snapping his fingers in time to the wild beat of the jazz band

 

epub or mobi, with thanks to the original sharer

 

He went on and on, talking about the half-woman half-baby inside, Lola the monkey-faced girl, and all the rest of them. “Okay now, here’s the prices. For adults, it’s just fifty cents, that’s half a dollar, the splittin’ of a buck! You can go in now, stay as long as you want, come out when you’re ready. For kids, it’s twenty-five cents and…

“Gus, Gus hold up sellin’ any more of those fifty cent tickets, hold it up Gus! Okay now! It’s bargain day at Coney Island. For the next two minutes, whoever gets over to Gus and gives him a quarter, that’s just twenty-five cents, gets in for kiddies’ prices. No matter how old you are it’s just a quarter.” There was a dash and a clogging, and Gus was swamped. Dozens of people fell for the carny dodge and put down their quarter … which was the regular admission price.

On the stage, a dingy podium-affair at the rear of the canvas tent, a group of unhappy looking people sat in straight-back chairs. The monkey-faced girl, Lola, was dressed in a pair of Arabian pantaloons, of some substance intended to imitate muslin. She wore a halter, and she was knitting. Her face was that of an orangutan. Round, prognathous jaw, beady inset eyes, and hair completely covering her skin. She was a creature who had happened to be born resembling an ape, and rather than marriage and a home, this was her life.

She rubbed up against him, and began to moan low and throaty. “Ohh, Honey,” she whispered, close to him, pressing her body against his, “c’mon back here for a minute, before we go up. I think my roommate’s still awake.”

She kept rubbing, and he hesitated only a moment as he followed her insistent dragging. They moved back toward the underside of the stairway. “Your roommate?” he said in confusion, following her mostly because she was a girl in heat and she was dragging him, “You didn’t mention any roo—”

Hugo came out from the under-stair, the tire chain wrapped around his hand. The chain caught the man just across the right cheekbone, laying it wetly bare, to the bone. He was only able to drop a half-moan from his mouth before it filled with blood, and he dropped heavily to the tile of the hallway. His splintered face gleamed up faintly in the reflected light from the block party outside.

“Drag him!” Theresa snapped, kicking against the man’s legs.