Luyện nghe bài hát The Priest They Called Him

"Fight tuberculosis, folks"
Christmas Eve, an old junkie Christmas seals
On North Street
The "Priest" they him
"Fight tuberculosis, folks"

People hurried by, gray shadows on a wall
It was late and no money to score
He turned into a side street and the lake hit him like a knife
Cab stop just under a streetlight

Boy got out with a
Thin kid in prep school
face, the Priest told himself
Watching the doorway.

"Reminds me of a long time ago"
The boy, there, his overcoat
Unbuttoned, reaching his pants pocket for the cab fare
The cab away and turned the corner
The boy inside a building

"Hmm, yes, maybe," the suitcase was in the doorway
The boy nowhere in
Gone to get the keys, most likely, have to fast
He up the suitcase and started for the corner
Made it, glanced at the case
It didn't like the case the boy had or any boy would have
The Priest put his finger on what was so old about the case
Old and dirty, poor leather and heavy
see what's inside

He turned into Park
Found an empty place and the case
Two human legs that belonged to a young man
With dark skin, black leg hairs
in the dim streetlight
The legs had been forced into the
And he had to use his on the back of the case to shove them out
"Legs, yet," he said and quickly away with the case.
Might bring a few dollars to

The buyer suspiciously
"Kind of a smell about it"
"It's just leather"
"Well, joker didn't cure it"
The buyer looked at the case with disfavor
"Not even right he killed it, whatever it is
is the best I can do and it hurts
But since this is Christmas and the Priest"
He slipped three bills under the table into the dirty hand
The Priest faded into the street shadows, and furtive
Three cents didn't buy a bag, less than a nickel
Say, remember that old Addie croaker me not to come back
Unless I paid him the three I owe him
Yeah, isn't that a fruit for ya, blow your stack about three lousy
The doctor was not to see him

"Now, do you want? I told you!"
The Priest laid three bills on the
The doctor put the money in his and started to scream
"I've had trouble! have been around!
I may my license!"
The Priest just sat
Eyes, old and heavy with years of junk, on the face
"I can't you a prescription"
The jerked open a drawer
And slid an across the table
"That's all I in the office!" The doctor stood up
"Take it and get out!" he screamed,
The Priest's expression did not

The doctor in quieter tones
"After all, I'm a man
And I shouldn't be bothered by like you"
"Is that all you for me? One lousy quarter G?
you lend me a nickel?"
"Get out, get out, I'll the police I tell you"
"All right, doctor, I'm going"

Of course it was cold and far walk to rooming
A shabby street, room on the top
"These stairs," the Priest
pulling himself up along the bannister
He went into the
Yellow wall panels, dripping
And got his works from under the
Wrapped in brown paper, to his room
Get drop in the dropper

He up his sleeve
Then he a groan from next door
Room 18, the Mexican kid lived
The had passed him on the stairs
And saw the kid was
But he never spoke because he didn't want any juvenile
Bad news in any

The had had enough bad news in his life
He heard the groan again, a he could feel
No mistaking that and what it meant
"Maybe he had an or something.
In any case, I can't my priestly medications
that sound coming through the wall"
Thin you understand

The Priest put his dropper
hall and knocked on the door of Room 18
"Quien es?"
"It's the Priest, kid, I live door"
He could hear hobbling across the floor

A slid, the boy stood there in his underwear shorts
Eyes with pain, he started to fall
The Priest helped him to the bed
"What's wrong, son?"
"It's my legs, seor,
And now I am medicine"

The could see the cramps
Like of wood there in the young legs
Dark black leg hairs
"A few years ago I myself in a bicycle race
It was then the cramps started"
And now he has the leg cramps
compound junk interest

The old stood there, feeling the boy groan
He inclined his head as if in prayer, back and got his dropper
"It's a quarter G, kid"
"I do not much, seor"

The boy was sleeping when the Priest left 18
He went to his room and sat down on the bed
it hit him like heavy silent snow
All the gray yesterdays
He sat there, received the fix
And since he was himself a
was no need to call one