The Ballroom on Magnolia Street Read Online Free Page B

middle of the yard and I’ll set fire to them. And that’s a solemn promise.’
    ‘Do you want to be On The Shelf, for ever?’
    ‘Don’t be ridiculous. You know I don’t.’
    ‘Right, then. You’ve got to get your hands on a red-blooded male. Now, listen to me. Act your age, walk right up to him and ask him out for a drink, like a normal human being. I haven’t got time for this carry-on.’
    ‘Please, Kate. You don’t understand. This is too important to me. I’d rather I never spoke to him at all than have him turn me down, right to my face. At least if I never know his answer, I’ll still have my dreams.’
    ‘You’re definitely not going to ask him, then?’
    ‘No. Definitely not. A refusal would just about kill me. Even a polite refusal. If you show me up in this record shop, I will never, ever go out with you to Hogan’s again. I mean it. Or anywhere. Please, Kate.’
    ‘Right. Come on, then. I’ve a ton of things to buy before tonight.’
    The two girls left the shop and Declan looked around the room at the other customers and wondered who it was they were talking about. Hogan’s ballroom, they had mentioned. He might go to Hogan’s again, one of these days. Just to see if the girls were there. This was an intriguing little story, and the girl in the denim jacket was very nice-looking. Maybe, if this other fella she was after didn’t show up, she might like to talk to him.

3. Johnny is a Hero
    Johnny collected some holiday brochures from the travel agency and settled himself in his office, to spend a quiet afternoon making plans. He imagined himself and Marion, side by side on the plane, sipping champagne and smiling at the other passengers. Holding hands as they flew over the Atlantic Ocean.
    Well, that’s the way things should have turned out, and would have turned out, if it hadn’t been for the robbery.
    A few weeks after the grand opening, as James had predicted, a couple of gangsters came into the ballroom, looking for protection money. They were also big fans of the silver screen, judging by the way they spoke with cigars hanging out of the sides of their mouths. One of them looked very sly and one of them looked very stupid. They made their way past the thick blue rope, and the sign that said STAFF ONLY , and went quietly up the carpeted stairs. They cornered Johnny and Eileen in the office, and demanded a monthly payment in exchange for their ‘protection’. The streets were becoming dangerous places to be after dark, they said. A person didn’t know who might be lurking in the shadows.
    The dopey-looking one clenched and unclenched his knuckles, as if he was longing to ruin Johnny’s good looks. But nobody was going to threaten Johnny Hogan, right there on the street where he was born. Or his sixty-four-year-old grandmother, either. Johnny tried to stare them down, but the steely gaze of his tormentors never wavered. The sly one spoke with a soft voice that made Eileen’s blood boil. They stated the terms of their business arrangements, and explained to Johnny that unless they were paid on the first Saturday night of every month, there would be trouble in the ballroom on Magnolia Street.
    Johnny agreed at the time, not wanting to put his grandmother in any further danger, but he needed a plan to outwit the gangsters. He gave them code names: Knuckles and Sly. That’s what James Cagney would have done. He paced around the ballroom, smoking cigarettes continuously, and ignoring his girlfriend, Marion, whose beautiful face had grown pale. He would have to split the gangsters up somehow, and catch them off their guard. He would floor the little, sly man with a couple of good punches, and then take on the big one in a fair fight. He’d give the two of them a pasting, Hollywood-style, and then they’d know it was useless to blackmail Johnny Hogan. They’d slide back into the shadows of the slum neighbourhoods where they belonged.
    On Saturday night, at the promised hour, the