That first night Heyes and Jim Smith went out to eat at a pretty nasty local dive, which was all Jim could afford, but the food was good. It was Heyes' first taste of New York clam chowder (from canned clams that time of year) and he liked it. Heyes offered to pay, but Jim wouldn't hear of it. "T-t-treat's on me, J-Joshua!" Said the boy proudly. "It's y-y-your welcome t-to N-New York dinner!" They communicated with surprising ease despite Heyes' silence and Jim's wrestling with consonants.
There was a poker game going on in the back room of the joint between a bunch of rough-looking guys in bowler hats, with knives in evidence and bulges in their clothing that more than hinted at guns. Jim saw his new roomie eyeing the game through the open door. He shook his head firmly in answer to Joshua's questioning look. Instead, they went home early. It probably wasn't a bad idea, Heyes had to admit, since he would be starting the challenging regimen of therapy in the morning. And besides, he hadn't taught his repertoire of poker signs to Jim as he had to the Kid. He would have had a hard time communicating.
Back in their room, Jim lit a lamp and spoke earnestly to his new friend Joshua, telling him that the poker game he had seen included key figures from a rough local gang. Jim thought the newly arrived man had best stay away from such men. Jim struggled to communicate the terrible danger of the New York streets to a man from such a different place, whose background he didn't yet know. "W-w-watch their eyes, Joshua! When you s-s-ee that fear, that's a g-g-gang leader. St-st-eer clear! And w-watch your b-back with the guys around them. I l-l-learned that t-t-too late. N-nothing is t-t-too d-dirty for them! Th-th-ey hurt. Th-they k-k-kill – anyone who c-crosses th-them!"
Heyes looked at the floor guiltily. He thought how much the same thing must have been said about him when he had been a gang leader. Although he had tried to avoid violence as much as he could, he recalled seeing that fear in the eyes of men around him - especially when the Kid was at his side. Heyes had never killed or ordered a man to be killed, but he and the Kid had thrown quite a few punches and men had been beaten on Heyes' orders. It had been the only way to stay on top of a gang and to keep from being taken down by rivals. Sheer success, from good planning and strong organization, had been the most important force that had kept Heyes on top of the Devil's Hole bunch. But violence had come into it more often than Heyes liked to remember.
Heyes looked seriously at Jim. Jim's face showed the hurt and anger that remained from his violent past. Heyes looked questioningly at Jim's beaten face. Jim nodded and couldn't speak for a moment. Then he said, "Y-y-yeah, H-H-Honeymoon gang b-b-beat me. Th-the w-worst of th-them. And my d-dad, my b-brother. Not j-j-just beaten," Jim went on, with difficulty, "k-k-k-killed. N-nothing I c-could do. I w-was fifteen." Heyes reached over to touch Jim's hand. His eyes showed how he grieved for Jim and his shattered family.
Heyes struggled with his own emotions, but he felt that he had to let Jim know about his similar experience. Joshua could offer Jim much-needed moral support, and hoped perhaps to get some back. This wasn't a subject Heyes talked to a lot of people about and bringing it up to someone with so similar an experience made it much, much harder. Even to the Kid, he rarely raised the topic of their murdered parents and siblings. Heyes looked up at Jim and tapped his own chest and raised two fingers. Jim easily read the punning sign. He was appalled in his turn. "You too? Your f-family? How many?" Heyes nodded, trying to keep his face impassive, and held up four fingers. "O-o-oh my G-G-God!" stuttered Jim in agonized empathy. "Your f-f-father?" Heyes nodded. "Your m-m-mother? Brother, sister?" Heyes nodded again, swallowing hard. "H-how old were you?" Heyes held up all his fingers but one. "Only n-nine? You were left alone?" Heyes held two fingers, one on each hand, and brought them together – for himself and Jed. "B-brother? S-sister?" Asked Jim. Heyes shook his head and held up his hand on a shifting diagonal, trying to signal, "sort of." He sighed at the difficulty of communicating anything as subtle as a second cousin.
"N-never mind, Josh." Said Jim sadly. "You'll be able to t-t-tell me s-soon. When you want t-t-to. No hurry. I th-think the D-Doc is right. We'll get along f-fine." Heyes gave Jim a crooked little smile. He agreed that they should get along. He would try to be a big brother to Jim, although it sounded like sometimes it might be the other way around as Jim showed him the ways of the New York City streets.
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Much later that night Jim suddenly woke Heyes with a rough shake. "Sh-shut up, man!" he yelled. "You want us th-thrown out of here? I c-can't afford any place better and I wouldn't-t want any p-p-place worse!" Heyes, still panting from a violent night mare, was confused and had a hard time pulling himself out of a deep sleep.
"I th-thought you couldn't t-talk!" Jim said agitatedly, "Who's K-K-Kid? One of the gang guys?" The still very sleepy Heyes looked at Jim in bafflement. Jim, seeing that his new roommate had no idea of what he had said in his sleep, told him, "You were yelling 'N-No K-K-Kid!' like he was t-trying t-to hurt you." Heyes shook his head and held up one hand as if to protect himself from blows. He held up the same two fingers he had used before to indicate himself and the Kid and brought them together as he had before. "Your f-friend - like a b-b-brother? Protecting you?" Heyes shook his head, still a bit dazed, and shocked to learn that he had been yelling words in his sleep that hadn't returned to his waking vocabulary yet. "You were protecting him?" Now Heyes nodded. Suddenly the violent death of his family was haunting his sleep as hadn't happened to him in years! Here, in this strange place, far from home and from the Kid, Heyes felt like even his own mind was betraying him.
"K-Kid," said Jim, "Th-that's a n-nick-name I've read in b-books. C-c-common out West?" Heyes nodded.
Kid wasn't really that common a nickname, except for outlaws. But Heyes had to cover for his error just now, before he was properly awake. He had slipped and admitted the Kid's nick name and their close relationship! Heyes nearly panicked as he realized how much danger this could put the Kid and himself in, if Jim ever put two and two together. After all, Jim had read about Heyes and the Kid! What if Heyes said more in his sleep than he knew, as he had the first time he was shot in the head? How could he guard his words in his sleep? Heyes hardly slept the rest of the night as he tossed and turned in anxiety.
