Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger Page B

and Mickey Witek stayed up all night listening to the War News on the radio. Maybe your right after all. Adolf and His Singing Assholes are lining up on the Russian boarder, the Brits knocked 26 Messershmits out of the sky, the Two Little Pigs kicked us out of Berlin and Rome, and Ickes stopped selling our oil to Japan. Now Gehrig is gone. Go figure it. Hitler has already killed a million people but he’s still alive. All Iron Horse ever did was play in 2130 straight games but he isn’t. It makes your guts feel kind of funny on account of thinking that it’s all getting ready to hit us at once. You better make sure your pal in the White House is on the ball and not playing hooky at Hide Park or etc., and that Mrs. R gets her ass out of the strip mines or having tea with some little Suzy Glutz so she can go back home to Washington and make sure the 4-flusher she is married to is doing his job and not just walking the damn dog. For better or for worse we are stuck with him now, and for thelong haul too. But come to think of it, maybe Willkie was not such a hot idea after all.
    The radio keeps making me think about Noah. “And God said The end of all flesh is come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence.” I hope this does not mean you and me and Hazel and your Mom and Aunt Carrie and Craig and Stuke, on account of what did we do? And that reminds me Iron Fists. We only have 3½ more months and we are way behind where we are suppose to be. The Rabby even bet me that we would not be able to pull it off in time. If we win I get a kiddish cup, whatever that is. If we don’t, I will probably lose my shirt on account of Stuke and the boys found out about the bet and are buying pieces of the action like they were Brandy Bottle Bates or Scranton Slim or somebody. This could cost me alot of $$$$$$$. So you better come up swinging Bucko. Your suppose to know it better than me, and not the other way around.
    Charlie
    P.S. Our bat-boy got a 16 year old girl pregnant. Counting backwards we figured out that it happened in our locker room in Saint Louis. What a guy. We never thought he had it in him. But they got rid of him anyway due to not being good for our image, which shows you what a bunch of heads they are in the front office. Everybody knows that kids are suppose to make mistakes or else they would not be normal. Sometimes you can even be proud of it like when I was 15 and gotin a contest where you were suppose to drink 4 beers and see who could piss the farthest. I was the only one who could hit the mayor’s Stutz on the other side of the road, except nobody told me that the mayor was in it with the window down. And even though he tried to run me over, the other guys looked at me like I was a king or something. (Come to think of it this is all a lie—so maybe you will just have to take my word for it.)
    P.S.2. Oh, yeah. We have a backup kid in NY but his old man will not let him travel with us. That means until we find a new one, we will need another bat-boy for our next road trip. Know anybody?
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    Dear Charlie,
    Please please please please please please please please
    please please please please please please please please
    please please please please please please please please
    please please please please please please please please
    please please please please please please please please
    please please please please please please please please
    please please please please please please please please
    please please please please please please please please
    please please please please please please please please
    please please please please please please please please
    please please please please please please please please.
    Joey
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    Dear Joey,
    That is the last time I ever let you pick the movie. Even at the Radio City. Or maybe I missed something. He starts a newspaper then grows a mustashe and screws everybody except his wife. That took 2 hours. And the only thing we