Dark Maze

once in a while,” Benny said. “He’ll say something like, ‘Well the number I’m seeing seems to be upside-down, and I can’t tell whether it’s a six or a nine. Now really, sir, you’ve got to do your part! Concentrate, man! Don’t let Delilah get you all hot and bothered standing there wiggling her booty like she’s probably doing, and hey, get that number sixty-nine off your mind! I can see it, you know.’ That rib, it usually gets a yuk out of them.”
    Sure enough, the clydes all laughed.
    “See what I mean?” Benny said. “Why, sometimes he’ll even blow a number on purpose. Them sapheads, they see Moe make one boner and they’ll buy everything else he tosses at them.”
    I put back the rest of the first red, then I took a long swallow on the first Molson. I asked Benny, “Any special reason why you’re giving away trade secrets to me?”
    My great-aunt from Camarsie clomped up to the bar just then and she slammed a tray down and said she needed two drafts of Rolling Rock. She curled a lip at me and said, “You still here, Lance?” I blew her a kiss. Benny got her the drafts, and she scuffed away on her platforms, which I noticed were made from some kind of a lizard.
    “No special reason,” Benny finally answered me. “I’m just trying to somehow make it up to a nice customer like yourself for the way that goddamn old harpy rides you.“
    “Thanks, but you don’t have to worry about me. My friend warned me all about her. But I came in anyhow.“
    “Oh yeah? Who’s your friend?”
    I moved in sideways on Benny. “Well, he works around here sometimes. Free-lance he says.”
    Benny scratched the skin on his head. “If he works here, I’d know him. Who is he?”
    “I guess you’d know him, all right, you being the owner and all. Only thing is, I just know him by his street name. Picasso, like the painter.”
    Benny’s face and kidney-bean head darkened. He said, “Funny little guy? Wears whiskers and one of them French hats? That’s your friend?”
    “Yeah.” I thought about singing soprano in the Holy Cross choir and blinked innocently.
    “Pal, that guy is hinkier than Hallowe’en.”
    “Aw, maybe he’s a little nutso, but...”
    Benny interrupted. “Hey, the Ayatollah was a little nutso, too, wasn’t he? I’m telling you, I think your boyfriend’s dangerous.”
    “What makes you say that? I mean, he works here, doesn’t he? You hired him—and he’s not my boyfriend. ”
    Benny started rubbing his scalp in a very aggravated way. I put some money on the bar and said he should have a drink on me, which he did—a Bushmill’s, neat. He said he was sorry about the boyfriend crack, that he never meant it the way it sounded.
    He put back his whiskey. I started in on my second red. “If you’re a smart guy like I think maybe you are,” Benny said, wiping his lips, “you’ll take what I say as a friendly wam-off. This Picasso, he’s a time bomb. One day— BOOM! And down goes anybody fool enough to be caught near him.”
    “There’s something I don’t understand,” I said. “If you think Picasso’s about to blow, how come you have him around here?”
    Benny rapped the bar with his knuckles. “Knock on Wood, he ain’t never coming back.”
    “He isn’t working here?”
    “It wasn’t like he was ever on the payroll or like that. We just had him passing out palm cards. You know, you probably seen our cards if you ever walked through Times Square in your life. Well, Picasso shows up at the door one day when we had a want ad running in the paper for palm-card men and at first he seemed okay,” Benny said. “He says he’s no bum or nothing, that he’s got his own room out in Brooklyn and all.”
    “Coney Island?” I asked, innocence itself.
    “That’s right, the Seashore Hotel. How’d you know?” f “He said something about how he used to paint for the caray attractions out there, at Astroland.”
    “Sure, that’s how come they call him Picasso. Some joke, hey?”
    “Not the way you’re telling it,” I said. “But, go on. What did he do to you?”
    “At first, nothing. He tells us about the painting dodge, and how it ain’t what it used to be out at Coney Island and how he needs some work, and also that he’s a little hungry and thirsty. Okay, I figure, the guy is obviously no lousy skell from the neighborhood around here so maybe he’s halfway dependable. So we feed him and give him a tryout.” ä “How did that go?”
    “Okay. We