Editing Getting the Band Together (section)

====First day at the Plaza====
She listened to Eddie play for the mid-morning crowd as they cut through the park going from one tall building to another.  He's as good as she remembered.  Though maybe not quite as good yet.  Style would come in time.  Besides, it was Tiffy who blossomed, if they survive. 

Eddie comes over to her, “Ah, Gadget.  You said you been wandering around?  Don't wander south of here.  Bad area. Forty Thieves.. Actually the Forty Threes, 43rd Street gang.  Fucking takers.  Over by the river is a nice place in the summer.  Cold as hell this time of year but a more or less permanent encampment of old timers is there.  The city comes through and cleans it up some times.  Gives them time to get their valuables out then trashes whatever they had been living in.  Twice a year.  Shows the uptowners they are cleaning the place up.  After that some Do-Gooders come by and drop off new tents and mattresses and blankets.  The hawks stay away from there because police got no concern if one or two kiddie pimps end up in the trainyard.  Some of those old timers are ex military and ain't shy about it.  But, some are almost as bad as the hawks.  They won't rent you out but they will trade warmth for wetness, ya know.  Better off finding a squat.”

“You and Tiffy got a squat?  “

“Ya...but.. its tight.. sorry.. I can't help with that.  The East industrials by the train-yards have a lot of junkies and packs of wild dogs..  You can sleep there but the temptation is too strong for people. Temptation to use, temptation to steal.  "
The usual crowds go back and forth with little or no regard for the desperation they pass through.  Think them self generous if they toss the change from a six dollar cup of fifty cent coffee.   

Eddie wanders over to Sit as Tiffy finishes her set.  Gadget wonders if they think of it in terms of  'Set' yet. 

Eddie starts playing.  Riffing really.  Loud, to get attention.  Hes got endurance, Gadget thinks.  

A couple hours go by and Gadget spends it looking over the place. Walking around and getting a feel for the square and its regulars.   

A coffee shop, a waitress looks out the window at the buskers sadly.  Grief, and gratitude.  She escaped the life.  A newsstand.  No reading.  A fat man watches a little TV and collects money.  Thinks he's sly to  slip alcohol from a flask into what is probably coffee.  

A Little Ceaser's Pizza. Classic cardboard pizza.  The clerk. Another survivor.  A paycheck away from being on the street again.  Squats.  Can't make rent. 

A laundromat.  Customers only.  A walkway to the parking lot.

A liqueur store that looks like a prison with bars and locks. 

A big youth comes running like he's being chased through the plaza.  No one behind him.

He runs past Eddie and Tiffy.  Jax has already gathered his blanket and put his arm through loops and was moving.    He jumps down stairs only to stop.  Tiffy and Eddy are almost up when the runner comes walking over to them, hang dogged.  

Up the stairs come 4 guys and a girl.  Toughs.  Shakers for sure.  Their clothes only look a small bit better then the people they shake down.  They walk straight for the three.  

Suddenly she feels a should hitting her from behind, walking past.  A big guy, 19, scared and cruel.  A follower.  He looks back at her, sees the guitar, “I don't know  you.  Tax ya later.”

He walks to the top end of this part of the plaza.  Another coming in from the parking lot .  Jax walking ahead of him, being pushed. 

Behind her two more.  The ones the runner was fleeing from.  In to their trap it seems.  

Gadget touches a knob on her hearing aid and she hears better.

The big guy in front.  Army boots.  New.  “I don't give a fuck, Eddie.  Starve.  Fork it over.  Hey, Tiffy, you can keep your money for a little help with handsome.”

Eddie scowls, steps between him and Tiffy, bravely but foolishly. He hands over a wad of bills.  

“That's both of ours...a days work, Wart.”

Big Wart....Good.  Now I've seen him,  “Not for me it wasn't.  All fun.  Maurice will fork over a couple hundred for a couple hours with Tiffy.”

Eddie says nothing, smart for once.

Jax says he hadn't played yet, he doesn't have any money.  Wart's number too grabs Jax'bongo drums and the two struggle.  Eddie intervenes and gets a punch in the face from Wart.  Little wart holds Jax's drums.

'That was stupid Eddie.  Jax, 5 bucks and you can have your drums back for tomorrow.  Or wet trade.  You know where we will be.”

Lastly Wart turns to the runner.  “Holden, you are the stupidest fuck I know.  You got taxed and instead of just playing elsewhere you tried to warn Eddie and the Stone Benches Band.  “  He says with an air of mockery.

Gadget smiles for other reasons when she hears Wart's jab.  She's in the right place and time.

Wart lays a smack across Holden's face and Little Wart two punches him in the belly as he  falls.  

The shakers move along, laughing.  This can't be the only way they make money.  Shaking down buskers.   Cali...They have her someplace.  Making money off her.

Tiffy starts crying after she the gang has gone.  Jax, probably only 13 himself, start sniffling, trying to be tough.  Tiffy must be 14.  Eddie would be 16.  Holden 17.  Cali would be 13, if she lives.

Walking over Gadget hears without the spy ear.  

“Those assholes,” Eddie says.   

Jax says, “Lets see if Dearly will spot us a blue plate special or two.. its been long enough.”

Eddie shakes her head, “Can't. Bossman is there.”  Jax whimpers.  

She walks up, “Those are the takers?  “

Eddie nods, “Not their name.. Just Wart's guys.  They get you, too?”

She shakes her head, “That big guy said he would tax me later.  “

Holden says, “That's Waldo.  Wants people to call him Eastwood, but Waldo is his name.  Big, tough, and mean.  One of Wart's muscles.”

Eddie puts his arm around the whimpering Tiffy.

“We ate yesterday.  Holden? Jax?”  They both shake their heads.

Gadget says...”You all squat together?  “  Eddie looks at her, confirming, thinking they have to find Cali.

She says, “If I can squeeze in to your squat, I'll get pizza.  A couple from that place.” Pointing to Little Ceasers.  Jax looks at her, then Eddie.  Holden looks too.  Silent agreement.

“Alright.  We should go.  If we set up again and start playing they'll come back.  Today is over.”

Gadget says, "Where do I meet you.  I have an errand to run before getting food.”

Eddie gives her directions for 4 blocks away.    “You'll see a tall water pipe on the side of a building.  Painted blue.  Hit it a few times and one of us will come get you.”

She nods.  “An hour at most.”

<div class="center" style="width: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">[[File:Gadget line.jpg]]</div>