought me down! You rotten freaks, you
brought me down! She looked at Vinnie with pleading in her eyes
trying to regain her composure (the effects of the benzedrine
completely gone now and panic starting to take its place), hoping to
gain his sympathy, looking tenderly as a lover taking irrevocable
leave, and Vinnie laughed thinking how much she looked like a dog
beggin for a bone. Whats the matta? Ya hurt or somethin?
    She almost fainted from fear and anger as the others
roared with laughter. She looked at the blur of faces wanting to kick
them, spit into them, slap them, scratch them, but, when she tried to
move the pain in her leg stopped her and she leaned back against the
jamb, now fully conscious of her leg and, for the first time,
thinking of the wound. She lifted her pant leg up to her knee and
trembled