“Mazie had no use for me. I bored her. She always was looking for excitement, looking ten feet behind you like there was something better out there. And she seemed so much old than me. I guess there’s a big difference between seven and ten, but now I think it was just that she had been through more than the rest of us. Mazie was very smart. It wasn’t like she was book smart, none of us were. And she was street smart, but all of us were that, being city kids, it just seemed like she knew more about the world, and always did .She ran with the older kids on the rooftops of the tenements. They were a tough gangs. Of course, my mother wouldn’t let me anywhere near them.”
Flicker’s assessment of Mazie’s childhood days depicts her as an unconventionally tough girl. Mazie’s disrespect for Flicker affirms that their perspectives were dissimilar and he would not underwrite the excitement she is searching for. Furthermore, the age variance between them makes Mazie to consider Flicker a baby who cannot be in her league. Mazie’s ‘street smartness’ surpasses the scholarly smartness because it edifies her on how to judiciously maneuver within the streets from when she is young. Her smartness is ascribed to concrete familiarity with the streets. The groups which Mazie hangs out with are more off gangs that are regarded as depraved influence; hence, Flicker’s mother would not permit him to interrelate with such gangs.
“Tonight I met two sailors from California. San Francisco seems so far away, how can it even be real? One was tall and one was short and that’s all I can remember. Names, I don’t know. I got so many names in my head all the time. They said New York reminded them of home., it being so close to the water. But in San Francisco the mist and the fog come off the ocean so thick you can’t see one foot in front of you, that’s what they told me. I said they were lying, and they laughed. I said: What’s so funny? But then they never answered. I danced with the tall one while the short one watched us, smiling hard. He looked like he was burning up. When the tall one dipped me, the tie from his uniform ticked my face. I love a man in uniform. Any kind. I think they walk taller when they got something formal to wear…The tall one asked me how old I was. I said: Old enough…I’m old enough for anything. They don’t know but I Know… the tall one tasted salty when I kissed him but later I saw him holding hands with the short one. They were so slim and pretty in their uniforms. Sometimes I just want a uniform of my own.”
Mazie’s ‘so many names’ designates that she has a proclivity for indulging in spontaneous flings without constraint. She is an unqualified free spirit who does not subdue her longing for having fun in the midst of strangers. Mazie’s rejoinder regarding her age depicts her unrepentant mind set. She would not explain her age to anyone because she feels that she is answerable for her life and not the aliens who she pumps into in the progress of her street life. Furthermore, her age cannot prevent her from engaging in the activities that contribute to her supreme pleasure. Besides, Mazie appreciates casual kisses because they are not ardently binding for her.
“She (Mazie) was unapologetic about who she was and haughty to those who questioned her, even if they didn’t say anything out loud. Like my mother for example. The two of them did not like each other at all. People sometimes think “chutzpah” is a compliment but not the way my mother said it. Sometimes she would cross to the other side of the street when she saw Mazie coming, and she did not do it quietly. She coughed and stomped. My mother was a tremendous noisemaker. If Mazie cared she didn’t show it. Once I heard her shout, ‘ More room for me,’ after my mother had sashayed her way across the street”
Here Flicker affirms that Mazie is not petrified about being herself even it means that some people would dislike or judge her harshly. Mazie’s resilient character is a display of Self-Respect which cannot be wavered by discrimination. Although Flicker’s mother makes her aversion to Mazie ostensible, Mazie is not upset by it. The extraordinary self-esteem bolsters her to rise above the omnipresent judgments which would have otherwise fragmented her stability.
