.'.
SANFORD FRIEDMAN
and spray-the bathers' clogs, and toy tin shovels had taken their
toll of the stately stone newels and Victorian bas reliefs, the ornately
carved balusters and rails, and had left the stairway a ruin, just as the
years had ruined its earliest users--Iovely young ladies with pink
and yellow parasols-who sat, now, gray and withered dowagers;
all
bundled-up on stiff-backed benches along the promenade. And yet
to Stephen the Stairway still retained its former grandeur. He con–
sidered it the most splendid in the world-except, perhaps, for the
one in Central Park leading down to the fountain and the row–
boat pond-and always insisted on using it.
When they reached the stairhead, Stephen saw the red flag
flapping on Bruce's lifeguard pole, he saw the waves and whitecaps
and the darkness gathering in the south-east. Instead of deterring
him, these signs of storm only excited and spurred Stephen ' on,
and he practically dragged Daddy after him, down the two long
flights. At the foot of the south flight, stretched out on the sand,
his head of curly black hair pillowed on his palms, was Roggie, trying
for all the world to look completely casual, despite his heaving chest.
"What took you so long, slowpoke?"
"I am not a slowpoke!"
"I've been waiting here an hour."
"You couldn't have. We only-"
"Come on, kids," Daddy interrupted. "Let's go in right away,
before it gets too cold."
There were very few people left on the beach. Even those
who had not been scared away by the on-coming storm, were leaving
now because of the hour, straggling toward the Stairway, dragging
their towels and umbrellas, toys and thermos bottles, backrests and
inner-tubes across the littered sand.
As
Stephen ran toward the water,
he spotted the old, old fat man he had seen in the shower earlier
that afternoon, and he slowed down and waited for Daddy.
When their paths crossed, Daddy stopped and greeted the old
man cheerfully. "Hello, Max."
"Hello, Sol."
"Boys, say hello to Mr. Strauss, the toughest pinochle player
in New Jersey."
"Hello, Mr. Strauss," Roggie said, shaking hands.
"That's Roger, Max, my older boy," Daddy explained with pride.
