"Good evening, and welcome to half an hour of free parking." "However, I no longer park the car for you." "During the period I was rendering that service, we had the distinction of being the only parking lot ever to be proclaimed a disaster area." "Naturally, we cannot assume responsibility for articles left in the car." "So please take your children with you." "Tonight's story is called, "The Day of the Bullet."" "And it begins at once." "So that's how he died." "In his big car, wise in the way of the rackets." "He died last night, but it was 35 years ago that fate squeezed the trigger." "Thirty-five years ago in Brooklyn." "Bath Beach, Brooklyn, 1925." "What a darb!" "She's a beaut, all right, but I bet she won't go 90." "Sure, she will." "Easy." "How do you know?" "I know it." "That's how." "You can tell by looking." "Boy, you've got to admit there's nothing can touch her in Bath Beach, or Sheepshead Bay or even Brooklyn Heights!" "Sure, Iggy." "Sure, but we better get going." "Hey, what did I tell you, Clete?" "The speedometer goes to a hundred!" "Hey, Iggy, you know what we ought to do?" "Caught you this time, you little brat!" "Beat it, Iggy." "Let me go." "We weren't doing nothing." "What's going on here?" "Joe?" "These kids have been snooping around." "We weren't snooping, we were just looking at your old car." "Ain't no good anyway." "Honest, we didn't bust it or anything." "You know how I feel about this, Joe." "I don't want nobody, ever, getting this far again." "It won't happen again, Mr. Rose." "Well, it's happened before." "I'll give them a shellacking they won't forget." "You lay a hand on me and I'll tell my pop." "He'll show ya." "You'll wish you was dead." "Lay off the rough stuff, Joe." "Yeah, you'd better or my old man will lick you both with one hand tied behind his back." "And he can do it, can't he, Clete?" "He sure can." "His dad can sure do it." "What's your name, kid?" "Lggy, Ignace Kovacs." "My pop's a conductor on the Bath Avenue trolley line!" "Who are you?" "Cletus Vine." "Your old man a conductor, too?" "No, he works in a bank downtown." "All right." "I'm gonna let you kids go." "But if I find you hanging around here again," "I'll have Joe bust your skinny necks." "Now beat it." "Well, get going." "You heard Mr. Rose." "That big gazoo, he didn't scare me none." "He scared you enough for us to shag six blocks." "My dime bank's getting full." "How much you got?" "The bank ain't quite full yet." "When it is, I'll have enough." "Maybe even more than ten dollars." "You've been saving plenty long, but you don't know how much you got?" "I don't get it." "See, I don't want to cut the can open, but I figure it holds at least ten dollars." "Boy, just wait till I get that putter." "See me sink that, Clete?" "Boy, that's the best putter in the world." "Same kind as Gene Sarazen and Bobby Jones uses." "Ah, you've never even held a golf stick." "Who do you think you're kidding?" "Someday I'll own that putter." "I'll betcha." "But a putter's not enough." "You've gotta have a driver and a brassie and 30 jillion other kinds of clubs." "You think you're telling me?" "Sure, I'm telling you." "Well, I'll tell you something, too." "First I'll buy that putter, and then I'll buy the next one and the next until I got the best set of golf clubs in Brooklyn, New York," "USA, North America." " Iggy, where you been?" " Around." "I thought you wanted to watch the game." "Hi, Mr. Kovacs." "Hi, Clete." "When your folks moving?" "Tomorrow." "Where'd you play, Pop?" "I got a pick-up game down at the public park." "I'll bet you won." "Yeah, sure, we gave them a real lacing." "Gee, Mr. Kovacs." "You always win." "I'll bet you could play for the Dodgers if you wanted to, couldn't you, Pop?" "I don't know." "I'm getting kinda old now." "Old?" "Why, gee, you play every Sunday." "Look at Clete's dad, all he does is read the papers." "Well, from what my mom says," "Dad never has been very active." "Well, to each man his own taste, huh?" "Yeah." "Come on, let's go home, Iggy." "I'll bet if some tough guy was beating me up, you'd stop him, wouldn't you, Pop?" "Sure." "And you wouldn't care who he was?" "And you'd try to lick him." "Well, I'd sure try, Son." "After all, a guy can only try." "What if you can't lick him?" "Well, getting hurt's not important, Clete." "I keep telling lggy, the main thing is just don't be scared." "Did you eat?" "Yeah." "Did you?" "Yeah." "All packed and ready to go, huh?" "The movers are coming, Dad says, at crack of dawn." "Boy, I'm glad I'm not moving." "At first I was glad." "Now I'm not." "Scared?" "Nah." "What do you take me for?" "A baby?" "What do you want to do?" "You name it." "I don't care." "You name it." "Maybe we ought to try to pick up some change." "You could use it, yeah, in the city." "Over at Dyker Heights golf course?" "Yeah, let's fish for golf balls." "Okay, but I got to get home early." "Moving and all that stuff." "Hurry up, Clete." "If that old caretaker sees us, we'll be in lots of trouble." "Ah, phooey on the caretaker!" "He don't own those balls, they're lost." "Besides, it's a public golf course, ain't it?" "Well, ain't it?" "Sure, it is." "But that old caretaker can still cause trouble if he wants to." "Hey, lg, I think I feel one." "You sure?" "Yeah, I think so." "Right under my toes." "Boy, that ball's nearly like brand new." "Bet it's worth a quarter." "I don't know about a quarter, but it's sure worth a dime." "You hear that?" "The caretaker making a check-up?" "Don't matter who it is." "They'll report us if they see us." "Look out!" "Do you think I'm one of these lousy, small-time bootleggers you can double-cross for the fun of it?" "Hmm?" "Do you?" "This is who I am." "I'll show you." "It ain't fair." "It ain't fair." "Two against one." "Besides he's littler than them." "They're grown ups." "It's not like they show in movies." "It's awful." "They're yellow." "That's all." "Dirty yellow skunks." "Hey, where are you going?" "Where do you think you're going?" "I'm going home." "That's where I'm going." "But that guy's hurt." "You're just gonna let him stay there?" "Sure, I'm gonna let him stay there." "It's none of my business." "You saw what happened." "Do you think it's all right to beat up a guy like that?" "I don't know." "It's none of my business." "Besides I gotta get home." "My folks will be sore if I don't get home on time." "All right, if that's the way you feel." "Hey, Mister." "Are you hurt?" "Get out of here, you little sneaks." "Get out of here." "Did you see that guy?" "Did you see what they did to him?" "Come on, I'm gonna tell the cops." "The cops!" "What do you want to get mixed up with cops for?" "What do you care what they did to him?" "For Pete's sake!" "Because they beat him up, didn't they?" "And the cops can stick them in jail for 50 years if somebody tells them." "Yes, they can." "And I'm a witness." "I saw what happened and so did you." "So you're a witness too." "I don't like it." "And I didn't like that guy either." "So what do I care?" "Besides, cops make me nervous." "Let that guy tell the cops about it." "It don't make any difference if you like the guy or not." "He can't tell the cops." "Why not?" "Didn't you see how scared he was of Mr. Rose?" "You think it's all right for Mr. Rose to go around beating up anybody he wants to and nobody does anything about it?" "Hey!" "I get it now." "Mr. Rose." "What about him?" "He pushed you and me around, too." "You'll fix him." "Gonna back me up?" "Sure, I'll be a pal." "What have I got to lose?" "I'm moving tomorrow." "Hey, Sarge, these two kids said they've seen an assault over at Dyker Heights." "We ain't had no report." "Chase 'em home." "That's what I figured, too." "Except the little one here won't shut up." "What's wrong with your ears?" "Nothing, Sarge." "Except the guy mixed up in this is named Rose." "What's that?" "A guy named Rose." "You don't know anybody by that name, do you, Sarge?" "Drives a big car." "All right, kid." "What's bothering you?" "My pal here and me, we seen Mr. Rose and that big galoot chauffeur of his named Joe beat up a little guy over the Dyker Heights golf course." "They knocked him silly and threw him in a pond." "You're a pretty wise kid." "What do you mean?" "I saw it." "Clete saw it, too." "He'll tell you." "I do the telling around here, kid, and I'm telling you, you got an awful big mouth for someone your size." "That's just what I told him, Sarge." "He ought to have more sense than to go around trying to get people in trouble." "For Pete's sake!" "Don't you believe me?" "I was right there when it happened." "I was this close." "All right, kid." "You were that close." "Now beat it and keep your big mouth shut." "I got no time to fool around." "Go ahead." "Get out of here." "Well, I don't care if you don't believe me." "'Cause there's plenty of other people who'll believe me." "You just wait till I tell my father." "You'll see." "Take the car and drive over to Rose's place." "Explain it all to him and ask him to come along back with you." "You get the kid's name and address." "Yes, sir." "So bring along his old man, too." "Right." "Warm up that bench over there until I call for you." "Just wait till Pop gets here." "He'll show that cop and Mr. Rose, too." "I got to get home." "We're moving tomorrow." "I seen it and nobody can say I didn't." "And Clete'll back me up, 'cause he's seen it, too." "All right, you heard the kid and his story." "So I'll put it to you straight out, Mr. Rose." "Were you near that golf course today?" "I was not." "Of course not, but you see what we're up against here." "Oh, sure, I do." "You know something, Sergeant," "I don't blame the kid for trying to get even with me." "'Cause he and I've had a little trouble before." "What was the trouble, Mr. Rose?" "Oh, nothing very serious." "Just..." "Well, he and this other kid, here, are always trying to hang around my car." "I guess he's just trying to get square with me." "Well, what do you say, Mr. Rose?" "Oh, I say the kid's got a lot of spirit." "Haven't you, sonny?" "I ain't lying." "Honest, Pop." "We both saw it." "Honest, Pop." "Pop!" "Honest, Pop." "I mean, I wouldn't lie to you." "You just gotta believe me." "He was only a little guy, Pop." "And Mr. Rose nearly killed him." "Iggy, I don't want you going around telling stories about people." "Do you hear me?" "You heard your father, didn't you, kid?" "Sure, you did." "You and I understand each other a lot better now, kiddo." "So there's no hard feelings." "No use holding any hard feelings, son." "No use at all." "That's right, kid." "No hard feelings." "I tell you what." "Any time you want to drop over the house and look at that car, it's okay with me." "There's probably a couple of odd jobs you can do around the house, too." "I pay pretty good." "You don't have to worry about that." "Here, kid." "That'll give you an idea." "Now go on out." "Have some fun." "All right, you kids, go ahead home." "The rest of us got something to talk over." "Take it easy, Iggy." "It's getting awful late." "My old man will whale me good." "Maybe I won't see you again before I go." "So long." "It was all right." "I mean, it turned out real good." "What did?" "Well, Mr. Rose giving you that dollar." "That's as good as 20 old, beat up golf balls." "Well, isn't it?" "Yeah," "I'll bet it's as good as a whole new golf club." "Come on down to Leo's with me and I'll show you." "Oh, I can't." "My folks will be sore at me now." "Anyhow, you can't buy a golf club for a dollar." "You'll need way more than that." "Think so?" "Ten bucks!" "Yeah, ten bucks." "Hey, that's a lot of dough." "You better give that to your old man or he'll really jump on you." "My old man?" "Do you know what I'll do if my old man tries anything?" "I'll tell Mr. Rose on him, that's what." "And then you'll see." "You'll see." "You'll see." "You'll see." "You'll see." "In each lifetime there is one day of destiny." "It may be a day of which none of us is aware at the time." "Thirty-five years ago fate squeezed the trigger." "The bullet has been waiting in time ever since." "Today it struck, but that day, long ago when Iggy and I were boys," "was the day of the bullet." "Well, that's the way the old bullet bounces." "I see some of you are about to leave in order to avoid that last minute rush at the parking lot." "Please remain in your seats for this important announcement." "I shall again be visible at its conclusion." "Well, that's the way the old bullet bounces." "I know many of you are asking how I can afford to offer free parking." "This is possible because of a very lucrative sideline." "This combination is quite economical." "I need only one lot and the cars cost me nothing." "Naturally we pass the savings on to you." "I've had difficulty only once." "I was attempting to sell a man a car, only to discover he already owned it." "Until then, he had been insisting my price was too high." "Imagine his embarrassment." "Next time I shall be doing business at the same old stand." "Your patronage is kindly solicited." "Good night."