As soon as Frankie says it, Mom, without missing a beat, hauls off and whacks him on the head in her own special way, starting low, and swinging up, like a tennis player giving a ball topspin, just grazing the thin spot on his head that's gonna be bald someday, probably from Mom slapping him there. "You watch ya mout!" Mom says. "Mout," not "mouth." We got a problem here with the "th" sound. It's not just us—it's all a Brooklyn, maybe Queens, too. My English teacher says I also drop vowels like a bad juggler, and have an infuriating tense problem, whatever that meant. So anyway, if you put the "th" problem and the vowel thing together, our family's Catlick, instead of Catholic, and my name's Antny instead of Anthony. Somehow that got changed into Antsy when I was little, and they've called me Antsy ever since. It don't bother me no more. Used to, but, y'know, you grow into your name.
Anyway, Dad tosses me the dummy. "Here, take it," he says.
"Whadaya giving it to me for?"
"Why do you think? I want you to break it."
"I thought you said it was unbreakable."
"Yeah, and you're the test, capische?"
I smile, proud to figure in my father's product development job. This was the first time in recorded historey that either of my parents had singled me out to do anything.
"Do I get to break something?" my little sister Christina asks.
"Yeah," said Dad. "Wait a few years and you'll be breaking hearts."
Christina must have liked the sound of that, because she flips open the journal that's practically glued to her hand and makes a note of it.
So, Howie, Ira, and mewe started doin' unpleasant things to Manny that might break him. Ira loves this, because he can get the whole thing on him. We rode our bikes down Flatbush Avenue to the Marine Park Bidge, which is no easy task considering I gotta carry Manny on my handlebars. God forbid Frankie, who just got his license, could give us a ride in the old Toyotahe just got. No, he's too busy hanging out with all the other perfect people—but don't get me started on Frankie.