, he starts hustling to
get home so he can make a house for them. He really acts like a kid.

We get on the subway. It's aboveground--elevated--up here in the Bronx.
After a while I see Yankee Stadium off to one side, which is funny because
I don't remember seeing it when we were coming up. Pretty soon the train
goes underground. I remember then. Coming up, we changed trains once. Ben
has his eye glued to the edge of the lunchbox and he's talking to Redskin,
so I figure there's no use consulting him. I'll just wait and see where
this train seems to come out. It's got to go downtown. We go past
something called Lenox Avenue, which I think is in Harlem, then
Ninety-sixth Street, and then we're at Columbus Circle.

"Hey, Ben, we're on the West Side subway," I say.

"Yeah?" He takes a bored look out the window.

"We can just walk across town from Fourteenth Street."

"With you I always end up walking. Hey, what about those extra tokens?"

"Aw, it's only a few blocks. Let's walk."

Ben grunts, and he goes along with me. As we get near Union Square, there
seem to be an awful lot of people around. In fact they're jamming the
sidewalk and we can hardly move. Ben frowns at them and says, "Hey, what
goes?"

I ask a man, and he says, "Where you been, sonny? Don'tcha know there's a
parade for General Sparks?"

I remember reading about it now, so I poke Ben. "Hey, push along! We can
see Sparks go by!"

"Quit pushing and don't try to be funny."

"Stupid, he's a general. Test pilot, war hero, and stuff. Come on, push."

"QUIT PUSHING! I got to watch out for these lizards!"

So I go first and edge us through the crowd to the middle of the block,
where there aren't so many people and we can get up next to the police
barrier. Cops on horseback are going back and forth, keeping the street
clear. No sign of any parade coming yet, but people are throwing rolls of
paper tape and handfuls of confetti out of upper-story windows. The wind
catches the paper tape and carries it up and around in all kinds of
fantastic snakes. Little kids keep scuttling under the barrier to grab
handfuls of ticker tape that blow to the ground. Ben keeps one eye on the
street and one on Redskin and Brownie.

"How soon you think they're coming?" he asks fretfully.

People have packed in behind us, and we couldn't leave now if we wanted
to. Pretty soon we can see a helicopter flying low just a little ways
downtown, and people all start yelling, "That'