Stick With Me Kid

Stick With Me, Kid Part 12

Charley's POV (con't.)

Once we collected our pay, my lover took me to a little German restaurant he knew of in the cellar of a brownstone on East 23rd Street. We ate a meal of sauerbraten and red cabbage, and then caught a trolley to Mrs. Hicks' rooming house.

"Frank Englehorn! Charley!" The landlady greeted us in the first floor vestibule, pleased to see us both. "Your room's ready for you, Frank. You won't mind sharing it with Frank, will you, Charley?"

"I do not mind sharing, Mrs. Hicks."

Her smile told me that she had not thought I would have any objections. "It's good to see you looking so fit, Charley! And you too, Frank. I guess the sea air must agree with you!"

"Thank you. The Wanderer had a good voyage."

"You two are lucky, you've missed all the disorder. I had indoor plumbing installed! It was David West's idea. There's a lavatory on each floor now, and a bathroom right down the hall, and an anthracite boiler in the kitchen! Can you imagine that? Hot water at the twist of a knob!"

"That does sound very nice." It seemed to me she was rambling. I exchanged glances with my lover. He knew her better than I did.

He frowned and shrugged. "Yes, it does. May we have the key now, Mrs. Hicks?"

"Oh! Yes, of course, how silly of me!" She fumbled in the pocket in her long skirt and handed him the key. "You must want to get some sleep."

Frank Englehorn made a noncommittal sound. I could just see the tip of his tongue through the thick hairs of his moustache. It touched his upper lip, and I knew that once we closed the door of our room, it would be some time before either of us got any sleep. "By any chance have you heard from David West? He wanted to meet with Charley."

"Oh, dear, I don't know where my head is tonight! David... I mean Mr. West is already here! He's with a ..."

"I'll tell him about it, Emma." David West came out of the front room, interrupting her. He slid his left arm around her waist. "Frank. Charley."

"Dave." The two men shook hands in greeting. "Good to see you again. And looking well, I might add." He glanced from the green-eyed man to his landlady, and his moustache twitched.

"Er... yes." David West cleared his throat. "Emma, why don't you make a fresh pot of tea?"

"Certainly, dear." Mrs. Hicks patted David West's hand where it rested on her waist before hurrying down the corridor that led to the back of the house.

My lover met my eyes, and by tacit agreement we said nothing about the interaction between his landlady and his friend. "A fresh pot? Since when do you drink tea, Dave? I thought you hated the stuff."

"It's not for me." He had seen our silent exchange, and his color was high. "Let me explain."

"Perhaps you'd better."

He coughed lightly. "After I sent you the telegram, I had a visitor to my office. I knew you'd be coming back to Emma's, so I brought him here to meet with you, Charley."

"'Him'?"

"Come into the parlor. Mr. Chow can explain."

Frank had gestured for me to precede him into the front room. I could feel his presence at my back, but for once I was not centered on it. The name David West had uttered was one of the more common surnames in China, and yet ...

Three steps into the room, I came to an abrupt halt, my eyes widening in shock.

"Do you know this gentleman, Charley?"

The man in the room was dressed in the traditional garb of the Ambassador's bodyguard, which meant that while he appeared unarmed, he was not. He was taller than I, and some years older. Other than that, the fact that we were related was obvious, at least to the observant. The Merrimans had never seen the resemblance.

I lowered my eyes, brought my palms together, and bowed from the waist. "Lin!"

"Chi!" He crossed the floor with rapid steps and embraced me, then stepped back to examine me. "You are safe? Well?"

"Yes, Lin, I am fine." Although I was confused. My oldest brother should have been at the Consulate in Washington, DC.

"I worried when you threw yourself from that carriage," he said in Cantonese.

"You were the driver?" I responded in the same language.

This time he bowed to me. "We all took turns; we were not about to let our little brother wind up in the House of the Seven Moons." There were six brothers all told who guarded the Ambassador and his family. "Oh, yes, we knew. From the moment that woman refused to return you to us at the Consulate, we had spies following her every move. I am sorry we could not spare you the beating. The others responsible have been punished." He touched my queue, noting the shortness of its length. "You did a good job on the one in the carriage. I was proud of you."

"I did not have the time to enjoy killing him. His partner?"

Lin simply smiled.

"Ah, so." I returned his smile and continued meditatively, "I received a telegram stating that the Merrimans were forced from Washington in disgrace."

Lin's smile deepened, and I backed away a step. Even powerful men trod warily around my brother when he had that smile on his face.

There was a tap on the door, and Mrs. Hicks entered. "Your tea, gentlemen." She glanced at Frank Englehorn and David West, who had been speaking together quietly at the other end of the room. "I brought you two something a bit stronger."

David West took the tray from her and set it down on a small table. She poured, fussed a bit with the sugar and cream, and left us. I handed my brother his cup, then poured a glass of whiskey for my lover. David West already had a glass in his hand.

Lin resumed speaking in English for the benefit of the other two men. "Gregory Merriman was found in a compromising situation. With a boy. Merriman must have searched very hard to find him. Save for the shape of his eyes, the boy looked a good deal like you, little brother." He raised the cup to his lips, but paused. "Americans are strange. They would not have objected if it had been a girl, but a boy... ? Well, he was... run out of town on a rail? Is that the term? Your English is better than mine, Chi."

I nodded.

"Do you want blood, Chi?" Lin asked, again speaking Cantonese. "You are entitled, you know, for what they did to you. The Empress is not happy with all the foreign devils in our land. A word in her ear, and there would be war."

"Over me?" I was shocked. "Our country is already so in debt." After the war with Japan some years earlier, we had been forced to pay an exorbitant indemnity. "I would not ask that. I think that Gregory Merriman cared for me as much as he could care for anyone, Lin."

His brows snapped together in a frown. "You make excuses for the man?"

I held up my hand to forestall further words. "He is a weak man, no match for his wife, but he never hurt me. Alyce Merriman, on the other hand... Well, no matter. She will never achieve power, which she craves like a drug, and which she could only obtain through her husband. Gossip has a long reach. Wherever they go, tales will follow them." I knew that my family and those they worked for would see to it.

"Ah, so. My little brother is not so forgiving as one might think."

"Lin, I am a Chow. I do not forgive."

He sipped his tea, and grimaced. "This is not like home, Chi." He set the cup down. "Your mission is done, and you have been released from further obligation. When will you be returning to China?"

"I would prefer to stay in America, if it is permitted, Lin. I have found happiness here. There is someone I care a great deal for..."

"This man here?" His gaze raked over my lover, and he looked pained. "A round-eyes, Chi? A foreign devil?"

"He saved my life." I did not inform my brother that I had saved his as well. "I do not want to leave him."

"And does he care for you?"

"Yes." I had no doubt of that.

"You will not be treated well by these Americans. Not only do you love another man, but your skin is yellow."

"He is a sailor. We will be at sea."

For long moments he was silent. I waited patiently, knowing there was no way I could rush his decision. He was the eldest family member on these shores. Whatever his conclusion, I would have to abide by it.

"Very well, Chi. I hope you do not regret this choice."

"I will not regret it, Lin." Again, I had no doubt.

My brother tossed me a small, silken bag. I snatched it out of the air and hefted it in my hand, an eyebrow arched in question. I did not need to examine the contents to know that it contained perfect stones of immense value.

"Compensation, shall we say? It may not be enough to buy your round-eyes a boat, but if you are not extravagant, it will keep you in comfort." He turned to the other two men, but only one was there. Frank Englehorn had left the room. Lin sighed. "Go after him, little brother. I will finish discussing this matter with David West, who has been most accommodating in all of this. For a Westerner," he added grudgingly.

I bowed to him and left the parlor at a run, suddenly concerned. I took the stairs two at a time to the second floor room where Frank Englehorn had brought me to mend more than half a year before. The door was closed, and I pushed it open cautiously. He was sitting on the bed, his head in his hands.

"You did not wait for me."

"Have you come to say good-bye, Charley? Or should I call you 'Chi'?"

"Why would I say 'good-bye'? Would not 'goodnight' be more appropriate?"

His head jerked up. "I... I thought you'd be leaving with your brother."

"No. Lin is returning to Washington. He enjoys the games governments play with one another. I find that I prefer being a ship's cook."

"But... but... Dave told me your family is very important in China."

I shrugged. "I do not think you would be truly happy anywhere but on the sea. I was happy there also. I will stay with you, Frank Englehorn, for as long..." The rest was muffled under his kiss.

When we finally had to stop in order to breathe, he rested his cheek against my hair. "For always, Chi."

"Charley, honored sir." I stroked my hand over his chest, feeling his nipple peak under his shirt, and thought of him wearing a ring there also. "Charley."

He would not allow me to use the jewels to buy him a boat. "Save them for a rainy day, Charley." But he accepted with pleased delight the pipe I had custom made for him from a wood that would enhance the flavor of any tobacco.

I selected a lustrous black pearl for Mrs. Hicks, a token of gratitude for her kindness to me, and for David West, for having gone to such lengths simply because a friend asked it of him, an emerald that matched his eyes.

I tucked the remaining jewels at the bottom of my sea bag, along with Mrs. Hicks' cookbook.

We sailed again on the Wanderer. Her captain fell ill on that trip, and Frank, as first mate, had to take command. He returned the Wanderer to Hoboken with cargo and crew intact, and the owners were so grateful they offered him a ship of his own.

He was young to be captain, but his moustache helped him look older. Together we saved every cent of our pay that we could, and eventually we were able to put a down payment on a tramp steamer that was in good shape.

Frank Englehorn sailed the Venture across the Pacific Ocean to the South Seas, as had been his dream, and we plied the shipping lanes of the South China Sea, the Java Sea, Banda, Timor and Arafura Seas. In due course, the Venture became ours free and clear.

We were in Shanghai when a letter from New York caught up with us. "Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle! David West and Mrs. Hicks got married!"

"Ah, so. He finally convinced her that she is all he needs to be happy?"

"Yes." My lover looked up from the letter and smiled. "It sure took him long enough!" They had been keeping company for almost as long as Frank Englehorn and I had been together.

I stood before him, rubbing my fingertips over his chest. Beneath the material of his shirt I could feel the ring that pierced his nipple. "Unlike a certain round-eyes who would not take what was before him?"

"You wouldn't have cared as much for me, if I hadn't been so honorable," he grinned around the pipe between his teeth.

"Would you have made me wait all this time, if I had not prevented Jennings from slicing into you?"

"You're a smart man, Charley. You would have figured it out, sooner or later."

"And they say we Chinese are inscrutable!" I tugged on the ring, and the pupils of his blue eyes expanded. He took the pipe from his mouth and kissed me, as I had hoped he would, and wrapped his arms around me. "What else does the letter say?"

"Hmmm." He angled it over my shoulder so he could see the lines.

"Perhaps honorable one need grasses?" I teased in pidgin English.

"My eyesight is as good as yours!" he growled and pinched a buttock, and went back to the letter. "Oh, now, this is very interesting! Dave says an old friend of mine has been looking for me. Carl Denham," he said musingly. "I wonder why... Ah, of course, he's in moving pictures! He probably wants to film these islands. We haven't taken on any new jobs, and the Venture is all fueled and stocked, ready to go. What do you say, Charley?"

"If that is what you wish? Yes."

Shortly after our arrival in New York, we found ourselves in need of a new first mate. The old one met and married a woman in a matter of days, and she wanted him to sail the Americas to Europe route.

Frank interviewed a young man who was a heller, he said, full of piss and vinegar, but an excellent first mate nonetheless, and he was more than happy to sign on Jack Driscoll.

Right after that, Carl Denham paid the Venture a visit.

"I need a man who knows the South Seas like the back of his hand. That's you, Skipper!"

"Where, exactly, will we be going?"

"I... uh... I can't tell you that just yet. I will, I swear. When we get into the area, I'll give you the exact coordinates."

Frank Englehorn began shaking his head. "I'm responsible for these men's lives, Carl. I need to know..."

"That's another thing, Skipper. You're going to need about two dozen more men!"

"Now, see here, Denham..."

"Just hold on a minute, Frank. We've been friends a lot of years." This was true. In spite of the time and miles between them, whenever their paths crossed, it was as if they had just parted. If I had not been so sure of my lover's affection, I would have been jealous. "I'm offering you this chance because we stand to make a lot of dough, and because there's no one I trust more!"

Frank Englehorn looked intrigued in spite of himself. I had my doubts about Carl Denham, a reckless, headstrong man who followed his own desires and be damned to everyone else.

"It'll be the adventure of a lifetime, and I'll make it worth your while, I promise! Why, you'll be able to retire to an island in the Fijis! Look, you think it over, Skipper. I'll get back to you in a couple of days. I have to see a man about some special equipment I'll be needing to deal with... well, never mind about that right now. And I've got to find a girl for my leading lady! Romance!" he snorted. "The Public wants romance!"

We watched as the man swaggered down the gangway, the epitome of confidence. Frank took out his tobacco pouch and placed a healthy pinch in the bowl of his pipe, then tamped it down and prepared to light it, his eyes thoughtful on mine. "What do you think, Charley?"

"We really do not need the money," I replied cautiously. "There are the jewels if we must..."

Frank was shaking his head. "A rainy day, remember, my friend? Our feet are barely wet." The Depression had not effected us as badly as it had the rest of the world. There was always a demand to transport cargo. A curl of smoke from his pipe obscured his face for a second, and when it lifted, his expression was wistful. "'The adventure of a lifetime.' We haven't been on an adventure in..." He was lost in thought, and I recalled how he had grown bored with sailing the Atlantic trade route. "Charley?"

We were alone in the wheelhouse. The men had liberty, and there was no one to see me embrace the man I cared so much for. I went to him and leaned against him, my hair catching on the grizzled stubble that covered his cheek.

"You need to shave, Frank."

"Don't change the subject, Chi."

"Very well. If this is what you wish, honorable one, this is what we shall do."

I should have said no.

Within a few days, Denham returned to the Venture with cases of rifles and boxes of gas bombs, and a beautiful young woman named Ann Darrow. We set sail for a part of the South Seas where we had never been, in search of Skull Island.

And when we returned to New York, it was with King Kong, the Eighth Wonder of the World.

Manhattan Island was in a shambles. Human life and property had been laid to waste, and a pall hung over the city. King Kong had broken free of his steel chains, eventually taking refuge on top of the Empire State Building.

He had been slain by airplanes, but his death did not halt the ramifications of his actions. Like waves in the ocean, driven before high winds, the consequences of the giant ape's capture were threatening to drag us down for the third time.

I entered the wheelhouse. My lover had a grey cast to his normally ruddy cheeks. A piece of paper was in his hand.

"'The adventure of a lifetime!' Who would have thought it could end in this way? They want to take the Venture away from us, Chi."

"The jewels..."

"No. Those are yours, and I'll be damned if I let anyone take them from you."

"Frank, you said I should hold them for a rainy day. We appear to be headed for a monsoon!"

"With the country in this damned Depression, you wouldn't get half what they're worth, and we'd still lose the Venture. No. I've tracked down Carl Denham. He's at Mrs. Hudson's boarding house. I don't dare leave the crew I've assembled; you'll need to go see him. Tell him we're leaving on the tide, and he's welcome to come with us, but he had better shake a leg!"

"Are you sure, honorable one?"

"I'm sure."

I obeyed my lover's request and went to see Denham. He leaped at the chance to make a fresh start as our partner.

"I just have to tie up some loose ends, Charley." Carl Denham glanced at the bed, at the figure who was huddled under the blankets, sound asleep, blond curls spilling over the pillow. The figure moved restlessly, dislodging the blankets, and I saw with some shock that it was male. Denham looked sheepish. "Tell the Skipper I'll be at the dock before the Venture sails."

He cut it close, having needed to hide from process servers who were lying in wait for him. And he did not come alone. The young man who had been in his bed waited on the dock, unaware that Denham wanted to take him with us.

"C'mon, Skipper. Be a pal and let the kid come with us. He's a good kid, I promise."

I scoffed privately until I was able to observe more closely the young man he insisted on bringing with him. When he looked at Carl Denham, his heart was in his blue eyes. I shook my head sadly. Denham had no idea.

John Smith had wounded eyes. I had seen children with eyes like that on the streets of every port we had sailed into, boys as often as girls, who had done things, who had had things done to them, and I grieved for his lost boyhood in spite of my antagonism toward the man who was his lover.

I liked Johnny Smith, and during the course of our journey back to the South Seas, I found myself coming to, if not 'like' Carl Denham, then at least tolerate him.

Since the little girl, Hildy Peterson, had come aboard the Venture, I had been sleeping alone, and so had not been sleeping well. She needed to be protected from the scum my lover had been forced to hire to replace the men we had lost, and so I kept her near me.

"Charley!" Her voice was an anxious whisper in my ear, and she shook my shoulder. "Please wake up!"

"What is it, Hildy?"

"Something's going on! I can hear the men talking really careful, like they don't want anyone to hear!"

From the companionway outside my cabin, men were running soft-footed across the deck.

"I'm scared, Charley."

I did not blame her. I handed her my cleaver. "You hide in cupboard, little Missy. I go see."

"Charley!"

"It be oke, Charley promise!" I pressed my ear to the door and listened, but all was quiet just then. I eased the door open and peered up and down the companionway. On bare feet, staying to the shadows, I approached a passageway.

"I don't get it, Eddie. Why'd the Old Man wanna come back here? I thought he swore he'd never sail these waters again!"

"Dunno, Snitch. Helstrom says they was gonna go fer the giant ape's kid. All's I know's if we go ashore, ain't none of us comin' back alive. Dutch says we gotta take over the ship. He's gonna put the Skipper off in the number four lifeboat."

"That's mutiny! If we get caught, we's all gonna swing for sure!"

"We's just swabbies, follerin' orders."

"Yeah. Yeah, mebbe they'll buy that. What about the others?"

"Red wants the Nancy-boy, and Helstrom, he wants the little girl." From the tone of his voice, he was uneasy about that. "Denham goes with the Skipper."

"Jimmy?"

"He'll do what Dutch says, if he knows what's good for 'im."

"What about the Chink?"

"What about 'im?"

"He's awful fond of the Skipper."

"Tough shit. He stays. I ain't eatin' your cookin'!"

There was nervous laughter, and the two men hurried off, their voices muffled by the fog that was starting to descend. I had heard the fear in their voices at the mention of hanging, but I knew they would not come to our aid. I went back to my cabin. Hildy was hiding behind the door, and almost hit me over the head with my cleaver.

"Charley! I'm sorry!"

"'Soke, little Missy. I be honest with you. We in big trouble. You know where Charley keep knapsacks. Go fetch, please." I quickly dressed in the dark trousers and tunic I wore during the day, and a pair of soft shoes. By the time I was done, Hildy had the knapsacks on my berth.

She saw me eyeing them. "I took five, because that's how many we'll be, Charley. You and the Skipper. Me, Johnny, and his Mr. Denham."

I nodded. "You do good." I crossed my fingers that Denham would be able to get Johnny safely off the ship. As the voyage had progressed, I had seen him come to care a great deal for the young man. "Hildy, not much time for you to go change clothes."

"Doesn't matter. They're all Mr. Denham's shirts." She smiled, and there was a hint of mischief in it. "Johnny keeps getting me new ones when Mr. Denham is somewhere else. He told me he'd pay Mr. Denham back for taking them."

I imagined I knew how Johnny paid his lover back, and I smiled myself, but I said nothing. "We go to galley now and get supplies."

"And guns?"

"And guns."

We were running short of minutes though, and I did not pack as carefully as I should have. Hildy filled the canteens. "Take these to number four lifeboat. Can manage knapsack too?"

She nodded in grim determination. I fitted her child-sized knapsack over her shoulders, then looped the straps of the canteens around her neck and sent her on her way. I slung the remaining knapsacks over my shoulder and went to the weapons' cabinet. I managed to liberate three rifles and the ammunition for them.

We landed on Skull Island and began searching for a safe place to set up camp. After hours of walking, we found an area around a banyan tree that seemed ideal. Carl Denham offered to explore to the East, and he took Johnny Smith with him.

Frank Englehorn and I would follow the faint path that led into the West. As much as I would have preferred to be alone with my lover, we had seen the way Helstrom looked at the little girl, and so the Norwegian came with us.

We had to watch Helstrom carefully. A number of times he had been on the verge of turning back. He complained every step of the way, of the insects, the heat, and the increasing frequency and violence with which the ground shook. He was also extremely vocal regarding the fact that he had neither a rifle nor a canteen of his own.

I regretted Helstrom's company. If he had not been with us, I would have taken the time to tease my lover to hardness and pleasure him with my mouth until his legs gave out from under him. I scowled at Helstrom behind his back.

We passed what appeared to be an overgrown orchard, and further on a swift-running stream. The water was tepid but better-tasting than what we carried in our canteens. We replaced the water and continued on, coming across an expanse of grassland that was almost park-like. It appeared empty.

"Run, Charley! Run!"

I ran. Not too far behind us was a horned dinosaur that we had stumbled upon. He had a frill of bone growing out from the back of his head, two wickedly sharp horns protruding from above his eyes, and one from just above his nose.

We knew he was male; he had been in the act of mating a female. Our presence alarmed her, and she pulled away and lumbered off. The male had taken exception to the interruption and had come after us.

Helstrom took a single look at the creature and ran, making enough noise to alert the entire jungle to his passing. Frank Englehorn followed, one hand digging into my arm, dragging me along.

Ahead of us was a pile of boulders that had fallen in such a manner as to form a shallow cave that was just deep enough to keep us safe. Helstrom was the first in. The opening was too narrow to permit anything more than the creature's horns to enter, but that did not stop him from trying to get at us. The sound his frill made hitting the boulder was nerve-shattering.

"Helstrom, what are you doing?" my lover demanded irately.

Helstrom kept shoving us toward the front of the cave and the enraged dinosaur. We kept backing away from it. Another shove from the Norwegian caused Frank to stumble, losing his grip on the rifle. It went flying out of the cave to hit the dinosaur on his snout.

"Goddamn it, Helstrom! Look what you've done!"

The dinosaur couldn't get at us, but it could get at the rifle. It trampled back and forth on it, almost dancing in frustrated fury, until all we could see was splintered wood and crumpled metal.

"That wasn't my fault!"

I began to swear at Helstrom in Cantonese, then switched to Mandarin, and when I had exhausted that, German, French and finally Russian, which had a particularly nasty sound. I stalked him to the back of the cave.

"Englehorn, restrain this yellow-skinned heathen! He listens to you!" His eyes grew enormous as I raised the cleaver that I had managed to hold onto in spite of everything. There was a hissing sound, and the acrid odor of piss filled the small area.

Helstrom's eyes rolled up in his head, and he fainted. I kicked his hip. "May I not kill him, honorable one?"

My lover gave my shoulder a squeeze. "Don't tempt me, Charley. I'm afraid Mr. Smith was right. Taking this miserable piece of shit with us was not a smart move." He sighed and scuffed some dirt over the puddle. "We may as well make ourselves comfortable." He curled his lip at his canteen; Helstrom had drunk from it. I handed him mine. "Thanks, Charley." He took a healthy swallow and gave it back, and I placed my lips where his had been. "Looks like we'll be here all night. I hope they don't worry too much, back at camp." He put his arm around my shoulders, and we settled down side by side.

I glanced to the front of the cave. The creature's head blocked out the remaining sunlight. "It looks like we are in deep trouble now, Frank."

"Well, at least Carl Denham and Jimmy have their rifles."

tbc