Hold out your hand, Casimir Why, Sister? Wha'd I do? Hold it outThe clapper comes down with surprising force on his palm, and he jumps For swearing, Casimir, you have to be punished againAnd once more the black-clad arm rises, strikes his palm The kids are laughing at him as he walks back to his seatThrough his tears of pain he manages a dubious grinNuttin' to it, he whispers, but his fingers are swelling, and he nurses his hand through the morning Pfeiffer, the gym teacher, is the guy you gotta watch out for most of allWhen they march in to eat, everybody has to be quiet for three minutes while prayers are saidPfeiffer snoops around chanel tote handbags behind the benches, watching you to see if you whisper Polack darts his eyes to either side; nobody seems aroundWhat da hell we eat tonight? Thrump! His head stings through the layers of concussion which revolve dizzily in his skull All right, Polack, when I say quiet I mean it He stares numbly at his plate waiting for the pain to subside; it's very hard to keep himself from rubbing his head Afterward: Jesus, dat guy Pfeiffer's got eyes in back of his head And there are anglesLefty Rizzo, the big kid, fourteen, runs the joint when Pfeiffer or one of the Sisters or Fathers ain't aroundYou gotta pal up wit' him, or you don't get anywhere What cartier ladies must de cartier can I do for ya, Lefty? (Polack at the age of ten Lefty is talkin' to his lieutenants Aaah, what for? Wha'd I do to you? Beat it He walks through the dormitory, scanning the fifty beds, the half-opened lockers In one of them is an apple, four pennies, and a little crucifixHe cops the cross, saunters back to Lefty's bunk Hey, Lefty, I got somethin' for ya What the hell I want with that? Give it to Sister Catherine, a present Lefty considers thisWhere'd you get it? I hooked it from Callahan's bunkHe ain't gonna yell though, y' just tell him to shat up I coulda hooked it myself I saved ya da trouble Lefty laughs, and Polack is gucci wallet made There are obligations, howeverLefty likes to smoke, and he can get away with a half-pack after lights out without getting caughtEvery other night, the cigarette detail goes out for Lefty The four kids sneak out to the wall of the orphanage in the evening, and two of them are hoisted overThey drop to the pavement outside, walk for two blocks to the shopping street and loiter beside the newspaper rack of the candy store Polack walks inside to the cigarette counter Whadeya want, kiddo? the candy store man saysHe looks out the doorwayMister, that kid's stealing your papers! And the confederate tears down the street with the owner starting after new louis vuitton handbags himPolack grabs a couple of packs, thumbs his nose at the owner's wife, who is screaming at him, and runs away in the opposite direction Ten minutes later they rendezvous outside the wall of the orphanageOne of them boosts the other up to the ledge and then scrabbles after him, holding to his armThey sneak through the empty corridors, give Lefty his cigarettes, and are in bed a half hour after they have left Nuttin' to it, Polack whispers to the kid next to him One time Lefty gets caught smokingFor the real bad offenses there is a special punishmentSister Agnes lines the boys up in a file, and makes Lefty straddle a bench with his can up in the cheap rolex watches ai