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%u00a9Jack Fritscher, Ph.D., All Rights ReservedHOW TO LEGALLY QUOTE FROM THIS BOOKWhat They Did to the Kid 241to escape. Little yellow crocuses bloomed around the edges of dirty frozen snow drifts. Vine leaves grew in my pants. I walked through people in the Loop. I sat with steaming coffee along the cement walks and walls of the Chicago River the city dyed green for Saint Patrick%u2019s Day. I had never watched skyscrapers light up by night. Never had I felt such wind. Evenings, coming back to Louisa%u2019s, I ran down the streets from the El train, jumping from pool to pool of lamplight in the spring rain.My one attic window, large and round, looked down on Magnolia Street, where cars maneuvered silently between two parked lanes as furtive as great dark beasts hunting a curbside lair for the night. I owned no car. I owned no house. I was free beyond belief. I felt wickedly suspect: I was alone, rattlingly poor in someone else%u2019s attic. A dream come true. I had finally ended one world of my life. Everything seemed possible. I wandered into coffee shops and bookstores, watching people. I wrote notes in my yellow legal pads. A Journal. Twice a week the double-feature changed at the Bryn Mawr Theater. On the marquee at the Devon, A Thousand Clowns was in its second year. Louisa rattled out the wonders of money and a good job. Her middle son%u2014my age%u2014was a junior accountant in the Loop.%u201cI%u2019m not sure yet how important money is to me,%u201d I said. %u201cRoof, bread, tuition.%u201d%u201cMake sure you have twenty bucks a week.%u201d She kept the rent money powerful between us. She grinned when I found a job. %u201cDoing what?%u201d She hooted with laughter. %u201cDemonstrating Hoover vacuum cleaners?%u201d%u201cShut up!%u201dShe was a comedian.%u201cIn department stores?%u201d%u201cReally, shut up.%u201dShe was a lounge act at the local bar...%u201cIn Marshall Field?%u201d...appearing nightly in the Plywood Room. %u201cSo?%u201d I said.%u201cThrowing baking powder on the carpet?%u201d%u201cIt%u2019s a job.%u201d%u201cVacuuming it up?%u201dShe had us both doubled up with laughter.%u201cYes.%u201d%u201cBlowing the beach ball in the air...%u201d%u201cI make $3.25 an hour.%u201d%u201c...on a wand?%u201d