“Hey, Nina. Surprised to see me?”
“Hey, Curly Don.”
“Nobody calls me that no more.”
“Well, nobody but you ever called me Nina.”
“What? Yeah, they did. Your Dad called you Nina. Nina’s your name, isn’t it?”
You’ve got to get up pretty early in the morning to put one over on Curly Don Szimlovicz. Our meeting started at two, so that gave me a little advantage. I studied his habits for a day or two, which is enough for the operation I had in mind.
“Alright, Curly Don. You wanted to see me. Here I am. Take a look. You like it?”
“Not like that. I wanted a meeting. I didn’t want to look at you, like.”
“Sure.”
Curly Don owns the ice racket on East Hickory. The set-up is pretty simple. He runs six unmarked carts, walking up and down the streets. The clowns make the rounds three times a day. Guys who know put in orders, and Curly Don provides services. Pretty straightforward. They don’t have a license to sell anything, but if you know, you can get a Tiger Blood with condensed, for a price. See, Curly Don also runs the ice house on Fifth, so the carts are just free profit falling off the ‘berg. Curly Don kicks a couple of bucks over to the Sheriff and nobody else runs carts downtown. It’s a pretty sweet gig.
“How long you been in town, Nina?”
“Long enough. I seen the ice house.”
“How long you thinkin’ about staying?”
“Oh, long time. Maybe forever.”
My dad ran the ice house before Curly Don. He thought up the cart gag. Dad wanted to leave the whole bundle to me when he went, but I got caught up in a gun running deal in Oregon, met a man, had a kid, small fire, had to leave, new face, just my usual kind of luck. Also, it would have been inconvenient before now to have to cross the Red River, for various reasons unrelated to Curly Don, but people eventually forgive and forget once the worms move in.
It always comes back to Curly Don, though.
“You got a place to stay?”
“Why? You want to know where to bring the tar and feathers?”
“Aww, Nina. It ain’t like that no more.”
I don’t mind him keeping the ice warm for me while I went off to see something of the watery part of the country, but the ice house is mine by right and I’m here for it. I don’t know when he knew I’m back in town, but a guy in oversized shoes and a suspiciously orange coiffure showed up and honked at the door of the rat-trap where I’m staying and mimed at me that Curly Don wanted to see me today. He knows where I live.
“You know where I’m at, Curly Don. Or where I was at yesterday. I don’t stay put too good these days.”
“Whaddaya mean?”
“The signing telegram? That wasn’t you? Let’s not play pretend. My pretender’s still sore from last time.”
“I don’t even know what that could possibly- You mean Tony? I sent him to ask you to drop by here today.”
“Yeah. Tony, I guess.”
Tony the Clown didn’t call him Curly Don, of course. Nobody does anymore. Curly Don probably thought it would be better to be called iceberg or icepick or anything but Curly Don, but everybody still knows who he is. I think Punchinello at the door called him Don Szimlovicz, but that sounds dirty just coming across the teeth. Even under his bad wig, Curly Don’s slick as a cube and you can see the bald look in his eyes, hunted and scared.
“What happened to Tony? Nobody’s seen him since he went by your place.”
“Couldn’t tell you.”
“I thought maybe you and him ran off together or something. I remember in the old days, any handsome fella’ bumped into you in the line at the grocery store-“
“I don’t recall what you mean.”
“Ok, Nina, ok, don’t get worked up. We’re all pals here. He’s around somewhere. Look, what are you doing back in town?”
I followed Curly Don for a couple of days after I got back. He stays in a little box above the ice house and toddles around downtown, pressing flesh and generally ingratiating himself. Thinks he’s a hub of some kind of underworld high society.
Since I am the prey, I let him set the particulars of the meeting. I know the ice house has three or four private rooms that are good for the kind of confrontation he must have wanted, but he picked wild. He wanted to meet at this little ballpark on the north side of downtown, just after 2:00. Open field, clear view, no easy way to hide an approach. So I didn’t.
“Oh, Curly Don, I’m here to see you. You know I couldn’t stay away.”
“I mean, you could…”
“What was that?”
“I said, yeah. Yeah. Well, here I am. My niece is playing softball here later, I figured this was a good place to meet up, since I gotta be back here anyway.”
“Wouldn’t want you to miss the game, Curly Don. Gotta be there for the kiddos.”
“I mean, she’s twenty, but I guess. It’s the city college team. She’s got a pretty good arm.”
At 2:10, bold as brass, I sauntered up to the mound and took in the infield and outfield in a slow arc, pretending I didn’t see Curly Don getting himself situated in the bleachers where he could “surprise” me.
“Yeah. Runs in the family, I guess. Your sister had a pretty good arm.”
“Whaddaya mean had?”
“You got something of mine, Curly Don.”
“No, what do you mean, ‘had?’”
“I want the ice house back, Curly Don. You want to have a sister. We want to maybe work something out?”
And he didn’t disappoint. I’d been standing there, trying to look like I was impatient, when he started clearing his throat. He finally stood up and walked down to the bottom of the bleachers and called me. I should get some kind of statue for the surprised look I put together for him.
“Work something out? You’re looney. You can have the ice house. We ain’t turned a profit on that damn thing since ‘17. I gotta work two other jobs so I can keep the place open.”
“And the cone carts, Curly Don.”
“Take ‘em. We do that for charity. Nobody even pays for them.”
“Oh, they’ll pay, Curly Don. They’ll all pay.”
“What?”
“You heard me.”
“I heard you say you was gonna hurt my family.”
“Good that we’re all on the same page.”
Curly Don’s eyes got wide and he backed slowly up the bleachers. He made it five steps up when the pit opened up under him. I had to start digging at 4:30 this morning, but I got it finished and covered in time. That’s the early one I got over on Curly Don. One they won’t stop talking about any time soon. I chuckled and shook my head, then started the long walk back to the ice house. My ice house. In my city.