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When Johnny, with the blond curly hair, could walk, his father would take him on very long walks all over the neighborhood: by the shoemakers with a fake cat in the window holding the sole of a shoe; across cobblestones the great poet Poe once walked upon with his inner demons clutching his heart and mind when the area was called Fordham Village and by the tire store with a cardboard print of a little boy inside a tire holding a candle to darkness surrounding him ... but even before Johnny could walk, the father would hug him closely and kiss him tenderly and then push him out above his head - bringing forth excited screams of joy from the baby and he would get excited over the excitement the boy showed. The more Tina, the father's daughter, began to look like a grown woman, the more he hugged Johnny and caress him as if he were an anchor probing deep waters.
Tina felt like spitting on the kid: "Here lousy, take this!" she would whisper harshly to him as she held her nose, pretending he was a horrible odor, and gave him the sandwich to take to her father which she avoided ever since his hand had fallen from the table like a twitching leaf caught in a fierce breeze only to clutch to Tina's firm ass cheek - which was seen by the mother who called him an animal and visitor of sheep pens - they tried to stay away from one another.
Tom, who was seven years old when Johnny had descended among them, would tease the "little creep" by making scary faces at him when no one was looking or pinch him from beneath the table and then pretend he had done no such thing when accused by a talking Johnny and the mother would hit Johnny, whom she really hadn't wanted - overwhelmed at the thought of feeding another mouth during the dying of hunger Great Depression - for trying to get polio-legged Tommy into trouble with the father who had once bitten the carpet to shreds when Tom had dropped the bowl of pasta to the floor rather than eat the wide-eyed frightened child.
What Tommy would try to do was throw Johnny down the steep flight of stairs but Johnny's holding onto the railing prevented a head long fall through a glass window and into a courtyard five levels below; failing this, Tom would pose a special challenge to this kid-brother and Johnny would walk to the top of the stairs like a car with a flat tire - imitating Tom's polio walk - to hear Tom say: "Come on Johnny - jump! I'll catch you! I swear to God! Trust me - Christ I'm your brother!"
Johnny believed and jumped but Tom only half caught him making Johnny bleed from the nose. The very last time Johnny jumped, Tom missed him altogether making Johnny's knees, elbows and forehead bleed. Then after, whenever Tom called from the bottom of the stairs, Johnny would not go. He would instead get fully absorbed in the toy coal truck his father had given him and play all about the kitchen floor until the noise of the truck's wheels scraped away all of Tom's angry calls.... END
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