It

on either side. Mike’s downward kick had broken his nose, although Henry would not be aware of the fact for some time yet. ‘You better know, or I’ll come after you, you fucking jerk.’
The others began to climb the fence, Peter and Victor with some reluctance, Belch and Moose as vacantly eager as before.
Mike waited to see no more. He turned and ran into the scrub. Henry bellowed after him: ‘I’ll find you, nigger! I’ll find you!’
8
The Losers had reached the far side of the gravel-pit, which was little more than a huge weedy pockmark in the earth now, three years after the last load of gravel had been taken out of it. They were all gathered around Stan, looking appreciatively at his package of Black Cats, when the first explosion came. Eddie jumped — he was still goofed up over the piranha fish he thought he had seen (he wasn’t sure what real piranha fish looked like, but he was pretty sure they didn’t look like oversized goldfish with teeth).
‘Merrow down easy, Eddie-san,’ Richie said, doing his Chinese Coolie Voice. ‘Iss just other kids shooting off fireclackers.’
‘That s-s-sucks the r-r-root, Rih-Rih –Richie,’ Bill remarked. The others laughed.
‘I keep trying, Big Bill,’ Richie said. ‘I feel like, if I get good enough, someday I’ll earn your love.’ He made dainty kissing gestures at the air. Bill shot him the finger. Ben and Eddie stood side by side, grinning.
‘Oh I’m so young and you’re so old,’ Stan Uris piped up suddenly, doing an eerily accurate Paul Anka imitation, ‘this my darling I’ve been told — ‘
‘He can sayng!’ Richie screeched in his Pickaninny Voice. ‘Lawks– a– mussy, thisyere boy can sayng! ‘ And then, in the MovieTone Announcer’s Voice: ‘Want you to sign right here, boy, on this dotted line.’ Richie slung an arm around Stan’s shoulders and favored him with a gigantic gleaming smile. ‘We’re going to grow your hair out, boy. Going to give you a git-tar. Going to — ‘
Bill popped Richie twice on the arm, quickly and lightly. They were all excited at the prospect of shooting off firecrackers.
‘Open them up, Stan,’ Beverly said. ‘I’ve got some matches.’
They gathered around again as Stan carefully opened the package of firecrackers. There were exotic Chinese letters on the black label and a sober caution in English that got Richie giggling again. ‘Do not hold in hand after fuse is lit,’ this warning read.
‘Good thing they told me,’ Richie said. ‘I always used to hold them after I lit them. I thought that’s how you got rid of your frockin hangnails.’
Working slowly, almost reverently, Stan removed the red cellophane and laid the block of cardboard tubes, blue and red and green, on the palm of his hand. Their fuses had been braided together in a Chinese pigtail.
‘I’ll unwind the — ‘ Stan began, and then there was a much louder explosion. The echo rolled slowly across the Barrens. A cloud of gulls rose from the eastern side of the dump, squalling and crying. They all jumped this time. Stan dropped the firecrackers and had to pick them up.
Was that dynamite?’ Beverly asked nervously. She was looking at Bill, whose head was up, his eyes wide. She thought he had never looked so handsome — but there was something too alert, too strung-up, in the attitude of his head. He was like a deer scenting fire in the air.
‘That was an M-80, I think,’ Ben said quietly. ‘Last Fourth of July I was in the park and there were these high-school kids that had a couple. They put one of them in a steel trash-can. It made a noise like that.’
‘Did it blow a hole in the can, Haystack?’ Richie asked.
‘No, but it bulged out the side. Looked like there was some little guy inside who just stroked it one. They ran away.’
The big one was closer,’ Eddie said. He also glanced at Bill.
‘Do you guys want to shoot these off or not?’ Stan asked. He had unbraided about a dozen of the firecrackers and had put the rest neatly back in the waxed paper for later.
‘Sure,’ Richie said.
‘P-P-Put them a-a-away.’
They looked at Bill questioningly, a little scared — it was his abrupt tone more than what he had said.
‘P-P-Puh-hut them a-a-a-away,’ Bill repeated, his face contorting with the effort he was making to get the words out. Spit flew from his lips. ‘S-S-Suh-homething’s g-g-gonna h-h-happen.’
Eddie licked his lips, Richie shoved his glasses up the sweaty slope of his nose with his thumb, and Ben moved closer to Beverly without even thinking about it.
Stan opened his mouth to say something and then there was another, smaller explosion — another cherry-bomb.
‘Ruh-Rocks,’ Bill said.
‘What,