CHAPTER THREE - The Ballad of Eddie Robinson

Lemme give you some background on my Boy Friday, here. When I was a little wet behind the ears, I took somethin' easy, just to get my feet wet, and my ears dry, so I could always keep them close to the ground. Anyway, this chick named Robinson calls in sayin' her kid, Eddie, was swiped and could I find out the who's, where's and why's and all that. "Sure", I said, "no problem". I did some fancy footwork and found the kid was locked in some closet by his dad. Mom and dad were never married, or nothin', there ain't nothin' between 'em but the bottle of booze in the back seat. Nice life, eh? So, seein' this kid locked up, I pulled him out of the closet while the cops had their way with this jagoff that yanked him from his mom. Kid looks at me like I was Batman or somethin'. Aw, I'm just some gumshoe that did good, that's all. "Take care of the kid" I said to his mom and I never heard hide nor hair from any of them again - that is, until a couple of years back. I was doin' a stake-out and was found out and nearly beaten to a pulp by a couple of thugs, when who should come along but the missing closet kid. Didn't know that at the time, though. He swooped right in, tore the living crap out of one thug while I regained my footing and made mince meat outta the other. I'll never forget this, the kid puts this guy's lights out, turns to me and laughs and runs over to me as I'm layin' out the other one, and shakes my hand. I called the cops on my cell phone, "hey, guys, I got a couple of live ones for ya here". A squad car pulls up and the thugs are taken away. One of the cops calls out, "hey, Dick Tracy, nice job." I nodded over to the kid, "I had a little help here. He pummeled one of them for me." Eddie stuck his hand out, saying, "how ya doin' officer?" The cop shook his hand, "good and you?" "Good, thanks." "Putty in your hands", I says to the cop, "They ain't gonna be no trouble I can promise ya that." The squad car drives away. "Yep, another good day at the office" The kid looks at me, "Good one, huh?", he said. I didn't know what the hell just happened. I said, "who the hell are you?" He looked at me and frowned a little, "oh, you're welcome, I was glad to do it". He didn't do the normal turn around and walk away bit, but just stared right into my eyes. I says, "yeah, sorry about that, uh, thanks for your help there, but you just came outta nowhere and, uh......" I started staring at him a little harder, too. "Uh, do I know you or do you know me?" "Well, I think I know you a little better than you know me. I've been practically stalking you all over town since you dragged me outta that closet and clocked my dad." I pounded my fist into my other hand and pointed at him, "ROBINSON!" "Yep, yer lookin' at 'im". "Wow, how long ago was that?" I was taking a good look at him. He did change a lot, that's for sure, and I sure as hell enjoyed looking at them changes, too. Hm, not bad, not bad at all.

"Why practically stalking me? I ain't nobody special or nothin' ". "Hey, this is me you're talkin' to. You think I ever forgot that night? You think I ever missed a cop show on the tube or a cop movie at the show? Still got them articles from the paper about you. I showed my buddies them things and said I owed this guy my life. That miserable son-of-a-gun coulda killed me. I always thought of you as like Batman, or Joe Friday, or something." "Joe Friday?" "Yeah, the cool hat." The kid nodded and grinned, "yeah, ya still got that cool hat." Puttin' him on I says, "nah, I got a bunch of 'em, one for each day of the week." "Wow, I knew you were cool, but MAN!" "I'm snowin' ya, kid", I laughed, but then says, "you're all right, there, Eddie", I says when I shook his hand again. "So, whatcha been up to all these years?" "Ah, this and that, I guess, nothin' special?" "Your mom okay these days?" "Nah, she passed away a few years ago." "Jesus, sorry to hear that. What happened?" "Her liver." "Wow. You been okay?" "Yeah, you know, finished school, workin' - that kind of thing." "Oh, yeah, what doin'?" "Odd jobs and stuff, mostly - not exactly my dream come true, but...." "What is your dream come true?" "You" "'scuse me?" "I wanna work with you." "What? Be a gumshoe?" "Sure, why not! Mom was always talkin' about you after everything happened. She couldn't stop. I think she liked you a little. Not as much as I did, though. I started reading about you, followin' you all over this town. It ain't no accident I came around here today. When I saw them thugs goin' after you, I knew I had to jump in. It's like, you wanna start hangin' with this guy, here's your chance." I was a little puzzled, "chance? For what?" "To join you. The way I see it is I was saved, by you, no less, so to pay ya back, I wanna join you." "Have you ever worked as a detective?" "No, nothin' like that, but I have been working out." It was true. I was looking up and down at his body - flat stomach, ripped upper arm muscles, a slightly bulging......well, you know...

"If anything, while I learn the ropes, I can at least be your foot soldier, help you beat the bad guys. Come on, you saw what I could do today."

"Yeah, that was great, it was very brave of you, but we were just lucky in this case. These mugs didn't carry a piece. You never know, the next one I tangle with could have an AK-47, you could be killed. I can't have that."

"Yeah, but if I do die because of this, it'll be with you, at least for you. Without you, I couldn't be standin' here talkin' to ya like this. That creep would've killed me in that closet - if not him, then someone else."

"Well, you're never gonna be rich hangin' with me." "Don't matter, this ain't about money, it's about you. When mom told me about you, I was always wishin' you were my dad instead of that jerk. You didn't know this, but those few minutes when you pulled me out of the closet set me up for life. I was so into law enforcement, and all that, I never even did anything stupid. I did really good in school. I wanted my mom to be proud of me, it wasn't easy raisin' a kid on her own. You didn't really know who I was all this time, but I wanted to make you proud of me, too."

He had this look in his eyes I'll never forget. I thought this was too good to be true. His body, his way with fists, his loyalty to me. I was lookin' at a total All-American Boy, a regular Jack Armstrong. Arm strong pretty much said it about him. You should've seen the way he tackled one of those thugs. He didn't even get hit once. It was awful temptin' to take him on, but I wasn't sure it was such a hot idea. I mean, a kid that young, wantin' to throw his life away chasin' after an old gumshoe like me. I had to let him down gently. I smiled and put my arm around him as we walked back to my old beater. "Eddie, that was pretty amazing what you just did there- you ain't afraid of nothin', I can see that." We got to my car and stopped. I shook my head, I paused, searching for the right words. Or was it, I was about to make a huge mistake. "Eddie, I don't know what to do here. I really wish I could take you on. It'd be good to have someone along, at least someone to hang out with. The biz does get pretty lonely sometimes. "well, you wouldn't be lonely - neither would I..." "Yeah, but...I can't do that to you. I can't let you live the same type of life I live. You got a nice face, I'd hate to see that all bruised up. I'd hate to think of a single bullet going through that body of yours, you worked so hard to build it up and all. You, uh, you want a ride somewhere?" "yeah, thanks, I'm at that motel on 8th street."

As we drove, nobody really said anything. Nobody had to. We got to the 8th Street Motel. As he got out I asked, "Eddie, you say you got some clippings of me?" "Yeah, I always keep 'em with me." "You think I can come up and see them?" He grinned a little. If he can't work with me, he can still show me this collection of his. He invited me up. We walked past the desk clerk who asked, "hey, Eddie. Who's your friend?" "Only the best gumshoe in the biz." "Really? You do something? You know we don't let no crooks in this place." I says, "not a crook - a friend." As we walked up the stairs, I walked up behind him and just watched him walk. Pretty frickin' nice, I thought. I'm an idiot for letting this one go, but it's for his own good. We got to his room and he takes out this scrapbook. I mean, holy moley, this thing was huge. There were even some bits about to fall out of it. "It's kinda old, I gotta get a new one. Maybe a volume II or somethin' ". He opened it carefully and we just pored over the newspaper clippings for a while. After about an hour, I said I had to get goin', had some other stuff I had to do that day. That really wasn't true. I could've spent the whole day with him. I wanted to. I had to distance myself from him. As I got to his door, I put out my hand to shake his. His face fell, and I tried to console him. "Eddie, you know, you....you got it all. Ya got what it takes. You can make yourself into whatever you want. You can grab life by the balls and have anything you want....." His voice broke, "but I want you!" He gave me a bear hug. I couldn't believe what I was hearin'. I hugged him back. I loved the feel of the shirt he was wearing. I loved the scent of his cologne. I loved the sound of his sobs, the feel of his tears running onto my cheeks. I kind of felt my own peepers brimmin' over. "It's okay, Eddie. It's okay." On impulse, I laid a small, gentle kiss on his neck and rubbed my cheek against his. I found myself really falling for this kid. He smelled so good, he felt so soft, he kissed me back, then reached around and kissed my lips, gently rubbing his tongue on the inside of my mouth. I reciprocated. I reached over and pulled his shirt off, revealing a body any young kid would want to have for his own, and next to his own. "Unbutton my shirt, Eddie, you're working for me, now." He not only unbuttoned my shirt, but as my chest was exposed, he was licking it further down he went. He was licking my nipples, and I moaned, "boy are you ever workin' for me!"