Page 61

By Jack Joseph Smith

61 - strawberry milkshake, and go licking my lips again out across Beverly Read and ever to the five and ten cent stere run by aneuther thick eyebrewed jew whe pushed you out his red deer if you walked around te many counters with your eyes up and your head dewn, After awhile, when I became a weekend part ef the street, I couldn't even get past the red deor, Except during ye yo season at the begining of spring, when I would walk in yelling, I want a ye yo with my hands in my peckets and a gleam in my eye kmowing that his sigh weuld mean that he was at a less for words and I would theemaster bess during our ene menent ef the year, Beverly Road was the begining of a reality world voyage that would be interwoven with a childs fantiyy perception lasting fer the coming few yearss Uinceln scheol was at the lewer end ef Mount Lebanon where ene ef the working : mens towne began, It was a grammer scheel ending at the sixth grade level, Cat Men was in sixth grade and was said the be sixteen years olds He ran the school and I learned alet as a child watching him move within the little boya and girls making sure nebedy ever picked en anybedy smaller than tnQs ewn : sizes Nebody geemed to know where he came from and it was like he just drepped in from outer space every day, He had long black hair and a square tight face like that of a down te it street kids He was faster than all the Lineain bums i who were mostly his age or even older and he was the only one I ever saw jump : eff the Linceln wall, There he was crouching over the edge with his hands wrapped areund the iren fence behind his backs He was leeking eut ever the i‘ wide dirt field like an eggle when he sprang with hie hands far out’ imte beth sidessef the skys He went down fast and relled when he hit the dirt and ‘ then turned hia bedy up without leoking at any one of the peeple watching and "Phew - ctusteqmeere—sni<ietisun secs So gee ect ae ate eg ss ™ ae: ed

Original Scan

Page 61

AI Interpretation

GPT

Beverly Road becomes the opening of a lasting reality voyage, and Lincoln school takes shape under the legend of Cat Man, a mysterious older boy who rules by force, speed, and protection of the small.

Cat Man is built like a local myth, part street kid and part guardian, and the child watches him with the same intensity once reserved for imagined figures in the field. School is no longer just institution here but a stage where power, style, and justice can be read in bodies.


Claude

The thick-eyebrowed Jewish five-and-ten owner only tolerates Michael during yo-yo season, and Cat Man is introduced — the sixth grader said to be sixteen, jumping off the Lincoln wall like an eagle from the iron fence.