386
PARTISAN REVIEW
danced aside, knowing to do some quick peppery jabbing with his
left, a hard uppercut with his right, shit it felt like his whole hand
was broken now but he didn't give a damn, didn't have time to worry,
the guy stumbled backward, fell to his knees, Harvey used his knee
to get him in the face, there was blood streaming out of his nose and
mouth, now Fritz and Pete were trying to pull Harvey away but he
just shrugged them off, nobody was going to stop him, it was between
him and his opponent and nobody was going to stop him, How d'you
like it now, fuckface, Harvey said, okay you motherfucker, Harvey
was saying, the air felt so good from the ocean, the wind so fresh and
clean in his lungs, he was just getting higher and higher like his heart
could burst with wanting to laugh, nobody was going to stop him
now after so long.
The guy had fallen, even in the half-light from the parking lot
Harvey could see he was bleeding pretty bad, the pavement and the
sand were going dark by his head, then there were some headlights,
then they heard a car door slam, Fritz said, Harv come
on,
but who–
ever it was wasn't coming any closer, they just weren't about to see
what was going on by the dunes and Harvey knew ahead of time that
that was how it was: he just knew. So he said Here's one for the road,
sucker, bringing his fist down hard on the back of the guy's neck like
he was doing karate and wanted to break it. One of his buddies was
keeping the girl quiet, the others were trying to stop him, he felt so
weird, so certain of himself, he just kept punching, kicking, he kicked
anywhere he could, the guy's head, the guy's fat belly, he was laugh–
ing saying How's it feel now you son of a bitch, wiping his mouth with
his forearm, How's it feel now you cocksucker, something jumped in
his mind and he was thinking for a second he had on steel-toed shoes
like at work but of course he hadn't, these were just his regular shoes,
summer shoes, loafers Marian had made him get, they were oyster–
white and pretty stylish, supposed to be Italian but not expensive like
the real kind, he'd bought them at the mall back in June before he
ever guessed that his luck would be changing and his whole life would
be turned around.
• •
•
There was some confusion about getting back home, who was
going to drive who, they'd come in two cars, Harvey's and Pete's, but
finally he got home, it was 3:20
A.M.
and there was Marian watching
television, dressed for bed and barefoot, her face oily with cream.
