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 was 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 survived.

Eddie had come over to her earlier. “Ah, Gadget. You said you’ve 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 there’s a more or less permanent encampment of old timers there. The city comes through and cleans it up sometimes. 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, mattresses, and blankets. The hawks stay away from there because the 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?” Gadget asked.

“Yeah...but...it’s 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 went back and forth with little or no regard for the desperation they passed through. They thought themselves generous if they tossed the change from a six-dollar cup of fifty-cent coffee.

Eddie wandered over to sit as Tiffy finished her set. Gadget wondered if they thought of it in terms of 'Set' yet.

Eddie started playing. Riffing really. Loud, to get attention. He had endurance, Gadget thought.

A couple of hours went by, and Gadget spent it looking over the place, walking around, and getting a feel for the square and its regulars.

A coffee shop, a waitress looked out the window at the buskers sadly. Grief and gratitude. She had escaped the life. A newsstand. No reading. A fat man watched a little TV and collected money. He thought he was sly to slip alcohol from a flask into what was probably coffee.

A Little Caesar’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 liquor store that looked like a prison with bars and locks.

A big youth came running like he was being chased through the plaza. No one behind him.

He ran past Eddie and Tiffy. Jax had already gathered his blanket and put his arm through loops and was moving. He jumped down stairs only to stop. Tiffy and Eddie were almost up when the runner came walking over to them, hangdogged.

Up the stairs came four guys and a girl. Toughs. Shakers for sure. Their clothes only looked a small bit better than the people they shook down. They walked straight for the three.

Suddenly, she felt a shoulder hitting her from behind, walking past. A big guy, 19, scared and cruel. A follower. He looked back at her, saw the guitar, “I don’t know you. Tax ya later.”

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

Behind her, two more. The ones the runner was fleeing from. Into their trap, it seemed.

Gadget touched a knob on her hearing aid, and she heard 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 scowled, stepped between him and Tiffy, bravely but foolishly. He handed over a wad of bills.

“That’s both of ours...a day’s 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 said nothing, smart for once.

Jax said he hadn’t played yet, he didn’t have any money. Wart’s number two grabbed Jax’s bongo drums, and the two struggled. Eddie intervened and got a punch in the face from Wart. Little Wart held Jax’s drums.

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

Lastly, Wart turned 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 group.” He said it with an air of mockery.

Gadget smiled for other reasons when she heard Wart’s jab. She was in the right place and time.

Wart laid a smack across Holden’s face, and Little Wart punched him twice in the belly as he fell.

The shakers moved along, laughing. This couldn’t be the only way they made money. Shaking down buskers. Cali... They had her someplace. Making money off  her.

Tiffy started crying after the gang had gone. Jax, probably only 13 himself, started sniffling, trying to be tough. Tiffy must have been 14. Eddie would have been 16. Holden 17. Cali would have been 13, if she lived.

Walking over, Gadget heard without the spy ear.

“Those assholes,” Eddie said.

Jax said, “Let’s see if Dearly will spot us a blue plate special or two... it’s been long enough.”

Eddie shook her head, “Can’t. Bossman is there.” Jax whimpered.

She walked up, “Those are the takers?”

Eddie nodded, “Not their name... Just Wart’s guys. They got you, too?”

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

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

Eddie put his arm around the whimpering Tiffy.

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

Gadget said, “You all squat together?” Eddie looked at her, confirming, thinking they had to find Cali.

She said, “If I can squeeze into your squat, I’ll get pizza. A couple from that place.” Pointing to Little Caesars. Jax looked at her, then Eddie. Holden looked too. Silent agreement.

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

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

Eddie gave her directions for four 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 nodded. “An hour at most.”

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