The Free and the Brave
Flowers and Butterflies
by
Jonny Jakobsen Hell
The Free and the Brave
Flowers and Butterflies
by Jonny Jakobsen Hell
This is not a documentary as such, but it does try to present a correct picture of the situation
in Fort Lauderdale in the early nineties, from 1992 to 1995. Actions that actually took place
is presented correctly, but most persons are not presented with their actual names unless they
were public officials or persons presented in the media or in newspapers. Most incidents in this
book actually happened, but are not related to the persons in question. This is done to prevent
the individuals in question from being unnecessarily exposed, although many of them are now
dead. This took place more than a quarter of a century ago and the situation may have improved since then. However, if you think that this is a biased presentation, think again. This
is pretty close to the realities of that time and the persons in there have all lived. I was there.
Incidences from other places than Fort Lauderdale are mostly fictitious.
ISBN: Softcover 978-82-8310-184-3
Ebook
978-82-8310-185-0
The Free and the Brave, vol. II.
Copyright © Arne Jordly, 2015
All rights reserved
Contents
Chapter
Text
Page
01
Flowers and Butterflies
004
02
Dead Ends
052
03
On the Day of His Mother’s Funeral
093
04
The Lost Dutchman
120
05
The Devil’s Disciples
125
06
I, Claudia!
160
07
Deceit, Sabotage and Foreclosure
311
Last page
337
01
Flowers and Butterflies
Florida in the wintertime could easily be described as one of God’s most perfect creations: The crisp, sunny weather, the endless, white beaches on all shores of the
peninsula, the fresh breezes across the ocean creating soft, dancing waves carefully
embracing the white sands in a silvery moonlight, and the softly whispering winds
caressing the palm trees while so invitingly performing their serenades.
Young couples were strolling hand-in-hand down the many beach promenades
hardly paying attention to the world around them.
Floridian winters made the dream of the tropical paradise come true.
Sometimes Jonny felt as if God regretted having made the winter so perfect, and
cursed the summer season in pure vengeance: A scorching sun, the torrential rainstorms and the rumbling thunder, an air so hot and humid it sometimes felt you were
walking through thin glue , not the slightest breath of wind! Often the air felt stickier
after the thundershowers than before.
Floridian summers were pure hell.
Jonny had work to do. With Kirk evicted Eric was next in line. He had caused problems enough offering his free advise and turning the tenants against him. Even before
entering the office that morning Jonny knocked on his door and asked to see him as
soon as possible. It did not come as a surprise, so he accompanied Jonny from his
apartment to the office.
Eric spoke before Jonny said a word.
“I figured with Kirk gone I’d be next in line. I want ye to know I’m doin’ the best
I can on rent. I swear.”
Flowers and Butterflies
5
“Well, you’ve also been doing your best to turn the tenants and the police against
me. It’s in your interest as well as mine that you find another place to live. I have a
three day notice ready for you, which I’m hereby presenting. And I need no crocodile
tears. It’s way overdue. You’ve had ample time to move. And one more thing: How
many weeks now since we agreed that your in-laws were supposed to find another
apartment?”
“I’m sorry ‘bout that. They ain’t been able to find one. I remember promising that
they’d be out of here as soon as they found another place. Well, they ain’t been able
to.”
“Bullshit! It would take a minimum of ten minutes to find an apartment in this
neighborhood. I doubt that they’ve ever tried. If they’re spending their cash on shit,
like most people in this neighborhood, let me tell you, it is not my problem.”
“I’ll take care of it, Jonny. Ye’ll have yer rent, too. I ain’t going nowhere.”
“So you keep telling me. Kirk started singing the same song. He is no longer here,
though.”
“I promise ye one thing, Jonny: I’m not Kirk! If ye push me too hard, ye’ll find
out the hard way.”
“That’s also what Kirk told me. I’ve had enough threats. I know very well you’re
not Kirk, and I did not call you into this office to start an argument. I know how superior you are! I’m hereby giving you a three days notice to vacate, and we’ll take
it from there just like Kirk. The same rules apply.”
Jonny handed him the eviction notice.
“Today is Monday. If you’re not out of here by Friday morning, I’ll be in the
courthouse that very same afternoon preparing the eviction. I’m leaving it up to you
whether you’ll play hardball or not, but you will be leaving. There must be hundreds
of apartments you can move into. I can’t see what’s so special about this place.”
With his dark and obstinate eyes staring at Jonny, Eric stood and left the office
without a word.
Cute, little Robin stopped in a little later.
“Did you know Shirley had her baby? Just a few hours ago. She’s been staying
with me for the last couple of days. Just to get away from Ronald. He’s been rough,
lately.”
“What about Jennifer?”
Robin cast down her eyes.
“I don’t know. I just know Shirley couldn’t handle Ron any more. She was almost
due, you know. Saturday night about three in the morning Ronald came to my door
mad as bull looking for her. She was fast asleep. He burst into my apartment, pulled
her out of bed and dragged her down the steps by her hair. He was so full of crack
he had no brain functions left. Just sick instincts. He thought Shirley was staying
with me as an excuse to fuck her boss. Nine months pregnant, and everything! He
kept screaming and shouting while Shirley kept weeping and cussing all in one. It
was quite a ruckus. I had to call the police. You were lucky to be away. Actually, she
6
Flowers and Butterflies
kept looking for you all afternoon. She had felt it coming. You should have seen her
falling down those steps! At three in the morning! I never thought the baby would
survive. She had a premature birth, but only by a couple of weeks. Both mother and
son are doing fine.”
“So who’s taking care of Jennifer?”
“She manages on her own. No problem.”
“What about Ronald? Did they take him in?”
He realized it was a dumb question. Ronald was the son of the very sheriff of Fort
Lauderdale!
“The jails are crammed. They let him go. He knew one of the officers. I think they
took him over to his parents.”
Jonny was silent.
Shirley and Ronald were beyond redemption. That much he knew. Just like Kirk.
He worried about little Jennifer. That little woman must be going through pure hell
right now. Nobody seemed to give a damned about her. Like she didn’t matter. Supposedly she was only getting a head start!
Robin read his mind. She straightened up, pushed her breasts forward and smiled.
“Jennifer will be ok. She’s too young to get pregnant, you know. My own stepfather started playing with me when I was only ten. Didn’t hurt me none. Just made me
curious. I was only twelve when I had my first lover. Some of my girlfriends started
out even earlier. A woman’s need for a man is only natural, Jonny. Shirley’s been
telling me that she feels very attracted to you. She says you’re so straight you’re
exciting. It appeals to her. She hasn’t had a decent man in years. Ronald jumps anything with a hole in it, you now.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard the saying.”
“By the way, Jonny, I feel attracted to you as well. My uncle left for Michigan
this morning. I doubt if I’ll ever see him again. He’s terminally ill. He’s promised me
that I’ll be the only one in his will. I’ve been doing ok lately, but I’ll get into big
money, then. In the meantime I’ll be having a hard time taking care of rent. If you’ll
give me some slack, I’ll make it up to you.”
“Are you asking me to keep sitting on my ass waiting for this old guy to croak before asking for rent?”
Robin said nothing, just smiled. She knew he understood.
Jonny sat silent.
So Robin was no different from the rest. Well, he more or less knew. He also
knew that if he showed one sign of willingness and told her she could skip rent for
a week, she would be happy to take him into places where he’d never been before.
By the way she kept moving her tits forward, plus her inviting smile, he knew she felt
horny and wanted sex right now. Jesus, this was too much!
“I know you like Scotch. I prefer a joint myself. I’ve got some stuff in my room
if you’d care to join me.”
Jonny kept silent.
Robin, although of German descent, was born and raised American. At the same
Flowers and Butterflies
7
time she was so different. Sweeter, softer, more discrete, feminine, not flaunting her
shit so willingly, with little makeup and no ugly fingernails. A real woman! The most
natural, the most beautiful and the most desirable woman he had met in this country.
And only eighteen!
His silence excited her, made her feel insecure. She always used to get her way
with men, but maybe not with this guy.
“Oh, come on, Jonny, I’ve got your favorite Scotch. Johnny Walker. A full bottle.
Unopened.”
“How the hell did you know I drink Johnny Walker?”
“Shirley told me. She calls you her Johnny Walker. Because you always walk. For
breakfast. For lunch. For dinner. Errands. So you’re a walker. And you’re Jonny.
Johnny Walker suits you just fine. Shirley told me Kirk stole a bottle from you once.
That’s how she knew. But we’ve both been wondering why you bought that big ol’
Lincoln and never use it?”
“Uff. It’s like a big battleship. It squeaks and moans in traffic like a schooner at
high seas. It feels easier to walk.”
Robin laughed softly.
Jonny could sense the desire in her eyes. Her inviting body movements, definitely
contemplated, but still exciting. What a young, desirable little bitch! Jonny slowly
rose, walked around the desk, lovingly rubbed her shoulders and softly lifted her off
the chair. She did not flaunt her desires. She did not hide them, either. She let him
slowly turn her around, opened her arms for a solid hug with both boobs pressed
tightly against his chest as she slowly spread her legs to let his knee and thigh gently
rub her crotch. Her tender body quivered as she softly moaned in anticipation.
“Jonny, I’ll go to my room. Please, don’t keep me waiting.”
“Or better still, let me carry you upstairs.”
“Oh, no, Jonny. We’ll keep this between the two of us.”
“Ok. You go first. Alone. I’ll be right behind you.”
Sneaking into her room he had hardly closed the door behind him when she ran
toward him and jumped right into his arms. She felt so light. So manageable. So willing. Like a soft, sweet little jelly baby hungry to get sucked. She rested in his arms
totally relaxed, ready to be explored, as he carried her toward the bed. She kept
whispering in his ear all the time.
“It’s about time you paid me some mind. I’ve waited for this. I’m yours. All the
way. I’m yours. You make me so hungry. I’m so hungry! What took you so long?
Take me, Jonny! Take me!”
He locked the door behind them and dropped her on the bed. Yes, she was hungry, alright. She made him hungry as well. With trembling hands she pulled off her
open blouse tied around her waist, then her tiny, little bra, and threw them both on
the floor. Jonny watched her hands trembling as she unzipped her little skirt and pulled down her g-string over her tiny little feet. Naked, she stretched her arms toward
him. Jonny felt surges of excitement rampage through his body as he kicked off his
shoes, ripped off his shirt and pulled down his jeans and brief at the same time.
8
Flowers and Butterflies
He was even harder now than when he met Jody. But then again, he had only seen
Jody naked in his imagination. This little revelation was laying right in front of him
stark naked on the bed, spreading her legs and playing with her firm boobs. She wanted sex. Animal sex, American style. Jonny was more than ready to give it to her.
Animal sex, Scandinavian style. He had been too lonely too long! Jesus Christ in
Heaven what a good looking sex animal he had right there in front of him! Ready for
penetration. Hungry for it! She grabbed his penis before he entered her, holding it
with a hard grip.
“God, Jonny. This drives me crazy! Give it to me. Give it to me hard!”
She kept moaning with contentment as he slowly entered her responding body.
She started thrusting herself at him in a blind rage of desire searching for satisfaction. The ultimate satisfaction! He was ready to give it to her! All the way! No holding back, this time. His desires rampaged through his fit body like a pack of wild horses! Robin would be getting the fuck of her lifetime. But Jonny felt something missing. He could not feel her properly. Damned! Yes, these American beds had no end
board! They were no damn good for lovemaking. He could get no foothold so that
he could thrust himself into her even stronger.
He lifted her from the bed still letting her hang on his penis as he pulled the comforter roughly off and down on the floor. Robin kept hanging in his arms like a manageable ragdoll as he placed her on top of the comforter. He pulled his penis out of
her pussy, turned her feet toward the wall, pulled her legs apart and reentered even
harder than before. He had foothold now. He thrust himself into her harder and
stronger and wilder. She actively met his movements. Jesus Christ what a bitch! He
felt her inside so excitingly now every time he pushed into her. They found the perfect rhythm and went wild together, both working and sweating like no tomorrow.
He was about to come, but managed to hold back. And again. Each time he came
back stronger, harder, wilder more, and more, and more like an untamed animal.
This good looking woman had excited him, had made him feel wanted. Yes, she
had made him feel a man. More so than any other woman he could remember!
Some untamed powers within him were mercilessly taking control and kept raging throughout his body.
He had been too damned hungry for too damned long!
Whore or no whore, this young woman he would not mind sharing his future days
with.
Robin’s moans and subdued screams proved that this was a woman in ecstasy. He
started licking her nipples clean of sweat pearls. She felt so good! Her hard nipples
invited him to enjoy the fluids from her body. The salt sweat kept turning him on.
This was pure, clean sweat from her naked body! No powder! No perfume. Just pure
body odor! Sweat! Sweat from excited lovemaking. Her face was sometimes grimacing in desirable pain — that excruciating, excruciating, and excruciatingly wonderful pain of good lovemaking. No make-up smeared all over her face. She generated
nature’s natural desires in his body to perfection, desires that in turn penetrated her
small but perfectly sculptured body like burning balls of fire. He watched the expres-
Flowers and Butterflies
9
sion in her eyes as she started the small trembles leading to her final climax; an
explosion throughout her body she had just vaguely experienced before. First the soft
quiverings that she had experienced so many times before.
Then those strong bolts penetrating her body like electric shocks.
“Oh, — oh — — oh — — — oh Lord!”
She screamed. This she could no longer endure! Her body was exploding! How
could she survive?
“Oh! — — — Oooooh!”
Then her body started relaxing, but only for a second to prepare for the many jolts
of climax raging in her body. Jonny could feel her coming! He knew this was a woman in total satisfaction! He had waited so many years for this!
He no longer managed to hold back, but exploded in a moan of satisfaction and
a climax that he had been trying to experience at least thirty years.
Robin kept breathing heavier and heavier with stronger and stronger moans as her
body reached higher levels of climax. She started pumping out those body fluids that
women only experience through total satisfaction. Jonny could feel the strong jerks
rushing through her body as she seemed more and more relaxed and content.
She pulled him toward her and refused to let him go. He could feel the tension of
her body dissipate, her breasts getting softer and her body lying lifelessly relaxed in
his arms. She would not let go of him, and instead of pulling away Jonny put his
arms behind her bach and pushed her roughly against his hard body. She felt so soft
now.
But even with a body so softly relaxing in his arms, and with breasts that had lost
their firmness, did Jonny feel a desire for this woman, even though he was well
passed climax. He never thought he would experience something like this! The perfect intercourse! A modern day fairytale! The most ultimate togetherness two individuals could ever experience! The sweet aftermath of sexual perfection.
It was a known fact that ‘when the penis softens, the heart hardens.’ But he felt
different with Robin. She could so easily become an addiction. Like the drug addict
smoking crack co-caine for the first time. From the first full inhalation the smoker
stood a seventy percent chance of becoming addicted. Trying over and over again to
match that first experience of total fulfillment, but never more reaching that same
level of excitement. But he tried again and again. And failed. And again. And again.
Until it became an obsession. An addiction.
After all these years he had finally experienced total sexual satisfaction.
Jesus Christ, this woman was incredible! She would not let go, but kept clinging
to him in desperate fear that he might disappear. She kept staring at him, and kept
smiling with her eyes as Jonny watched her in relaxed contentment.
Jonny had no way of knowing, but Robin experienced a confused perfection. She
had been hoping for this for years, too, but had long since given up hope that she
would ever feel the thrill. And here she was in the arms of a total stranger having experienced the ultimate sexual climax most women can only keep dreaming about
even with a fairly satisfactory sex life.
10
Flowers and Butterflies
She slowly felt that sneaky agony of uncertainty that this might never happen to
her again. Maybe she would not be able to hold on to him? Maybe tomorrow he
would walk right past her pretending nothing had happened? She instinctively held
on to him just a little bit tighter. She wanted more of this. She wanted this to never
end. A sexually satisfied woman would usually hold on the hard-on that had satisfied
her.
And somehow Robin had touched Jonny’s inner soul.
Still hard inside her Jonny slowly pulled away. He felt surprised that he needed
such a long time to become soft after such a perfect climax. He had never been like
this before. He felt wet, but not unpleasantly wet. Robin had moaningly kept pumping out those body fluids during her entire period of climax which seemed to have
lasted for minutes.
Jonny did not know that a woman in total satisfaction had such large amounts of
thick semen in her body just like a man. Robin still felt like rubber in his arms as he
lifted her off the floor and placed her on the bed. He laid down beside her. She graciously snuggled back into his arms. Again Jonny had no way of knowing, but Robin
had never felt closer to happiness and perfect harmony than right now.
One more thing Jonny did not know: After having satisfied a woman to this extent, she could become dangerous if the source of that satisfaction started pulling
away. She would be coming back for more — and more — and more!
And Jonny was ready to give it to her. At least for now.
Then again, it was only a one night stand. In broad daylight.
He had just fucked his third prostitute!
That Monday turned out to be one of Jonny’s best days ever! He was not interrupted
in his perfect day of lovemaking and the Hotel stayed quiet. Robin had nothing better
to do than to stay in her room all day and all night. They were not hungry for any
other food than what they could give each other, and were both eagerly taking bites
of the big apple of sinful knowledge. But if sin could be this good, they were both
willing to live and die in sin.
When walking around the room Jonny felt more comfortable with his briefs on,
while Robin, on the other hand, enjoyed walking around naked. Jonny watched her
enjoying her body. She watched herself in the mirror. From a distance. Close. Up
front. From behind.
She still seemed a little bit dazed, and Jonny caught her staring at him ever so often. She had a feminine sweetness about her that Jonny had not experienced in a
woman before. Maybe it was not such a bad idea to marry in this country, after all?
It was not normal for a man to live alone. Nor for a woman, for that matter.
Robin served him the drinks without saying a word. She prepared them in a tall
glass with one third whisky and two thirds water, chilled, no ice. Jonny wondered
how she knew, but did not ask her. He was careful not to talk too much. He did not
want to destroy the sweetness of the moment. He heard Jody’s voice at the back of
his head:
Flowers and Butterflies
11
‘Let’s not destroy the moment, Jonny. I’m here for you now.’
He was beginning to understand. Robin did not say much, either. She seemed perfectly content. Her smile, her caresses, the little movements, the way she looked at
him, her natural beauty, her body, her lovemaking. Even after his climax Jonny had
the same good feeling for her. He did not feel like he usually did after a casual relationship or a one night stand.
‘When the penis softens, the heart hardens.’
No, he had a relaxed feeling of contentment about him.
He remembered having felt that way about a woman only once before.
As he was laying in bed with Robin naked beside him his mind started drifting
again. —
Yes, Tetchie. Tetchie Gutierrez! She had also touched his soul.
Jonny heard the quick click clack of her high-heeled shoes dissipate as she ran
back to the bank to make sure she would not lose her job. He remembered the excitement about meeting her in his hotel room later in the afternoon. After she had finished working.
As the time neared for her visit, Jonny felt more and more restless. He felt thrilled
that such a wonderful, young woman would take an interest in him as a man. So
young and beautiful. So right for him!
He had a couple of shots of Johnny Walker in the lobby bar at the Centrepoint.
Still sitting at the bar he watched Tetchie enter the reception looking for him. She
looked more beautiful than he could remember, more blissful.
She was waiting by the elevator when Jonny approached her from behind. She
turned around and gave him a careful hug. He asked if she wanted a drink. Yes, it
was okay to have a drink, although she seldom drank. She simply hated drunkards.
She had known an Arabiano once, who used to drink a lot, and she simply despised
him.
Jonny felt disappointed that right away she started talking about ‘a guy she had
known.’
Filipinas running around with Arabs were considered bad girls in the Philippines.
They were condescendingly referred to as ‘Arabianas.’ Tetchie must have sensed his
reaction, for she never more deliberately mentioned any former boyfriends, but left
Jonny with the impression that the Arab had been nothing but a casual acquaintance.
But Jonny had already felt a certain skepticism.
Up in the room Tetchie seemed to relax more than Jonny had anticipated. He had
planned a good steak dinner with some red vine over at Steak Town, his favorite restaurant in Manila.
But Tetchie showed no signs of wanting to leave. On the contrary, she kicked off
her shoes, took off her jacket and stretched out on the bed fully relaxed. Jonny sat
down beside her. Impulsively she grabbed his arm and kissed him softly, like she was
trying it out for the first time. He placed his arms around her, and to his surprise she
clung to him. She had softly whispered: ‘I wish you could be my husband, but that
can never be. Instead I want that you make love to me.’
12
Flowers and Butterflies
She did not seem blunt, and her soft sweetness hid all signs of vulgarity. As a
matter of fact she made him feel it was him she wanted, not sex. He returned her kiss.
She did indeed know how to arouse him. No, nothing vulgar. Nothing animalistic.
She made him feel like the prince she had been waiting for for years. At the same
time she made no secret about the fact that she was hungry for love. Real love.
Strong love. Mature love. She wanted his love, if not for ever, then at least for the
moment. She eagerly let him undress her. Seeing her naked excited him.
No, her lovemaking was not at all wild or animalistic. At the same time he could
feel her hunger, her yearning, her desire and her contentment as he penetrated her.
She had strongly maintained that he use a condom. Jonny did not have one. He was
even more surprised when she sweetly smiled and pulled one out from her purse. He
had clumsily put it on. She made love in such a way that he felt she wanted to hold
on to the moment forever. Her quiet hunger excited him, and the strength of his lovemaking pleased her to perfection. She made no sounds — just intensely enjoyed their
togetherness and the fact that she could also feel how she excited him. He could feel
her come, while he was still hungry and wanted more.
She carefully pulled him away.
‘I already finished.’
He remembered the disappointment that she would not let him finish, but she
smiled, kissed him and whispered:
‘Darling, this one just for me. We will make love again. Soon. Then I think of you
only. This time, thank you for making me feel so much like desirable woman. When
I finish, I feel so good.’
Quite naturally she had laid down on the comforter with her eyes closed and with
an air of sweet contentment across her face. She had indeed surprised him. She had
been much more open and direct than he could have expected. She was indeed no
virgin, although her soft sweetness and innocent ways almost gave him that impression. But in that respect life had always had its disappointments.
Jonny studied Robin from the corner of his eyes. What a perfect body for enjoyment and lovemaking! What natural beauty to bring out the best in a relationship between lovers. What a perfect lover!
At the same time Jonny realized she had not touched his inner soul as deeply and
everlasting as Tetchie had done.
He remembered having taken a closer look at the empty condom cover, and to his
surprise he had seen written in Norwegian: ‘Sold in pharmacies only.’ That could
only mean that she had also been with a Norwegian.
He had studied her as she lay naked on the bed, relaxed and content, her body no
longer tense. She looked so beautiful when relaxed. She had decided she wanted
more from this man. More lovemaking. More love. More togetherness. Much more
life together. — God willing.
Jonny had felt the same tenderness, the same togetherness he now felt with Robin.
But he had felt more. Her vulnerability. Her need for protection. As perfect as Robin really was, Tetchie felt even more feminine, more a woman, although Jonny rea-
Flowers and Butterflies
13
lized as he studied Robin that there could be no better lover. Robin appealed to him
much more animalisticly than Tetchie had done, but that was probably the American
in her. Americans were rougher and more vulgar, Filipinas sweeter and more feminine, more loyal and trustworthy. Americans were more sexually active. But Filippinas made better housewives.
There was no doubt in his mind that if playing for keeps, Tetchie would be first
in line. But she had shocked him something terribly later that night!
He had bent down to kiss her.
‘Darling, do you feel like something to eat? A good steak?’
She had returned his kiss.
‘The only hunger I have is for you. Today, tomorrow and forever. You fill my
body and make me satisfied. Since the day you give me the roses, I have loved you.
Since the day you give me the roses, I have dreamed this moment. Mama liked the
roses, too. She say you have big heart. And big love. But she warn me. She say after
big love, big heartache. You meet her soon.’
‘Don’t you wanna eat?’
‘Yes, darling, I come with you and eat because you are hungry still. But before
we go, we make love one more time. I finish before, so I no longer feel the hunger.
I now only feel the love for my man. This time you satisfy the hunger.’
She had pulled him toward her, opened her legs and eagerly helped him enter
without insisting on a condom. Only minutes later he was no longer hungry. He emptied himself into her in total ecstasy. Jesus Christ what a mate he had found in Tetchie! He decided on the spot to marry her and make her his.
Only — that empty condom bag written in Norwegian bothered him.
A little after nine they entered Steak Town. Jonny ordered the biggest steak available — and a full bottle of Burgundy. Plus French fries and vegetables. Tetchie did
not want much. Just a side order.
When Jonny asked why, she just said she felt no hunger. She smiled.
‘Already satisfied. Remember?’
Yaah, Jonny remembered.
At nine Tetchie had become tense and restless. She had suddenly excused herself.
‘I must go, Jonny. In the weekend I also have another job. Please, write to me.’
‘Hey. Not so fast, little girl. You expect me to get in touch with you? You want
to stay with me always? And now you just disappear on me like that? That’s not
good enough. If you expect to hear from me again, at least I need to know where to
get in touch with you.’
‘Already you have my address. In the hotel.’
‘I’m not talking about your home address in Angeles. I’m talking about your
workplace.’
She sat quiet for some time, in tormented silence, before she spoke.
‘You cannot come in my place. Not so very good place. I speak truth.’
‘You expect me to come back for you and you don’t even want to tell me your job
and how to get in touch with you? Darling, do I look very stupid?’
14
Flowers and Butterflies
Tetchie now had tears in her eyes. She looked sad and not at all the innocent girl
from the bank. Jonny suspected the worst.
‘Ok. I cannot change the truth so I tell. In the weekend I work at bar in Ermita to
entertain the tourists. I work Friday in the evening from six, all day Saturday, but
only in the evening Sunday. Sunday in the morning my mother come and visit in my
room. I have only very small room. I share with two friends, Wilma and Solidad. I
must go, Jonny, or I may be in trouble.
I have big dream, but maybe no good. I must go. Good bye, darling. Maybe I
never more have big dream. When big dream not come true, big dream give big
heartache. I never forget you, darling. I must go. Good bye!’
‘Damned you, Tetchie. You’re not being fair! If you have big dream at least you
should not give up before trying. At least tell me where you work and I’ll come say
‘hello.’ You owe nothing to me, but if you still have big dream, you owe it to yourself. Only way to make big dream come true. — Trust me?’
Tetchie was softly crying now. She put her arms around him, trembling.
‘I tell, but if you come, I cannot go with you. If the owner tell I go somebody else,
I cannot go with you. The owner very bad person. German. In Ermita. Bangkok Inn.’
She pulled away and ran out the door, crying. Then she jumped into a taxi and
drove off without looking back.
Jonny was left behind. The story of his life. So close. So many times. Every time
he was ready to grab first prize, it just slipped through his fingers.
No! Not this time! This time he’d fight for what he wanted! He decided to go and
see her later that evening.
Again he sat down by the table. He still had about half a bottle of vine left. Again
he was all alone as he was sitting there drinking his vine and contemplating his future. Sorting his mind was not easy. Everything seemed in such a terrible turmoil.
A few hours ago he had not had a problem in the world. Now everything was a
total mess! That’s what a woman can do to a man. God damned them all! No, God
bless them. He would not let this one get away. No! This one he wanted to keep for
the rest of his life. Damned. — — — Damned! That would be impossible! His plane
would be leaving early tomorrow morning!
Well, at least he’d stop by later tonight to find out what the hell was going on.
He returned to Centrepoint in total destitution. From life’s total perfection to utmost
desperation in just — he checked the time — four hours. She had entered the hotel
at fifteen after five and now the time was almost ten after ten.
He took a shower, put on a white shirt and black slacks. He wanted to look his
best. Casual, but groomed.
After two more shots of Jonny Walker at the bar in reception he decided that it
was about time. This was about his mental stability and future happiness. This young
beauty had done something to him. Touched his inner soul. He was beyond rescue.
he felt the need to have her back in his arms again. He closed his eyes and saw her
before him. Her long, dark hair. Her big, beautiful brown eyes. Her careful smile and
Flowers and Butterflies
15
her sensual stillness. No glued on ugly fingernails. Modest make-up. He was fully
convinced — he would not live the remaining years of his life without this woman!
He tried to flag down a taxi just outside of Centrepoint. Every day all day long
they had been bugging him. Stopping for him. Calling at him. Almost forcing him to
take a ride. But now — nobody. It was slowly starting to drizzle.
Then finally, after having walked three blocks and just passed the Las Palmas, a
taxi finally stopped.
‘Yes, sir. Very busy tonight. Big brownout in Manila.’
Jonny jumped into the taxi.
‘Can you take me to Ermita? Do you know a place called Bangkok Inn? How
much, please?’
‘You go in Ermita? — This your first time in Manila, sir?’
‘Yes.’
‘What place you say you like to go, sir?’
‘Ermita, I think. A place called Bangkok Inn.’
‘You know this place? You been there before, sir?’
‘No. I have no idea. I want you to take me there. Do you know the place called
Bangkok Inn?’
‘Very difficult place, sir. Very far. Also very heavy traffic. Big, very big brownout.’
‘I’m not asking you about the problems of the city. Can you take me there?’
‘Yes, sir. For you I go very cheap. Three hundred, sir.’
‘Ok. Get going then! Please!’
The driver continued in the same direction Jonny had been walking. They passed
Harrison Plaza and continued basically in the same direction until they hit San Rafael. Then he made a left. He kept constantly talking. About his poverty. His nine kids
without food or shoes. Under normal circumstances Jonny would have listened, but
not tonight. He had worries of his own.
He wondered what Tetchie was doing right now. Probably dancing somewhere.
Of all the girls in this damned city he had to pick a dancer! He had never been interested in dancers.
First she had thrilled him with her charming banking service. Then she had come
running after him. Finally, after she had made him feel like Romeo and Valentino all
in one, she ran away from him. A dancer! Damned this woman! He felt like a stupid
sucker for having swallowed the bait.
The driver told him they were now entering Makati, the business district. Ermita
would be on the other side of the city. They should be there in about fifteen minutes.
What an irritating ride! Stop and go, stop and go. The driver kept yabbing. They
were now passing Rizal Park.
He kept talking about a national hero killed by the Spaniards.
Then he suddenly started talking about his hungry children again, so Jonny figured they were getting close to destination. The driver finally dropped him off on
Padre Faura next to the Mercury Drug Store.
16
Flowers and Butterflies
‘Good place for buy condoms, sir.’
‘Yaah, damned it, is this it?’
‘Yes, on this street, del Pilar. Bangkok that way, sir.’
‘You’re not showing me the way to Thailand, are you?’
‘No, sir. This way, sir. Good place for buying the girls. Very beautiful, sir. Please,
sir. Not forget, sir, at home nine hungry children. Maybe give good tip, sir?’
Jonny couldn’t help but smiling. The guy was trying, all right. He had no change
so he gave him an extra hundred. The driver became very excited.
‘My card, sir. You call, I come. Take you home very cheap, sir. Same way. Very
safe. Very, very cheap next time. Only two hundred, sir.’
Jonny took the card and left.
On the corner of Padre Faura and del Pilar he stopped. Which way now? He’d
better make sure he did not end up in Bangkok instead of Bangkok Inn.
There seemed to be a lot of bars in this area.
He turned right, but he did not see many bars in that direction. But there was one
across the street that looked pretty nice — Lovebirds.
No, he turned around and walked the other way. He was getting closer to the center now. Firehouse. Roadhouse. Butterfly. Bloomers. Bubbles. Uff, there were so
many of them.
He wondered if there was at all such a place called Bangkok Inn. ‘A small place,’
she said. He must have passed at least twenty, maybe thirty, bars before he finally
noticed the Bangkok Inn. He watched the entrance from across the street. Two heavy
dragon heads framed the entrance. Guys seemed to be going in and out all the time,
and ever so often they came back out with a beautiful little princess in their arms.
Jesus Christ, what kind of place was Tetchie working in? A whorehouse?
No, they did not have whorehouses in the Philippines. Ok, they had ‘girlie bars,’
but that was not the same. The girls were not whores, either, but beautiful little women eager to please you. Most of these girls were not at all bad girls. Good girls in
a bad situation, maybe, but not at all bad girls. They were princesses.
He remembered some hookers that had attacked him on Times Square in New
York City. He shivered. Ugly gorillas compared to beautiful little princesses.
He decided not to go inside right away, but to look around first. He continued
down the street. Blue Hawaii. The Polynesian Club. The Australian Club. Superstar.
Then he saw no more clubs, so he decided to return, pull himself together, conquer
his cowardice and start looking for Tetchie.
He worried about what he might find.
He slowly entered the Bangkok Inn. The place was rather small. A long bar with
a dancing podium to the right. On the podium, or stage, behind the bar, he counted
at least fifteen beautiful little dancing girls. Oh, yes, they were beautiful, all right!
One brazen beauty started staring at Jonny as soon as he entered, performing
various acrobatic movements as she was hanging from a stainless steel bar. Jonny
had never in his life seen so many beauties in one place before. He had to pull away
from this enchantment or God knows what might happen!
Flowers and Butterflies
17
To the left on a podium two feet high he noticed a row of tables and a bunch of
spectators. The place was pretty packed. Some girls were dancing together on a very
small dancing floor at the very end of the room.
Jonny picked one of the back tables and sat down. He ordered a Johnny Walker.
Few people were drinking whisky here in the Philippines. Few people were drinking
at all, except for the foreigners, or Americanos, as you were so often called if you
were white, whether you came from America, Europe or Australia. But Americans
were not always popular, so to stay out of trouble you sometimes had to specify
whether you were a European Americano, or maybe an Australian. Being only Americano could sometimes be dangerous. They had destroyed their reputation because
of the way they treated the little princesses on some of the American bases. They had
even demanded that some of the youngest girls had to pull out all their teeth so that
they might be better able to suck hard-ons! But that is how it was. The American
forces always created environments of prostitution around their bases.
Ok, next time he would try a San Miguel instead of a Scotch.
He started watching the girls again. The girl hanging from the ceiling bar kept
staring at him, flirting with him with her eyes. Tetchie was nowhere to be seen.
Then the music stopped. The girls started mingling among the guests and a new
group of girls entered the stage from a back room. Tetchie was not among those,
either. Jonny lost courage. Maybe she had just given him a name to get rid of him?
It did not make sense. Then again — nothing made sense!
Watching the many beautiful young dancers was a thrill in itself. Jonny wondered
how these girls made money. Nobody seemed to be tipping them, like in the United
States.
A rather mature woman, heavier, in a dark suit, approached him.
‘Hallo, I’m mamasan. Do you like any of the girls?’
‘You bet. They’re all beautiful. Little dancing princesses. Perfect tens every
single one of them.’ She took pride in Jonny’s reaction.
‘Your first time here, sir?’
‘Yes.’
‘Very nice. If you like sexy little girl for nice play in the middle of the night, you
just ask for mamasan. I show you best girls, sir.’
‘Thanks, but I’m just looking for one special girl. She told me she works here.
Maybe you can help me? Her name is Tetchie.’
‘Tetchie? You look for Tetchie? She very bad girl. She mostly Japayoki girl. She
like very much the Japanese. The Hapons. Not popular with the owner. He German.
One time he kick her out, but her mother bring her back. I think much better that you
look for very nice girl.
This girl from Palawan she tell me she like you. I will go in the back room and
bring her to you. Very good girl! Anything you like she will do for you. Also lollipop. This girl the best. Only three hundred and fifty peso for bar fine. Then everything you like up to you.’
She left and only seconds later reemerged with the sexy little dancer.
18
Flowers and Butterflies
‘Hello. My name Maria Lolita. What your name?’
‘I’m Jonny. Nice to meet you.’
‘Me too. You like also that mamasan join us for drink?’
‘Yaah, no problem.’
‘Thank you. Bery muts.’
He ordered a San Miguel beer. The girls ordered champagne. Jonny right away
figured he was being taken for a ride, American style, but to his pleasant surprise the
champagne cost less than one hundred pesos. Only two dollars each.
Maria Lolita had sweet ways, but she was not at all a shy woman. She took Jonny
by the hand and asked straight forward, but charmingly.
‘I like bery mutsh that I come with you tonight. I like you. I look at you all the
time when I dance. Do you like me bery mutsh, sir?’
‘Yes, indeed, I do like you very much. You are very attractive and sexy.’
‘Thank you. I like also bery mutsh the sex, sir. For you I already feel horny. My
pussy bery slippery. Bery good for coming inside. No need for condom. I bery clean
woman. Medical check-up three times ebery week. I just finished my period the day
before yesterday. Tonight I feel bery bold for the lovemaking. Please, I like. I like
bery mutsh.’
‘Me too, but I’m afraid I cannot tonight. I look for other girl. Not so much for the
lovemaking, but we need to talk. I already tell mamasan. Her name is Tetchie.’
Maria Lolita showed her disappointment, but remained just as friendly.
‘I think Tetchie she not bery good girl. Many time the customer complain. If she
not like, she not go with customer. But tonight she already have customer. Beerrry
rich Hapon! He come here many times. Only look for Tetchie. If Tetchie busy, he
wait. I think, Jonny friend, tonight muts better you come with me. My pussy bery,
bery slippery now. I like also my man big.’
Jonny took her little hand between his two big ones and held it tight.
‘My beautiful little dancing princess, believe me, I would love to spend the night
with you, but it’s impossible. I’m here for business, and my plane leaves tomorrow
at six in the morning. See? That’s my kind of luck, darling.’
The cute little princess refused to give up that easily.
‘The time now only eleven. If you pay bar fine, we can have bery long short time
before tomorrow morning, sir.’
‘For you and me tonight is the right place, but the wrong time. I have to leave
pretty early tomorrow.’
Jonny stood. He had to pull away from this, or temptations might be too strong.
He said ‘good bye’ and left. Jonny would never forget the disappointment in Maria
Lolita’s eyes. She’d have to spend the night being slippery with somebody else.
Again Jonny felt restless. Two beauties outside a joint called Yellow Butterfly
tried to pull him inside.
‘Please, you come inside. We give very good time. Please. You look very nice.
I look for nice husband.’
‘Hm, hm. I also look for nice wife.’
Flowers and Butterflies
19
‘If you promise not too much butterfly, I will be very good wife, sir.’
‘Oh, no, no. I look for a nice girl I already know. I cannot find her.’
‘Maybe very beautiful flower? Maybe find butterfly? Ha, ha, ha, ha.’
Jonny entered the Australian Club. The girls were not as gorgeous as at Bangkok
Inn and the place was rowdier, but packed full with girls dancing on four different
stages. A small stage to the right as he entered, a center stage in the middle of the
room, a back stage and another stage to the left, which for the time being was empty.
The music was going full blast, the girls were dancing shoulder to shoulder on the
center stage, but not so crowded on the two remaining stages. With not a single table
available Jonny sat down on a barstool by the central bar between two male patrons.
He enjoyed a San Miguel while watching the beauties dance right in front of him on
the center stage. Some of them seemed very young, only in their early teens.
The clientele was international. American servicemen, Arab businessmen, Scandinavian tourists, globetrotters.
They all shared the hunger for these beautiful flowers.
With beauties like these Jonny knew he would not remarry a Caucasian!
The girls were alternating between the stages in two shifts, the ones not dancing
entertaining the customers. Jonny didn’t mind being flanked by two males. This way
he was left alone to sip his beer while pondering his misery and worrying about
Tetchie. She was probably enjoying sex with a rich Haon right now!
Jesus Christ, he was losing his mind over that bitch!
He enjoyed the atmosphere, the rowdiness, the music and the dancers. He watched how the next to naked young women mingled with the customers, how they
used their sweet nakedness to lure the men into spending the night with them.
In Europe, and even more so in America, what these girls did would be called
prostitution. But not here. The establishments were called ‘girlie bars.’ The girls
were just ‘bar girls,’ so sweet and pleasing that no matter what they did, it could be
forgiven. Almost forgot. The very most of them were good girls in a bad situation.
Jonny felt thrilled. If he couldn’t get hold of Tetchie, he decided to come back
and enjoy himself in this earthly heaven of sinful angels. He decided not to go to
heaven when he died. He would just bribe St. Peter to let him spend eternity among
all these angels right here in Manila. No playing harps for Jonny. No, sir!
‘You like Filipinas, sir?’
Jonny turned to the right. He had not noticed the guy next to him leave. A young
beauty was standing by the barstool studying him. They both smiled.
‘You bet. I see beauties only.’
‘You also like very young girl, sir?’
‘Also young girls, yes.’
Jonny nodded like in a trance. He studied the young flower as he took her hand
to help her onto the stool. A round, perfectly sculptured face with deep dimples in
her cheeks every time she flashed her pearly white teeth with a stunning smile around
her full, sensual lips. For her young age she was well proportioned. The rest of her
body was a little on the chubby side.
20
Flowers and Butterflies
She was used to men evaluating her.
‘Do you like me, sir?’
In a way she was too direct, but so sweetly. She asked the question so blissfully.
There was no roughness about this one. She seemed very young. Much too young to
be admitted in a bar. Jonny nodded.
‘You are so sweet and beautiful that I could not help liking you even if I tried to.’
‘Oh, thank you. You very nice. I like you, also.’
Then she impulsively placed her two small hands over his face.
‘But — too much handsome here. I think you very much butterfly.’
‘Not really. My first time here. I have girlfriend from Angeles City. I plan to meet
her tomorrow. By the way, how old are you?’
‘If younger than eighteen, girls lie about their age for job here.’
‘Figures. So how many years did you have to lie, my dear?’
She lowered her head, then looked at Jonny with her big, brown, Bambi eyes.
‘I am very young. Only fourteen. But I like very much the sex with the foreigner.
I like the heart big and strong. I like very much that you pay bar fine. Tonight I can
only go short time, because of steady customer later. I look for nice husband. If you
come back tomorrow, I can stay as long as you like — even many weeks if you pay
bar fine. I like strong body. I also scared.’
She smiled. Again she placed her hands to cover his face.
‘— Because you too much handsome here. White skin. Very big nose. Not flat
like Filipino.’
‘You like big nose?’
‘Of course. I like big. Very big, very handsome.’
Jonny smiled. He liked this young woman. He ordered champagne.
‘No need for buy the champagne. Very expensive.’
‘Oh, well. I have very nice company. I also buy nice drink.’
‘I wish I not have customer. But I have no choice. If I not go with customer,
mamasan very angry. Maybe lose job. You come back tomorrow? Please.’
‘I doubt it. My plane leaves tomorrow morning. I’ll think about you.’
‘Oh, no! — I very sad in my heart.’
They enjoyed their drinks in silence. This girl was not playacting. She could not
hide her disappointment. They were both sitting in their own minds pleased to sit
next to each other.
‘When my heart very heavy, my tongue very silent. But my brain very busy! I ask
mamasan that she tell customer I go already because I have stomach trouble. If
mamasan tell about menstruation, the customer not get mad. Only look for different
girl. No problem for mamasan, but she get money. Two hundred peso and she be
happy. This place three hundred for bar fine. You pay five hundred. I stay with you.
Please?’
‘I only wish, but it is impossible. My plane leaves tomorrow at six o’clock. But
I’m planning to come back in a few months. I promise to come and look for you
then.’
Flowers and Butterflies
21
She sat silent. She still kept flashing her sweet smiles, but with sadness now.
‘I like that I can sit here with you until mamasan come to fetch me for the customer. I already know you have big heart. I like big.’
‘What if this guy never shows?’
She flashed a smile almost from ear to ear.
‘Oh, me very lucky!’
But her eyes were sad.
‘He very old and ugly Arabiano. Very dark skin like mine. He smell terrible because he eat bad food. Always drink. Also very fat. But he always come. All the time
he look for young girls. Sometimes special mamasan bring him very young girls. Not
already twelve. He pay five hundred for mamasan and one thousand for bar fine. He
come for me in very short time.’
Jonny felt saddened. He wished he could grab this beauty under his arm and carry
her off beyond sadness and sorrow, abuse and degradations. Not just her. All the others as well. His beautiful little princesses. But who the hell was he? He had no right
to come here for just a day or two feeling jealous over all these little princesses because he could not carry them away and keep them for himself, forever. He only
wished he could.
He asked if she wanted more to drink.
‘No. I have only one wish. I pray with the Lord you come back tomorrow.’
Only few minutes later mamasan came for her, and she left for the back room to
get dressed. Jonny saw her leave through the back door together with a huge, fat and
flabby, unshaven Arab in his mid-sixties. She looked like a little doll walking beside
him. A cute, little lover doll.
Yes, when his heart very heavy, Jonny’s tongue was also very silent. But his brain
was numb. This was not what she had been thinking of when she told him she liked
big!
Jonny ordered a double shot of Johnny Walker. And then another one. He wondered about Tetchie. Was she living her life the same way? Maybe she was serving
the needs of a damned Japanese pervert at this very moment? Or maybe a Norwegian? [Fåes kun på apotekene.] Uff, Lord! He ordered another whisky.
Then it was show time. The girls stopped dancing. The mamasans were busy
bringing the different girls to the various customers waiting for company. The American servicemen, the Arab businessmen, and the Australian globetrotters. Many
were also Scandinavian tourists like himself. One of the more mature girls came over
and asked if he wanted company, but he declined. He just wanted to watch the show
and then get back to the hotel. It was a long ride and he had to get up early.
The bar put on an excellent show. Amateurish, but excellent. Some women entertainers were putting on a special dance show totally different from the regular dancing girls. Judging from the applause they were popular.
Then another dancing group performed a very erotic show close to ending up in
intercourse. He had watched an intercourse on stage once, in Stockholm, and it had
shocked him. The vulgarity of it had given him a very negative attitude toward sex,
22
Flowers and Butterflies
and had remained that way for years. These three young couples were not having
intercourse, though. Just pretending with no vulgarity about them. These Filipinos
impressed Jonny. No matter what they did they had a sweetness about them. Jonny
was beginning to think it was not so much a question of what you did, but how you
did it.
Then came the final act of the show. Many of the patrons started calling on mamasan. Yes, indeed, the same little chubby woman that had come to fetch the young
girl for the Arab, was the star of the show. The major attraction. First she danced.
Then she juggled and clowned to overwhelming applause.
Unexpectedly, at least to Jonny, she started stripping. She really had the hang of
it, too. Her plump body and her professional movements contrasted into a surprised
awe and admiration. Although amateurish, she had more than it took to make this
crowd happily enjoying themselves. Even Jonny forgot much of his skepticism and
started enjoying the positive efforts of this plump, middle aged woman.
She possessed ample stage presence, and, when closing the show, she received
endless applause. She had to do an encore. Jonny was so preoccupied watching the
show that he hardly noticed what took place around him.
The girls were mingling among the customers, deals made, and bar fines paid.
One couple after the other started leaving the bar. After the show had finished the
place was only half full. Wow, what an effective way to collect bar fines! Just let the
girls lose and let them take care of business.
Jonny decided this was it for tonight. Just one more drink and he’d be on his way.
The music sounded softer now, the lyrics more civilized. He was contemplating
whether to leave right away or go for another Scotch when mamasan sat down on the
stool beside him.
‘I hope you enjoyed the show, sir?’
‘Yes, indeed. I was pleasantly surprised. You’ve been doing this for a long time?’
‘A few years already. The show very popular. Many people come to watch.’
‘Yaah, I can see that. And also many customers come for all the wonderful girls
to catch one for the night. — By the way, I forgot to offer you a drink.’
‘Thank you. I take one small glass of white vine.’
Jonny ordered the vine — and another Johnny Walker.
‘I have noticed Philippinos do not drink very much.’
She did not answer. They were both silently watching the girls dance. Then she
finally spoke her mind.
‘I feel sorry for Cherry tonight. She was very sad to leave. She said she love you
very much. She dreams of a nice man to take her away from this place and marry her.
Lucky is the man who gets her for a wife! She will be steadfast, loyal and true to her
dying day. My heart reaches out for her tonight. I feel sorry I did not let her go.’
‘You know, it’s hard for me to believe that she can really love someone after
having talked only for a few minutes. It feels like she would take any opportunity to
get away from here. Besides, she’s much too young.’
‘Let me tell you the big secret of the ways of the Filipina. She gives her heart
Flowers and Butterflies
23
away so easily. And so preciously. When very young and beautiful. Time is not a
factor. Neither is age. She search for the beauty of the heart. The big heart. But when
she give away her heart so innocently, unconditionally, she become so vulnerable.
Therefore the Filipina experience many heartaches. But even the heartaches she carry
with grace and beauty. She is like the flowers in the fields growing up radiantly
beautiful and colorful awaiting her one and only true love. That’s what every woman
lives for, my friend. The true love. So she eagerly exposes her stunning beauty across
the sunswept fields of flowers in order to attract the most beautiful butterfly. When
the first butterfly arrive, she give herself so forcefully believing that this is her true
love.
But the butterfly is a butterfly and suddenly he sees a flower shining even brighter, so he search for the next flower and leave the first one behind to wither and die.
Little does he know that the first flower held for him all of life’s promises and
dreams of happiness. But he butterfly to the next flower, and the next, and the next,
searching, always searching, for the fulfillment and happiness he will never find, but
has already lost. Little does he know that the first flower he left behind, had all these
things for him. All these things.
So he butterfly, and butterfly, and butterfly, while the first beautiful flower he left
behind start withering.
Cherry is a beautiful flower like that. Newly sprung with radiant beauty. And you
are the butterfly. If you have the pureness and strength in your heart to remain true
to your first flower, that flower will in turn bring lifelong happiness to the butterfly
who can see the true value of pure innocence, the innocence of the heart.
And what will happen to the flower?
Instead of starting to wither and finally die, the flower will spread endless beauty
and happiness and start to blossom and bear fruits. Those fickle and feeble of heart
and mind will never experience this beauty, but instead spread their butterflying
wings and bring heartaches and hardships wherever they land. If you take care of this
flower, she will in turn give you a life of beauty, of ecstacy and fulfillment. Like only
few men you will know the true meaning of life.
I know this. I was a flower like that once. I enjoyed the butterflies in sadness and
sorrow always hoping that the next one would be the one to stay. I give big love, but
get big heartache. And now the flower has lost it’s beauty. Not even those fickle of
heart and feeble of mind find it worth while to come by any more, and the once so
beautiful flower has withered for never to bloom again. But somewhere out there is
the one who had found happiness and life’s fulfillment had he possessed the pureness
and strength of heart to stop butterflying.
The big sadness of life is that both the flower and the butterfly turn sad and lonely
for the precious love they shared, but forever lost. The butterfly would have found
boundless happiness, but because he was blinded by his own bright colors and shining beauty, he could never see clearly.
This, my friend, is the true story of the flower and the butterfly.
This, my friend, is also the true story of the Filipina.’
24
Flowers and Butterflies
Almost moved to tears Jonny sat silent for a long time. He had become too sentimental from too many drinks, from feeling pity for himself over Tetchie, from being
unable to make up his mind about Tetchie, from not knowing what to do about
Tetchie, from having to leave tomorrow morning without Tetchie.
‘That was a touching parable. I’ll keep it in my heart and never forget. Thank you.
— — I have to leave now. It’s a long ride. Is it possible that you can call a taxi for
me?’
‘What place you staying?’
‘Centrepoint.’
‘The Sundowner?’
‘It says Centrepoint on the big sign, but yes, everybody ask the same question:
‘Sundowner?’
‘The old name Sundowner. But not very far from here. Only one block. Just go
outside. Make left, one short block and look left. Sundowner right there.’
‘No, this place was very far away. Forty-five minutes by taxi. It’s got to be a mix
up.’
‘No, sir. Same place. Only one block. Many taxi drivers think foreigners like very
much sightseeing, sir’
‘In the middle of the night? You’ve got to be kidding me!’
‘No, sir. How much you pay?’
‘Three hundred. Plus one hundred for tips.’
‘Oh, Mother of God! Very big sightseeing, sir! Very happy driver. Ha, ha, ha.’
‘Are you telling me I’ve been taken for a ride?’
‘Very big ride for only one block. Quicker to walk than take taxi. I tell the truth.’
‘Thanks for telling me. Damned! Ok, I’ll check it out. Good night.’
‘Maybe you like nice girl for play in the night?’
‘No thanks. I like to get my hands on that taxi driver. See you later.’
Back on del Pilar Jonny turned right. The club was almost right on the intersection so he immediately turned left. He walked a very short block, and, whoops, like
magic, a little to the left, the big sign of the Centrepoint!
‘Sightseeing, my ass! Damned!’ He’d been taken for a ride, all right! And now
he also understood where that expression had originated from.
Back in his room Jonny felt devastated. He could not get Cherry off his mind.
He’d like to get his hands on that damned driver. Tetchie was tearing at his soul. And
he was leaving tomorrow at six. Well, maybe better. Maybe he’d be better off getting
out of this tempting city of beauties!’
He was going through his pockets when he remembered the card the driver had
given him. The Devil got the better of him and he called the driver from his hotel
room.
‘Yes, I need a ride back home as quick as possible. — No damned it, I am not
bringing a girl. I go back all alone. I’ll be waiting just outside the Australian Club.
When can you pick me up?’
‘Very lucky, sir. I very close, sir. I pick you up in very few minutes, sir.’
Flowers and Butterflies
25
‘Good! I’ll be waiting for you.’
Jonny rushed back to the Australian and waited outside the entrance. The driver
did not show. Every damned thing he tried went wrong tonight! A few sexy prostitutes tried to pick him up, but he was not interested. With all those little dancing
princesses inside available to you, he figured the few prostitutes were having a meager market. One told him she had been out all evening, but no customers. So he was
right then, there was a meager market for prostitutes in Manila. And neither were
they natural or attractive with their excessive war paint and repulsive witch claws.
He remembered all the street hookers trying to run him down in Waikiki Beach.
At least here they did things a little more sophisticated. More civilized.
Still no driver. He must have called his bluff. A couple of taxies stopped for him,
but he declined. He had given up and was ready to leave when finally he recognized
the smiling face of his favorite cab driver.
‘Sorry, sir. Already have different customer. But I will go very quick tonight.
Only little traffic.’
‘Ok. How much?’
‘Same price, sir. Three hundred.’
‘Did we not agree on two hundred? You promised very good price if I called
back. Remember?’
‘Yes, sir. But children very hungry, sir. Night rate, sir. Next time I give very
cheap price, sir.’
‘You not keep promise, heh? Ok, I need to go home. But I give little tip this time.’
The devious little mestizo did not directly answer, but, besides his children being
very hungry, they were also getting very sick.
‘Very big hospital bills, also.’
True enough, the traffic was lighter, so the driver probably felt it was safe to
make a very short trip, this time. Only fifteen minutes and he stopped outside the big
sign of the Centrepoint.
‘You really drove very quick, this time.’
‘Yes, sir. Very little traffic this time at night. Also I go very fast. For you I take
big chance, sir.’
‘If you go very, very fast and take very, very big chance, maybe you can take me
back to the Australian Club in only two minutes?’
The driver did not answer.
‘Take me back to the club, please. I want to bring girl.’
The driver remained silent. Jonny started feeling a bit better. The guy knew he
had him. ‘If you want to talk to me, you’ll find me in the bar.’
Jonny quickly left the car, entered the reception and headed for the bar to the left.
He ordered a San Miguel.
The driver was not far behind.
‘Sorry, sir. I make big mistake. From the province, sir. Get very much lost in big
city. Sorry, sir, but the children very hungry, sir. I need to get money for buying food,
sir.’
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Flowers and Butterflies
‘Now that you know that I know that I’ve been taken for a ride, how much do you
expect that I pay you?’
The driver stayed silent for a long time.
‘Eh, up to you this time.’
‘You deserve nothing. I pay nothing this time.’
He took his time before he answered.
‘If nothing, the children will starve, sir.’
Jonny was enjoying himself.
‘So what happens to your children if I pay fifty?’
‘Maybe not totally starve, sir. But still very hungry.’
‘What if I pay one hundred?’
Again he kept silent.
‘Eh, like this, sir. — For three hundred the children very happy. For two hundred
the children not hungry. Only one hundred the children hungry. Only fifty, the children very, very hungry. If nothing, children starve. No more children. Very sad, sir.’
Jonny could not help but laughing. The devious little bastard had something
charming about him. Jonny had decided to pay nothing, but was no longer mad. He
felt amused.
‘If nothing, no more children, heh? Everybody dead, all nine? Heh?’
‘Almost ten, sir. Wife also very muts pregnant.’
‘Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!’
Jonny no longer felt anger. He was having a good time. This guy was wasted here
in Manila as a cab driver. He should have been in Hollywood.
‘Ok. I make deal with you. Ha, ha, ha, ha! First I buy you one beer, if you like.
Then we make deal. Ok?’
‘Thank you very muts, sir. I like very muts, sir. San Miguel?’
Jonny ordered the beer.
’Let’s drink a toast to all crooked little taxi drivers in Manila! Cheers, my friend.’
The guy seemed somewhat confused. He was not quite sure if Jonny was serious,
but had to go along, while still taking care of business.
‘Also for the children not being hungry, sir. Chees.’
‘Ok. I make a deal with you. But first you have to tell me exactly how much to the
airport.’ After a period of long contemplation he answered very carefully: ‘From here
to the BAIA, this time, for you, only one hundred.’
Jonny knew that was only about half price. Less than half price.
‘How come so cheap, this time?’
‘I give very good price, sir, but hope for very good deal.’
‘Yaah, I guess you do. Ha, ha, ha. — Ok, I leave very early. Tomorrow morning
at five. You come here and pick me up at exactly five in the morning and I will pay
you five hundred at the airport, including tip, but you get nothing now. How does this
strike you for a deal? You think the children will survive?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘Your wife, also?’
Flowers and Butterflies
27
‘You promise this? No bullshit?’
‘That’s a good one! You’re the one that’s taken care of the bullshit, damned it!’
‘Ok. I make promise also. I come for you tomorrow five o’clock. Thank you very
much, sir.’
Jonny ordered yet another Sam Miguel, but he could not get Tetchie out of his
mind.
He was also thinking of clean shaven little Maria Lolita.
And it hurt him when he started thinking of Cherry.
He studied Robin who lay sound asleep next to him. He neither had the courage
nor the power to take care of this flower for the rest of his life.
“Jonny, Jonny, Jonny! Are you in there?”
“Who is it?”
“It’s me, Jake. Jake Bronx. I need to talk to you. It’s urgent.”
Jonny was beginning to feel tense every time any of these unpredictables urgently
needed to talk to him. Usually they needed a hundred dollars to save their old dying
grandmother, or something. It had proved hard to keep the distance from these selfindulgent, self-destructive self-admirers.
Surprisedly enough he had not seen much of Jake Bronx since the day he moved
in so he wondered what the hell he wanted now.
“Ok. Just a minute. I’ll open up.”
Jake nonchalantly entered the office. He sat, facing Jonny.
“I haven’t talked to you for some time. How’ve you been doing, Jonny?”
“I’ve been fine, thank you.”
He was beginning to resent all these people so amicably using his first name when
they hardly knew him. He regarded it as a sign of false friendliness. These people
were friendly only when they expected something in return.
“I just stopped by to pay rent a little early this week. Telemarketing’s been pretty
good lately.”
“That’s good. It’s always nice when things work out.”
Jake had paid his rent on time since the day he moved in and had caused no problems, Devil worshiper or not. Today he seemed in an especially good mood. He felt
like bullshitting and started telling Jonny more or less the story of his life. His fatherin-law to be, Josey’s father, had promised to set him up as production manager in a
factory owned by a friend. In the beginning Josey’s father had tried to break off the
relationship, but now, after six months of living together, he had finally, at least to
some extent, been accepted.
“Jews only want their daughters to marry Jews, you know. Let me tell you, Jonny,
it’s only a matter of a couple of weeks and I’ll be running the whole damned place.
That’ll come in handy with the new babies coming and everything. Twins, you know.
I’m really headin’ for the big times, Jonny.”
“Good for you. Congratulations.”
“Thanks.”
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Flowers and Butterflies
“I take it you’ll move into a better neighborhood, then?
Ain’t nothing wrong with this place, Jonny. I stopped by to tell you that Josey’s
five year old daughter from a different man has moved in with us as of today. She’s
previously been living with her mother and Josey’s spent the weekends with her
parents without me being invited. Now it’s gonna be the other way around. The girl
will be living with us, and Josey’s parents will spend the weekends with us instead.”
Jonny was not at all happy to hear this, but decided to see how things worked out
before doing anything about it. The more in the apartment, the bigger the electrical
bill.
Besides, Josey was not due until a couple of more months.
“You know, Jonny, after this it’s only a matter of time before I have my own factory.”
“What kind of products are they manufacturing?”
“I have no idea! It don’t matter none! My father-in-law is a filthy rich Jew.”
“I figured it would be kind of advantageous to know your products.”
“Don’t matter none, Jonny. It ain’t a question of what you know. It’s a question
of who’s backin’ you up. Let me tell you, now — after I hit the big times, I plan to
invite my mother down here to live with me. And maybe also my brother. We’re only
three to the family, you know. I know my brother would love it here. He’s gay, you
know. Quite a guy! He’s got a different lover every fuckin’ day of the week. I don’t
know how he does it. Probably got it from our mother. You know, she’s somethin’
else, too. I’m sure you’d love to get your hands on her. She could have up to ten
different lovers in one single week. Different ones!
I tried to keep up with her, but she always beat me to it. My best week I managed
eight different bitches, but that fuckin’ week cost me an arm and a leg. He, he. Nah,
my mother, she’s something else, Jonny. For a time there, back in Frisco, we really
had it going for ourselves. — I’ve got two little boys I ain’t never seen before, but
the bitches keep buggin’ me for alimony. Like my fuckin’ ex wife! She’s a fuckin’
bitch, all right! We came down here in search of a brighter future, but she gave up
after only four months. Said she was sick and tired of sleeping in the car and dipping
in the ocean while her stomach was howlin’ empty. Now the bitch’s reported me to
the police as a deadbeat father and seekin’ alimony for our two sons. It’s a fuckin’
life, man, when those bitches start runnin’ after you.”
“So you’re the father of four boys, heh?”
“Five, to be exact, but the first one don’t count. I was so fuckin’ young then. She,
too. So my first son was adopted away without any of us knowin’ who got him. No,
the first one don’t count. It’s their own fault, damned it! They should have used some
sort of protection. Fuckin’ bitches!”
“Ever heard of something called ‘condoms’?”
“Ain’t had one on my dick yet. Never will. Ever tried to go swimmin’ with your
raingear on? No way, Jonny. The only thing I worry about is the police catching up
with me. They put you in jail for owing alimony, these days. No mercy. Deadbeat
fathers go to jail. Even if they have another family to support. It ain’t fuckin’ right!”
Flowers and Butterflies
29
“Don’t you worry about getting aids?”
“For my brother, yes. But I ain’t runnin’ around with no prostitutes. I only pick
decent women, Jonny.”
“You can’t tell, these days. Many housewives are working as escorts while their
husbands are out there trying to make a living. Most good looking women, and also
some ugly ones, in this neighborhood, at least, have been working for an escort
agency at one time or another, according to what most tenants tell me.”
“Ain’t nothin’ wrong with that! That ain’t prostitutin.’ I also use an escort service
now and then. And once in a while an occasional prostitute, but nothin’ serious. I
used to hang out on the Strip in Hollywood with my friends during my days as a minister, but that’s a long time ago. Before the days of the Hollywood Madame.”
“You’ve been a minister? How old are you?”
“Thanks for askin.’ I know I look young. — I thing young. I feel young. — I’m
actually thirty-one years old. People say I look twenty.”
“What church were you in?”
“A local parish in Hollywood proper. You know, Los Angeles is actually not one
city, but many townships grown into one. — Eight, I think, one being Hollywood.”
Jonny figured the guy was trying to hide his Devil-worshiping activities, so he left
it at that. He was not interesting in keeping up the conversation, but realized that
each derelict story held some information for him. About America. About Americans. American lifestyle. Maybe also about the future of the world. Uff! If these
people were indicative of the future of the world, he was hoping he would not have
to be part of it.
He was dreaming himself millions of miles away every single day. Nothing in his
entire life had disappointed him as much as America in the nineties. So often he
found himself reminiscing about the good old days, his early years in this country.
Back in the early sixties.
It had all been so different then. He had found America, the beautiful. The greatest place on earth. Heaven!
Somewhere along the line something had gone wrong. Terribly wrong! At the
same time he could not find a major derailment. Maybe the Kennedy assassination?
Johnson and his Vietnam War? Watergate? The National Rifle Association? Smart
and stupid instead of right or wrong? Freedom without responsibility? Hollywood?
Liz Taylor and Madonna? Kurt Cobain? Not to mention Michael Jackson. Yeah, he
could think of many reasons of decline, but none of these, single or in combination,
seemed like a major derailment.
No, it was more like a ship lost at sea with no captain knowing the way home.
Just drifting and drifting further and further off course. Hopefully there is a captain
out there able and willing to bring the ship back home without having to fight too
many mutineers on route back to shore.
“Well, Jonny, time to get back home. But before I do, let me suggest that we make
a deal. What do you say?”
“I have no idea what you’re thinking about.”
30
Flowers and Butterflies
“I’m in telemarketing about to quit my job. Cleaning materials. I can give you a
hell of a good deal right now. I’m top notch. Eight weeks in a row I’ve been salesperson of the week. I’ve got a telemaketing technique surpassed by few. I’ll let you in
on the secret. It’s foolproof for small and medium enterprises. Pretty smart, too! Of
course you always lick asses on the phone. The bosses all love that. When you get
that far, you’ve got a sale goin.’
It’s getting to the top brass that’s the trick of the trade. You always ask for the
manager. Of course you have to know his name, and everything. Preferably a few
things about his career and hobbies. Then you’ve got them eating out of your hand.
You always tell the secretary that you call back according to agreement with Mr. So
and So, and when you get through, you just refer to a previous conversation a few
days back.
When the poor guy does not remember you, you make the excuses for him and
when the poor guy is thinking his brain ain’t functioning any more, you freshly, but
amicably, place the order and relieve the old bastard of his agonies. Nine times out
of ten you’ve got a friend for life. He won’t forget about you the next time. Although
next time you may not even have to call him, just place a reorder.
Now, we’ve got some stuff at the factory they’d like to get rid of for next to nothing. Four thousand dollar packages are now being sold for two thousand only. It’s
a steal! — Is it a deal?”
“Nah, not so fast. Four thousand dollars worth of cleaning materials? I don’t need
that. The tenants are supposed to leave the apartments clean. If not, I deduct the expenses from the security deposit. I would not even have storage space for four thousand dollars worth of cleaning materials.”
“It’s a steal!” Yes, Jonny was thinking that maybe that was exactly what it was.
“But no deal. I don’t need it. Four thousand dollars worth of cleaning materials
is a hell of a lot of cleaning. It would last me a lifetime, and beyond. Sorry, Jake.”
“Now you really disappoint me, Jonny. I’ve been paying my rent on time, and
everything. And I’ve been bullshitting you for quite some time!”
“I’m not arguing about that. But that’s a different matter. I’d be more than happy
to buy from you if it was something I needed. But I don’t. I’ve bought one bottle of
Pinesol the last six months, that’s all, and it’s still half full.”
Jake abruptly stood.
“You’ll regret this, Jonny. I was only trying to be your friend! I’ve wasted a lot
of fuckin’ time.”
“Hrrrrrr. Hrrrrr. Hrrr. Hrraaa. Viva el gino, viva el dinero y viva, viva el amore.
Hrrrrrh. Hrrrr. Mucho gino, mucho dinero, y mucho, mucho el amore. Hrrrr. Muchos
dineros, boss. Vino, dinero y amore. I always pay the rent, boss, but tonight I only
have half the rent, boss. Hrrrrrr. Hrrra. Hra, hra, hra, hra. Been rained out, boss. Ain’t
been workin’ for three days, boss. Sorry, boss. Hrrr. I pay seventy-five dollars, boss.
I pay the rest next Friday, boss. I swear. Mucho dinero, boss. Vino, dinero y amore.
I need a little bit of gin money, boss. And somethin’ for pussy. Hrrrh.”
Flowers and Butterflies
31
Hardee started his tirade before he entered the office, and had finished by the time
he grinningly sat down in front of Jonny.
”Hrrr. Ok, boss?”
“Well, I guess I can’t ask for what you don’t have, heh? But maybe you spend it
all on gin and pussy instead of rent?”
“Hrrr, rrrrrr. A man gotta live, boss. A man gotta live. But you right, boss. I put
a little bit aside for gin and pussy. Hrrr. Shit, boss. I pay the rent, big boss man. In
full, boss. Hrrrrrr. Hrrrr. I pay, boss.”
“I appreciate that. But you need money for food. If you have a problem, I can wait
until next week with some of it.”
“Hrrrm. Thank you, boss. Very nice, boss. I pay the rent, boss. I manage, boss.
Hrrm.”
“Very well, then. Thank you.”
Hardee paid his rent in full, but no later than next evening he was back in the
office.
Hrrrr. Hrrrrr. Hrrr. Hrraaa. Viva el gino, viva el dinero y viva, viva el amore.
Muchos dineros, boss. Please, please, I need some gin money, boss. Dineros ginos.
Please?”
“How much?”
“Hrrr. Three dollars, boss. Small bottle. Three dollars and seventy cents, boss.
Hrrr. I have some change. Hrrr. Small bottle, boss. Hrrrrrr.”
“Ok. I’ll split my food money. Here’s five dollars. On me. Enjoy.”
“Hrrrr. Thank you very much, big boss man. You nice, boss. Hrrr. Thank you,
boss. Hrrr.”
“No problem.”
Hardee was not quite ready to leave the office.
“Hrrm, hrrm. I need business partner, boss. Hrrm. Very good business, boss. I
make you my partner, boss. Good money, boss. And lots of pussy, boss. You interested, boss? Hrrrr.”
“Thanks, but I guess I’m not looking for any more businesses. On the contrary,
I’m trying to get the hell out of here.”
“Hrr. Boss. Listen. Very good deal. I know seven nice girls. They work for me
before. Almost four years. Very nice girls. Turn many tricks. I make a lot of money.
When out looking for pussy yesterday I meet the one girl. She say she like to start
working again. She’s already married, but most of her friends are still single. All we
need is telephone and small office. Hrrrr, boss. — You supply the money, I take care
of business. Ever had black pussy, boss? Hrrrrr. Deal, boss? Hrrrr.”
“What the hell kind of business are you talking about? A whorehouse? That’s too
much monkey business!”
“Hrrm. No way, boss! Just a small escort service. I know the business, boss. Only
time black equals white, boss. When a man has his dick in the air, boss, he ain’t lookin’ for the color. Just the pussy. Everything’s legal. The girls all have licensees, boss.
License to fuck. If one of the girls do not have the license, we get the license from
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Flowers and Butterflies
the girls no longer in business, and use her name. Hrrrr. Nobody use real name, anyway. Friendly girls, boss. They give very good fuck, many of them. If you treat the
girls right, they’ll do anything for you, boss. Hrrrmmm. Hrrm.”
“Sounds pretty much like a pimp to me.”
“No fuckin’ pimp, boss! Never call me a pimp, boss! You treat me nice, boss, and
I become business manager! No pimp, boss. Hrrm.”
“I cannot see the difference.”
From extreme anger to a show of happiness in no more than a flash of seconds
Hardee started laughing heartily.
“Hrrrrrr! Hrra. Ha. No problem. You become my business partner, I’ll sho’ you
the difference. I’ll be there, boss. Night ‘n day, boss. Hrraaa, ha, ha. — I sho’ you,
boss. You wait. Hrra, ha, hra.”
Before Jonny could answer Hardee had left the office and was quickly limping
down the walkway.
Fifteen minutes later he was back in the office.
“Hrrrr. I show you, boss. I show you. Watch now, and listen. Today is Friday, so
I bought the papers. Very good day for the escort service. Many adds in the papers.
The adds also include license numbers, so everythin’s legal. At least supposed to be.
If you put the license in the paper, no police can do nothing. Check everything out,
boss. Everything’s legal, boss. What you say, boss?”
“Nah. The whole setup sounds pretty much on the edge to me. Like entering mafia territory. Before we know, we end up with a bullet through our brains. I have no
street experience with such shit.”
“Hrrrrm. No problem, boss. I take care of the street. I am very street wise. Before,
I never got arrested. Made very good money. Nobody bother me. I did nine years in
prison for shootin’ my friend through the back, boss. I was sentenced to life in prison, but got out after only nine because of good behavior, boss. Pardoned. Hrrrm.
Nobody bother me any more, boss, because I also served in the Korean war. First
time white and black fight together. — I take care of the street, boss. Hrrrrh.”
“Jesus Christ! You’ve been nine years in prison for murder!”
“Hrrrrh! Hrrrmm! Not murder, boss. For shootin’ someone in the back. A fuckin’
asshole, boss. Hrrm! My best friend! Don’t worry, boss. Maybe you are streetdumb,
but I am streetwise. My only wisdom! Hrrrm! I’ll take ca- ca- care of the street, boss.
Ok? Hrrrrm.”
Jonny was actually not surprised that Hardee had been in jail. Most Americans
he talked to had been in jail at one time or another. The United States had developed
into a society of jailbirds. American politicians had chosen to create a society on
crime rather that a society on welfare. They took away people’s welfare checks and
built jailhouses instead. As an unintended reward they had created a society both on
crime and welfare. Inevitably. ‘Misery loves company,’ the saying goes. And that
was not just a saying, but a fact.
What do you do to make a living when you have no job and your welfare check
only covers one third of your living expenses? Exactly what most Americans were
Flowers and Butterflies
33
doing! Whether married or single the women were out selling pussy. In the open!
Most of the men turned into drug pushers while the politicians were concentrating
on preventing people from smoking cigarettes! What intelligence!
All this while new prisons and jailhouses were mushrooming at an alarming pace.
Still, more Americans worried that prisons were not being built fast enough, rather
than worrying about the fact that they were at all needed.
Yeah, somewhere along the line something had turned rotten in God’s own country!
Hardee was eagerly anticipating his answer.
“Nah, Hardee, I believe I’d better stay clear of this. Hopefully I’ll be out of this
hellhole within a few months. If I’m lucky, maybe only a few weeks. If I had plenty
of money, I would give you a loan, but I cannot do that right now. I think it’s a rather
rotten business, but if that’s the lifestyle here, there’s nothing I can do to change it.
Good luck to you. If this business has such great potential, I’m sure there are many
people willing to put some money into it.”
“Hrrrm. I’m sorry, boss. We could be a great team. I leave the papers, boss. Read
them. The adds for the escort services, boss. Then we talk later. See you later, boss.
Hraaah, hrrraa, hrrrm.”
Hardee left four papers. The Miami Herald. The Sun-Sentinel. The XS. The New
Times. The Herald and the Sun had cost Hardee twenty-five cents each. The other
two were free based on advertising for the sex industry.
Jonny checked the Herald first. He counted three full pages of personal adds;
women seeking men, men seeking women, women seeking women and men seeking
men.
Uff. Shirley had told him earlier that most of these adds were hidden sex advertising. One small section was obviously meant as direct advertising, the escort section. One half page was full of small adds with sensual women staring at him. But
most was concentrated around the Miami area.
The Sun-Sentinel, on the other hand, concentrated more on Broward County and
Fort Lauderdale. Jonny put the conservative Herald aside and studied the more liberal Sun-Sentinel. Although serving a much more limited area, the Sun was chock full
of sex adds, hidden or direct. And this in a society were prostitution was officially
illegal! What hypocracy!
The first page contained the women seeking men section. More than two hundred
and fifty adds!
The men seeking men section was not quite as extensive, only one hundred and
eighty adds, while the section for alternative lifestyle totaled almost two hundred. He
started reading some of them.
‘CLASSY LADY. With all the right attributes. Seeking handsome, financially
secure PJM, 45-62 friendship, romantic times, long term relationship. Call now,
don’t procrastinate. #1279.’
‘WITTY, WARM & WILD. Hedonistic, a touch of class, 34, SJPF, petite, 5',
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Flowers and Butterflies
redhead, seeks SJPM, 35-45, For sincere, loving relationship / possible marriage.
#9267.’
‘BATHING SUIT FIGURE. Attractive, intelligent, sophisticated, fun-loving,
adventurous, emotionally secure, romantic SWJF, seeks spiritual, health conscious
emotionally/financially secure, tall, N / S, SWJM, 50-60, Boca area, #9110.
KITTENISH 40. Lovely smile, contageous laughter, unencumbered, 5'4," fit,
DWJF seeks N / S, older, sharing, worldly, decisive, relaxed, responsible, sentimental, loving WJPM, to honor, protect, nurture lasting love, #8218.’
SWEET, YOUNG THING. SF, 22, very attractive, seeks wonderful sexual relationship with right man. If you are handsome, intelligent and financially stable I’d
love to meet you. #9304.’
‘MUSCULAR ADONIS DESIRED. Tall, handsome gentleman, 25-40, wanted
for dating and travel by financially secure lady. #9063.’
None of the adds appealed to Jonny. A bunch of self-digging Jewish-American
women seeking lovers.
He started scanning the headers:
‘WELL ABOVE AVERAGE.’ ‘TALL, ATTRACTIVE.’
‘PETITE AND WONDERFUL.’ ‘GREAT CATCH.’
‘ATTRACTIVE, CLASSY LADY.’ ‘I TURN HEADS.’
‘GORGEOUS BF WITH CLASS.’ ‘WIN FIRST PRIZE.’
‘DONATE YOUR BODY.’ ‘CATCH A WINNER.’
Uff. Jonny threw the adds aside. Nothing but a bunch of weirdos on an egotrip,
as far as he could judge.
‘Catch a winner,’ my ass. Winners don’t advertise in the losers’ columns.
He skipped all the ads from the massage parlors. He felt no desire to read the adds
for the homosexuals and the lesbians. Nor the regular guys, for that matter.
Then he noticed the escort section under ‘Adult Miscellaneous.’ Twenty-seven
agencies were advertising. In the XS there were pages of them.
‘Adult entertainment. AFFORDABLE. Dancers ~ Escorts ~ Models. C.C. ok.
305-974-9389.’
‘AAABBIES ENTERTAINMENT. Most affordable in town. 24hrs / 7days. 3219504.’
‘BEAUTIFUL ESCORTS. Only the best. 472-0049.’
‘ALL AROUND ANGELS. All major credit cards. (305) 791-2223. 24hrs.’
All major credit cards, heh? So Americans were buying pussy on credit now!
While the wives were taking care of the kids back home. But never mind. Most wives
knew how to get even.
Uff, what an immoral society! American bitches were well known around the
world for their roughness and uncleanliness. How could anybody at all take a chance
of marrying under this system? Nah, not him. Jonny would stay single. No American
bitches for him!
In the XS the adds were even more direct. Half page adds for some of the titty
bars: Foxy Lady. Pink Pussycat. Booby Trap. Jiggles. Pure Platinum. Solid Gold.
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35
Cheetah. Goldfinger. Crazy Horse. Crazy Jim’s. Two full pages of smaller adds for
the escort agencies. A full page for gays and lesbians! In New Times he could read
as many as 800 sex adds! Jesus Christ! Prostitution was on a rampage down here in
Florida! And it was actually all illegal! But still ever present. Was it a result of the
American double morality or was it a total breakdown of justice and law enforcement? Or was it both? —
Yeah, it was both! And then some!
Jonny’s eyes caught an article in the Herald: Aids had now developed into being
the major cause of death among males between eighteen and forty in Broward
County. Heart attacks and cancer were running close second and third. Jonny was not
surprised. He had read this before. A sex industry as all consuming as this, without
being properly organized and without proper check-ups and treatments, the situation
was nothing less than a timebomb. Not to mention the gay population! In the area
across the street it was estimated to make up eighty-five percent of the population!
Anything was better than this! Even state run whorehouses with regular check-ups
like in Germany. With registered prostitutes paying their taxes like everybody else.
But that would be too much realism for moralistic Americans living in a dream world
rather than in the real world. As a result of their moral purity, they could not accept
reality. And the politicians were playing along!
Jonny was beginning to see things Hardee’s way now. All his life Hardee had
been paying for pussy. No wonder he wanted a piece of the action. On the receiving
end. Moneywise. Maybe it was even a good idea? Jonny felt the temptations. He had
taken plenty of dirt since he moved here. Maybe it was time to secure some solid
income?
In Rome you do like the Romans do!
Well, he had decided to get the hell out of the Roman Empire. The Holiday Park
Hotel was now on the market. In a few weeks he could be out of here. For good.
He would have to tell Hardee ‘no deal.’
Next afternoon Shirley returned from the hospital with little Louis. They were having
a little gathering around the patio tables with Ronald distributing cigars and Shirley
showing off the newborn to everybody interested in seeing him.
“Look. Isn’t he just gorgeous? A handsome little devil, isn’t he?”
Shirley behaved so motherly, while Ronald was walking around proud as a peacock in newly sprung feathers. He entered the office offering Jonny a huge cigar.
“Thank you. I’ll probably die if I smoke it, but I’ll keep it as a souvenir.”
“That’s cheatin’, Jonny. If you want to be part of the celebration, you have to
smoke that thing.”
Ronald offered to light the cigar for him.
“Uff. That’ll probably kill me. I’ve never smoked before, you know. A cigar, I
mean.”
“I’ve never been a father before, either. For my own child, that is.” He insisted
on lighting the cigar and Jonny accepted. “Come outside. Join the party.”
36
Flowers and Butterflies
Jonny reluctantly left the office and sat at one of the tables. Robin sat right next
to him.
”I need to see you in the office, Jonny. I’ll be short on rent this week as well. I
hope you don’t mind.”
“We’ll talk about it in the office.”
Jonny did not like talking business in front of the tenants. Besides, Robin would
be talking more than just business. And right now he was more than busy puffing that
cigar, while many of the women, including Robin, were openly smoking joints
supplied by Jennifer in number eleven. Jonny felt rather uncomfortable, but stayed
a while out of politeness. He knew that he could be held responsible and thrown in
jail if the police would show, with so many of the tenants openly smoking shit. He
wanted to stop it, but knew that would create huge resentments. He had problems
enough without creating more, so he let it be.
Shirley sat down right next to Robin holding the little boy on stretched arms:
“Isn’t he just gorgeous, Jonny?”
Jonny laughed. He was thinking of Lillian proudly showing off her offspring.
“I’ve never seen a good-looking newly born, Shirley. He looks like a pink floorrag
to me.”
Shirley pretended to feel offended, but laughed.
“At least admit he’s a handsome floor rag, Jonny.”
“Yeah, I must say he looks strong and healthy. And who knows, a few months
from now he might even look handsome. If he resembles his mother.”
“Thanks, Jonny. After he was born it took some time before they brought him in
to me. Let me tell you, I was worried sick that something might be wrong with him.
From all my drinking. Smoking. Fucking. Pills. You name it, I fucking did it. And
then falling down the stairs. When they finally brought him in to me, I felt so relieved. He’s a true copy of Ronald’s so nobody needs to wonder who’s the father.
Ronald was so proud. Said he looks more like his father than himself. I felt so relieved, too. I’ll start a new life now that I’ve got this little guy depending on me.”
“Where’s Jennifer? I haven’t seen her the last few days.”
“Oh, Ron’s got a new job, you know. So Jennifer’s been staying with one of his
friends. A gay guy. She’ll be back tomorrow or the next day. — So you miss her,
heh? Yeh, she’s gorgeous. Too bad she’s too young for you. And you know what,
Robin here’s been an angel while I’ve been in the hospital. She’s been taking care
of Ron for me every single night. I really appreciate it. That’s what friends are for.”
“So you’ve known each other for a long time, heh?”
“We used to work at the same agency for some time.”
“The escort service?”
“Yeh. We substituted for each other now and then. Then as now. Ha, ha, ha.
I never thought she’d be substituting for me with Ron, but I sure appreciate it.
He’s left me alone for quite some time now. Thanks to Robin.”
Jonny experienced some bitter feelings of jealousy, but was not surprised. Nothing could shock him any more.
Flowers and Butterflies
37
He had wondered about Robin for some time. Since that Monday. Her being
played with by her step father at eleven. Having a lover at twelve. Having a terminally ill uncle who was out of her life for good. Her not being able to pay the rent after
her uncle had left. Being in his will. The way she had offered herself to Jonny in
exchange of a rent receipt. Her friendship with Shirley and Ronald. Her not working.
Yeah! His suspicions were correct! One thing he had to give Robin, though; she
did not flaunt her shit the way Shirley did hers, but kept it to herself. At least that
was something. And right now Jonny could see her feeling uncomfortable the way
Shirley exposed her.
She took Jonny’s hand and slowly whispered: “I’ll explain later.”
Jonny figured there was not much to explain, but just nodded. He knew she’d be
in his office later that night to make rent arrangements. Jonny would tell her then.
Smoking the cigar was slowly making him sick. He excused himself, ran over to
the Amoco station and puked in the toilet bowl. If only Connie would move, then he
would at least have a small room for himself, but the way things were now he was
feeling miserable. With no relief in sight.
When he returned Robin was sitting alone waiting for him. She wanted to talk to
him alone. Especially not with Shirley around. Yes, she would like to see him again
for the rent money. What Shirley had told him was true. Ronald had been staying
with her every night. She had wanted to see Jonny, but had to keep her promise to
Shirley that she’d take care of Ronald’s needs.
“He’s a sex animal, you know. Jumps anything with a whole in it.”
Jonny felt disappointed. He also worried a little. About her uncle being terminally
ill. What ailed him?
Jonny had not protected himself when he had sex with Robin!
For some reason people were easily reading his mind. Maybe because he worried
about everything. Now he worried about getting aids from Robin.
‘How you think is how it turns out.’
He tried not to worry about it, but did.
Robin was easily reading his mind.
“Don’t worry, Jonny. I always have safe sex. I only made one exception for you.”
Jonny worried about how many other exceptions she had made. Maybe with her
old ‘uncle.’ After all he’d been her uncle for a long time, and he had even put her
down in his will. Jonny tried not to worry about it, but did.
‘How you think is how it turns out. Damned!’
“After learning about Ronald and everything I feel it’s better we don’t see each
other. But don’t worry. I’ll take care of the rent for one more week. Then I think it’s
time you start paying. You must be getting something from Ronald? Da han pleide
å besøke et ludder nede i gata her, betalte han tjue hver gang.”
“I just do this to help Shirley. I’ve owed her, and now she’s collecting. In a couple
of weeks I’ll probably be out of here. I doubt if you’ll show, but I wish you’d stop
by later tonight. If not, I won’t hold it against you.”
“As much as I like you, still don’t expect to see me. I’d hate to bump into Ronald
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Flowers and Butterflies
in the middle of the night. Nor do I especially care to share pussy with him. He jumps
anything with a hole in it, remember?”
“Don’t forget, Jonny, I’m not doing this for Ronnie or myself. I’m doing it for
Shirley! And Jennifer!”
“Jennifer? What does that little child have to do with it?”
“Ronald’s been abusing her from the day she moved in. Shirley and I figured that
by seeing me, he’d leave her alone. It almost worked. But then he made arrangements
with a friend to have her stay with him. A fucking sick individual who also happens
to be gay — or bisexual. He wanted Jennifer for sexual experimentations. Sodomy.
Anal sex. Ronald agreed. That’s how he got his new job as a technician with International Electronix. Before he stayed with Motorola for many years only a few
blocks away from here.”
Jonny was left speechless. He felt like puking again.
“Jesus Christ. Why don’t you call the police?”
“Shirley did two weeks ago. The police officer was just another gay guy. And another of Ronald’s friends. He threatened to take Shirley in on charges of prostitution.
Then she would have lost the baby — and Jennifer. She was forced to drop charges.
Things are never the way they seem in a homosexual society, Jonny. When a woman
moves ahead, everybody’s calling it ‘the pussy reward.’ She’s been sleeping with the
boss — breaking the glass ceiling with her pussy. Which is usually true. But nobody
suspects anything wrong when a man moves ahead. All the sexual services are pretty
much well hidden then. Still, it’s all over. In the service industry. All the head waiters. In the record industry. All the new groups hitting the charts. They’ve all paid the
price of their success in advance. Many of them without ever getting it. That’s the
price to pay for living under the rainbow banner of the homosexuals — a different
way of living under the rainbow. Only when a woman moves ahead, does it get to be
talked about. It’s true. Cher, the singer, has publicly stated that the only way to success in Hollywood is through the bedrooms of the producers. She knows what she’s
talking about. She’s fucked a few of them.
So, welcome to the party, Jonny. You’ve had to pay for pussy just like the rest of
them. And you’ve had unsafe sex with a prostitute. You fucked me like crazy that
night, and you enjoyed it. So you fucked a prostitute. And paid for it! You’re no
longer outstanding, Jonny. Now you’re reduced to just one among the many!”
Jonny’s mind was drifting again.
He was back in Manila searching for Tetchie. The driver had come to pick him
up that night, at five in the morning, as agreed. Jonny remembered he had almost
decided to stay on, but gave it up. Business before pleasure. Duty before happiness.
Food before sex. He had been booked on Quantas via Sydney and had been waiting
in line almost an hour. The booking agent had asked him for his visa to Australia.
Jonny did not have any.
‘I’m not going to Australia. It’s just an international stopover on my way to the
Fiji Islands.’
‘What country you from, sir?’
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39
‘Norway.’
‘Ok, sir. You wait. I check.’
The guy disappeared and returned with his superior who checked Jonny’s passport.
‘I can find visa for the United States only. Can you show visa for Australia, sir?’
‘I have none. I’m not going to Australia. I won’t even be leaving the airport —
just waiting for my connecting flight to the Fiji Islands. I’m not going to Australia!’
‘Sorry. I cannot book you on this flight. The stopover in Sydney is twelve hours.
You can only stay eight hours without a visa. Australian regulations, sir. Also apply
for Norwegians. You need to go in the booking office and find different schedule not
staying in Australia more than eight hours, sir.’
Jonny felt devastated. It seemed rather unbelievable that a civilized society in this
day and age of international travels would refuse to let him stay four extra hours at
an international airport waiting for a connecting flight. But the Philipino was persistent.
‘Strict regulations to Australia, sir. You need to re-book, sir. The office right
around the corner, sir. Good luck.’
‘Uff. God what a misery.’ Jonny hardly believed this. The booking office could
not help him. There was no connecting flight for the Fiji Islands by Quantas via
Australia with a shorter connecting time than twelve hours.
The girl behind the counter was pleasant. She tried to book him via Auckland,
New Zealand, but there were no available seats until next Monday. The best they
could do was send him directly to Honolulu, but he’d have to buy a new ticket onboard Philippine Airlines. They only had first class available. Jonny decided against
it. He would have to return to the hotel in Manila and take it from there.
Damned shit! Why hadn’t he been informed about the restrictions via Australia?
Fucking Australians! He’d never deal with that country again. Or ever again fly
Quantas! No fucking way! He would never again buy cheap airline tickets in London, either, for that matter!
On his way back to Ermita he decided not to rebook at the Centrepoint, but checked in at Green Gardens. That way he saved roughly five hundred pesos a day. It was
not quite the same standard, but ok. He noticed a strange smell in the corridors. The
bathroom was also full of cockroaches, but he decided to stay. He’d call reception
and have someone spray for cockroaches tomorrow.
Exhausted he laid down on the bed to relax. He suddenly jumped out of bed
again. Damned! Where the hell was his camera? His brand new camera! Expensive,
too. Top notch Canon! He looked all over, but could not find it. He must have left it
at the airport. Either at the counter or in the booking office. Oh, God what an aggravation! Damn! Shit! Hell!
He took a taxi back to the airport to look for it, but it was nowhere to be found
Well, that was only to be expected. He fucking deserved this misery. Leaving his
camera behind like that! But he had been thoroughly frustrated. But then again, he
could not remember having left it anywhere. Fuckin’ idiot!
40
Flowers and Butterflies
On his way back to the hotel he had a strange, but uplifing experience. An old,
small truck drove up beside the taxi and blew the driver blew his horn fiercly. Then
he passed and lowered the spped until it cake to a close standstill. The same did the
taxi driver. Then the truck stopped and the taxi parked behind it. A middle aged
couple came out of the car and waved at him. The taxi driver smiled and told Jonny
they wantet to talk to him. He asked him to go outside and meet them.
And when Jonny came out, he the driver pulled back the tarp covering the back
opening. And there sat seven young girls waving at him on top of potatoes and carrots. The truck owner gesticulated eagerly. He had seven daughters and they were all
eager to marry an Americano. The oldest was only fourteen. He could pick which
one he liked.
His wife ran over to them and wanted them to get out from the truck. She wanted
him to get in touch.
But Jonny was not in the mood. Everything had worked out wrongly for him all
day. He just wanted to get into the taxi and find his way back to the hotel. As the taxi
passed, they were all waving at him. And he carefully waved back.
The taxi driver smiled at him asking: ‘So you not interested in peasant daughters?’
Jonny just smiled back without saying anything. He was in a miserable mood and
wanted to get back to the hotel as soon as possible.. But he did not enter the hotel.
He decided to take a walk over to Steak Town and get something to eat. Maybe that
would make him feel better.
Oh, damned what a miserable day!
In Steak Town he saw images of Tetchie all over the fucking place! And for some
reason his steak was served rare instead of well done. He sent it back. When it was
finally returned, it tasted tougher than a worn shoesole, Norwegian style. His fries
were already soft and cold, and even the red vine tasted like shit. They had served
him Australian vine, this time. Not Burgundy. Damned Englishmen! Fucking Australians! Stupid Pinoys! Squarehead Norwegian!
He had stopped by at the ticket office, but there was nothing available for Honolulu until in three days. And on top of everything he had to buy first class.
He no longer felt tired, but tense and upset. It was three in the afternoon. The
girlie bars opened at two. He decided to make an early round.
Yaah, the beautiful little princesses were busy dancing, so he decided to make a
second round. He must have visited every single bar in Ermita that afternoon, except
Bangkok Inn. He worried about finding Tetchie in a derogatory situation with some
sick pervert.
At the end of his third round about four o’clock he finally entered Bangkok Inn.
No, Tetchie was not in yet. She would usually not come in until after six, but then
she would always leave right away as some Hapon gentleman would usually be
waiting for her.
Jonny returned at six thirty, but she was not in. He returned at eight, but she was
still not in. He met a good looking girl in one of the small bars who wanted him to
Flowers and Butterflies
41
come with her for short time. He almost gave in to temptations, but somehow managed to stagger out all by himself. At ten he returned to Bangkok Inn and hardly
believed his eyes when seeing Tetchie dancing on the small dance floor with a girlfriend.
‘Hello, Tetchie. I’ve been looking for you all day. I want to talk to you.’
Tetchie looked at him contemptuously.
‘Pfff. You too drunk to talk. I never go with drunkard. I will not go with you. Today I have nice customer. Maybe tomorrow.’
Jonny left the girlie bar more ashamed than a beaten dog. And beaten he was.
He made a new round. On coffee, this time. Many of the beauties wanted to go
with him. Some of them too beautiful to be true. And so sweet and natural! Little
makeup. Clean and cut fingernails. Angels!
But he was not looking for company tonight. He was only looking for Tetchie,
and the way things had turned out he hardly knew what to do. He decided to try to
sober up, and then try one more time, although she probably would have left for the
night — with a rich Japanese.
At twelve he reentered, but Tetchie was nowhere to be seen. He sat down,
disappointed.
The mamasan from last night approached him.
‘Nice you come back, Jonny friend, but the girl already leave with customer. She
go on vacation with rich Hapon for three days. In Puerto Galera. If you like, I will tell
that she wait for you when she come back.’
‘Is Tetchie staying away for three days? With a Japanese?’
‘No. Not Tetchie. The nice girl from Palawan. She like you very much.’
He felt extremely relieved.
‘So — where is Tetchie?’
‘Tetchie no good. She fighting with the owner. She refuse to go with customer.
Tonight. Also last night. Always. Very nice, rich Hapon. He now go with the girl
from Palawan. The owner very mad with Tetchie. I think she lose job.’
‘Is it possible that I talk to her, please.’
‘I think no. She always refuse to go with customers. Maybe tomorrow she go
home with her mother. No more customers.’
‘Let me talk to her, please. I will give the owner money for the bar fine even if
she will not go. Then at least the owner should be happy.’
Jonny was not used to paying bribes, but suddenly remembered.
‘If you get her, I have hundred peso for you.’
He gave her the money in advance.
‘Ok, sir. But I cannot promise. Tetchie very bad girl.’
‘Just let me talk to her, that’s all.’
Mamasan disappeared behind the back room curtain. She came back a few minutes later looking inquisitively at Jonny.
‘Very surprised, sir. She come right away. She look very happy. Very strange,
that girl.’
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Flowers and Butterflies
‘Thank you very much. Maybe you’d like to join me for a drink now?’
‘Thank you, sir, but I think not. Tetchie will not like. She like alone. Always.’
‘Tonight we make an exception. I buy your favorite drink. Also one for Tetchie.’
‘Tetchie she not like the liquor. She only drink mango juice. I drink champagne.
And you?’
‘Make it a cup of coffee, please. Black.’
Tetchie emerged from behind the curtain looking radiantly beautiful and smilingly happy. She quietly sat down next to him. She kept smiling.
‘Today I had very bad day. But I very happy now. I wait with you, Jonny. You
wait with me?’
‘I don’t know yet. You’re playing an awful lot of games.’
‘No games. I wait with you. If you not come back tonight, I go back in the province with my family. Never go in the bar again. The German owner very mad. Very
mad.’
‘So what happened? You tell me before you had nice customer.’
‘No longer customer. He go with other girl. I wait for you.’
She smiled happily.
‘No need to pay bar fine. I never go back.’
‘I’ll pay the bar fine for you, Tetchie. Then we’ll talk and go back tomorrow.
Maybe I should even pay double bar fine? For yesterday.’
‘How you know this? Eh, mamasan?’
‘Hm, hm.’
‘Ok. Then I no longer have problem with owner. He very, very mad with me.’
‘He should be happy now that he gets his money.’
She snuffed contemptuously.
‘He bad German. Always the money make happy. Always. Why this, if not
hungry?’
‘We live in a world of greedy people.’
Mamasan returned with the order. She thanked Jonny, but did not sit down to
share the drink.
‘This mamasan no good. She always take money from the girls. Some girls always give half money to mamasan. Then they always get the good customer. No
good, this way.’
Jonny felt compassionate with her. The world was a corrupt place to live, but the
only one available.
If you would have a chance at getting first price, you often had to pay for it in
advance — without knowing if you would ever get it.
He decided not to bring Tetchie to Green gardens, but instead rented a room at
Holiday Inn. And she was just as hungry for him as he was for her. It seemed unreal
that they had had sex only two days ago. In a way it seemed as if it was something
that had happened a long, long time ago. But this time it became even more intense.
Tetchie was hungry so she came almost right away. But Jonny needed took longer
before he came without her interrupting him this time.
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43
‘This time I think of you, Jonny.’
And afterword she lay relaxed in his arms.
So — there, in a luxurious and clean hotelroom overlooking Manila Bay Tetchie
was relaxed enought to tell him all of her life’s story.
Jonny smiled his sad smile as he noticed Robin sitting across the desk staring at him
with tears in her eyes.
“Yes, Robin, you’re so right. I’m just one among the many. I have indeed fucked
a prostitute — a solid whore.”
Robin suddenly stood and headed for her room. She was crying.
Tetchie had enjoyed a very stable and secure life until roughly one year ago. Then
all at the same time life seemed to start falling apart around her. Also her family. The
Mount Pinatubo eruption had struck a devestating blow to all of them. They were
only squatters, but the eruption had built up around their little rusty, corrugated iron
shack just outside of Angeles City until it collapsed.
They had lost almost everything, but had survived with some help from the family
living right next to them; her aunt, her father’s sister.
Then, when the Americans closed the Clark Airforce Base as a result of extensive
damage to the facilities from the eruption, both her father and her mother had lost
their jobs. Only small jobs, but enough to keep the family alive and well. Her father
had become sick, but had no money for medicine. Except a little bit now and then.
But to live and work he needed medicine every day. In the beginning her oldest brother had managed to keep the family alive, and they had also managed to dig themselves out of the ashes and rebuild the shack they had been living in. And they had
by far been the only ones having that problem. That’s how it was for most in the
region. It had been a difficult period.
Her oldest brother had been an electrician. A very good brother. Always hard
working. Not lazy like Philippinos. But, during a demolition project for a new hotel
in Manila, he was hit by a loose main electrical cord, and had been electrocuted on
the spot. He had died instantly. He fell from the structure all the way to the ground.
Tetchie cried as she told this. She had loved her oldest brother. He had always
been working hard for the family, but now he was gone. She was the second oldest,
but had no job. The other three brothers were all going to school and too young to
work. The whole family had been very hungry at that time, and nobody knew what
to do. The youngest brother was crying all the time. He was only five years old and
always needed food.
One evening her mother had pulled her aside to talk to her.
‘Our family is starving, Tetchie. You are the only one who can make enough
money to support us, or we will die.’
‘But, mother, how can I? I have no job.’
‘It is Philippine tradition that the girls must help feed the family. You must help
now.’
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Flowers and Butterflies
‘Yes, mother, but I have no job.’
‘I have job for you. Tomorrow you and I go in Manila. And we will not starve.’
Her mother had taken her to a half decent hotel in Manila and told her to wait
until she came back. When she returned she was not alone, but accompanied by an
old, big Arab in a big, white djellaba. He had not shaved and smelled something terrible with ugly, yellow teeth.
Her mother had told her to do exactly as the Arab demanded.
That night Tetchie lost her virginity. Jonny could still see her sad eyes in the
dimly lit room begging him to understand and not to condemn.
‘Yes, Jonny, that night my mother sold my cherry to the old, ugly Arab for 50.
000.00 pesos. Then the next morning she came back for me and brought me to the
owner of the Bangkok Inn. Very bad German man. He give her 5,000.00 pesos, and
sold my cherry three more times to the Americans for $500.00 each time. But one
American got very mad, and from then on I dance in the bar.
Every night I made love with the different men. I like the Japanese men. They are
nice and friendly and also like to talk. I never go with the Americanos, because they
are very drunkard and sometimes very bad. I never like the nigger. I always hate the
Arabianos. I like that I kill every one of them, but in my heart I try to forgive. I also
before have Norwegian boyfriend like you. He promise he take me in Norway, but
never keep promise. Maybe one day he come and look for me. But I will not be here
then. Only if God punish me very hard, maybe I still stay here. Some people stay always, like many mamasans. Then my heart will break even more. I tell you before
I have big dream, but maybe too big to come true.’
‘What exactly is your big dream, Tetchie?’
She kept silent for a long time. Then she finally spoke — softly, searchingly.
‘Maybe if I tell, I sound like silly schoolgirl, but I have a pure heart, so I tell the
truth. When you walk in the door in the bank the first time, my heart almost stop. I
saw my dream. When you gave me the flowers in the bank, I cry because I think
maybe my dream can come true. Many times I see that the men like me, but when I
tell the truth, they only like for sex. I have had very many men. The customers. But
I still have the pure heart and strong love for a good man. I know you are a good
man. So I became happy. But also scared, because very difficult to lose if you become very close to the big dream. That’s why I ran away. The big dream very scary.
I always care for you, Jonny. If you can forget about my cherry, and learn to love
only the pure heart I say one thing: My strong love will make you happier than God.
Do you have the courage?’
‘Life’s not easy, my dear. It’s not been easy for me, either. Since you ran away
the other night, I’ve felt like lost in space. Asking someone to marry is a big step, you
know. But I think I have the courage. When I feel the love, I get the courage. If you
had asked me this yesterday, before I felt the love, I would not have had the courage.
But even if we do have the courage, it may still become difficult when we get exposed to our daily stress.’
‘I have the courage of true love. Today, tomorrow and forever. Until I die. To-
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45
morrow I tell my mother I will not work in the bar. Tomorrow, when my mother
come and bring me the clothes and the food from the province, I will let you meet
her. Do you have the courage, please?’
Jonny was moved to tears.
‘Yes, I would like to meet your family. I think it’s nice of your mother to bring
you the food, wash the clothes and come and visit you. She must really care for you.’
Tetchie snuffed contemptuously.
‘My mother did not sell my cherry for the love in her heart, but for the money. My
mother never visit for love, but to pick my money and take it home to build nice
house. When she bring the food and wash the clothes, she know I save the money.
Then, more for her. Every Sunday she come and pick it up. All of it. Nothing left for
me. She always say I make more money next day. No, my mother never come and
visit for the love in her heart. Only for the money from my pussy. That is why my
dream very big. I have no one to give me the true love. Only the false. The plastic.
Like paper roses. Only you gave me the real roses. Fresh. Newly sprung. Red. Like
pure hearts.’
Jonny felt strongly for this woman. Never could he have imagined that he would
fall head over heals for a pleasure girl easily available to so many. Accepting the
many former relationships of his wife had been difficult enough.
But this was different. This woman was a true gem among greed and abuse, an
innocent victim of poverty and family traditions. She was not seeing all these men
for her own pleasure, to get her next hit, but out of duty and loyalty to her family.
She deserved better. — — —
Fredriijk Niehuus no longer worked at the Windsor. He had returned to Canada to
visit his two sons whom he hadn’t seen in such a long time. The owners, a pleasant
French Canadian couple in their mid thirties from just outside of Montreal, managed
the place themselves now.
Well, Holly, Freddy’s girlfriend, was still helping out somewhat, but had become
rather unstable after Freddy left. He had given no information or forewarning. One
morning he was just gone, along with roughly twelve hundred dollars rent money.
Poor Holly felt devastated, with no place to go but home to Gary, Indiana, the murder
capital of the western world.
Freddy had called once. From an asylum. Yes, he had been taken in for treatment
after he had been found crying on his dead girlfriend’s grave with a plastic bag over
his head trying to commit suicide. He had loved this woman too much. After she had
broken up his marriage and pulled him away from his family, she had done something unforgivable — she had simply died on him. From an overdose.
Jean, the landlady, showed Jonny to his room. Yes, what a shame. Freddy was
such a nice person, and a good worker, too, although sometimes so unpredictably unstable. You never could tell these days. It had become impossible to hire decent help.
Those not on drugs had grave personal problems and were too often unable to handle
the tedious routines of everyday living.
46
Flowers and Butterflies
These days most Americans seemed to be living in a soap opera world away from
reality, all dreaming they were Madonnas or Elizabeth Taylors. The women, that is,
while Michael Jackson, Mike Tyson and O. J. Simpson were all outstanding role
models for the male population.
The Canadian couple had been planning to sell for some time, especially after all
those terrible tourist killings. Only a few years ago Florida had been such a popular
destination for the French Canadians, but not so many of them were coming down
here any more. The killings had scared away a lot of them. Also the unfriendliness.
They were beginning to see more clearly now, and the fact that they were given a
hard time by the authorities as foreign investors kept them away. America, as well
as Americans, were now in a process of change. The country had taken a dip for the
worse, and, as a result of the high unemployment, down in Florida foreigners were
more often than not used as scapegoats.
Although the central government had introduced special legislation in order to
lure foreign investments into South Florida, such as needing $500,000.00 only in
investment capital in order to obtain an investment visa, most people, often backed
by local governments and local police, took the opposite attitude. They blamed the
foreigners for all the unemployment.
Canadians were turning their backs on Florida in favor of Mexico and Cuba now.
Tourist bashing of French Canadians had hopefully reached a peak. If not, few would
be coming down to Florida in the future. Canada had never backed the American embargo against Cuba and was now more and more enjoying the opening of the Cuban
society toward the west.
It was interesting hearing Jean elaborate about Florida seen with Canadian eyes,
but Jonny felt disappointed not to meet Freddy. But the landlady gave him the same
deal, fifty dollars for two nights.
He slept for two full days without leaving the room except for a couple of trips
up to Arby’s. He took an unspecified number of showers and returned to the Hotel
with new energy. He had charged his battery and felt like a new person.
And with Kirk evicted he also felt he was returning to a different world. Now Eric
was the only one left causing problems.
However, Calvin, and Thilda with her two teenage daughters, were still running
their increasingly lucrative little drug dealership from across the street.
George and his friend in number twenty-five had not paid rent for two weeks now.
Jonny decided to knock on their door and ask them to pay up. He desperately needed
the cash. He was still getting further and further behind on the bills. George opened
up and invited him into the apartment rather reluctantly. There was a big party going
on, and George introduced Jonny to his friends. To Jonny’s surprise they were all
girls. Very heavily made-up, every single one of them, almost vulgar, with huge acrylics glued on to their fingernails. Their deliberate feminine movements seemed practiced rather than natural.
A bunch of nothing but cheap American bitches!
Flowers and Butterflies
47
“Jonny, these are all my friends. This is Elliot. He’s a darling. Also meet Clive
and Frankie. You already met Colin the day we moved in, but he’s not very easily
recognized when dressed as a woman. We’re all, well, except for myself, part of a
team of drag queens performing in a drag show over at the U.S. Male. The Great
Garlic Queens. Sometimes we also enter competitions. Would you believe that only
the other night Colin won first price? Actually five hundred dollars. We perform all
over Florida, and lately we’ve been doing quite well. I’m not part of the show. I’m
the manager.”
Jonny could hardly believe his own eyes. These women were all men? No. These
men were all women! No, they were all men. Damned! And there was that girl, or
whatever, from the 7-Eleven cash register!
He had noticed the many women going in and out of number twenty-five and
reacted to the heavy make-up and the long fingernails, but paid no special attention
to them except that he had found them all vulgar. It was not unusual that he found
American women vulgar because of excessive makeup, glued-on acrylics and rough
language, but — but —.
He was left speechless.
This place was getting more and more fucked up every day! Colin came over and
grabbed his hand and kissed it.
“Oh, landlord, what a pleasure.”
He giggled like a schoolgirl.
Jonny instinctively pulled away. Two men, or rather a he and a she thing, or, eh,
well, they were openly kissing in the sofa without paying attention to Jonny. They
all laughed and giggled and were having a good time.
Jonny realized they were all stoned on some sort of shit, probably crack.
Wow, Calvin and Thilda, with her teenage daughters, were having a great source
of income from this place!
One was sitting in a wheelchair with a heavy cast on his left leg, in another world,
giggling to himself. Yeah, they were all in crack heaven, all right! A crack party of
transvestites right here in his own fucking building! Without him suspecting a fucking thing! He had wondered about all the women going in and out, but had remembered that Colin had told him he’d have his girlfriend over now and then. What the
hell was going on? Were they all living here without him realizing it? How come the
tenants had said nothing?
He liked the American way of not meddling too much in other people’s affairs,
but this was taking privacy a little too far! He could hardly hear George’s voice from
the music going full blast. Jonny sounded brusque.
“I need to see you in the office right away!”
“I can’t tonight. We’re rehearsing for the next drag show.”
“The fuck you are! If anything, you’re rehearsing for your next hit. It looks more
like a transvestite crack orgy, if you ask me. I’ll give you ten minutes to see me in the
office, or I’ll have the police clear the premises immediately. This has gone too far!”
“Ok. I’ll come right over.”
48
Flowers and Butterflies
“Good! Don’t keep me waiting!”
George did not keep Jonny waiting. Looking angry he accompanied him over to
the office without saying a word. Jonny was first to speak.
“You’ll have to explain to me in detail what the hell is going on over there.”
“Nothing. We’re just having a weekend party. It’s a free country!”
“How many people do you have in there?”
“We’re eight guys.”
“Are they all staying here?”
“They’ve just been invited over for the weekend. That’s all.”
“Well, let me explain it to you this way: If I see anybody in that apartment besides
you and Colin after eleven o’clock, I’ll have the police over here, and have every
single fucker that don’t belong there thrown out. Understand? — Now, about rent.
You owe two weeks back rent. You were supposed to pay today. I expect that you
pay me according to agreement for the two weeks you are behind. Which means I’ll
need the money tonight.”
“I am sorry. I cannot do that. I cannot come up with the cash until tomorrow afternoon.”
“That’s not what we agreed on.”
“I’m sorry.”
Yeah, sorry Americans. Always singing the Sad and Sorry Song. They’re all the
same. Big words and petty actions. Jonny had a hard time keeping his cool.
“If you don’t come up with the rent tonight, I suggest you find another place to
stay by eleven tomorrow. Do we understand each other?”
“You’re gonna pay for this, motherfucker!”
At three in the morning Jonny was resting against the pool fence like so many times
before. He kept listening to the rowdy party going on in number twenty-five. He had
counted twelve different people, or something, going in and out all night. Craig came
and joined him offering a can of Busch. Jonny accepted. Craig had also been unable
to sleep. Not because of the noise from twenty-five. He worried about Ross not
coming home from dancing at the U.S. Male. He naively asked Jonny if he thought
something could have happened to him. Then also Ronald came and joined them
bringing a whole sixpack of Busch. He was too restless to sleep, and told Jonny and
Craig straight forward that he needed pussy, but wasn’t getting any from Shirley. She
had been out all night and had not yet come home. He’d been knocking on Robin’s
door, but she did not answer. She was probably out escorting on a Friday night.
Craig explained that he was worried about Ross not coming home until early in
the mornings. He’d been away a lot lately. Jonny was sipping his beer without paying
much attention to the conversation between Craig and Ronald. They quickly finished
the sixpack, and Ronald went to fetch another. Jonny kept listening to the rowdy
party in twenty-five. He finally mentioned it to Craig and Ronald. They were both
equally surprised that he did not know what went on in there. Ronald hardly believed
him.
“You must have heard them going berserk last weekend, dammit.”
Flowers and Butterflies
49
“No. I was not here then. Remember?”
“Yeh, that’s right. Rumors had it you were seeing a prostitute.”
“Ha, ha, ha. Yeah. And snorting my life away.”
“If you wanna stop that noise in twenty-five, why don’t you call the police?”
“They’re usually more trouble than help.”
“Let me use your phone and I’ll call right away. I have a friend on duty right now.
He’s gay, but he hates all these transvestites. ‘The dickless motherfuckers,’ he calls
them. He simply loves breaking their balls. If you let me call him, I can guarantee
he’ll haul their asses in jail within minutes, every single one of them. Come on,
Jonny. They’re having a fuckin’ crack party.”
Ronald was getting real eager.
“Maybe I should go and talk to them first.”
“That’s too dangerous. If you enter the apartment, they can shoot you in the back
and get away with it. In America your home is your castle. You read what happened
to that motherfuckin’ stupid Japanese, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, it’s a disgrace to all Americans. Ugly Americans are turning deadly now.”
“That was fuckin’ nasty, Jonny. The motherfucker was askin’ for it.”
“Yeah, I know. It’s a free country. If someone steps on your lawn, shoot him in
the back and become an All American Hero! — — Ok. If they don’t stop it, I’ll call
the police. But I’ll talk to them first.”
“You’re fuckin’ crazy, Jonny. There are at least three guns in there. And they’re
all in crack haven. They’ll put a bullet through your head without the slightest remorse. Without knowing what the fuck they did. And get away with it! They’re all
citizens. You’re not.”
“Just give me a couple of minutes, Ronald, and I’ll be right back.”
Jonny knocked on their door, but they did not open. Instead they turned the music
up louder. He could hear shouts and laughter. It irritated him immensely.
“Are you sure that this police friend of yours is trustworthy?”
“Top notch. If you lead him into a crack orgy with transvestites, you’ll have a
friend for life. Let me call right away.”
“Ok.”
Ronald was still in the office when the first police car arrived. Then the second.
Then two more. Blinkers flashing, but no sirens. Eight officers surrounded the eastern half of the Cottage. Then the last car with Ronald’s friend in it arrived. He was
quickly briefed by Ronald, nodded at Jonny, and then commanded his orders.
They knocked on the door. No answer. He did not knock again. Just three gunshots and the doorknob was left in splinters.
What happened after seemed totally unreal to Jonny. One by one they entered the
apartment among screams and shouts. The music stopped. He heard officers commanding and faggots shouting their feminine curses. A shot was fired by a police
officer. Then it turned quiet. Very quiet. One by one they were handcuffed, and one
by one they were walked toward the van waiting to take them in. They were all next
to naked.
50
Flowers and Butterflies
Well, at least most of them. The others, including George, had some clothes on,
but they were also dressed rather scantily. Two were stark naked. They had been
caught with their pants down in the bedroom.
The tropical nights of South Florida were sometimes so hot and humid.
Ronald could not help himself. “Look! Look at their dicks. They ain’t got nothin.’
Nothin’ but little cigarette butts! They ain’t fuckin’ men! They ain’t women, either.
Look! They ain’t got nothin!’”
Jonny felt like he was watching a slow motion, silent movie from an unreal world.
But it was real enough. The officers led them in a row one by one, and roughly pushed them into the van, laughing and cracking jokes. They were obviously enjoying
themselves.
A few minutes later it was all over!
And Jonny was left with a trashed apartment — again, and a door shot to pieces
— again, and with two months unpaid rent — again — and a threat from huge and
rough Negro George that he would be back for him.
Well, hopefully it would not be long until we would be out of here. Ha only
hoped he managed to get away from Fort Lauderdale before Fort Lauderdale sent
him straight to hell. It was only a question of what would come first — his going
away or his being taken away.
Craig had left for the apartment.
Ronald was still ecstatic.
“Did you see those motherfuckers? They didn’t have nothin.’ It was out’a this
world, man! — Have another beer, Jonny. — Did you see those motherfuckers?”
Craig had remained very quiet. He still worried about Ross not coming home. He
had also heard the rumors that Ross no longer stayed late for business reasons only.
Ross was seeing a new lover and Craig was unable to hide his agony and jealousy.
He confessed openly to the fact that he loved Ross deeply. Jonny had no way of understanding, but felt sorry for him as he returned to the apartment with a bowed head
and a worried mind.
“Did you see those motherfuckers, Jonny?”
“Excuse my ignorance, but — eh, eh, what exactly is a ‘motherfucker?’”
“It’s just an American expression.”
“Yes, but it has a meaning?”
“It’s just someone fucking someone who is a mother.”
“Well, that’s more or less everybody. I thought it was someone fucking his own
mother.”
“That’s fuckin’ sick, Jonny. Nobody’s fuckin’ their own mother. It’s an expression, sometimes meaning transvestites.”
“I hear it all over. It seems to me the transvestites are the only ones the expression
does not apply to. Would it not be more correct to call them ‘fatherfuckers?’”
“It makes no fuckin’ difference. They ain’t got nothing, anyway. I used to hate
them with a passion. All the faggots. After knowing Craig I don’t know any more —
sitting up late at night worrying about Ross being unfaithful. Shirley, on the other
Flowers and Butterflies
51
hand, don’t give a shit who I fuck. She has no real capacity for love. Sometimes I sit
and wonder if I wouldn’t be better off if I turned homosexual.”
“I would rater be dead. Besides, I don’t think Craig’s very happy right now. The
queenbees simply love being queens. The drones are the ones to suffer. It’s nature’s
way.”
“Have another beer, Jonny. I am all alone tonight. Shirley’s started spending the
nights with her boss, and Robin’s out escorting. Jennifer won’t be back until later.”
“And Craig is sitting up all night worrying about Ross having a new lover.”
“Yeah. You’re fuckin’ right, Jonny. I forgot to think about it that way. — I used
to think you were seeing Shirley. How come you never date? Is it because the women
over here are all bitches? — You’re right. They are. But what would you do if that’s
all there is?”
Jonny remembered a wartime joke from back home and started laughing.
“Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. — I’d still look elsewhere.”
“Like where?”
“Asia. — Maybe the Philippines.”
“But there’s a lot of prostitution in the Philippines.”
“Seen through American eyes there’s a lot of prostitution everywhere. Except in
America. Becuse there it’s illegal. The American forces have always created prostitution. In Rome. Paris. On Okinawa. Tokyo. Honolulu. Korea. Vietnam. All over! So
why not in Olongapo and Angeles City?”
“What’s fuckin’ wrong with that? Where there are men, there will always be a
need for women. When you don’t have the time to fall in love, at least you can pay
for a fast fuck.”
“I doubt if you know the difference, but:
Over here you have hookers and motherfuckers.
Over there they have flowers and butterflies.
Over here the whores give blow jobs or suck dick.
Over there the little princesses lollipop.”
Judging from Ronalds’s bloodshot eyes, and that sheepish grin upon his youthful
face, Jonny had no doubts that he was getting stoned on a heavy mix of crack cocaine
and Busch beer.
Shirley had started spending the nights with her boss and boyfriend leaving her
husband behind with their newborn. And Robin spent the night escorting.
Homosexual Craig suffered heartaches because his lover, his so-called commonlaw spouse, Ross, was having a love affair with one of his customers.
Whoremongering Ronald contemplated turning gay hoping to find true love.
In about an hour he’d start looking for Jennifer. And graceful little Jennifer, the
beautiful, young woman already possessing the sinful knowledge, would start wishing to God that Ronald had never been born.
‘In God We Trust.’
52
02
Dead Ends
On Friday nights the lunatic tenants of the Holiday Park Hotel usually kept Jonny up
until after midnight. In contrast, Saturday mornings were quiet and pleasant. Sleeping on the floor in his office with his clothes on felt rather uncomfortable, but he still
managed to keep the routine of getting up at eight, walking over to Amoco for his
coffee, cake and newspaper, and enjoying the morning stillness in peace and quiet.
Today that was not to be.
When he returned from Amoco, Eric was waiting for him just outside the office
door.
Jonny expected hell to break loose like so many times before, but quickly assessed that Eric was not in one of his most frantic moods, although his dark, obstinate
eyes expressed anger and animosity. His deep, dark voice sounded harsh. He was
holding a piece of paper in his left hand.
“I fuckin’ never thought ye’d do this to me, Jonny! I want ye to know ye won’t
easily be getting rid of me. I’ll fight ye all the way through the courts. It’ll cost ye an
arm and a leg — and maybe a head and a heart, too.”
“I didn’t know you were that loaded with dough. For your case to even be considered in the courts you’ll have to place every dime of what you owe me in court escrow. Fine with me. I’ve still got to do what I’ve got to do.”
“Me, too — —
“That’s settled, then.”
— — unless we can come to some sort of agreement?”
“No more deals. We been through that before, remember?”
“Yes, and I kept every part of that agreement.”
Dead Ends
53
“Your in-laws are still here, remember? That leaves five people and a huge dog
living in one single room. No deal.”
“It’s still the cleanest apartment in the building.”
“Yeah, I’ll give you that. Priscilla keeps a clean house.”
“I keep a clean house. I cook. I do the dishes. I babysit. I wash clothes. I walk the
dog. Prissy’s waitressin.’ And she’s doing better every week!”
“So how come you’re still getting further and further behind on rent, then?”
“I promise ye’ll have yer rent money very shortly. Every dime. A man got to have
a place to call home. Do we have a deal?”
“No deal. But if you’re serious, you have three days to get rid of your in-laws.
Then we may reach an aggreement even if we already have one — the lease. So in
the meantime the process of eviction will continue as planned. — Se you in three
days.”
“That ain’t fair, Jonny.”
“Yaah, what is it he says this new Amerrican hero? — ‘shit happens.’”
For a while Eric kept silent.
“Ok, Jonny. I accept. I’ll have my in-laws out of here within Tuesday morning.
Probably by Sunday night. Then we’ll make a deal that’s probably gonna save ye all
yer money — and yer life. I’ve been wanting to tell ye for some time. Yer life’s in
danger. Ye simply don’t realize how close ye’ve been! — — Kirk.
During the eviction process just a few days after Wiley drowned in the pool, he
snapped. He was over at my place a couple of times wanting to use my gun. Looking
to put a bullet through yer head. If he snaps while stoned on all that shit, he’s totally
unpredictable. Of course I refused to give it to him. Managed to talk him out of it.
But he is beyond that stage now. Now it’s premeditated. Two nights in a row he’s
been hanging out looking for ye. For hours last weekend he was hiding in the bushes
just outside yer office window. For some reason ye didn’t show.
After Lillian named her son Tyson and left Kirk to live with her parents up north,
he’s sworn revenge. He blames ye for all his misfortunes. Says ye stole his guitar.
His musical equipment. When I showed him the salescontract, he just grabbed it and
tore to pieces. He says you refused to take him to work and took away his livelihood.
But, more than anything else, he hates ye for refusing to loan him money for an abortion. He blames ye for that black bastard. Be careful, Jonny, now he’s got his own
gun. He bought a used one from a pawn shop at next to nothing.”
“Jesus Christ, is that legal?”
“The only difference is a fuckin’ piece of paper! An illegal gun will kill ye just
as easily as a legal one, if not easier.
And he knows it’s not going to du you much good calling the police, either. Ye’re
not a citizen. So they won’t lift a fuckin’ finger for ye unless ye’re ready to get wrapped up. And it’s new policy now — they’ll bill ye for yer own bodybag.”
Jonny remained silent. This was for real. He tried to hide his fears, but felt crawling and running scared. He had been right about Kirk. The guy had proved dangerously unpredictable. Now he had turned predictably dangerous.
54
Dead Ends
Yes, Jonny felt scared. He was beginning to experience one of the basic American
freedoms more tensely now — the freedom to worry about being shot — the freedom to live in fear of your life — and fellow man!
“Thanks, Eric. Thanks for telling me.”
“There’s one more thing: Kirk’s friend Gordon har been locked up, but he will be
released just before Christmas. And he has made a deal with Kirk that he will blow
you away the first thing he does after he is released. he has promised Kirk that he
will have you in a body bag as a Christmas present!”
Jonny was unable to concentrate on reading the newspaper. He no longer felt hungry, either. He was slowly drinking his lukewarm coffee. He felt like puking. It was
only a question of time now. And there was nowhere he could go for help. If he did
not get out of Fort Lauderdale real quick, Fort Lauderdale might get to keep him forever — six feet under.
His strongest hope and wish was selling the property as soon as possible.
Or should he just pack up and leave the sooner the better? The Hotel would not
do him much good dead. Nor the money. Calling his future bleak was an understatement. His very life was at stake more than ever! But then Ted would be able to
repossess the property without paying for it and that was not a tempting thought.
Then Jonny was hit by another anxiety. Why hadn’t Eric told him this before? Or
called the police when he knew Kirk was hiding in the bushes waiting to blow his
brains out? Was he trying to use Jonny’s very own life as a bargaining chip in order
to get a better rent deal? What did he mean by warning him he might lose a head and
a heart? Had he been hoping for Kirk to be successful so that he himself would not
get evicted? Or — was he just making it all up to scare him?
This reckless lifestyle was getting to him. Creating insecurities. Frustrations.
Hopelessness. Tearing him apart inside. That’s what happens to you when you live
in constant fear. When you’re always hitting stone walls. When you don’t know
where to look for security and justice. When too often the good guys are the crooks
and the crooks set the stage. When you need protection from those hired to protect
you. When only a black robe separates a judge from a criminal, and society gives you
no sense of direction.
Jonny headed for Tom’s Alley Bar to settle his nerves. At a few minutes after
eleven he was today’s customer number one. And that was definitely not the first
time. He ordered two double shots of Johnny Walker.
Then he was left in his own world.
His attempt at creating a better life for himself had proved an illusion. He had lost
his rainbow. Instead he was left with a black flag and the rainbow banner.
“Hrrrrrr. Hrrrrr. Hrrr. Viva el gino, viva el dinero y viva, viva el amore. Hrrrrrh.
Hrrrr. Mucho gino, mucho dinero, y mucho, mucho el amore. Hrrrr. Muchos dineros,
boss. Hrraaa. Muchos dineros. Hrrm. Hrrrrmmm.
I’m broke, boss. Broke. Hrrm. I had big party last night. All seven girls, boss. Lots
of pussy. I fucked five of them. The two others played with themselves, boss. Hrrm.
Dead Ends
55
Hrrm. Heaven on earth, boss. They all like to go back to work, boss. Hrrm. You
come and meet the girls, boss. Hrrm. Hrrm. After you’ve got pussy, boss, we talk
business. Hrm. You enjoy bonus, boss. Hrrm. Free pussy. Nice bonus, boss. Free
pussy. I need to borrow twenty, boss. Twenty. Hrrm. Hrrrr.”
“I thought you said you were getting free pussy?”
“Hrrm. Damned! I need my gin, boss. Hrrm. Gin. Hrrm.”
“You know I have no cash in the mornings. Besides, I gave you some gin money
the other day. At least you’ll have to wait until I get some rent money coming in.”
“Hrrm. Damned, boss! What about business, boss? Hrrm. All the girls like to go
to work, boss. Hrrm. Hrrrrrr.”
“I can’t. I told you so the other day. I’m trying real hard to get the hell out of here.
Besides, I don’t think it’s legal.”
“Hrrm. A man need to eat, boss. A man need money for gin. And pussy. A man
gotta live, boss. You come meet the girls, boss. Hrrm. Hrrrrm.”
“Thanks, but I don’t feel like seeing anybody.”
“Hrrm. Hrrm. You refusin’ free pussy? Lots of it! All you can handle. You ain’t
right in the head, boss! You ain’t right in the head. Refusin’ free pussy? Hrrm. Ain’t
no fuckin’ right in the head! Hrrrrrr.”
The mailman, or more correctly, the huge, fat mailwoman, was late today. The mail
didn’t get in until after three. Watching her approach Jonny figured it was quite a feat
getting there at all. He extended his hand for her to give him the mail. She just
looked at him, passed him with what seemed like a sneer and put the mail in the
mailbox. She didn’t even care to look at him as she waddled on. He was not at all
surprised. Just another unfriendly American bitch!
However, he was beginning to understand the American way now. She was probably just following regulations. Never give mail to a stranger! He could be a criminal. Just place it in the mailbox and you’ll have no responsibility. No lawsuit. He
could partly understand that, too. Considering the state of the union.
The only thing still too American for him to understand was her contemptuous
sneer. Just a friendly little smile and a quick explanation and she’d have a friend for
life. Jonny wondered if the real reason for her unfriendliness was her being late with
the mail from sweating in the humid air. The humidity had to be close to a 100.
Or maybe she was yearning to get back home and get drunk, or high, or laid —
or all of the above?
Uff. Getting a dirty mind, too, now. But that’s how people talked. Probably she
only felt bothered by the scorching sunshine and the stifling humidity. And carrying
all that blubber. He was soaking wet and heaving for breath himself. Some days in
late August and early September were simply indescribably intolerable.
He placed the tenants’ mail in their respective caddies and left his own on the
desk. He knew he was behind on many of the bills, so opening the mail had become
more and more frustrating. Well, he simply had to go through the mail today. He had
unopened mail more than two weeks old.
56
Dead Ends
All the junk mail disappeared unopened into the trash can. Trivial mail was handled first. Then, finally all the heavy bills.
The pool man sent a reminder. Yeah, pool repairs had cost him over fifteen hundred dollars!
Electrical repairs more than two thousand.
Cable was almost two months overdue!
He didn’t dare think of water, the City of Fort Lauderdale. He had received two
reminders. Today he received the bills for the next month. This was getting bad! The
third reminder. He had ten days to pay or the water might be shut off! He would not
let it come to that. Someone, probably Ted, or was it Allan, had told him that the City
was by law prohibited from shutting off the water. Instead, they had the right to put
a lean on your property as collateral until the bills were all paid in full. And if first
they had a lean on your property, it was next to impossible to have it removed. He
definitely would not let it come to that, either.
He was almost one month in arrears on the second mortgage to Ted. And thereby
Ted would have the right to repossess the property without any expenses. And if not
for Andy, Ted would most certainly have been intersted to do just that.
He anxiously opened up a letter from the State of Florida, Division of Revenues,
in Tallahassee — another little trifle that had caused him a lot of trouble and headache.
Until two years ago vending machines were exempt from paying sales tax, but
then the law was changed. The vending machine on the corner of the property just
belonging to the Coca Cola Company had always been a nuisance. Now it had to be
registered in Tallahassee as a separate business venture. Ted had neglected to do so.
He had considered it too much paperwork for just a few bucks a month. Jonny had
felt the same way about it, but decided to straighten things up. He might as well try
to do things right or not do them at all.
His accountant, Paul Schmidt, had handled the registration for him. He registered
the whole corporation instead of just the wending machine. He informed Jonny that
since it was only a matter of a few dollars a month, he only needed to file quarterly
instead of monthly. To Jonny that made sense. Why the sales tax for the vending
machines were set at 5,17% instead of the regular 6% he was never explained. But
Jonny had his own theory.
The more complicated the authorities could make the rules, the more exposed
people would be to making mistakes and as a result the government could collect
more money through fines. In that respect the United States seemed to be trying hard
to catch up with Norway!
The first month Jonny owed six dollars and fifty-five cents in sales taxes. He was
glad he did not have to file monthly, but, after one month only, he started getting
reminders. The accountant promised to take care of it.
Then, in the beginning of the second month, he was charged an estimated tax of
$900.00, for failure to file. Again Schmidt promised to handle it, and did manage to
get hold of the person in charge.
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57
They would evaluate his case, but informed him that the tax had to be paid on a
monthly basis. In the next letter Jonny received, he was reminded of an estimated
balance of $900.00. For failure to file on time he was fined an additional $350.00.
Mr. Schmidt called Tallahassee again. No, the case had not been processed yet.
After three months, as originally supposed to, Jonny sent the form and paid the
total of $13.90 that he owed. He now received another reminder for $1,250.00 and
a warning that the money had to be paid within ten days or his business license might
be in jeopardy.
Again Mr. Schmidt called Tallahassee. Again they promised to reconsider. Now,
Jonny expected that after so many letters and so many expenses for only $13.90 they
had settled the stupid mistake. As he opened the letter, he was shocked to read that
the estimated amount had been increased by another $1,250.00 to $2,500.00, to be
paid immediately or face stiff penalties. Damned! Fuck this shit! In anger he decided
that, although the machine had just been refilled, he’d stop the vending machine
service immediately. It seemed true what he had been told so many times before: It
was almost impossible to run an honest business.
‘Good guys finish last — always.’
Yeah, true! Well, he’d empty that fucking machine first thing Monday morning
and call Coca Cola to have them come pick it up as soon as possible!
At least he would be well stocked on soda for some time. For his private needs,
that is. There was no way he was gonna pay an estimated $2,500.00 plus $350.00 in
fines when all he owed them was $13.93! He’d take care of it first thing Monday
morning.
The electrical bills were the heaviest. Especially now during summer. Actually,
during summer they were sometimes more than twice as high as during the wintertime. Florida Power and Light sent him bills for more than fifteen hundred dollars.
Each month. Uff. Well, at least he was almost current with the electrical bills.
Good, because this week he would barely manage the first mortgage.
He started opening the old mail. FPL was now sending those letters faster than
he could read them. Halfway through the bills he received a regular letter. He read
it in disbelief.
‘Dear customer. As a result of your check being returned for insufficient funds,
we regretfully inform you that your credit has been withdrawn. As of next month all
bills must be paid in cash. Please check list for authorized office nearest you. Thank
you.’
Damned! That had to be a mistake!
Since that month when he had three bouncing checks, he had been very careful
not to write a check unless he knew for certain there was coverage. Bouncing checks
cost him twenty-five dollars each! This had to be a misunderstanding. An unfortunate
mistake! He’d check this with the bank first thing Monday morning.
The next envelope was also from FPL. A heavy one. He opened slowly. They had
sent one letter for each apartment informing him that if the electrical bills had not
been paid by the tenth of the month, the electricity could be shut off!
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Jonny was soaking wet with perspiration. The tenth! On Wednesday! Four days
ago! Today was already Saturday. Damned! He’d have to attend to this matter no
later than Monday morning. He did at least have until Monday. They would not shut
off the electricity on a Saturday afternoon. Or on a Sunday. He hoped. Although one
could never tell, these days. He worried. He realized he was not a citizen! And not
quite a legal immigrant either. And that information Eric han been spreading all over.
And Jonny was not a stranger to the thought that Eric had informed many of his most
important business associates.
But he worried even more about the fact that he had been unable to put money
aside for the property taxes due in November. The amount was more than $8,000.00,
almost $9,000.00 including personal property!
How they were able to tax his worthless inventory at more that $1.000,00 in
levied taxes was beyond him. This was even worse than in Norway! — No, that
would be impossible! But it was pretty much fucked up.
Hopefully someone who knew how to handle these animals would come along
before it was too late!
Jonny felt uneasy. He perspired heavily. Getting up he again headed for Tom’s
Alley Bar. Then, halfway there, he changed his mind. He felt too restless.
He stopped by at Amoco for a cup of hot coffee and headed back for the office.
What a miserably hot and humid day! And it was supposed to get even worse
tomorrow.
Later in the evening he’d go down to airconditioned Beefsteak Charlie for a steak
and get totally wasted on red vine. Free! As much as he could drink! As long as he
had food on the table.
The hot coffee did nothing to settle his nerves, but he somehow managed to concentrate on the newspaper. There were plenty of adds in the escort section. And the
personals. He hadn’t noticed those until Hardee had showed him. Not Hardee the
pimp, but Stonehead, the business manager.
At four o’clock his office lights started blinking. First once, then for a second time.
And the fan stopped.
Damned! They had cut his electricity! On a late Saturday afternoon!
In just minutes he was wet enough for people to think he had jumped in the pool.
Oh, God!
What the hell was he going to do now? He started looking for the FPL phone
number, but fumbled about too anxious and frustrated to find it. Damned! Where did
he put it the last time he called? He frantically searched all over, then remembered
the number would be on all the reminders. With hands that were shaking, a mind almost numb, and in turmoil, he punched the number. The line was busy. He perspired.
Worried. Hell, if they had shut off his electricity, he would be unable to have it reconnected until Monday. Many of the tenants were still to pay their week’s rent.
They’d probably refuse now that the electricity had been shut off. Damned! And he
needed the rent money in order to pay the electricity. If only the rent would come in,
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he would have enough cash to have it reconnected. At an additional cost of $19.50
a unit in reconnecting charges. That would be an expense of $292.50 extra! Oh, God!
One of the neighboring motels had been shut off just a few weeks ago, and the
tenants were still talking about it. And then the many rumors of bankruptcy. This
would make things a hell of a lot worse for him! Oh, Lord! Why the hell had he got
himself into this?
He called again, but did not get through, this time either. Damned all these big
corporations! Too fucking cheap to have someone answer the phone, most of them!
Why have a phone when they did not even care to answer? Instead they were all
playing phone tag with answering machines!
‘If you’re a private home owner, press one. If you have a business account, press
two. If you need information regarding your bills, press three. If you want to talk to
an operator, press five. All lines are busy. Hold on. All lines are busy. Busy!’
Soaking wet he left for the meter room to check the fuses. Wet to the skin he
could only verify the fact that nothing seemed wrong. Another hope gone. Then
again, he did not understand this. Why right now? But he realized he had plenty of
problems to attend to first thing Monday morning.
Eric’s deep voice startled him.
”How come we ain’t got no electricity?” It sounded like a threat.
“I don’t know. But I’m trying to find out.”
“Why don’t ye call the FPL? Our apartment is hotter than hell. We can’t live in
that heat! Besides, we need a new airconditioner. The old one is hardly working any
more!”
“I’m telling you I’m trying to find out what’s wrong!”
“Why don’t ye call the FPL?”
“There’s no answer. Everything is busy. I’ll probably need an electrician. That’s
not going to be easy on a late Saturday afternoon. You’ll be informed.”
Eric’s dark and obstinate eyes were unfriendly.
“Fuck this shit! We can’t live like this!”
“If you want to pursue any option, it’s fine with me.”
Jonny felt irritated. Why the hell did this idiot not leave him alone so that he
could concentrate on the problem?
He called FPL one more time, but they were still playing phonetag. They were
probaly overloaded with inquiries.
“If they’ve cut yer power, ye’re in trouble, man.”
“I don’t think so.”
“I’ll stop by in a while to check on ye.”
Jonny felt like telling this fucking shitsack to mind his own business, but managed to control himself. He tried to get through once more, but had no luck this time,
either. Maybe they did not even answer the phone on Saturdays?
Then the phone rang. Ross.
“The airconditioner’s out. What the fuck’s wrong? We’re stiflin’ from heat! What
the fuck’s wrong?”
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“I don’t know. I’m trying to find out, but no one answers the phone. I’m doing my
best!”
“If they’ve cut your power, you’re in trouble!”
“No. Something’s wrong.” Jonny was sweating.
“Pooooohhh! — — — Poooofff!!”
Then the power was suddenly back on. He felt an indescribable relief.
“Thank you, Lord. Thank you!”
He folded his hands in thankfulness.
But then the electricity shut off after just a few minutes. Were they playing with
him? Was this a warning? Damned! Hopefully they’d turn it back on! He folded his
hands in a silent prayer.
Again Eric entered the office.
‘Damned that idiot! What the hell did he think he was? The manager?’
“What the fuck’s goin’ on? Are ye fuckin’ with us?”
Ross was still on the phone. He had continued talking telling him about all the
landlords that had had their electricity shut off for not paying their bills on time.
“Eh, I’m busy right now, Ross. Talk to you later.”
Jonny hung up.
“Yes, Eric, what can I do for you, this time?”
“First it was shut off. Then we got it back. And now it’s been shut off again. What
the fuck is goin’ on?”
“I fucking don’t know! Just leave me alone so that I can get to the bottom of this!”
Eric left the office, his dark eyes staring at Jonny in anger. Only a few minutes
later he returned.
Jonny was in a very aggressive mood.
“What the fuck do you want, this time?”
Eric smiled.
“Just thought I’d stop by to give ye the good news. The FPL is here.”
Jonny felt cold and empty. And sweating. He was close to fainting.
Oh, God! So he was being shut off then, after all! On a Saturday afternoon? On
this scorching day? He had hoped they were not working on Saturdays. This would
be the end!
“So?”
Jonny tried to keep his cool, but was soaking wet with perspiration.
“This heat wave’s causing problems, man. We’re having an all time high in Fort
Lauderdale this minute. There’s been a heavy overload! One of the transformers
blew. They’re replacing it right now.”
“Woooooffff!”
Jonny sat down in his chair, holding his head in his hand, ready to shit in his pants
from relief.
‘What a relief!’
“Woooooffff!”
‘Too good to be true.’
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61
“Thank you, Eric.”
‘Damned! He’d take care of those bills first thing Monday morning.’
He relaxed a little.
“Woooooffff! Do you know how long it’s going to take to get it fixed?”
“Roughly half an hour, they tell me.”
“Thanks. Thanks a lot.”
Jonny’s first reaction was getting out of there and cool down with a couple of
shots of Johnny Walker over at Tom’s Alley Bar. Then he decided he’d better hang
around when they put the power back on. Just in case.
Uff, if somebody were trying to give him a heart attack, this had been a perfect
timing!
A full hour later he was sitting in the office enjoying the cooling breezes of the fan
hitting him off and on as it oscillated the room.
‘Aaahhh! This was good! So good.’
For a while there he thought it was Armagheddon, the End.
“Ufffffff.”
Once again Eric filled the doorway. This asshole was a true bug.
“Yes, what can I do for you, this time?”
“Can’t ye smell it? It’s like somethin’s burnin.’”
“No. I smell nothing.”
“Ye can’t smell it in here. Come outside!”
Jonny quickly stepped outside. Yeah, something was burning! Grey smoke was
seeping out of apartment eleven next to the office. Jonny knocked on the door. No
answer. He tried to open. The door was locked. He knocked again. Hard. No answer.
The living room was full of smoke. He could smell something burning. Damned! If
he had a major fire now, he’d be left sitting on the pissing pot with his pants down.
Damned! Everything he owned were turning into ashes! With no insurance!
He quickly ran back in the office for the spare key. Hopefully there would be no
one inside to put a bullet through his brain. But he realized it could happen.
Eric was more careful.
“I’m not getting inside. I’ll call the fire department!”
Before he knew Eric was on the payphone calling 9-1-1, for fire rescue this time.
Again Jonny ran to the apartment. The smoke seemed to be coming from the kitchen.
Damned! What a thick wall of smoke!
He quickly unlocked the front door and rushed inside. One of the pots on the
range was in flames as Jonny grabbed it with the doormat, ran back outside and dropped it on the concrete patio floor. Then he ran back in. The whole apartment smelled
burnt, but nothing else was on fire. He checked the apartment thoroughly. Then
opened the windows.
“Woooooffff!”
That was a close call! Where the hell were Lisa and Jennifer? He wanted to check
in the bedroom, but out of fear he let it be.
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This was turning into another noisy Saturday afternoon. Just outside the apartment he could hear the sirens. The fire trucks were on their way. Jonny addressed the
fire fighters as they approached telling them everything was ok. It was over now.
They were not needed.
“Sorry, but we’ve been called to the scene. Therefore we need to investigate and
make sure everything is ok. Do you have smoke detectors in the apartments?”
“Yes.”
“Are they all in working condition?”
“I think so.”
“What do you mean, ‘think so’? When were they last checked? It’s the law, you
know. It’s your responsibility to check it out!”
“They’re being checked once a week. But I never know when these crack monsters just tear them down. Every time the alarm comes on, they just rip them down
instead of shutting them off. Or take out the batteries.”
“Ok. Let’s give it a quick run-through.”
They were all inside the apartment when Jennifer came stumbling out of the bedroom in a see-through nightgown.
“What the fuck’s goin’ on in here?”
Her speech was a slur. She was stoned.
“Get the fuck out of here. This is private property!”
She stopped short in surprise as she noticed one from the firecrew addressing her.
“Sorry. This is the fire department. We’ve had a fire reported in your apartment.
Luckily it was nothing serious. The landlord had taken care of it. Sorry to bother
you.”
“The fuckin’ landlord ain’t got no fuckin’ business in my place! He’s got insurance, right? Stay the fuck out of here. Get the fuck out!”
She more or less pushed them out the door and locked it behind them. Big, black
and ugly lesbian Jennifer, the pusher, was not in a friendly mood today! Wasted on
drugs!
Again Jonny felt relieved. And again he had been lucky. Damned! This was close.
He’d better make sure and get some insurance coverage before it was too late. With
all these wasted addicts on the premises he needed to get some coverage the sooner
the better.
He had been lucky, this time. Jennifer was totally stoned. Obviously. Jonny wondered why the fire captain did not call the police to have her put behind bars, but
instead he, Jonny, was the one being interrogated. He was roughly told that he could
expect a fire inspection Monday or Tuesday to check for violations.
Then Lisa came up the walkway. Oh, yes, they had been disconnected, and then
she had decided to go shopping. She was making dinner and had forgot to turn off
the power. So, when it had been reconnectet, it had started burning. And Jennifer had
been knocked out in the bedroom, and had therefore not noticed anything.
About ten minutes later Lisa came to see Jonny in the office. Calling her ‘unfriendly’ was an understatement.
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“I want to inform you that you have no business sneaking into our apartment unannounced. We have decided to sue for trespassing. And damages. We fuckin’ hope
you’ve got the right insurance ‘cause this is gonna cost you! You have no fuckin’
business in our apartment! I look forward to seeing you in court!”
“Suit yourselves, but there is no way I can prevent the fire department from quenching a fire!”
Her reaction surprised Jonny. But he figured they worried that they might have
been caught red handed with marihuana or crack, or something. They’d probably
calm down eventually.
What a fucking madhouse! What a bunch of crazies!
Jonny decided on an early dinner that Saturday. He did not take a shower but sprayed
some deodorant under his arms and changed his shirt. The one he had on was full of
white salt stripes from excessive sweating. Well, no big deal. He was only going to
sit there all alone brooding over his loneliness and feeling sorry for himself, anyway.
But he would enjoy his dinner. And the red vine.
Yes, Jonny got pretty drunk that night. Three full carafes of red vine. Almost half
a gallon. Feeling low and unhappy the vine hit real hard. As he staggered his way
back home, he decided he’d stop by at the nearest titty bar to watch some titty. It
seemed like years since last time. He needed to watch some titty shaking. And pussy.
The nearest place was Solid Gold, so he walked all the way up on North Federal. He
was sweating heavily as he entered the premises. Ten dollars cover charge. Five fifty
a drink.
Well, he needed some diversification or he’d perish.
Nobody took notice of him as he entered. The place was packed full. Wow!
All the girls seemed busy dancing one way or the other. The huge main stage to
the left only had one performer. The small stage up front was also meant for one at
a time, but the long back stage were filled with five or six girls frantically shaking
their silicons. The girls all had their bottoms on, but, instead of naked tabletops, they
were offering friction dances, or couch dances. Wow, no doubt, most of these woman
were gorgeous! Shapely, living silicon products almost every single one of them. The
girls were really dancing, laughing and showing off while the guys tried their best
to look attractive and worldly. The stupid, superficial peacock game.
But without Jonny understanding why, he was feeling just as depressed. He counted forty to forty-five beauties. Plus a few repulsive ones. They were giving private
friction dances in separate sections scattered all around the rather large dance lounge.
Ten dollars a dance. None of the girls paid any attention to Jonny so he ordered a
Johnny Walker. No, the girls were not allowed to dance topless, either, but they managed to get around that restriction by gluing some small, see-through, skin-colored
latex cups over their nipples. Technically they had bras on, but nobody could tell.
Anyway, it satisfied the law.
Jonny was at the bottom of his third Scotch when a tall, shapely overly painted
silicon doll sat down next to him
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“Howdy, stranger. I’m Shirley. I don’t recall havin’ seen you in here before? I
take it you’re not a regular customer? You’re not a cop, are you?”
“No. This is my first time here.” He could hear himself sounding drunk. “I run a
motel and needed to get away from the madhouse for a few hours.”
“What about a drink, handsome. I love champagne. And a good time. Thats why
they call me ‘Good Time’ Shirley. What about a split, honey?”
“A split?”
“A small bottle of champagne.”
“Oh. Yes.”
“You seem like you’ve been working up a sweat. It’s pretty hot outside, heh?”
“Yeah. Hotter than hell. Stickier than glue. Not a single breath of air. I’ve been
walking a few blocks. But I’m getting cooled off in here.”
“Don’t you have transportation?”
“I do. An old -77 Lincoln. My battleship. But it’s a nuisance dragging it along.
And, since I was drinking, I decided to walk.”
“Well, those animals are becoming more and more common, these days.”
“What do you mean.”
“Walking monkeys. More and more often they put you in the slammer for drinkin’ ‘n drivin.’ They’re spoiling the fun.”
“Well, I guess in some ways the country’s getting civilized. After all these years.”
“Fuck that shit! It’s no longer a free country! — Well, are you ready for a couch
dance and some friction?”
“Nah. Five or six naked girls dancing with different guys on the same coach.
Looks stupid to me. Like a public orgy.”
“It’s not really a dance, honey. It’s friction. Let me just warn you, handsome,
once you have me working up a sweat in that coach, there’s nothin’ silly about it.
Before you know, you’ll be beggin’ for more. Wanna give it a try?”
“Nah, not tonight. It’s not natural. I’d feel kind of silly.”
She did not at all appeal to Jonny. Too direct. Too much silicon. Too much paint.
Vulgarly long acrylics. An unnatural commercial product. Not at all his type.
“What’s the matter, handsome? Too fuckin’ cheap, heh?”
Jonny kept silent. He didn’t like this one. Too pushy. Too much of a hustler. Too
cheap.
“Yeah, right. Too fuckin’ cheap.”
Shirley was a hustler, all right. He had another Johnny Walker while watching
Shirley do friction with an elderly, kind of lost looking guy in his sixties. He studied
the clientele. A bunch of miserable misfits, most of them. Outcasts unable to get anything on their own. They had to pay for it. Like Hardee. Lonely souls like himself.
He felt homesick. Getting too sentimental. Missing the kids. He wondered how they
were doing. It had been months already.
He ordered another Johnny Walker. The girls paid him no mind. They were too
busy doing friction. He was left alone.
Then, one more time Shirley sat down right next to him.
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“The more I look at you, the more I feel you need my company. What about
another split, handsome?”
Jonny felt like telling her to beat it; telling her he did not like her, but instead he
heard himself saying ‘ok.’ He was too soft for these people. He ordered another split.
And another Johnny Walker. He paid, gave the girl behind the counter a five dollar
tip, put the change in his shirt pocket and planned to leave.
“The place is closing in half an hour. Let me at least give you one friction before
you leave. If you don’t enjoy it, you don’t need to pay me. Quite a deal, heh?” She
took his arm. “Let’s move over on the coach. Let’s enjoy our drinks there.”
He was too weak. Jonny let her lead him over to the couch where she placed him
between two sexy frictioneers dancing for a couple of young punks. She did not at
all drink her split, just slowly pulled down her little dress and automatically started
dancing for him with nothing but two small pieces of see-through latex barely
covering her nipples and a small g-string covering even less.
Jonny felt uncomfortable. He felt immensely irritated that she did not drink her
split. American rudeness, he figured. Why ask for champagne when in reality she did
not want any? Including tips he had paid twenty dollars for it.
“Is this your first friction, heh?”
“Yes.”
“Let me explain the rules. No kissing’s allowed. If you try to kiss me, you’ll be
crawlin’ out o’ here on your knees and belly and spending the rest of the night behind bars. Understand? You are not allowed to touch my buns or pussy. Do not
touch my breasts. You can hold my waist, but not too tight. I’ll do the friction. You
just sit back, relax and enjoy yourself. Are you ready?”
What a glorious way to make him feel uncomfortable! Jonny despised this golddigging bitch! She made him feel like an idiot with all her rules and regulations.
“You’re not a cop, are you?”
“Do I look like a cop?”
“Many cops don’t look like cops. They come in here spying on us undercover. If
we do not follow the rules, we can easily get busted. One girl in here made an arrangement with an undercover cop to turn some tricks, and before we knew we were
all hauled in jail.”
“Everybody got thrown in jail for what one girl did? That’s Gestapo tactics!”
“That’s why we have to be careful when we turn tricks. Before we make any kind
of arrangement I need to know whether you’re a cop or not. I can go to jail for
soliciting, you know. But if I ask you first if you’re a cop and you deny it, you cannot
haul me in jail even if I proposition you. If a cop impersonates someone else, he’s
braking the law and cannot arrest me no matter what. That’s why I need you to deny
the fact that you are a cop.”
“I’m not a cop.”
“Now you cannot arrest me even if you are a cop and I proposition you. And as
soon as we discuss money, it becomes solicitation. You look like you really need to
spend some time with a good woman tonight.”
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“Is it that obvious, heh?”
“You bet. Can you afford to spend five hundred?”
“What for?”
“Don’t be silly. I’ll spend the night, of course.”
“No. I did not bring that kind of money.”
“Can you spend three hundred?”
“I’m afraid not. I went out for something to eat. And just happened to stop by. I
did not bring much money.”
“Can you spend a hundred?”
“What’s the matter? You’ve got a habit?”
“You are a cop, aren’t you?”
“No. I run a motel, remember? But I’ve seen it all.”
“Can you help me out?”
“How much?”
“I need a hundred.”
“I’m sorry. I did not bring that kind of money.”
“I can come to your place?”
“No.”
“Fuck! Can you at least do something?”
“Why don’t you give me another friction and I’ll pay you twenty.”
“Deal.”
Her dance was rather stiff and unfriendly.
What a degenerate situation! For both of them. When it was finally over, Jonny
felt immensely relieved.
He took the money from his shirt pocket and gave her the twenty.
“Thanks. Now, let me give you one more friction.”
“I’d better get going. Besides, I didn’t bring the cash.”
“I insist. I like you. It’s on me, this time. I’ll give you some real friction, this
time.”
Jonny wanted to leave, but did not want to be unfriendly. He was too weak for
these people.
Yes, she gave him a real dance, this time. She put her heart into it. It was no longer cold business, American style. She was all over him. Pressed her silicons hard
against his chest. Squeezed her pussy along his thighs. Moaned to let him know she
enjoyed him. The only thing she did not do was kiss him. Rules no longer seemed to
be in affect. Of course he was affected. He was finally enjoying himself. He relaxed.
The tension dissipated. The many drinks were finally beginning to work. Aaaahh.
Yeah!
Shirley stopped dancing. She excused herself. She needed to go to the bathroom.
Hopefully she’d see Jonny again very soon.
“With a little more cash. Ha, ha, ha.”
The split had not even been touched.
It had started to rain when Jonny left Solid Gold. He still decided to walk. Ten
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minutes before three he staggered into the office, rolled out his futon and fell asleep
on the floor with all his clothes on, soaking wet. Thank God! The fan was still running!
He woke up at ten with a terrible hangover. And a sneezing cold. He needed something to eat and decided on Arby’s again. Fumbling for his money in his shirt pocket
he did not find it. He checked all his pockets, but his cash was gone. When he left for
Beefsteak Charlie last night, he had 500 dollars in his wallet. He had broken a
hundred dollar bill when he paid the check. Yeah, and then he had walked over to
Solid Gold. Well, staggered seemed a better description. Not knowing how much it
cost, he had broken another hundred when he bought that first split. And yet another
hundred, just to impress, when he bought the second. The one she did not drink.
He tried to figure out how much he had spent in total. Nah, he could not clear his
brain. It all seemed so diffuse. He had the money in his shirt pocket when he paid the
twenty to Shirley. Damned! — — Shirley!
She must have stolen his money! She had seen him put it in his breast pocket.
That’s the only reason she gave him that last friction! Not because she liked him, but
to suck him clean. Why the hell hadn’t he left right after that last Scotch? Or stayed
the fuck away altogether? Damned!
These girls could smell a sucker firt at a mile’s distance!
He stole some quarters from the washing machine for his food so that he would
not have to break another hundred. His beef sandwich was the same as always, but
tasted terrible today! Himself feeling equally miserable!
He watched the girl behind the counter lick her fingers as she prepared the roast
beef. Then she stuck her hugely long fingernails right into the bun as she wrapped
his sandwich. Spreading those salmonellas. Her excessive make-up and curved
fingernails reminded him of a cheap hooker in a whorehouse rather than a pleasant
food server in a fast food restaurant. Well, they had probably just picked her right off
the street and put her in the kitchen!
Damned hangovers! The morning after. So many times the thought of the day
thereafter had kept him from getting too drunk the evening before. But not last night.
What torture! And the fucking bitch that stole his money! It was not even his. It
belonged to the corporation. It was his fault, though. He’d been asking for it.
Well, anyway: ‘Fuck these people!’
On his way back to the Hotel he stopped at Amoco for a cup of coffee and a
newspaper. Although mostly advertisements Sunday papers were thicker and heavier
than a full volume of the Encyclopedia Americana! And sometimes equally informative.
He walked over to the newsstand next to the movie theater for a free copy of the
‘In XS.’ He wanted to check the escort section. If he wanted female companionship,
there was no way around it, he’d have to pay for it just like anybody else in this
neighborhood.
If only he hadn’t been so dead broke and so far behind on his bills!
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Jonny was not at all surprised seeing Eric in the doorway just minutes after he had
returned. He no longer considered Eric a regular tenant, but more like inventory. A
bug. He thought it rather strange that Eric knew within minutes every time he returned home.
Was he kept under surveillance?
“Mornin,’ Jonny. Got good news for ye. My in-laws are leaving tonight. I’d appreciate getting something down on paper right away.” He threw a bundle of cash on
the table. “I’ve got two ninety for ye. I’d like to pay for two weeks. Two weeks up
front, that is.”
Jonny accepted the money, but did not give him a receipt for a specified period
of time. Eric could be so devious. This was probably an attempt to avoid eviction by
showing the judge a receipt for being paid up two weeks in advance. Well, Jonny had
learned a few lessons of his own since he came here. He gave him an on account
receipt. He was still hundred of dollars in arrears.
Eric was not exactly the worst guy he had come across in his life. In a way Jonny
understood him. He had a real bad habit and tried to use threats and intimidation to
protect himself and his family from the consequences of his addiction. There was
nothing unamerican about that.
“Will ye fix that paper for me right away?”
“What’s the hurry? Your in-laws are still here.”
“They plan to leave tonight!”
“Do they have a place?”
“To my knowledge.”
“So where are they moving to?”
“They didn’t tell me.”
“Well, I will not do it now. I’m leaving for today. Let’s take care of it tomorrow.
But not in the morning. I’ve got too much to do then. Let’s meet here in the office
sometime tomorrow evening. Provided they have left, of course.”
“Oh, by the way, Jonny. I talked to Shirley a little while ago. Ye know what happened to Robin last night, don’t ye?”
Judging from Eric’s voice Jonny felt some sort of tragedy having taken place.
“No, what happened to her?”
“After it started raining last night the steps up to her apartment became rather
slippery. Oil, or something. As Robin was leaving her apartment around two, she
slipped and fell down the stairs. She broke her leg pretty badly. It’s pretty bad. She’s
at Broward Community. She’s threatening to sue!”
“I’m sorry. I had no idea.”
“She’s got a good lawyer, too!”
“I’ve never met an American who didn’t!”
“Don’t ye have a good lawyer, Jonny?”
“Don’t worry about it. If I need one, I have the means to get one. The best.”
Starting up his battleship Jonny headed for the beach on a partly cloudy, hot and
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humid Sunday afternoon. He felt he had to make good on his statement that he was
leaving for the day. Besides, it would only do him good to get away from the asylum.
He did not spend too much time directly on the beach, but quickly started making
repairs in one of the many bar joints along Beach Drive, or A-1-A. It was almost six
before he got back home.
Jonny was, indeed, pleasantly surprised when he saw Fredriijk Niehuus and his girlfriend, Holly Carradine, strolling arm in arm up the walkway. They behaved friendlier than Jonny had expected, sort of like a reunion among good, old friends. After
all, he had only talked to them a couple of times. But, being of basically the same
European background, Freddy felt they had much in common. Jonny agreed. It was
nice to have someone to talk to who had a better vocabulary than just ‘fuck,’ ‘shit,’
‘have a good day’ and ‘get the fuck out’a my face.’
Freddy spoke Dutch, German and French fluently. After less than two years down
in South Florida his English was also good, although somewhat broken, especially
when getting drunk or excited. Jonny himself spoke Norwegian, a mix of Swedish
and Danish, sometimes called Scandi, German, some French and fluently English.
“What a surprise, Freddy! So you decided not to stay up in Canada, after all?”
“To my great disappointment I found out there was no longer much left for me up
in Canada. Except the kids. But they had created their own world without room for
me. They hardly had time to talk to me. At the same time, I enjoyed seeing them
again.
My wife’s remarried to a friend of the family who always came to see us. After
I left, he did not waste much time taking over the whole family, including the boys.
It was bitter, Jonny. Really bitter. With two bankruptcies behind me, no job, expired
papers and no home or family to come home to, there was nothing left for me up in
Canada. Actually, I ended up in a — eh — a rest home. The good days were gone for
good. Then again, I knew that when I left the last time.”
“Well, it’s nice to see you back.”
“Thanks. We stopped by hoping you could shack us up for a few weeks. I’ve got
my old job back. Not the one at the Windsor, but the one I had before, at the Swap
Shop. I used to work for a Jewish guy selling electronics. Marco’s Electronics. I start
working tomorrow. I get paid at the end of every day. Forty dollars a day seven days
a week. Except, I sometimes get Mondays off. So I was hoping you would accept the
rent on a daily basis until I manage to catch up.”
“Hm. Well, I don’t —. Eh —. The only thing I have available is number twentyfive. Nice place, but a total mess right now. A few guys were living there, and they
left it totally trashed. It had been refurbished only weeks before.”
“That’s no problem with us, Jonny. Holly and I will fix it up. I simply hate to live
like pigs the way people do down here. I know what you’re talking about. I worked
at the Windsor for almost one full year. I’ve seen it all. I’ve had so many apartments
trashed on me I’ve lost count. So I really don’t mind. We need a roof over our heads.
I’ll have it fixed up in no time.”
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“Okay with me. Let me show you.”
Jonny figured they’d refuse to move in once they saw the mess, but to his surprise
Freddy did not blink an eye.
“I’ve seen them worse than this. We’ll have this back in shape in no time. Many
times when I had to evict people for not paying rent or dealing drugs, they took their
revenge by totally trashing the apartments. Low class Americans are extremely
revengeful, you know. Once they cut all the wires. Another time they spread syrup
all over the carpets. I kept scraping and cleaning for days before I got it back in
shape. If they’d been still living there, I would have killed them. Once I had a huge,
black, crack monster living in one of the apartments. Mean as hell. And dealing
wholesale. I had to call the cops. They sent the drug squad. Let me tell you, they
ripped apart every single piece of furniture in that apartment. They found the drugs
and took him in. I think he got six years. But instead of thanking me for being a lawabiding citizen they threatened to put me in jail for renting to addicts. This way they
tried to intimidate us so that we would not seek compensation for damages. We never
called the cops again. That place was totally trashed, Jonny. We had to fix everything
from scratch ourselves without getting as much as a single dime refunded. Gene, the
owner, turned hostile.
From that day on he always kept talking about typical American justice as nothing
but a game of roulette — American roulette.”
“Yeah. I know what you’re talking about. The same thing happened to this very
apartment just weeks ago. These animals can destroy in a couple of days what I need
weeks to replace. The tenants, I mean. Not to mention the drug squad. I feel I am
fighting a losing battle. Within or outside the law, I often feel that the destructive
forces of society overwhelms the productive ones. I wonder how this country will
prevail in the future. It’s a terrible culture of guns, drugs and prostitution. And then
they tell you it’s a free country.”
“Yeah, I really hate it, but for now I have no choice. Maybe Holly and myself will
go up north to Indiana. That’s where she’s from. But for now we’re stuck here in
Florida. We’ll talk later, Jonny. We’ll be spending most of the night cleaning. We
cannot live like this.”
“Here’s the key. If you need anything, you find me in the office. Almost twentyfour hours a day. Good night.”
Jonny felt too restless to relax and headed for Tom’s Alley Bar. He did not return to
the Hotel until two o’clock. Although often wanting to be left alone, he sometimes
enjoyed Debbie’s presence, the sexy waitress with the big boobs who knew where
to put the drinks. She seemed to enjoy his company and sometimes served him some
strong shots. One evening she asked if he’d be interested in spending some time after
closing over at her place. He did indeed feel interested, but told her he’d have to take
a raincheck. Something was holding him back. But after that, she seldom spoke to
him.
On his way home he stopped by at Amoco for a sixpack of Bud for Freddy and
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71
Holly. The lights were still on, so Jonny figured they were still working. Freddy always left the doors and windows open so Jonny just knocked and entered.
To his surprise Freddy and Holly were in a heated discussion with Calvin.
Calvin was still taking care of business, although Jonny saw less of him now that
Kirk was gone.
“Just figured you might need something to clear your throats.” He left the sixpack
on the coffee table.
He simply hated seeing Calvin on the premises and wondered if he had been successful in recruiting some new customers. He was no doubt trying.
Grouchy and hung over Jonny still managed to get up early Monday morning. He had
many problems to attend to. First he sat up a list over unpaid rents. Jake Bronx had
not paid this week. That was strange. He was always on time. Travis in number
sixteen was now three weeks behind. He promised to pay every time Jonny talked to
him. Joyce was no longer staying with him. They had been fighting. He did not make
enough money to support her habit, so she refused to give him pussy. Jonny did not
know whether she had been kicked out or had left on her own, but he was happy to
have her off the premises. She was too heavily addicted. He heard rumors, well,
Shirley had told Ross, that Brian had been released from jail, and that Joyce and he
were shacking up again.
Speedy, brazen Speedy, in number twenty-four, had paid a little now and then, but
was constantly getting further behind. Robin wanted to keep exchanging pussy for
accommodation, but Jonny had refused. Now that he knew her lifestyle, he was not
interested in sharing pussy with every Tom, Dick and Harry in the neighborhood,
including Ronald. And Shirley. Jonny was beginning to suspect that they were doing
more than just sleep every time she spent the night. With Robin in the hospital he did
not know what to do. He needed some information from Shirley. Lisa and Jennifer
had not paid this week. Maybe they were suing for illegal entry and would not pay
the rent in anticipation of the outcome of the court procedures.
Well, that seemed somewhat far-fetched. A court case could take years.
For the first time since he took the Hotel over, Jeffrey Gentry in number twentytwo, or Zephyr, as he called himself as a psychic, had not been seen over the weekend. He always used to pay on time. Freddy had just moved in and was only supposed to pay on a daily basis. He should have charged extra for that, but didn’t. The
place had been such a mess. Seven tenants out of fifteen behind on rent!
This was getting worse and worse. He realized he was much too soft for these
crack monsters!
He checked the electrical bills. He’d simply have to take the money for the first
mortgage and pay the electricity. That way he would not have to worry about being
shut off. He’d pay the mortgage as soon as possible. He could not send a check this
time since he no longer had credit.
He counted the rents, withdrew five hundred from the account, and walked half
an hour over to the Check Cashing Store across the street from Searstown were they
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accepted FPL-payments. He paid up all units, but were still two months behind; well,
only one, since the last bills were not yet due.
He had another month before having to worry about the electricity being disconnected.
Unable to figure out why the checks had bounced, he’d simply ask the bank for
an explanation. He knew the coverage was there and headed back across the street
for the Bank Atlantic. He explained to the teller. She could not answer. It was not her
department. He’d have to see a special representative.
He waited ten minutes and were referred to the same representative that had opened his account. He explained. Out of two thousand eight hundred dollars in the
account he had paid bills for sixteen hundred and could not understand why three
checks had bounced. She checked the computer.
“Sir. Out of a total of two thousand eight hundred and twenty-four dollars only
thirteen hundred and eighty-two were available. The balance of fifteen hundred and
six was an out of state check that had not yet cleared. Out of state checks take three
days extra to clear, a total of six days. In this case, since your account was two weeks
short of six months the funds were held for three extra days, a total of nine days.
When you paid sixteen hundred dollars the actual balance was only $1,318.00.
Which means you did not have sufficient funds available for a check of a little over
fourteen hundred. Sorry, but it’s as simple as that.”
Her efficiency stunned him. She knew her job.
“That’s pretty unfair. Nobody’s ever told me this. All I was told was that each
check took three days to clear. Besides, the out of state check is a refund for an insurance premium. A very solid corporation. I’m sure the check had cleared even before
six days. When did this bank actually have the check cleared?”
“You are quite correct, sir. But it’s bank policy. All accounts under six months
need three days extra to clear. If we had known it was an emergency, we would have
released the funds for you after six days, sir. Do you understand?”
“Yes. It’s simple, but it’s fucking rotten considering the check had in reality cleared, bank policy or not. And nobody’s talking about an emergency. Ok. I understand. But I have one more question for you: How come the two smaller checks were
not honored? With an available balance of roughly thirteen hundred there should be
enough funds to pay the two hundred dollars for gas and telephone.”
“Sir. We have to pay each check in consecutive order. The two smaller checks
were preceding the large one. So they were all held back. Theoretically, if we would
pay the small amounts first, we might be held responsible for the first one. For instance in a bankruptcy. Do you understand?”
“Has this ever happened?”
“Not to my knowledge. But we cover every eventuality.”
“That’s pretty convenient for you considering I’m being charged with twenty-five
dollars for each returned check. In this case you’ve charged me seventy-five dollars
extra.
No wonder banks are generating bigger profits from bouncing checks these days
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73
then they do from regular banking services. It’s a deliberate trap. In my case I also
lost my credit with FPL. Well, they call it credit, but it’s actually not. They just
refuse to accept my checks any more. That’s pretty rotten bank service, it you really
want to know how I feel. Damned rotten! Especially considering that these extraordinary regulations were never mentioned to me when I opened the account.”
“Sir. May I remind you that it’s the responsibility of the account holder to keep
abreast with bank regulations. I feel confident that you have received all relevant
information pertaining to your account in our brochures, sir. Sorry, sir. Have a good
day! Sir!”
“Before I leave could a ask a small favor?”
“I’ll be happy to be of assistance, sir.”
“Could I please have one of those brochures containing that information?”
“Sorry, sir. Because of frequently changing regulations these brochures have been
discontinued, sir. — Have a good day! Sir!”
Back in the office Jonny called the Coca Cola Company informing them that he was
discontinuing the vending service. They could come and pick up the machine at their
own convenience. Then he called the accountant telling him the vending machine
was no longer in service and read him the last letter where taxes from the service had
been estimated at $2,500.00. Plus the fine.
Mr. Schmidt promised to get in touch with Tallahassee immediately. He had a
very intelligent proposition. He would send them a letter telling them that he, Jonny,
was a foreigner who had misunderstood the rules, but were trying his best to do
things according to regulations. Jonny declined and reminded him that it was based
on his information that he would only need to file every three months because the
amont was so limited. He was not looking for personal pity for being a stupid
foreigner compared to all these brilliant Americans. He just wanted a system capable
of routinely functions. Mr. Schmidt called him back later in the day. He had sent the
letter, anyway. He felt convinced it was a very good strategy.
Jonny did not know whether it had anything to do with Mr. Schmidt portraiting
him as a stupid foreigner, or they themselves using some intelligence, but three months later the Holiday Park Hotel received a letter from Tallahassee informing him that
the estimated sum of $2,500.00 had been forgiven provided the penalty of $350.00
was paid immediately. He paid the penalty, but his experiment as an honest vending
machine operator was definitely terminated.
He started taking money from the washer and dryer to cover the penalty. Then a
new strategy developed. The income from the washer would from now on serve as
his personal bonus to cover expenses for food. Tax free, of course. This way, over
some time, he compensated for the bureaucratic stupidity he had been exposed to. He
received a bill from his accountant of $200.00 to cover extra efforts in dealing with
Tallahassee. Shit! Well, he’d put the income from both the washer and the dryer in
his own pocket from now on! And all this for thirteen dollars and ninety cents!
The process with Tallahassee took almost seven months.
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The phone rang.
“Pearly Joe. What a pleasant surprise! I’ve been waiting to hear from you every
single day, but let me tell you, it’s better late than never.”
“Are you ready to sell?”
Jonny felt excited anticipation.
“Are you telling me you have a buyer?”
“Possibly. Have you talked to a representative of the Redwood Corporation of
California? He’s been over there. I placed an add in a publication out west, which
resulted in this gentleman taking an interest. He’s been checking out the place and
he’s interested. I spoke to him just recently and he’s ready to present an offer today
or tomorrow. I just felt I should let you know. I’ll get in touch as soon as I have the
offer in writing.”
“Thanks for calling. I’m really looking forward to getting out of here.”
“I’ll keep in touch. Take care.” She hung up.
Jonny wondered who the hell this guy might be. He could not remember having
met him.
At seven Eric stopped by again. He wanted that agreement settled. He informed
Jonny that his in-laws had left. They had found a small apartment on the beach.
“A much better deal than this fuckin’ place.”
“Why don’t you do the same, then?”
“I’m not leaving my fucking apartment. That’s my home. We’ve finally become
housewarm. It’s become part of me. That place even has my own sweet smell on it
now. I’m not leaving even if hell freezes over! And I want that on paper! Let’s take
care of it right away!”
Jonny saw no reason to postpone it. After all, last time they had something on paper, Eric had paid his rent according to agreement even if he had sometimes been in
arrears.
“You realize I’ll have to charge you for the time your in-laws have been staying
here. At least I need to cover electricity, water and gas. I need to charge you fifteen
hundred extra. They’ve been living here almost half a year now.”
“No fucking way! They’ve been my guests.”
“Yeah. Getting a free ride. At least I need to cover expenses. If not, no deal.”
“Ye’re getting nastier every fucking day!”
“I’m only asking to be reimbursed for actual expenses. If you find that unreasonable, you’re the one that’s being nasty. It amounts to less than five dollars a day per
person. I’d say that’s cheap living.”
“They haven’t exactly been staying at the Hilton, either.”
“Didn’t they know that when they moved in? Besides, I’m not getting electricity
any cheaper than they do at the Hilton. Or water and gas, for that matter.”
Eric became silent, then slowly nodded.
“On one condition: You let me pay my own rent first. After I’m caught up, I’ll
pay the rest in small weekly installments.”
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75
“That’s no problem. I’ll put it all down on paper. You can come and pick it up in
about an hour.”
“I need a new receipt for the specified period of time that I’ve paid rent for. Two
weeks up front.”
“No. I already gave you a receipt. I’ll put the unpaid balance as part of this deal.
That’s the best I can do for you on that one.”
Eric stood, his dark and obstinate eyes staring at Jonny in revengeful anger before
leaving the office. He’d be back in one hour sharp to pick up his copy of the agreement. He smiled deviously. Jonny was gonna have to pay for this.
Jake Bronx informed Jonny he was unable to pay rent this week.
“What happened to that bigtime job you were supposed to start the other week when
we talked? I figured by now you’d be running the place.”
“That’s my fuckin’ problem! My father-in-law said he had a job for me, but the
owner refused to hire me. He’s a fuckin’ religious freak. Another fuckin’ Jew. I have
a temporary job with a friend painting, but we’ve been rained out all week. I need
you to give me a week’s slack, Jonny. I’ve always been on time before. I fuckin’ hate
these fuckin’ Jews.”
‘Have you told that to your wife?’
Jonny figured that confessing to Satanism was not the best policy for being accepted in the Jewish community. Even when you were fucking their own precious
daughters.
“I cannot let people live here without paying rent. But true enough, you’ve always
been on time. I expect you to catch up come next week. I’ll have to add late charges.”
Speedy had lost his job at the dry cleaner’s. He’d got into an argument with a customer who refused to pay because of sloppy work.
Speedy did not believe the customer was always right, so he had lost his temper
and called her a ‘stupid bitch.’ He was hustling newspapers now.
“But no problem, Jonny. You’ll have the rent a little by little. If only this fucking
rain lets up.”
“That is the problem. A little by little is simply too little. You’re getting further
and further behind. I need the rent on time, and in full, or I must simply ask that you
move someplace else.”
“You’re getting nastier every fuckin’ day, Jonny. I’ll have something for you by
tomorrow night.”
“That’s not good enough. I need something today.”
“I’ll do my best. I’ll see you in the office later.”
A little after nine Speedy entered the office and paid two hundred dollars cash.
Jonny figured he had been out selling ass, but later that evening another paperhustling friend of his moved in with him. Or maybe he was just a live-in hustler?
From that day on Speedy did not have so many different guys coming over to see
him. Hustlers, that is.
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Travis Lee was a different story. The black-looking native American constantly
stressing that he was not a Negro, reluctantly came to see Jonny in the office. No. He
could not pay. He had no money.
“I promise to do my best, Jonny. If you stop bugging me about the rent money.
I’ve been rained out all week, you know. I’m a gardener now, see. I’ll have to talk
to God about it. See what he wants me to do. In the meantime I do not want to be
interrupted. I need to meditate.”
“I need some action. Not promises. I’ll see you when you’ve finished meditating.”
“I don’t know what to do about it. I’ll talk to God.”
“And what do you expect him to do about it?”
“Are you fuckin’ stupid! If I knew that I wouldn’t have to talk to him, now, would
I? The Lord works in mysterious ways, Jonny. He’ll find a way. I’ll leave it in his
hands.”
“Well, don’t expect him to come around paying rent for you. I suggest you concentrate on that on your own.”
“The Lord works in mysterious ways. Maybe he’ll stop the rain so that I can go
back to work.”
“I cannot wait that long. I need the rent now. You’re weeks behind!”
“Leave me alone for a few days, Jonny. I need to meditate. I need to find out what
God wants to do about it.”
“Tell God he’d better hurry. I need some money later tonight. I’ll see you then.”
Travis smiled his toothless smile as he left with a rather stupid expression upon
his face. Then it struck Jonny. Jesus Christ! The guy was sky high on marihuana!
So that’s how he did his meditating! That’s how he got in touch with God! That
fucking double-tongued, two-faced bullshitter! Jonny decided to give him two more
hours before he told him to leave the premises.
He did not have to wait that long. Only twenty minutes later Travis once more entered the office. He had finished meditating. He had talked to God.
“So what about the rent money?”
“I’m broke, Jonny. I haven’t got a dime. So I’ll be leaving tonight. You’ve been
fairly decent to me and I’ll try to do right by you. I’m not low class, Jonny. Just recently hit by hard luck. Better days are coming. Just because I’m a native American
looking like a Negro, doesn’t mean I’m no good. There’s some sort of conspiracy
taking place against you. I’ve been asked to take part in it, but declined. Eric’s behind it all. He says you signed you own death sentence by accepting a written agreement. His in-laws have moved back in. I refuse to be part of such petty behavior. So
I’ll be leaving tonight.
I am sorry to leave without paying my debt, but I swear to God I’ll come back and
pay you every single dime I owe. When I get into some money. My bad luck won’t
last forever, Jonny. I’ll pay you back then. I hope it’s ok to leave the car in the
parking space for a few days?”
Jonny knew he’d have to wait a long time for his money, but the guy meant well.
At least he did not sneak out in the middle of the night like most tenants unable to
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pay the rent. Jonny told him he could stay until tomorrow morning, but he declined.
He had made different arrangements.
Talking to God did not seem like such a bad idea, after all. Yet it was not God
who ruled his life, but the marihuana.
That evening Jonny was invited over to Freddy and Holly for a cup of coffee. He was
stunned by the way they had managed to clean the apartment and made it cozy. It
even smelled clean. Freddy had done a good job, all right. Penny had done nothing.
She’d been sitting in the sofa watching TV, reading and filing her fingernails while
Freddy had done all the work. He had one of the best educations possible in the hotel
and restaurant industry. He had attended the prestigious International Academy of
Cuisine in Zurich, Switzerland.
Still, getting a job had been difficult because ha had no experience in Canada.
And he needed to speak the language. But when he finally got an opening, he advanced quickly to a top position at one of the best hotels in Montreal. He easily picked
up the language.
Within two years he had taken over as manager of the restaurant and developed
an excellent reputation within the Hotel and Restaurant Industry in Montreal. He
married a Canadian woman who bore him two boys, and they had built a nice house.
All within a few years.
Yes, the new world had been good to him. But he never forgot that it was the old
world that had given him the basis for his success, his solid education. His father
being one of the foremost restauranteurs in Amsterdam, he was more or less destined
to follow in his footsteps.
His father had been devastated when Freddy decided to build a future in Canada,
leaving the old man with nobody to continue his family tradition. He now only had
his daughter left in Holland. Freddy did not tell Jonny why, but he had broken all ties
with his parents. He had been born and raised among hard working people with a
strong sense of duty and responsibility. It had all done him good in the new world.
Jonny often felt surprised that people were so open. Even to strangers. In less than
an hour Freddy had more or less told him his life’s story, while he had told Freddy
nothing. If he told the good parts, he also felt obliged to tell some of the bad parts.
And he had no desire flaunting his shit to total strangers.
“Jonny, I need to ask you a favor. Can you wait another day with rent? I’ve spent
all my money on cleaning materials and food. I should be able to catch up by the end
of the week.”
“It’s ok. If you had asked me, I could at least have saved you the expenses for
cleaning materials.”
“That’s okay. I like to have my own. That way a can follow my own cleaning routines.”
Jonny was anxious to hear from Pearly Jo. She did not call on Tuesday. She did not
call on Wednesday, either. Thursday Jonny wandered if the deal would ever materi-
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alize. Friday morning she called with the good news. She had received an offer in
three alternatives. She wanted to stop by and discuss them in detail if Jonny would
agree. Of course he did. He was slowly being pulled toward the brink of the precipice. He was more than anxious to see her. This would be his rescue!
Twenty minutes later she arrived in the office. All alone. The prospective buyer
had returned to California. His offers were good for three days only on a take it or
leave it basis. Pearly Jo went through each offer thoroughly. Alternative number one
was an all cash deal at only $348,000.00. He’d lose a lot of money that way, but it
was a cash deal. Alternative number two came in at exactly $400,000.00 with
$30,000.00 in cash and the balance over thirty years. Alternative number three
seemed rather tempting. A $448,000.00 dollar offer with no money cash, but a 10%
interest on his money and full collateral for the unpaid balance.
None of the offers were according to expectation. Jonny had hoped for an offer
whereby he would get his investment back so that he did not have to have anything
to do with the all these unstable, unreliable Americans in the future. He realized
alternative three was a fairly good deal, if he felt that he could afford to take it. No
cash meant that he would have to take money out of his own pocket to pay debts.
Electricity, mortgages and property taxes being major delinquents. Or he could go
for the third offer modified to also take care of outstanding liabilities.
“So how do you feel about the offers, Jonny? Which one is the best for you?”
“Disappointing at first. But it’s something to occupy my mind over the weekend.
I’ll get in touch with you first thing Monday morning to let you know. If I go for alternative three, is there any way we can verify the value and surety of his collateral?”
“I’ve checked out the Redwood Corporation. It seems a rather solid enterprise.
But of course we’ll have to check out the solidity of his collateral before we sign, if
that turns out to be the deal.”
“Is he going to take it over as a corporation.”
“No. That’s too risky. He’ll take it over as his personal property. Maybe later he
will form another corporation, or maybe sell it to one of his previously established
corporations. Whatever. There are so many ways. All I know is that he will not take
over the corporation of the Holiday Park Hotel. We were all surprised when you
accepted that solution.”
“Well, it makes no difference to me whether he takes over the corporation or not.
I’ll probably go for his last alternative, but I’ll let you know Monday. How do you
feel about a dinner and some red vine for a celebration?”
“I’d simply love to. If I had known, I would have rearranged my schedule, but as
it stands right now I have another appointment in thirty minutes. A million dollar
deal. I’ll have to take a raincheck.”
“Ok. I’ll have to celebrate all on my own, then. Talk to you Monday morning.”
“I’ll leave my private number. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with me evenings,
Saturdays or Sundays if you have anything on your mind. And don’t forget to call me
Monday morning.”
Pearly Jo seemed in a good mood. No wonder. Another twenty two thousand dol-
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lars in cash was coming her way like a gift from above. Jonny was beginning to understand Ted and his attitude toward real estate agents. Their commissions were total
rip offs. In Europe such commissions would have been illegal and regulated by the
government. Well, not in America. ‘It’s a free country.’
Saturday morning Shirley was sitting at one of the patio tables drinking beer. After
she had the baby, she was not around so much. Jennifer was taking care of much of
the babysitting for her.
Ronald kept busy working all the time, taking as much overtime as possible. Their
daily routines seemed more relaxed and normal than before, but Jonny figured it was
only a matter of time before the new wore off and their habits again became prevalent.
“Morning, Shirley. How’s everything?”
“It’s a fucking mess. He beat me up last night. Won’t let me see my boyfriend.
He’s so fucking jealous he’s sick. If I hadn’t been so scared, I would’ve divorced the
fucker.”
“Uff. I hope it works out for the better. I’ve actually been looking for you to hear
what happened to Robin. Eric says she’s suing.”
“That’s news to me. She broke her leg, alright, but she was so drunk she hardly
remembers when or where it happened. Seems to me somebody must have poured
oil or something on the upper steps. She slipped and came tumbling all the way
down. She’ll be coming out of the hospital in a few days. She plans to call you and
ask if you’ll pick her up. I don’t know why Eric’s spreading all the rumors. It’s not
the first time.
Remember that guy in the wheelchair visiting the drag queens in twenty-five?
According to Eric he was also suing you. And Kirk. Eric wants Ronald to stop paying
the rent as well. Eric’s just another guy with a sick brain, but he’s smart enough not
to flaunt it. He gives me the creeps.”
“Well, an idle brain is the devil’s workshop, you know.”
“His brain’s anything but idle, Jonny. Only the devil’s workshop. For some reason he wants to get you although we all know you’ve only been doing him favors.
He’s a fucking creep. Letting Prissy support him and spending all her hard earned
money buying shit. When Prissy and Travis were both out working, he spent most
of his time and Prissy’s money on Joyce, that fucking whore!”
“So that’s where the money goes, heh?”
“You’re fucking right it is! You know his in-laws just moved back in, don’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s fucking low. He’s showing everybody the agreement telling them he’s got
you by the balls because you do not have a hotel licence. Is that true?”
“No. I’ve talked to a lawyer. He says there’s no difference between a hotel licence
and a transient licence. Except for the fact that with a transient license the tenants are
not expected to pay bed and sales tax, which amounts to another 9,9 percent in increased rent. But it is actually the police that decide. They are the law, they say.”
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“Be careful, Jonny. Something’s going on behind your back and Eric’s behind it
all. Did you know Kirk is still in the vicinity?”
“No. I thought he left. Thanks for telling me.”
“When you decided to come and live here, did you at all expect that living in
America would be like this?”
“No. Not at all.”
“What made you come here in the first place?”
“An old dream. Maybe getting even with my parents. I used to live in New Jersey
for about ten years in the sixties. Life was good then. But they forced me to go back
to Norway with them. After I left, I always wanted to come back. When I get out of
here, maybe I’ll try New Jersey one more time. If it’s true what it says in the song
that home is where your heart is, that’s where I belong.”
“You must be kidding, Jonny. If you think it’s all fucked up down here in Florida,
you won’t believe what it’s like living in New Jersey. Newark. Elizabeth. Jersey
City. Hoboken. There was mafia all over. Even Frank Sinatra.
They are big city slums so full of blacks you won’t see the daylight at high noon.
There’s hardly a white man left up there. I guarantee you’ll be disappointed.”
“I cannot quite see what color has to do with it. In this place I’ve had more trouble
with whites than I’ve had with blacks.”
“Don’t kid yourself, Jonny. Haven’t you noticed most crack pushers are blacks?
All the black kids on their bicycles. The stones are white, but it’s a black industry.
That’s how they get even at an unjust society and centuries of slavery and abuse.
They’re taking this country to the dogs.”
“It can’t be all that bad. I remember back in the sixties when I was a young teenager —”
“Forget about the sixties! That’s almost half a century ago. Those were the good
years. You’re living in the America of the nineties now!”
That Saturday afternoon J. R. Gilbert, and his girlfriend Ollie, moved into number
sixteen only one day after Travis left. J. R. had held the same job as an auto mechanic with the same repair shop for thirty years without getting any further than to his
daily case of Budweiser.
Divorced, with two grown sons, J. R. had seen better days, but his Bud had finally
gotten the better of him. His present girlfriend, Ollie, in her early fifties, was much
taller and heavier than little J. R., and indeed a dominant and grouchy old woman,
grim and sinister. Recently divorced from her third husband, and with no ties to her
three daughters from her first marriage, she more or less lived for her daily doses of
prescription drugs. Ollie kept walking around in a stiff collar from a backlash injury
after a nasty car accident just four months ago. She always kept her grey little
poodle, almost as grouchy as herself, by her side. Her doctor had advised her that the
treatment had been successful and that she could stop using the collar, but her lawyer
had declined.
She was suing for a heavy settlement and detectives from the insurance company
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might be snooping around. So, though she no longer needed the collar for medical
reasons, it was still wise to leave it on for judicial considerations. It was of utmost
importance for the settlement that she portrayed a picture of being as injured and sick
as possible.
The wheel of fortune was finally spinning her way.
Jonny wondered why two complete strangers would sit and tell him all this, but
he listened attentively as he prepared the papers, wrote the receipt and counted the
money. They paid two weeks in advance, plus security, and were happy to move in
that very moment. They moved in with no luggage, no linen and very little clothes
or personal belongings. Except for a full case of Bud for J. R., and a large bottle of
pain killers for Ollie that she desperately needed for her neck injury, they had nothing.
But J. R. Gilbert strongly stressed that he always paid his rent on time. Jonny was
happy to have them move in. They seemed like a couple of good tenants.
And true, J. R. Gilbert always paid his rent on time.
Travis was now living out of his car parked in one of the Holiday Park Hotel’s
parking spaces conveniently close to Calvin and his girlfriend, Thilda, with her two
teenage daughters, and their very special merchandise.
Sumner Redwood of the Redwood Corporation of California commanded great authority as he quickly studied Jonny’s altered proposal for reaching a final agreement
to take over the Holiday Park Hotel.
Jonny remembered having met him over at the Hotel enquiring about an apartment, but he had not taken him seriously. He had seemed so out of place for this area.
Mr. Redwood did not mention the incident.
The proposal was based on Mr. Redwood’s own offer, alternative three, but Jonny
needed to make sure that he had at least enough funds to cover all the outstanding
debts. He received a thorough lesson in shrewd business tactics. Mr. Redwood
quickly informed them that he would be willing to take responsibility for property
taxes and city water only. They were directly attatched to the property. Plus mortgages. Of course those sums would have to be deducted from the total purchasing
price, plus another ten thousand dollars. He would in no way be willing to consider
any other outstanding debts considering the fact that he was not taking over the
corporation, but buying it as a private property.
Jonny understood the arrangement. He would take responsibilities for taxes and
water only as a precaution against state and city interference and their possible rights
to put a lean on the property. Plus mortgages.
That taken care of it would be entirely up to Jonny whether he would pay the
remaining debts or not. The corporation would be dead anyway, and if Jonny elected
to neglect his creditors, none of them would be stupid enough to place the corporation into bankruptcy. That would be throwing good money after bad. No sound businessman would even care to bother.
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The guy new his business. It was not quite honest, but shrewdness, not honesty,
seemed to be the name of the game.
Twenty minutes later the deal was sealed. Mr. Redwood would procure all necessary documents of collateral. Needless to say Jonny felt like a heavy burden had been
taken off his shoulders. Like somebody having saved his life. Pearly Jo would get in
touch with the mortgage holders and prepare the necessary papers to close in roughly
one month’s time.
Melancholy, but relieved, Jonny accepted the fact that his last effort in the United
States had been anything but successful. The country had changed drastically the last
few decades.
Drugs were running the country now. The politicians were busy stopping people
from smoking cigarettes and teenagers from drinking beer, while the schoolyards
were being flooded with marihuana and cocaine. Long live progress!
Sometimes Jonny wondered if most of these politicians were taking commission
out of the drug trade, the way they were eagerly trying to stifle the legal competition.
Psychologically Jonny was now prepared to leave the country. At least this time
not being a citizen would not be a disadvantage. He figured it was time to stop back
in Norway to see his parents. They were not getting any younger. And he missed the
kids.
Two weeks later Pearly Jo called late in the evening. Jonny was really surprised, but
happy to hear from her. Maybe she had set a closing date? In his anticipation he
hardly noticed the anxiety in her voice.
“Jonny, I need you to answer one question: All mortgages are assumable, are they
not?”
“Yes.”
“Also the second mortgage?”
“Yes. You were there when we reached the agreement. Don’t you remember?”
“Yes, I do. However, Ted strongly maintains that is not the case. Have you signed
any special deal with him?”
“No. I’ve only signed the papers at the closing. Nothing else.”
“You are one hundred percent positive?”
“Of course. Are there any problems?”
“I don’t know for sure. Ted maintains that his mortgage is not freely assumable.
He asked me to check the mortgage documents and somehow it seems that he is correct. There’s no provision in the papers stating the mortgage is assumable. Ted tells
me he needs to see the deal before he approves of anything. There’s no doubt that we
agreed to a freely assumable mortgage when we signed the contract, but somehow
that provision was omitted at the closing.”
Jonny felt the emptiness inside. And the fear.
“So you’re actually telling me that the conditions of the mortgage have been altered sometime between the signing of the contract and the closing?”
“For a mortgage to be legally and unconditionally assumable such provisions
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most be noted specifically in the mortgage deed. Therefore it’s hard to prove that
anything has been altered. According to Ted it has just been neglected.”
“If so, we must do something about it. We have plenty of witnesses to the effect
that all mortgages are assumable.”
“That’s a long road to travel, Jonny. Lucy also told me that there had been some
tension between you and Ted over some insurance deal. Maybe he’s getting back at
you?”
“Yeah, maybe. We have not talked since that happened. But I don’t think that has
anything to do with it. Altering the documents must have taken place before the closing. It must have been done for a specific purpose.”
“I will get in touch with Ted one more time. I’ll call you back as soon as I hear
anything. Can you think of any reason why he might oppose the sale?”
“No. Not unless he is squeezing for a better deal.”
Pearly Jo hung up and left Jonny to his own worries. He could personally not see
any reason why Ted would oppose the sale, but Jonny realized by now that Ted was
not always easy to deal with. With Ted it was always ‘my way, or no way.’ And
Jonny knew they had felt rather humiliated at the pre-closing.
Pearly Jo called back ten minutes later. Ted had refused to discuss the matter with
her. Until he would be willing to discuss anything, he expected Jonny to get in touch
with him for an unconditional apology. Only thereafter would he be willing to take
the matter into consideration. And until then the loan would remain unassumable.
“This doesn’t sound so good. Jonny, does it?”
“No. Not at all. He’s the one that cheated on the insurance and now he wants me
to apologize. I’ll call him, but don’t expect me to fall flat on my belly. I’ll call you
back as soon as I hear anything.”
Sweating, Jonny had hardly hung up when the phone rang.
“Hallo, Jonny. It’s Ted Littlefield calling you. I just talked to your realtor. She
strongly suggested I get in touch with you about the mortgage. As I understand
you’re under contract to sell. Well, you should have brought it up with me. There can
be no sale without me, you know. If you think the mortgage is freely assumable,
that’s based on a grave misunderstanding.”
“I don’t think it’s a misunderstanding. I have plenty of witnesses to the fact that
we agreed to an assumable mortgage when signing the contract. I would have accepted nothing else. But somewhere along the line the conditions have been changed.
Needless to say I feel rather disgusted that a man can no longer be trusted, neither on
his words nor a written and signed agreement. However, I am not surprised. You
must have had a reason for doing this.”
“Yes, indeed. The last laugh’s on me. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. — Well, I’m willing to
come to your office and try to work things out. I’m available right away if you are.
As I remember you are a rather impatient person.”
“Everything’s relative, you know. I’m ready to see you any time it’s convenient
for you. Even right away, if that’s in your interest. But I must let you know, I’m fully
determined to sell the property as soon as possible.”
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“The way things stand you need my permission for that. I have no intention of
preventing you from selling, but I’m now in a position to set my own terms about the
second mortgage. I will see you in your office in half an hour to discuss my conditions. See you then.”
“Very good. I’ll be waiting.”
Only half an hour later, like so many times before, Ted ‘n Andy came strolling
up the walkway of the Holiday Park Hotel toward the office. More than eight months
had passed since last time.
Jonny watched them from behind the office window. He worried. And anxiously
wondered what Ted had on his mind.
“Hello, Jonny. It’s been a long time. I hear you didn’t last very long. I’m not surprised that you’re trying to sell, but I admit I’m surprised that you have managed to
dispose of it in such a short time. You seem to be having good fortunes on your side.
At all times, I might add. Unless you’re taking a hell of a beating.”
“It’s no goldmine, but I think it’s a fair deal.”
“I need to be informed of all the details, Jonny, to make up my mind whether I
will accept or not.”
“Well, I’ve left all the papers with Pearly Jo, but it’s easily explained. I have a
$448,000.00 offer. No money cash, except that he’ll take care of all outstanding bills
for mortgages, water and taxes. I’m getting ten percent on the balance, same as you
and Mrs. Felix. That’s how simply the deal has been set up.”
“Don’t you think you’re taking a hell of a risk getting no money down?”
“Of course, I would prefer cash. On the other hand, he’s putting up some solid
collateral. It’s a solid corporation. So I’m considering it more a monthly annuity than
a cash deal. Actually, I don’t think I can do better right now.”
Ted studied Jonny with a wrinkled forehead, his bald head shining red with excitement. He smiled.
“I have, of course no interest in preventing you from selling. On the other hand,
I find it rater unreasonable that you should run away with all the advantages and
leaving me behind more or less stuck with more money invested in the property than
yourself. Don’t you agree? Or haven’t you even given it a thought?”
“Your situation will remain exactly the same way it is today. At least when you
sold, you received close to a hundred thousand dollars cash. I’m left with a third
mortgage and no money down.”
“And full collateral! — As I’m sure we both clearly remember: Through some
fancy manipulations and a heap of more or less legitimate deductions that sum was
drastically reduced. I needn’t tell you that I found the situation humiliating. You
were holding the jokers. Well, right now I’m holding the jokers. You’ll get nowhere
without my consent. Would you find it unreasonable that I suggest we reach a compromise?”
“Knowing you you’ve probably got it all figured out. What exactly did you have
in mind, Mr. Littlefield?”
“I have no intentions of being unreasonable, but let me suggest that you refuse to
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accept a no money down deal. No matter what the collateral. I will accept no offer
less than one hundred thousand dollars cash. Out of that one hundred I expect to be
paid at least half in order to reduce my own vulnerability. Then, just to show my
generosity, I’m willing to accept a joint second mortgage. If anything should happen
along the way, a third mortgage is worth next to nothing. This way you’ll move one
step up the ladder of surety. — Oh, by the way, allow me to inform you that I’m fully
aware you’ve also received an all cash offer. According to Pearly Jo, that is. I take
it she’s trustworthy on that point?”
“Yeah. But that was a very low offer which would leave only fifty thousand cash.
That’s out of the question.”
“It’s well within my frames of acceptance. The rest would obviously be your problem.”
“You realize that would leave me with nothing. Not now, not later. Why should
I bother? I might just as well grab a few thousand dollars and leave.”
“It’s not in your nature, Jonny. If you just packed up and left, I would be available
to report you to immigration. You would not leave in such a hurry that you would
jeopardize your ability to return to the United States, would you?”
“I will evaluate that if the situation should arise. According to Ted Littlefield I
may also be unreasonable.”
“Well, carefully consider my proposal. Its generous. One not available for further
negotiations. Do we have a deal?”
“That’s not a deal. It’s a ripoff.”
“Well, look who’s talking. I’m not in the mood for further negotiations right now.
Do we have a deal, or do we not?”
Jonny once again experienced fear. The deal about to save his money, and probably his miserable life, was now falling through. He still managed to keep rational.
Why go through with a deal like that if Ted walked away with all the advantages?
No, Ted had been too greedy. — Or too revengeful? On the other hand, Ted would
be there every time he got an offer any time in the future, making sure that he, Ted,
walked away with all the advantages. Jonny felt empty inside. Yeah, he had held his
hopes too high and now they came tumbling down like so many times before. And
for no reason. Ted would be neither better nor worse off if he sold.
Jonny would never learn to fully understand the evil instincts of mankind.
“Do we have a deal, or do we not?”
“Give me one reason why I should accept.”
“You’re too bloody stubborn for your own bloody good! I would not at all be surprised if one day we’ll find you with a bloody bullet through your head!”
“Ok, Ted. I will make a deal with you. But you will not get it on paper. You may
stick it up your faggot ass!”
Jonny needed a full hour to regain his composure, to settle his mind. Maybe by refusing to accept, he had executed his own death sentence? He felt the problems
slowly but inevitably moving in on him closer and closer. Soon, pretty soon, they
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would overwhelm him. He slowly punched Pearly Jo’s number. He spoke in a faint,
fumbling voice.
“Is anything wrong, Jonny? You sound like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“I’ve just talked to two of them. Ghosts from the past. Ted ‘n Andy. They obviously want revenge for that closing. You probably know what suggestion he gave
me?”
“Yes. Alternative one. $50,000.00 cash to him. Nothing to you. That would leave
you with nothing but bills to pay. I told him it’s about the most unreasonable interference in a deal I’ve experienced during my entire professional career as a realtor.
He just laughed. — Well, what did you tell him?”
“I asked him to give me one reason why I should accept.”
“I figured that much. I’ve been in touch with Mr. Redwood. He seemed neither
disappointed and surprised. He’s used to business procedures. He actually withdrew
all offers and will confirm that in writing tomorrow. Learning about the complexity
of the situation he decided not to become entangled in legal procedures far into the
future. Sorry, Jonny, there’s nothing more I can do for you.”
“Do you have any long term solution?”
“No. This is no case for a realtor. You’ll need a lawyer. Someone with somewhat
more professional clout and leverage than Lucy. She’s the one who should have prevented this. Now you’ll need someone on Mr. Mitchell’s level.”
“That could take years. And thousands of dollars.”
“Yes. And still get you nowhere. I’m sorry to say this, Jonny, but the way the situation stands right now I see no reason to put it back on the market. Based on wrongful information I’m now canceling my engagement in selling the Holiday Park Hotel.
I’ve had the form drawn up. I’m no longer able to sell that property for you. Hopefully you’ll understand. I’m sorry. — Have a nice evening.
Jonny tried to evaluate his situation, but found it hard to concentrate. The reality of
it all was that if he wanted to sell, he’d have to pay off the second mortgage. It would
be difficult, it not impossible, to have someone come up with $118,000.00 for the
second mortgage alone. Yeah, he seemed stuck here for some time to come.
He tried to concentrate on opening the mail. Hm. Another letter from Mr. Robert
J. Welsh. Jonny’s hands shook as he opened it. What the hell was wrong, this time?
It had to be something. This guy was not in the habit of sending well wishes. Jonny
was right. Mr. Welsh had undertaken the unpleasant duty of informing him that the
first mortgage had been paid in arrears and that there was a penalty of $125.00 to be
paid immediately. If the mortgage payments were not kept current in the future, he
would strongly consider the possibility of a foreclosure. A copy of the letter had been
sent to Mrs Karen K. Felix, the first mortgage holder, another copy to Attorney.
Cameron Mitchell and a third copy to the second mortgage holder, Mr. Edward B.
Littlefield.
Damned these people. They were worse than vultures. Why these nasty letters
when in reality he had kept within the limits of the contract? Was Mr. Welsh trying
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to have the property repossessed for any reason? He had been on his back since day
one.
Jonny had read about such incidences before. People that speculated in selling
their properties with such high leverage that they would have to be repossessed
within months. Just for being a few days late on mortgage payments. He knew of an
incident up in Fort Kent, Maine, where one business owner had managed to sell his
property three times, and repossessed it twice, within one year.
With banks no longer playing their proper part in a modern society owner financing had developed into a necessity. But definitely at the expense of the security of
long term stable financing. Maybe Mr. Walsh was now fencing for an opportunity
to foreclose on the property instead of trying to collect the loan over time according
to contract? Maybe he was working with Ted now so that he could have his money
cashed out? That’s probably why! Mr. Welsh, Ted and the lawyer, Mr. Mitchell. Mr.
Mitchell had already proved his moral shortcomings.
Jonny saw the picture now! He realized he could not win this battle. He had too
many powerful persons working against him. And there seemed to be no way out. If
the property was foreclosed upon by Mr. Walsh, the three of them could take over
Jonny’s investment and split it between them. Yeah, it all made sense! Jonny was
unable to figure a way out. He needed to clear the premises in order to clear his
mind. And he had to stay away from that Alley Bar.
He headed for Beefsteak Charlie for a good steak and a liberal amount of red
vine. He knew of nothing better in life than a good American steak, corn fed, aged
tender and juicy. And lots of red wine.
On his way back home he suddenly decided to stop by at Solid Gold again. Just
to watch some titty shaking. Damned this red vine. It always brought out the loneliness in him. And made him horny. He also wanted to confront this dancing bitch,
Shirley, about his missing cash.
‘Good Time’ Shirley was no longer dancing at Solid Gold. She had left the same
day Jonny had been there the last time.
Damned! Nothing was working out!
The place was rather empty on a Monday evening, with many of the girls just
hanging out doing nothing. Only a few were dancing.
He ordered his first Johnny Walker and had hardly taken his first sip when a
young, natural beauty in extraordinarily solid and oversized silicons stopped right
next to him.
Jesus! Rolling on top of those would really take his mind off his miseries and
alleviate his pains! And help him forget about the hellhole called Fort Lauderdale,
and, instead, lead him into a very special kind of heaven. But the thought of an empty
wallet kept him from getting overly excited.
Right now he needed every fucking dime he could get his hands on to pay bills
and mortgages!
“Okay to sit?”
“No problem.”
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“Hello. I’m Cindy.”
She extended her hand. Her fingernails were short cut and clean. No paint. She
flashed a charming smile. Her make-up also seemed rather sparse for a dancing girl,
her features round, her complexion fair and her fringed blonde hair accentuating her
blue eyes.
He took her hand.
“I’m Jonny. Nice to meet you.”
“Likewise. I haven’t seen you in here before?”
“Just once. For a few drinks and to enjoy the view. It’s a very exciting scenery.”
“Ha, ha, ha, ha. I’m glad you enjoy it.”
She kept smiling. She started small talking about herself without pushing him for
a drink.
When he asked if she wanted something, she did not push for a split, but thanked
him politely for a glass of white vine.
Jonny could not help but wonder what a woman like this had to give a man. A
night of ecstasy? Oh, yes. Good companionship? To some extent. Make him feel
good as a man? Of course. All this he knew.
But beyond the glitter what was her worth then? Next to nothing. After jumping
from man to man for years she no longer new the meaning of faithfulness. Or loyalty.
He was willing to bet that more than half the population of American women had at
one time or another subsisted as dancers or prostitutes.
Jonny caught himself wondering how many lovers this one had gone through.
How many one night stands? How many different guys in just one night? How often
had she been turning tricks? How many times arrested? How many abortions? Children? Or live-in relationships? Divorces?
He heard Ted’s voice in the distance:
’If you fall in love with a woman like that, and she mothers your child, what will
you do then?’
‘Kill myself and go straight to hell, I guess.’
Uff, he was losing his mind. In America every new relationship between a man
and a woman was the beginning of a losing battle. Like life itself. The greatest gift
of all was nothing but an inevitable journey toward death and decay. No, he’d better
keep a distance.
He watched Cindy as she eagerly described how she had been abused by her stepfather since the age of twelve. Jonny realized he had heard the story before. More
than once. An American process for reaching adulthood, he figured.
He remembered Ronald.
‘If bitches are all there is, what would you do then?’
Jonny hardly knew any more. You will finally be drawn into the environment you
live under. This one he could easily fall in love with. She was that attractive. And she
knew it. Even if they both let themselves go, it could only last for a limited time.
Mixing her past with his past a long lasting future together would be next to impossible. From watching his tenants he had observed the American lifestyle. Six months
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seemed like a long lasting relationship here. And, while living together they were
cheating, committing adultery and fighting like mongrels.
He noticed her sitting there, watching him. Telling him about herself not noticing
that he was not listening. He tried to concentrate, but his mind just kept drifting.
Wiley. Kirk. Lillian. Tyson. Shirley. Ronald. Robin. Yeah, Robin. She had given
him a night he would never forget. Elizabeth. Violet and Reverend Swagman. Bonnie
with the Pussy. And he himself all alone in a rotten world when he could have stayed
at home and helped his son and daughter — if only just to be there for them when
they needed him.
Instead he had to deal with mortgages, bills, lawyers, drug pushers, pimps, prostitutes, lunatics — and murderers. Plus a rough lawyer like Mr. Welsh and a refined
British gentleman like Mr. Edward B. Littlefield!
He thought of Pearly Jo. In the beginning she had seemed like a friend. Hmmm.
Strange how these Americans would easily let go of you if you could no longer contribute to their continued well being.
‘Sorry. Jonny. I cannot help you. Hope you understand. Have a good evening.’ In
other words: ‘I no longer need you. Get the fuck out of my way!’
“You seem rather troubled. Is everything all right?”
Cindy butted into his troubled mind.
“Yeah, I’m okay. It’s been one of those days, but I’m okay. Yeah.”
“I’m a good listener and I’ve got a good shoulder to cry on. I guess we all need
a shoulder to cry on now and then. At least I do.”
“I don’t want to bore you with my daily trivia. But it’s been a rough day.”
Before Jonny really knew what he was doing, he had opened up and told much
of his miseries to this stranger of the opposite sex who had such a pleasant way of
making him feel comfortable and relaxed.
Jonny offered a split. Then another one.
“I’d really like to get to know you a little better, Jonny. I’ll check with the manager to see if I can get the hell out of here. It’s too damned slow, anyway.”
She left before Jonny could tell her he was not interested. Well, he was interested,
but felt rather limited on cash. It turned out not to be a problem. Cindy returned looking rather disappointed. No, she could not leave until after closing time. She would
consider it quite a compliment if he would wait for her. She had her own apartment.
In the meantime she would love to dance for him. Yes, once more Jonny started
relaxing after a few shots of Johnny Walker. And he enjoyed Cindy dancing for him.
She seemed so pleasant. And genuinely interested in him.
“You simply have to wait for me outside the club after I’m finished dancing. I
would love to take you home. Get to know you.”
Jonny wanted to make an appointment to see her some other night, but she insisted. She simply hated leaving the club all alone. She liked him. She would really feel
disappointed if he let her down tonight. Jonny accepted. This one did not seem to be
pushing for sex. Or turning tricks. This one was different. She seemed genuinely
interested in him. Before the end of the evening she had given him twelve dances.
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She needed two hundred and forty dollars. At closing time she asked him to wait for
her outside the building. She was actually not allowed to take any of the customers
home. She never did. But she wanted to see him. Get to know him better.
“Will you wait for me? Please?”
“Ok. I’ll wait for you. Where do I see you?”
“Just wait outside. Give me twenty minutes to get dressed. I’ll pick you up. Ok?”
Jonny waited outside for more than twenty minutes. Then another ten. He finally
asked the doorman if everybody had left. He was waiting for one of the dancers called Cindy. Through a misunderstanding she was probably also waiting for him without knowing where to find him.
“You mean you’re waiting for Cindy Schneider? The cute, intelligent blonde?
The one with the big boobs?”
“Yes.”
“Are you fuckin’ stupid, man? Her boyfriend picked her up more than half an
hour ago. Fuckin’ idiot!”
That’s exactly what he felt like. A fucking idiot! He’d been taken for another
nasty ride. By making him believe that she was interested in getting to know him, she
had managed to keep him there all night spending most of his money. No, not his
money. The money of the corporation! The cash that he so desperately needed to pay
the electricity, the mortgages, the taxes! Jesus Christ, she had fucked him up real
good. Fucking sucker! Cindy Schneider had proved a true professional. Through lies
and deception she had managed to suck him clean of more than three hundred
dollars. Another fucking American bitch laughing it up at the expense of a naive and
stupid squarehead.
His soul burning with remorse and shame Jonny portrayed a lost and lonely figure
staggering back toward the Holiday Park Hotel around three o’clock that morning,
together with three very close American friends — Jonny Walker, Loneliness and
Despair!
Back in his office he did not even try to go to sleep. Instead he switched on the
tablelamp and started contemplating a strategy of survival. He was not willing to give
up without a fight. At the same time he felt paralyzed and unable to conquer the
growing feeling of fear, and that inexplicable premonition of an unavoidable tragedy
slowly materializing.
Even destiny was working against him.
Then, at four in the morning, the telephone started chiming on his office desk.
He startled. Who the hell would call him at four in the morning? Maybe somebody was watching him, knowing that he was not asleep? Why wouldn’t they leave
him alone? At least in the middle of the night! With a shaking hand he grabbed the
receiver.
“Holiday Park Hotel — hello.”
“Hello. Jonny, is that you?”
“Yes. Who’s calling?”
“It’s me, Margaret.”
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“I didn’t recognize your voice. You sound so — strange.”
She did not reply.
“It’s been a very tough day. — Jesus Christ, Margaret! Do you know what time
it is? It’s four in the morning!”
“Sorry to bother you, but mother died this afternoon. She had a stroke and went
into a coma. The doctors said she would not regain consciousness, but she suddenly
opened her eyes and asked if we had heard from you. We couldn’t answer — just
slowly shook our heads. We saw tears rolling down her cheeks, and then she softly
whispered:
‘Tell Johnny I am sorry.’
And just as if somebody blew out the faint flicker of a candlelight she was gone.
— She died crying for you, Jonny!”
Margaret was crying now. Jonny also had a hard time controlling himself. He
could hear his mother’s clear voice.
‘Are you running around with whores, Jonny?’
‘No! How can you say such a silly thing?’
But that’s exactly what he had done! As his mother had been lying on her deathbed asking for him, he’d been sitting drunk on a pile of bricks outside of Solid Gold
waiting to be picked up by a cheap, cheating whore!
Tears were slowly rolling down his cheeks.
Again he heard his mother’s voice so clearly.
‘From the lips of a whore drips honey, and her speech is smother than oil.’
That’s exactly what he had experienced earlier tonight!
‘Toward the end she will become bitter as gall and sharp as a double-edged
sword. Her feet walks toward death and her steps lead you straight to your grave.’
Yes, he felt her having turned into gall, and she had been leading him toward his
economic death!
‘Now, my son, listen to my voice and do not stray from what I tell you. Keep your
feet away from her. And do not go near her house!’
And that’s what he had been sitting waiting for earlier that night!
Jonny knew it was from the Bible somewhere.
He heard his sister cry at the other end.
“Huh, huh, huh, huuuuh. — The funeral — huh — will take place on Friday at
twelve. You will be coming home, Jonny, won’t you? You will — huh, huh — be
there?”
Jonny remained silent. This was so inconvenient.
“Eeh. — I’m afraid that’s impossible. I’m strapped for cash right now. Of course
I could call my bank in Switzerland, but if I leave this place now — even for a week
— I’ll have no place to come back to. My visa has not been properly processed,
either, so if I leave now, I won’t be able to return until another six months. I’m sorry,
Margaret — the way my situation is right now it’s out of the question.”
“Is money all you can think of? This is your mother’s funeral, Jonny! Huh, huh,
huh.”
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“I’m sorry. It’s more complicated than just that. I can’t come home now. I will
lose everything then. — Say hello to father and tell him I’m sorry.”
“The last two years mother was crying a lot of tears for you. You killed her! And
now you won’t even come to her funeral. I pray to God, Jonny: May He strike you
dead!”
Before Jonny could answer, she hung up. She cried heavily.
Jonny felt devastated. All empty. In total turmoil! So clearly could he hear his mother recite one of her many biblical verses.
‘A wise man brings joy to his father, but a foolish son despises his mother. My
son, keep your father’s commands and do not forsake your mother’s teachings. The
path of a whore will lead to death!’
Well, it was too late now! He remembered Kirk’s prediction that night when he
told him his soul was already burning in hell.
‘You may still live to see the day when in despair and degradation you’ll be crawling on your belly just to survive until another day!’
In the still of dawn, half drunk and all alone in a strange world so far away from
his loved ones, Jonny rested his face in his hands and let the tears flow freely.
In the early morning drizzle, as the sun rose in the east, a rainbow was forming
in the west. But Jonny was not crying in the rain the way it says in that song. He was
crying under the rainbow.
When Hardee Hancock returned home a little after seven, after an hourlong, unsuccessful attempt at buying twenty dollars worth of pussy, he observed Jonny’s sihouette in the dim lamplight through the office window.
He stopped, rested his torso on his good leg and smiled.
When he received the command to carry out his duty, Jonny would be an easy
prey!
He studied Jonny’s silhouette through the window. Tonight would have been such
a perfect night!
Yes, for Jonny too!
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On the Day of
His Mother’s Funeral
Margaret had not slept a wink all night. Checking the time at five in the morning she
agonized. The piercing thundershowers and the howling winds tore at her heart and
soul. When she crawled under the comforter a little after midnight, tired and worn,
she worried she might oversleep the next morning. She was looking forward to a few
hours of sound sleep in preparation of tomorrow’s ordeal. Funerals were living
nightmares. Oh, how she dreaded tomorrow! Tomorrow would be the worst day she
had ever experienced — the funeral of her mother.
Tossing and turning she watched the peaceful expression on Borge’s face, sound
asleep. A couple of times she had been close to waking him up to let him share her
troubled mind, but she had let it be.
In her mind she constantly reviewed the procedures of the funeral services: The
old church overcrowded. Mother’s coffin standing in front of the altar, in the middle
of the aisle, between rows of craftily sculptured church pews; all wreaths placed at
the base. Reverend Gundersen presiding over the commemoration service; tall,
blondish, youthful for his early fifties, and strong and vivid in his powerful messages.
The pall bearers with Borge and uncle Finn up front, uncle Thomas and uncle Samuel, mother’s two youngest brothers, in the middle, and Hans Andre at the back, with
one pall bearer missing — her only son, Jonny.
Margaret had been unable to think of anybody to fill his place, but decided she
would ask one of the cousins before services tomorrow.
And then — the final farewells.
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She felt sorry for Hans Andre. He really missed his father a lot. During the good
years they had been rather close. He had looked so lost and forlorn earlier today
when they carried the coffin from the chapel and into the church — one pall bearer
short. Reverend Gundersen had offered to lend a hand.
Usually wreaths and flowers were placed from children, grandchildren and great
grandchildren as separate groups. Margaret felt bitter recalling Jonny’s refusal to
share a garland with her. He wanted a separate garland from himself and his son and
daughter, upon the bow of which he wanted his own last farewell — that beautiful
poem that he so emotionally had given to Hans Andre over the phone from the United
States. Margaret and her family therefore had no alternative but to also present a
separate garland from themselves with no garland from the grandchildren. That left
little Cato with one small garland of his own — and a separate farewell to Andrea
from her only great grandchild. Margaret would have to place her own wreath and
read her own farewell, while Hans Andre would do the same for himself and Lisa
Marie — and Jonny.
Margaret had been told the procedure was rather unusual. It revealed a clear division between brother and sister. Therefore she had no guilty conscience of sabotaging
Jonny’s poem. Because he was too careless to be there in person, she would see to
it that there would be no last farewell from Jonny.
When Hans Andre would place that wrath on his grandmother’s coffin tomorrow
at noon, the bow would read only the regular, neutral inscription of ‘thanks for
everything,’ with regards from Jonny, Hans Andre and Lisa Marie.
Margaret did not feel quite comfortable about her decision, but had decided that,
considering the way he had neglected his parents the last two years, Jonny did not
deserve a last farewell to his mother. But her decision had kept her awake all night.
It was such a beautiful poem where he so emotionally had forgiven his mother every
unrighteousness. What he had refused to give while still alive, he had respectfully
forgiven her in death. That is also the way it was in the Bible.
She dreaded having to listen to Reverend Gundersen eulogizing her mother tomorrow. That would be the worst part of all — the part she knew she would not get
through without fighting tears. Maybe she would openly break out crying. She envied
Jonny. He would not have to go through this ordeal. He was so far away he probably
didn’t even think about them! He probably celebrated at a fancy restaurant with a
juicy American steak and liberal amounts of red vine. Jonny would not have to sit
and listen to Willy Arnesen singing ‘Nearer To Thee, My Lord’ in his clear, strong
and solemn voice.
If she wasn’t crying by then, she would definitely break when cousin Lillian started playing those melancholy, longing tunes on her flute tearing at her heart.
Oh, God in heaven, how she dreaded tomorrow!
As she lay awake listening to the strong winds and the pounding rain, Margaret
could not get her silver dollar medallion out of her mind, either. She had decided to
wear it tomorrow for the first time in her life. That silver dollar really meant a lot to
her! Mother had told her the story of that silver dollar so many times: About one
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95
month after uncle Samuel had been murdered in cold blood in America, Andrea had
received a small package from Tacoma, Washington. She was too young to remember, but her parents had carefully taken care of the silver dollar for her.
As she grew up, she became the envy of all her siblings because of that silver
dollar. Nobody else had received such a nice gift from uncle Samuel, but at the same
time they all knew why: Mother had been born after uncle Samuel left, and they had
never seen each other. Except for the Christmas card he had sent to aunt Mathilda
just days before he was killed, mother would be the only one left without the precious
memory of uncle Samuel. Margaret had felt such thrills when her mother gave her
that silver dollar. It did not matter much that she had to swear on uncle Samuel’s
grave that she would never tell Jonny that she had the coin in her possession. Mother
never gave a reason why, but she thought she understood. According to tradition the
coin would automatically be passed on to the oldest son. Well, it made little difference. She was happy the coin now belonged to her, and not to Jonny.
This had happened more than twenty years ago, and she had indeed kept her
promise. Except for that incident just before Jonny had left for America, when she
had showed it to her son, and Jonny had come across her so abruptly that she had
been unable to hide it fast enough. She had mumbled some sort of excuse, but Jonny
had paid little attention. Maybe he didn’t even recognize the coin after she had made
such a fancy medallion out of it, with the silver dollar now being nothing less than
the center of a large necklace hanging down at the end of a solid silver chain. She
would wear that necklace tomorrow! For the first time in her life. In memory of her
mother. After more than twenty years. How appropriate it would be at her mother’s
funeral! The last ‘farewell’ and ‘thank you, mother.’
And she definitely did not have to worry about Jonny being there!
Also Jonny had heard the story of the silver dollar more than once. In addition he
had had his own experience. And he had many times wondered about what had
happened to the silver dollar his mother had given him. About seven, going on eight,
when his milk teeth had started getting lose, his mother had been eager to be allowed
to pull them out instead of leaving them hanging lose in his mouth. The first time she
had asked to touch, she had pullet it out in such a way that it had been terribly painful. And after that he had denied her to touch them. No need to, he could feel them
with his tongue. But she had not given in. So when both his lower front teeth were
getting lose at about the same time, mother had pushed so that she would be allowed
to feel. But he did not trust her, so he refused.
Then she had told him a story: If she would be allowed to pull out both his front
teeth at the same time and put them in a glass of water, they would after three days
turn into a silver dollar — the kind they were using in America.
“Jusses, can two teeth turn into an American silver dollar?”
No, this he could hardly believe.
“Just let me pull them out, and I will prove it to you.”
Reluctantly he opened his mouth and let her pull out his two front teeth. It was not
even painful this time, because they were about to fall out by themselves.
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He had watched carefully when his mother took a glass and poured it half full of
water. She had blessed the teeth before she had but them in the glass just to make
sure that they would turn into a silver dollar. It all seemed credible. Maybe they
would turn into a silver dollar after all?
He checked on it many times a day, but nothing happened. And he started losing
faith that it was possible.
But when he jumped out of bed early on the third morning, it had happened! His
two front teeth had turned into a shining silver coin! An American silver coin! The
same kind the Americans were using! He would bring it with him to America!
He ran to fetch his mother who stood smilingly watching him as he carefully pulled the silver coin out of the water and dried it with one of the kitchen towels.
“You must promise me that you take good care of the silver dollar, Jonny. It is a
precious memory of my oldest brother Samuel. He who was shot in America. Maybe
it is better that you let me take care of it for you?”
Jonny was not comfortable with that thought. When he loved something, he also
wanted to look at it at intervals. And this his mother was aware of. Therefore she
suggested that he keet the coin under his pillow for three days before she would take
care of it for him. And that he agreed to.
Jonny never saw the silver coin after that. Every time he asked his mother for it,
she evasively hinted that it might have been stolen. Sometimes many years later, yes,
actually after they had returned from America, she had asked Jonny carefully a
couple of times if he had seen anything of the silver coin, but he could not answer but
deniably to that. He had no way of knowing at the time, but this was his mother’s
way to check if Margaret had kept her word not to tell him anything.
Yes, there had grown forth a separation between them.
And all this Margaret had been aware of.
Margaret remembered so clearly the last discussion she had had with Jonny about
their parents. Andrea had gone through a period of extreme obnoxiousness and instability, not keeping from nagging Hans for hours at a time. All night long she kept
nagging him about previous mistakes, commanding him out of bed for her pills and
shouting at him for being heavy at the hearing. For nights in a row she had prevented
him from a good night’s sleep. They all wondered how father managed to survive
without a major breakdown. They worried about his heart condition, but he endured
without complaints.
She remembered having agreed with Jonny that hopefully their mother would die
before their father, so that he could at least enjoy a few years in peace and quiet before being put to rest. Well, their wish had come true. What surprised her, though,
and scared her, was the total breakdown of her father after his wife’s death. Many
times had she heard him walking around in his apartment at night, searching for her.
No, he was not getting senile. He knew she was not there, but was unable to relax and
go to sleep before he had checked it out, just to make sure. Like he had done for so
many years while she was still alive.
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97
Margaret slowly got out of bed. She could not fall asleep now. She remembered
having experienced many an agonizing night, but none like tonight. Tomorrow would
be the longest day of her life.
She thanked God funerals, in spite of everything, were easier now than in previous days.
After the sermon and the songs the coffin would be carried into the hearse, drawn
by horses from the church to the cemetery, and then carried from the hearse and
placed on the gravesite elevator to automatically be lowered into the open grave. The
graveside ceremony would be performed as swiftly and painlessly as possible, with
the nearest family gathered close to the coffin as her mother would be lowered into
her final resting place. More distant relatives and friends would scatter about as best
they could while singing ‘We Shall Gather by the River’ as the coffin slowly disappeared into the open grave. Then the mourners would disperse and be on their way
back home. It was no longer custom to gather at the nearest meeting house for sandwiches, coffee and cakes to eulogize and reminisce like in days gone by.
After the funeral she could return home, and then be left alone.
Hans had not slept a wink all night. Life seemed so empty around him. Only two
years ago Jonny had been running his business living in a nice house with his family.
Now he was gone. Along with Linda and the kids. Not that the kids did not come and
visit him, they did, but it was not the same as before. He saw them so seldom now.
Hans did not complain to anybody. He smiled and was happy the few times he saw
them, but never uttered a word about the many times he was left alone and lonely
wondering why he saw them so seldom now. Well, he knew.
The little life he had left he had shared with Andrea, in spite of everything. He
remembered their wedding day. More than fifty-five years ago. The best day of his
life. Andrea was one of the most beautiful and most popular girls in the neighborhood — no, on the whole island. Many a suitor had been hanging around her door
hoping to be the one and only.
But she had chosen him! He would never forget that evening when he had taken
his arm and nonchalantly asked if he wanted a cup of coffee. From that day on they
had been inseparable. Through thick and thin. Fifty-five years they had shared together! For better or worse.
And now she was gone.
Hans had decided not to attend his wife’s funeral. The Norwegian church being
run by the state through the Church- and Educational Department Hans considered
it more the tool of an oppressive government than representative of a living God. He
had long since denied his church membership, and, much as a result of the church
having neglected the commandments of God and instead faithfully executing the decrees of the Government, in reality the Workers’ Party.
As a result Hans had separated from his original religious beliefs and steadily
moved toward atheism. He despised the way the ministers had all shied away from
the teachings of God on the question of abortion, and instead supported the Govern-
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ment’s decision of freedom of choice. Introducing female ministers and bishops had
turned out the same way.
The clergy were too often afraid to defend the word of God for fear of losing their
jobs. So many times when the socialistic government had pushed for specific worldly
developments had the bishops obediently appeared on the only TV station, the state
run and socialistic television NRK, proclaiming their mistakes in their former beliefs
and informing a law abiding public, that, after a long period of consideration and soul
searching, they had now finally arrived at the ultimate truth, that of the Workers’
Party. Those in opposition to the government decrees had lost their ordinations and
been kicked out of the church in disgrace — by an atheistic church minister!
Many had fought for justice in the courts, but the courts were also subject to the
political parties and also there the Workers’ Party held a special position. The judges
were politically elected, and as a result 70% of the judges were members of the Workers’ Party. The rest were divided among the remaining political parties based on
their political influence. And in that way most court decisions were based more on
political attitudes then Norwegian law. But also the laws had mostly been passed by
the socialists. And one of their decisions was that all had to be buried in a churchyard
run by the Norwegian Church. And to make it more acceptable to the public and
other denominations, they had changed the name from churchyards to gravefields.
And if there was anything Hans hated, it was falsifications like that.
He was thinking specifically of the God-priests Borre Knutsen and Ludvig Nessa
in their fight against abortion. In a church officially run by the Government the word
of God did not stand much of a chance against the will of the minister, not God’s
minister, but the Government’s minister. Now they were in the process of accepting
homosexual clergymen. The clergy, the statepriests, mostly remained silent. They
held prestigious, well-paying jobs. None of them wanted to put their economic future
at jeopardy. They had to consider the well being of their families, too. More and
more often they also engaged in politics rather than preaching the unfalsified truths
of the word of God.
Hans had made up his mind not to attend the funeral. He would not sit and listen
to a state official like Reverend Gundersen preside over the services of his beloved
wife, especially based on the fact that she herself had been an active Pentecostalist.
The state church was still performing funeral services based on the fact that all graveyards were under government regulations and administered by the church — the only
way she could be laid to rest in consecrated ground — the Government exerting its
influence to the bitter end!
No, when up against the Workers’ Party, or even the Christian Peoples’ Party,
God didn’t stand much of a chance. — What hypocrisy!
Margaret had become very upset when he told her. Then she started arguing. First
of all, Jonny, their only son, would not be present. Then brother and sister had broken
solid traditions by laying separate flower wreaths thus showing the mourners a family
divided. And then her own husband not being there to show her his last respects! No,
that was outrageous!
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‘Even if you are right, nobody will understand! Just think what people will say!
Father, you simply have to attend.’
Old Hans, stubborn in his beliefs of right and wrong, had refused and Margaret
had envisioned a major scandal. At least Jonny had a reason for not attending, but her
father did not. When she brought it up later in the evening, Hans had remained uncompromisingly stubborn. Only after they had thoroughly discussed his own funeral,
and Margaret had sworn that he would be laid to rest without a government official
performing his commemorate sermon, had he reluctantly agreed to be present.
Margaret had at the same time brought up the question of reserving a gravesite
next to his wife. If he wanted to rest next to her, he would have to make reservation
concurrent with the funeral. Again he refused. He had already decided on incineration and that his ashes be scattered to the winds. He smiled wrily. If he let a state
official perform his sermon, he stood a greater chance of being diverted straight to
hell than being led into the halls of heaven.
No, he needed a man of God for that purpose. Not a state official!
They both smiled. In a way Margaret had always enjoyed his morbid sense of humor. His hangman’s humor. She knew, however, that although he often presented his
views humorously, he seriously and stubbornly adhered to his convictions.
‘It makes no difference after I’m dead. I have no plans of a resurrection or reincarnation, or returning to haunt anybody.’
‘After living together for so many years wouldn’t it be rather nice to also be resting side by side in peace and tranquillity?’
‘Naaah, she could be such a terrible nag at times. And you never know, if she
can’t sleep, she might wake up and start nagging me in the middle of the night.’
‘Father, heh, please. It may mean very little to you, but just think how much it
would mean to those succeeding you. All your descendants! Little Cato!’
He had seen her point and finally given in. At the bottom of his heart, although
he would never openly admit it, he felt intensely relieved that she seriously cared.
And although he no longer expected to see Jonny again before he died, who knows,
maybe some day in the distant future Jonny might be visiting to at least put a few
flowers on their grave. Although he doubted it. They had done Johnny wrong too
harshly when forcing him to leave his new homeland that he loved so deeply!
He realized that the only time he had visited his father’s grave was on the day of
his mother’s funeral. And since that day he had never visited the gravesite of his own
parents. Why should he think that Jonny would care any more than he had done?
But then again, they had never played the kind of trick on Jonny that his parents
had played on him. After Hans had finished a total alteration and adding a new storey
to their house, and covered the total costs, they had turned around and testamented
the house to the second oldest brother because ‘he had shown greater interest.’ He
had always so conscientiously attended to the flower beds and cut the lawn between
the berry bushes, while Hans had been too busy building a business and making ends
meet — a business that also gave steady jobs to all his brothers. He still felt the injustice burning within him.
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Well, he realized they hadn’t always been fair to Jonny either. At intervals Andrea
had been nagging him about it for years. Jonny had always been taken for granted,
and, when it really boiled down to it, Hans realized that Andrea’s heart had been
beating much stronger for her daughter than for her son. He knew it also had something to do with their daughter-in-law. Andrea realized it, as well, although never
willing to admit it. Instead she kept nagging him about it during the nights.
One night she told him about the silver dollar. For years she had pretended, even
to him, that it had been lost. Hans could vividly remember that she had personally
given it to Jonny when he was only seven, a few years before they had moved into
their new home. So many times Hans remembered Andrea having brought up the
question of the missing silver dollar to Jonny, without Jonny having an opinion of
what might have happened to it.
Now Hans suddenly realized that her bringing it up had been nothing but tests to
see if Jonny knew anything — to verify whether Margaret had kept her promise of
silence or not. How false she had been! Yes, he realized how her deceit had kept
burning at her soul.
‘If you feel you’ve done him wrong, would it not be decent to bring it up and ask
for understanding and forgiveness? Maybe admit you’ve made a mistake?’
She admitted the idea had crossed her mind. And Hans was surprised almost to
the point of being shocked. Although Andrea could easily admit that she was far from
perfect, or infallible, Hans could never remember that she had ever admitted to one
single mistake or wrongdoing when it really boiled down to one specific incident.
Her stubborn pride and false religious belief of having the Holy Spirit had prevented
her from that. If you had the Holy Spirit, it would keep you from making mistakes.
Hans vividly remembered that day more than ten years ago when she had tried to
bring it up with Jonny in an attempt to clear her conscience. She had started talking
about this and that and Hans understood what was coming.
He also vividly remembered what she had said to Jonny: ‘If I have ever done you
wrong in life, may I ask that I’ll be forgiven?’
Hans remembered the disappointment he had felt at the way she had put the question, but not until his dying day would he forget Jonny’s answer:
‘But, mother, if you don’t even know if you’ve ever done me wrong, how could
you even think of asking forgiveness?’
Andrea had remained aggressive for weeks after that incident.
Hans sighed heavily as he checked the time. Six, already. Time to get up. He felt
spells of anxieties and fear surge through his weakened body. He dreaded the new
day. It would not be an easy one. Maybe the very toughest in a long, long life.
Hopefully his heart would not play any tricks on him again.
He fought tears. Never throughout his adult life, and he could swear to this on his
integrity as a human being, had anybody openly seen him cry, not once. Including
himself. Not a single tear. No, not ever! And he had every intention of keeping it that
way!
Still, he was unable to suppress his tears that morning.
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Hans Andre hadn’t slept a wink all night. Having gone to bed just after midnight in
anticipation of a strenuous tomorrow, he wanted to feel his best. His mind in a total
uproar he remembered his aunt’s reaction when his father had wanted separate flower
wreaths on their mother’s casket. He had a hard time understanding her hostile
attitude and harsh attacks on her brother.
Hans Andre lay awake remembering the phone call he had made to his father.
After having talked to Margaret he was left with a feeling that his father was about
the lowest, most worthless individual walking among God’s creations on earth, but
after having talked to him he had felt so differently. Father was simply prevented
from attending! By U. S. immigration regulations. If he left now, he could not return
until after six months.
It did not take a genius to understand that the only sensible thing to do was to stay
and take care of business, or he might lose everything he had in America! Also his
grandmother had worried about that. The impression given him by his aunt that his
father did not care, turned into understanding and sympathy after he had talked to
him.
He realized father had been fighting hard not to start crying during the conversation.
Margaret’s accusations of his father’s coldheartedness and reckless behavior toward them were so hard to understand — and so unlike his aunt. Whatever they
needed, she had always been there for them. Like an anchor in a new and frightening
world, with a mother working night and day barely making ends meet, and a loving
father who was no longer there for him. He could never in his wildest imagination
think of a future without his father!
But now that was the reality.
He remembered when mother and father had told him the tragic news — about the
divorce — and father leaving for America. He had tried to take it as a man not showing his emotions, but it had kept him awake at nights. So many a night after father
had left for America had he lain awake, wondering and worrying about his own future. Concentrating on school and homework had become so difficult, almost impossible. He tried to pull himself together, but living without a father had felt so heartbreaking and agonizing . He felt disappointed — no, more than just disappointed —
that father never wrote them, or sent them a few dollars, when he knew for certain
times were hard. He knew why he wouldn’t call. Then he would have to talk to
grandmother.
But grandmother was dead now, and father still didn’t call!
Tonight Hans Andre was feeling better than he could remember in a long time.
Father had told him about his difficulties in America. He believed him, although he
did not understand. But it explained a lot. It also confused him. What father had told
him, did not at all correspond with the information his aunt had given him about
America. Hans Andre had been unable to keep the tears from falling when his father
had read him that beautiful poem as a last farewell to his mother, and his own grandmother.
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He had felt so proud when father had asked if he would recite the poem as a last
farewell from all of them; father, himself, Lisa Marie and Cato. He also felt proud
of his father for having written such a beautiful poem. It was short, but deep. Just like
father. He knew it by heart after only having read it once.
‘Your hard-working hands are finally resting,
in the halls of heaven you now will be feasting.
And all that was wrong is gone and forgiven.’
In a strange way he did not dread tomorrow. He was looking forward to it! When
reading that poem people would learn that his father was not at all the cold and heartless individual that both mother and aunt Margaret were trying to portray of him.
He checked the time. Six in the morning! He had a hard time figuring out whereto
the night had disappeared.
He recalled the long talk he had had with his father on the phone from Fort Lauderdale in the sunshine state of Florida. He kept reminiscing about days gone by and
remembering the many times they had been watching the Children’s Hour in front of
the television — Sesame Street — Dennis the Menace, and Robocop — and Collargol. He had liked Collargol the most, but when they were going to show the last
episode, it had been cancelled by the socialistic station because Collargol was wearing a revolver belt. And anything like that the socialists would not allow that children
would watch!
He recalled that afternoon when he had run right into the side of a passing car and
been knocked unconscious with a brain concussion. Father had worried then. And
shown his love without saying a word! Oh, there were so many memories. And now
father was gone. And grandmother was dead. He fought tears. He couldn’t cry now.
But he cried sorely.
Lisa Marie had not slept a wink all night. She lay awake staring into the darkness and
thinking about her dead grandmother and her lost father. It all seemed so unreal. Like
a nightmare materializing.
One day she had everything. The next day nothing! Except an unwanted pregnancy. She had felt guilt and desperation. Nobody had said a word, except for that
Sunday, but she knew at the bottom of her heart that she was the one responsible for
their parents’ break-up. She also remembered how her boyfriend had put his tail
between his legs and dog-walked out of her life, without even as much as a goodbye,
when she had told him she was pregnant and had refused to have an abortion. She
had paid a high price for being reckless enough to skip the pill or not being determined enough to insist on a condom. She had lost her parents and a stable environment. She had to give up her education, too, because she was to give birth at the time
of her exams. But what hurt more than anything else, was the loss of her boyfriend
— the cowardly way he had treated her, and the selfish way he had behaved after she
had told him. He could do nothing for her. He had his education to finish. The fact
that she would be unable to finish hers, didn’t bother him much. Tough luck that she
should have thought of earlier.
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Through trying to hide her own skeletons mother had warned her not to tell anything to father, but Lisa Marie had been so pleasantly surprised about her father. Unable to hide his disappointment and watching his hopes for her tumble, he still never,
not once, blamed her or uttered a disparaging comment. However, never again would
she experience the warmth, the pride and the love always gleaming in his eyes for
her, which had made her feel so comfortable and secure down the years for as long
back as she could remember. Now she read sadness and sorrow, melancholy and deep
disappointment. But never, not even once, a single disparaging word.
Through the dim daylight of the breaking dawn she watched little Cato sleeping
so carefree and innocently right next to her. With a heart heavy from lack and depravation she told herself in a strong mind and beyond the slightest doubt: Her little
baby boy had been worth it all! Still, wondering why those so close to her before, had
shied away from her now, she realized there had been a high price to pay.
Through trying to hide her own skeletons mother had planted the seed of distrust
between father and daughter. Too late had she learned the truth.
And now grandmother was dead. She had never been close to grandmother and
she realized she would never miss her. Not the way things were. On the other hand,
she painfully longed for the way things could have been. She dreadfully remembered
the day she so happily and innocently had told grandmother that she was taking dance
classes at school. Grandmother’s expression had turned from one of open happiness
to one so grim and sinister.
‘God will punish you if you go dancing, my child! Then you may become a child
of the Devil, and evil happenings will take place around you.’
She remembered running home crying. And scared. She remembered grandmother
having taken on her overcoat and followed her back home. She had hid in the bedroom, crying, while her mother and grandmother had started such a terrible argument.
So terrible that mother and grandmother had remained enemies since that day. She
remembered mother having felt so sorry for her that she had promised to take her to
the movies to watch Alice in Wonderland together with her best friend.
So proudly and happily had she run over to her friend’s house to tell her the good
news, but her friend’s mother had told her the same about going to a theater as grandmother had told her about dancing. It was the evil works of the Devil!
‘If you will go to a movie show, God may punish you by never letting you enter
heaven.’
Again she had run home, crying. And no matter how hard mother had tried to
explain, she had remained inconsolable. She refused to go to the movie. She refused
to continue her dance lessons.
Ellen’s mother had told her exactly the same as grandmother. Of course the two
of them knew better than mother; especially Ellen’s mother because she was a teacher! And a Christian.
Lisa Marie did not know what scared her the most: Grandmother threatening that
the Devil might get her, or mother telling her that there was no Jesus in Heaven who
would punish her.
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Father had finally managed to calm her down. He had asked such a simple question:
‘Sometimes we all watch fairytales like Alice in Wonderland on television, and
then it is no sin. Even Ellen is allowed to watch television. Then, Lisa Marie, my
little sweetheart, why would it be a sin to watch Alice in Wonderland in a movie
theater if it is no sin watching it on television?’
She had not been convinced at the beginning, but the more she kept thinking about
it the more secure she felt that father had been right. And he was not a fanatic Christian the way grandmother and Ellen’s mother was. They were both Pentecostalists.
And now grandmother was dead!
Lisa Marie desperately searched her mind for some happy memories. Oh, she
knew there were many, but they were so hard to remember. It was so much easier to
remember all those other moments that had had such great impact on her. Too often
when her grandmother had told her about Jesus she had been so scared of all the bad
things Jesus would do to her if she was not a good girl.
And sometimes being a good girl was so difficult especially when she did not
know that what she was doing, was bad.
At seventeen she almost died from anxiety when her grandmother would find out
that she was pregnant. But so very strange, contrary to her fears and anxieties, grandmother had showed love and understanding, and, just like father, she never uttered
a harsh word.
Lisa Marie felt so happy that both grandmother and grandfather, especially grandfather,had showed such great love for little Cato. But remembering her own upbringing she worried that her grandmother would start making Cato scared by telling him
how Jesus would punish him if he was not a good boy.
And now grandmother was dead! Lisa Marie did not have to worry about it any
more.
Maybe now grandmother was the one to worry about Jesus punishing her for all
the times she had been bad?
Maybe, but it did not make sense. Maybe mother and grandfather were right?
Maybe Jesus in Heaven was just as much a fairytale as Alice in Wonderland?
To little children death seems so natural, and Cato had watched so eagerly as they
closed the coffin. Lisa Marie had paid special attention to her little child, and, after
the lid had been fastened, explained to him that ‘granny is now in heaven.’ Cato just
looked at her and shook his head:
‘No, sleepin’ in the bed.’
She checked the time. Where had the night disappeared to? She did not dread the
funeral. In a way she was looking forward to it. She would feel sorrow over her dead
grandmother, but at the bottom of her heart she knew she would never miss her. But
she would be so proud of their father tomorrow when Hans Andre would read that
beautiful poem during services. And of little Cato — her beautiful little child who
innocently had caused her so much pain, but at the same time remained her only true
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ray of sunshine. The only great grandchild, would trustingly be holding her hand tomorrow walking toward his great grandmother’s coffin to salute her the last of all
farewells.
Weather-wise Friday turned out nasty with gales howling across the windswept landscape. Margaret watched the mud puddles and the gullies forming from the incessantly pounding rain. What a nasty day for a funeral! In the old days the weather on
the day of a person’s funeral gave a strong indication whether or not God had shown
mercy upon the soul of the dead.
If buried on a sunny day, God showed his satisfaction, and the soul of the deceased had certainly been blessed by the Lord and given eternal life.
If thunder struck during the graveside sermon, there was no doubt in people’s
minds that the Devil had gained control in the eternal battle for the soul.
The medieval superstition lingered in the minds of many elderly, and although
never a direct topic in a discussion, a person’s funeral weather was often commented
upon, indirectly.
‘God showed his mercy and let the sun shine all day.’
‘Yes, the Lord is, indeed, merciful’
Or:
‘It turned out such a nasty day. The thunder struck heavily.’
‘Yes, it’s sometimes hard to find mercy in the eyes of the Lord.”
Today was such a nasty day!
Margaret took a much more practical approach as she cursed the gales and the
downpours. The weather had remained the same now for weeks. The weather forecasters had predicted a well-deserved respite starting today, a prediction that did not
at all seem to materialize. Well, their forecasts were mostly guesswork, anyway. Five
times out of ten they miscalculated. She decided to drop the kids off in front of the
church first, then go back and pick up Borge, father and uncle Olaf.
When in the future trying to recall her mother’s funeral Margaret would forever be
unable to remember clearly. She felt like watching it from a distance, like a blur in
slow motion. Unable to recall the contents of Reverend Gundersen’s eulogy to her
mother, she realized she had been too preoccupied with the weather — the poem —
and Jonny.
She remembered herself walking up to the coffin, taking the wreath from the coffin base and placing it on top of it, while slowly and emotionally reading the last
farewell from her family. She remembered thinking of Jonny. She did indeed remember the expression of profound confusion upon Hans Andre’s face when he realized
his father’s poem, his father’s last farewell to his mother, had been omitted. He had
remained silent for a few seconds only, then continued to her full expectation and
satisfaction.
Reading a poem from Jonny had seemed so inappropriate. Jonny should have been
here himself. She wouldn’t let him get away that easily!
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What she remembered more clearly than anything else was Cato and his brave
farewell as he stood saluting, while Lisa Marie had placed the last wreath from Cato
alone. Nobody but him.
Margaret envisioned an image she had watched on television so many times when
living in America:
Little John-John saluting his father, the dead President, as he was interred at Arlington Memorial Cemetery, and thus John-John had became the sweetheart of the
nation. Little Cato was just as cute!
The rest was mostly unclear fractions. But one more thing she remembered vividly: That surge of relief and contentment she had felt after the eulogy when they
carried the coffin out of the church and placed it in the waiting hearse: That drastic
change in the weather from gales and rain to calm and sunny in less than an hour!
Some of the elderly nodded their heads in confirmation.
‘Yes, God is merciful, indeed.’
And the reply.
‘Yes, she was a strong believer.’
Twenty minutes later she stood next to the coffin and mournfully watched as it
was slowly lowered into the open grave while everybody were singing that traditional
funeral hymn, ‘We Shall Gather by the River.’ Then Reverend Gundersen performed
his duty of interment. With his small, wooden spade he carefully pushed into the soft,
sandy heaps of earth and threw the mud solemnly down into the open grave on top
of the coffin.
‘From Earth Thou Hast Arisen — — —’ He repeated the action. ‘— — — To
Earth Thou Shall Return — — —’ Again he repeated the action. ‘— — — And from
Earth Thou Shall Again Be Resurrected. Amen.’
Then it was over. But Margaret was left in confusion. In the church the Reverend
had so clearly explained how happy mother now was being in heaven together with
Jesus. But at the gravesite he said that she would be resurrected from the earth.
The mourners dispersed and returned home to continue their chores. Funerals
were always so inconvenient. If not for those left behind, most would have stayed at
home.
Hans felt relieved, but somewhat cheated. It all took place so quickly. In less than
two hours. Not at all like funerals from the good old days before society became too
busy to honor their dead.
Hans recalled his mother’s funeral. That had taken all day. His mother had been
kept at home in the sitting room until the day of her interment. Then she had been
taken to church in a horse-drawn hearse with mourners walking behind in a long and
slow procession until they reached their destination. Almost a full hour’s walk! All
traffic would stop in respect of the dead, and only after the procession had passed,
would the drivers continue. The old custom of a solemn gathering at one of the meeting houses after services in respect and memory of the deceased, had also been discontinued.
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He sighed. No, not any more. He realized he was living in changing times, but had
a hard time making up his mind whether it was for better or worse. Strangely enough
he had not given much thought to Jonny. Except, he had been thoroughly disappointed when Hans Andre had skipped that lovely poem. Because in that poem Jonny
had forgiven his mother in death what he had refused to give her while she was still
alive.
But he figured that when it really boiled down to it, Hans Andre had lost his
courage to cite a poem in a church packed to the last seat.
The fact that the poem had been omitted during services was never mentioned by
any of them. No, not now. Not ever. So therefore Jonny never knew.
They all evaluated the situation differently in deciding to keep silent. Hans never
mentioned it out of consideration for Hans Andre whom he thought had lost courage
at the spur of the moment.
Hans never mentioned it in consideration of Hans Andre whom he figured had lost
courage at the spur of the moment. Or maybe he had just forgot it?
Lisa Marie had read the poem, and heard it mentioned in connection with the
funeral, but figured she must have misunderstood when imagining that Hans Andre
was supposed to have recited it in church. It was quite uncommon with personal poems in a situation like that.
Hans Andre had become quite confused, but he figured that the florist must have
forgot to put the text down on the loop, and that Margaret had not been aware of it.
All the wreaths had been delivered directly to the church by the florist. And it was
the deacon who placed them at the foot of the coffin in a special pattern.
Only Margaret knew.
She had felt a sting of jealousy when reading that poem. It was lovely. Still, she
wouldn’t let Jonny get away that easily. He should have been there in person. Considered the black sheep of the family for going to America and leaving his family behind, Margaret figured that evaluation to be correct. She would leave it at that.
Somehow they all figured that if Jonny had known about the poem not being recited, he would neither forgive nor forget.
None, except Hans, realized that in denying that poem Margaret had effectively
prevented her mother from receiving that forgiveness from Jonny in death that he so
cowardly had refused to give her in life — a forgiveness that Jonny so gracefully had
expressed in that lovely poem.
....................
That new, blonde waitress over at Beefsteak Charlie had served him a perfect meal.
A large, lean New York strip so tender and juicy it had melted on his tongue — the
way only the Americans could do it — with two large Idaho potatoes baked to
perfection. And carafe after carafe of red wine. As much as he could drink. Oh, boy,
did she keep those carafes coming! He had lost count a couple of carafes ago. Oh,
what a pleasant server! Well groomed, moderately made up and lacking those terrible
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fingernails that automatically spoiled his appetite. And genuinely friendly! — Well,
with a tip attached.
He had been drinking excessively lately. Tonight he deliberately tried to drown
his sorrows in the bottle. He could not honestly say that he would miss his mother.
No, not the way she had behaved lately, sometimes bordering on insanity. He felt
sadness and sorrow thinking how life could have been, but never was.
Well, too late now. The bitterness of it all kept nagging at his mind, kept burning
at his soul.
He tipped the waitress generously for having served him all that red vine. He
loved red vine. No, he hated it! It always brought out the loneliness in him. Yeah,
these last years he had really learned the meaning of loneliness!
He remembered old ‘Santa Claus’ Mitchell, Sr: ‘There’s a lot of lonely people in
this country, son. Lots of lonely people.’
Yeah, most of his tenants were lonely, too. Hardee portrayed such a lonely soul
always chasing cheap women. Also Bonnie with the Pussy. And Jerry in number
twenty, the black guy on the wagon. Always alone. All of them. All they ever had
were sex partners. Like Speedy. Always alone, too. Except when seeing hustlers. Oh,
yes, Connie hardly knew a soul and had been living in that room for almost five years
— more than five years, now — getting a little stranger every year, always suspecting
men of wanting to get into her pants. And then she had fucked the balls off of Edward Jr. Shirley and Ronald were both lonely, too. Searching for togetherness in
different worlds, but not as husband and wife. Also Robin. Except when serving her
clients. Or when exchanging pussy for accommodation.
Yeah, he was definitely not the only one. Promiscuity brought little happiness. All
the one night stands made nobody happy — just turned short term pleasure into long
term misery. What was it Kirk once said in those songs?
‘One night in sin’ had turned into ‘A whole life in misery.’
Yeah, Jonny’s quest for the American dream had turned him into a ghost buster
— chasing ghosts and shadows and turning him into a nervous wreck. And now, in
his tragic situation, his own mother had to go and die on him! He was sad, but at the
same time relieved: He would not miss her.
Jonny stood. He tried to find his way out, but remained lost until the waitress took
him by the arm and led him toward the exit.
“I’m sorry. Ex— ‘cuse me, but — — it’s not every day — — that — my mother
— — gets buried.” His blurred speech bothered him, but his tongue wouldn’t work
properly. She had smiled indulgently.
He staggered up Holiday Park Boulevard toward the Holiday Park Hotel. He had
another full bottle, nah, half a gallon, of Johnny Walker waiting in his new apartment, Kirk’s old place and now his refurbished apartment. A new bed. Aaahhhh. A
new carpet. Clean. Repainted. Everything clean! Even the toilet seat he had changed
for fear of infections. He knew very little about this new decease everybody were
talking about; aids, but he somehow connected it with Lillian. Well, better safe than
sorry.
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He had decided to get shitty drunk tonight. Get away from it all! Get wasted. Paralyze his brain, so that by the time he woke up tomorrow morning, his mother would
be six feet below.
Luckily he didn’t meet any of the tenants as he staggered up the walkway toward
the office. No, no need to enter. He had no business in the office tonight. He sat
down at one of the patio tables and let the cool breezes fan his face. The worst summer heat was over now. Winter was on its way — the temperate, dry, pleasant Florida
winter. Season was approaching, as well. Life would stabilize then.
He had been living here almost a year now. If only he could start catching up on
his bills. Maybe he was drinking his life away? His future.
He had been warned that he would need a strong backbone to survive in America,
where money sharks and con artists were setting the stage, where temptations and
vice were so readily available.
In America, only the strong survive, the socialists had told him back home. Well,
in Hollywood celebrities became heros for succumbing to their weaknesses instead
of conquering them.
’Yeah, it’s a free country.’
It was all fucked-up, too, sometimes.
One of the new girls in twenty-three waved at him from the balcony. ‘Cadilla’
Jones had moved in with her girlfriend. Two sexy black girls.
That rainy night when he picked up Robin from the hospital had turned out so
nasty. She had no money for rent, and Jonny had refused to continue the arrangement
of exchanging pussy for accommodation. Especially since he had so many unpaid
bills. But after having learned how easily Robin used pussy as a means of payment,
he was no longer attracted to her. She had become quite repulsive to him.
A couple of hours later a finely dressed gentleman in a brand new, greenish Lincoln Mark VIII came and picked her up. Robin had left mad as hell, swearing revenge. Jonny felt sad to see her leave, but was not interested in sharing pussy with
every Tom, Dick and Harry in the neighborhood. He had to be careful. Before you
knew what hit you, you might get stuck with something that Ajax wasn’t gonna be
able to wash off of you. Not even in a hell of a tornado!
Cadilla sat down at the table.
“Been out gettin’ drunk, heh?”
“Been down to — — Beefsteak Charlie — having a good steak. I’m steak crazy.”
“Sounds great. I’d love a good steak. If you want company, let me know.”
“If I had known — I would have knocked on your door — earlier. I was sitting
there all alone feeling sorry for myself. That red vine — sometimes gets to me.”
He still had a hard time getting the words out correctly.
“I hope to take a raincheck.”
They both kept silent for a while, until she spoke again.
“Jonny, can I ask you a big favor? I need to borrow fifty from you. Until tomorrow?”
Jonny did not immediately answer. He hated all these people asking for money
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all the time. But he liked Cadilla. Her chocolate brown skin excited him. Her round
face reminded him much of Jody’s. Her body could not quite compare, her breasts
being much smaller, but then again, Jody walked around with a lot of silicon. At least
Cadilla was flesh, blood and bones and not just make-up and fingernails.
She smiled charmingly at Jonny.
She had watched him return from the restaurant, so he could not get away by
telling her he was broke.
“Well, I guess I should be able to handle that, right now.”
“Thanks. I’ll make it up to you.”
Jonny hated the saying that they would ‘make it up to him.’ That usually meant
that they had no intention of paying him back, but maybe do him a favor at one time
in the near future. Whenever that might be.
He stood, gave her the fifty and headed for the apartment.
With all clothes on he dropped himself on the bed and dozed off on top of the new
comforter.
He needed a good night’s sleep.
Jonny awoke by someone knocking on the door. Hard.
“Yeah. Who is it?”
“It’s me. ‘Caddy.’ — Can we talk?”
“Just a minute.”
He jumped to his feet and groggily opened.
“Did I wake you up?”
“Nah, just dozing off.”
“My girlfriend’s staying at her parents’ tonight so I figured maybe you’d like
some company. I was feeling lonesome.”
Jonny did not answer. Just nodded and turned on the television for some background noise. MTV. ‘Caddy’ right away made herself comfortable, stretched out on
the coach and watched TV. Like she was living there. But at the same time restless.
She suddenly asked if she could have a Coke or a Sprite or something. Yeah, in
his new refrigerator Jonny had both Pepsi and 7-Up, leftovers from the vending
machine service. When asked what she wanted, she just said it didn’t matter. Either
one. He watched in astonishment as she poured the contents of the Coke can into the
sink, brought the can into the bathroom and locked the door behind her.
They were so strange, these Americans.
He opened his new cabinet for a tall glass, poured himself a solid, at least triple,
Scotch, and filled the glass with chilled water. Life seemed better now. Much better.
At least he had a place to rest his head, a place to take a shower. Tonight he even had
company. That black girl, who was not at all very black, excited him. He had never
in his life been with a black woman. Well, it most definitely wouldn’t happen tonight,
either. He’d better be careful. But that red vine always made him so horny. Damned
this shit! He finished his drink and poured another one. Oh, God, how it soothed him!
It warmed his body and relaxed his tormented soul.
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“Jonny, what the fuck’s takin’ you so long? I’m waitin’ fo’ ye.’ I need to get fucked tonight.”
Jonny staggered to his feet.
She was no longer in the bathroom. There, only a few feet in front of him, on top
of the comforter, diagonally across the bed, she lay, stark naked spreading her legs
and teasin’ him on with a friendly smile on her face. Good looking, too. Petite, short
dark hair, sensual features, especially her lips, good-sized boobs, although much
smaller than Jody’s. A thin waistline. Slender hips and legs. A perfectly sculptured
behind. Only once before had Jonny seen a totally naked black girl. And only once
before in his entire life had he seen a clean-shaven pussy. Well, except for the dancers and they were at a distance.
“Come on, Jonny, I’m really — hungry for a good — fuck tonight.”
Her speech was almost as blurred as his own. Oh, what a gorgeous body! What
a revelation!
“Jesus Christ, Cadilla, I don’t even know you!”
“You don’t — need to know me — to fuck me. All you need is a good hard-on.
I know — you’ve got one of those.”
With her right hand playing her pussy she spread her legs a little extra.
‘Oooohh, Lord.’
“Eh, at least give me a chance to take a shower.”
He finished his drink and poured another which he brought into the bathroom. He
would enjoy getting shitty drunk tonight! This place was about to develop into his
own little private paradise, after all. He locked the door.
Jesus Christ, that shower felt good!
He turned off the water, and while thoroughly drying his body with his new bathtowel, he noticed that coke can placed on top of the sink counter. After pouring the
contents into the kitchen sink, why the hell would this crazy girl bring an empty coke
can into the bathroom? He studied it. The can had a big dent in it. And at the center
of that dent a finely cut hole. Around the hole he smelled burnt. Hm. He would ask
her what the hell that was all about.
Then she knocked on the bathroom door.
“What the fuck’s takin’ you so long? I’ll fuckin’ kill you if you’ve been jerkin’
off in there!”
She sounded impatient.
“Just a minute. I’m coming. I’m coming!”
He finished his drink, unlocked the door and opened.
“Fuck! If you came in there I’m fuckin’ gonna kill you. I need a good fuck tonight.” She was back in bed on her back like he had left her, smiling friendly and
spreading her legs.
“I’m goin’ crazy. Fuck me, Jonny, fuck meeee!”
She pulled back her legs a little and spread her thighs to expose her pussy.
“Fuck meeeeee!!”
His powers of resistance were diminishing, his moral self defense rapidly waning.
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That gorgeous bitch right there in front of him so uninhibitedly flaunting her desires
really brought out the animal in him. Well, he was not ready to succumb as yet. He
knew most women were preoccupied with safe sex these days.
He would give it another try: “Ah, eh, I can’t. I have no condoms.”
“Fuck you, Jonny! If people can’t make love without condoms, we’d be living in
a dying world. Fuck meee!”
Jonny remembered Jody. She was living for the moment and loving being a woman. She had paid with her life.
He remembered Elizabeth. After more than ten thousand intercourses she had
undergone a maidenhead replacement surgery to regain her virginity. Somebody was
in for a ride, one way or the other.
He remembered Robin. She was always returning Shirley’s favors when fucking
Ronald, and exchanging accommodation for pussy.
He remembered Violet. What a crazy world! What a bunch of fucked-up women!
— Well, it takes two to tango.
No — no matter how drunk, he couldn’t go through with this! He poured himself
another drink.
“Jonny? Are you still there? I need your love tonight. Please, be good to me. I’ve
been too lonely too long. Ever since I moved into this place. Jonny, make me happy
tonight. I really need you.”
She sounded so quiet now. So subdued. Blissful. Without vulgarity. Yeah, he
understood. He’d been lonely, too. Ever since he moved to this place. Ever since he
came to this country. So many times he’d been hungry for a decent woman. And now
he had one right there in front of him. He’d be a fool not to enjoy her company tonight. He realized the liquor had dulled his senses. That’s why he wanted to get drunk
in the first place. Oh, God, what a temptation! He looked into Cadilla’s big, brown
eyes and studied her sensual lips so blissfully smiling at him. Almost unnoticeably
she moved her lags further apart, moved both her hands slowly toward her pussy and
pulled it open. Jonny could see deep into her. Beautiful, pink, available pussy.
In his last, faintly motivated attempt at resistance he remembered thinking that
maybe he’d been drinking too much to be able to perform. That was definitely not the
case. He was too hard and horny for that!
He entered her body hungrily, while she moaned and groaned in quiet satisfaction.
Jonny worked hard that night. Like an animal trying to satisfy a desperately hungry woman and an equally hungry man. His head kept spinning. He lost track of time.
He remembered cursing all American beds without endboard for foothold. He also
remembered Cadilla’s moanful cries of satisfaction as she reached climax. He did not
remember falling asleep. He just drifted away, exhausted from close to three hours
of animalistic lovemaking. He could not remember having come, but he felt wet and
messy.
Jonny woke up cold. Freezing cold. Feeling confused and bewildered. And cold. He
woke up naked on the floor on top of the comforter. That black girl, eh, Cadilla, was
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sleeping in a fetus position with her back toward him. Jonny touched her shoulder.
It felt cold. Freezing cold. In mid-October there was a chill in the air that made the
nights too cold for sleeping naked and uncovered on top of a comforter. Jonny got
up, pulled down the sheets and tried to shake Cadilla awake. She did not respond. He
tried again. No, almost like dead. He took her under her arms and pulled her to her
feet. She finally seemed to be gaining some sort of consciousness. Unable to keep her
own balance Jonny grabbed her to keep her from falling and steadied her while
placing her on the edge of the bed.
“It’s freezing cold. You need to get under the sheet.”
“Thanks. — — Thanks. I need to go to the bathroom first.”
“You want a Scotch? Johnny Walker.”
“No. I’m a smoker. Not a drinker.”
Jonny wondered what the hell took her so long. He should have taken care of his
own needs first. He shook his head. Cadilla had looked so different now. So dead and
dull. So lifeless. What the hell was she doing in that bathroom all night long? He had
needs of his own. He could wait no longer, pulled on his pants and pissed on the
outside wall next to the door to the apartment. Then he poured himself another shot
of whisky. This way he would beat the hangovers to the bottle. He started warming
up again. He crawled under the sheets and waited for Cadilla. She had spent more
than twenty minutes in that bathroom.
She finally returned looking much fresher.
“Did you take a shower?”
“Nah, just freshened up a little.”
She crawled under the sheet next to him.
“That was quite a fuck!”
Jonny did not answer. Just wondered how come she seemed so wide awake again.
He took another shot of whisky. He had decided on getting shitty drunk tonight, but
all that lovemaking had lessened the effect. He almost felt sober. He took another solid gulp of the whisky, but remained silent.
Cadilla continued. “My mother always used to say that if I really needed a good
fuck, I’d better be looking for a hungry man. I’ve watched you all week long. I decided you were not only hungry, you were starving. I was not mistaken. But I never
thought I’d get to fuck the landlord. How the fuck could you do that? Fucking me for
almost three hours without coming? I know I’m a good fuck. One of my boyfriends
used to call my pussy ‘his Cadillac among pussies.’ I’ve had few customers that
didn’t enjoy my pussy. But I seldom come. I next to never reach climax. I simply exploded tonight. How the fuck could you do that?”
“Ah — ‘few customers.’ Are you — prostituting?”
“No, of course not! Not any more. But I used to sell a lot of pussy when I was
younger; fourteen, fifteen years old. Before sixteen. I enjoyed every fuckin’ moment
of it. Well, most of it. Working the streets. But you don’t get far on twenty a fuck
down here in Florida. Everything’s expensive, man. So I gave it up. I shacked up with
the neighborhood alley cat and started pushing. Good money. Sure beats sellin’
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pussy. Mother didn’t like it much, but said it was ok as long as I kept the shit away
from her doorstep and stayed out o’ trouble. It’s a free country, you know. I thought
it would last forever, but then my boyfriend got killed. Shot! By one of his friends.
He had started eatin’ off supply. In the drug industry that’s not uncommon, but it is
deadly.”
“Just another monkey on a bicycle, heh? Paying with his life.”
“Nah, he wasn’t usin’ no bicycle. He had a great set-up with steady customers.
Fridays and Saturdays he used to hang out along 7th Street. On those first two blocks
off Holiday the pushers used to take in as much as five hundred thousand dollars
every fuckin’ weekend. That’s a lot of cash. Fridays and Saturdays. Like a drive in
service. As soon as we saw a car turnin’ and coastin’ down the street, we all used to
rush toward the driver’s window. The customers only needed to pull down their window, slip the cash and disappear with the stones. Or powder. I used to help my boyfriend.
Would you believe that one weekend we took in fifty fuckin’ thousand dollars
between the two of us! That’s a lot of stones, man. And a lot of cash. With some of
the toughest competition in the world. A dead body didn’t meant nothin’! Just a little
less competition for those left in the business.
We supplied some of the best citizens in town. Two of Fort Lauderdale’s best
known judges used to be among our best clients. Hah! Sittin’ there all day long every
fuckin’ day sendin’ people to jail for drug abuse. And then buyin’ ten large stones for
themselves every fuckin’ Friday! It ain’t so much a matter of what you do. Only who
you are and who you know. So when my boyfriend got arrested, he was hauled in
front of the same judge. Fuckin’ luckiest day of his life. Got one year suspended and
twenty hours community service!”
“Well, it does say in the constitution that a man has the right to be judged by his
peers. I guess it was not meant quite that literally.”
“I don’t know. Anyway, after my boyfriend got shot I kept doin’ the same shit.
Lasted three weekends. Then I got arrested.”
“Did the police patrol the streets?”
“No fuckin’ way! Either they get paid off, or they’re too fuckin’ scared. Many of
these guys wouldn’t give a fuck for killin’ a cop. Just blow him away. Then celebrate.
No, man, I was framed. I got a beeper call. Five large stones. One fifty. After I made
the delivery I was hauled straight in jail. The drug squad. Undercover bastards! I was
sentenced to ten years on a plea bargain.”
“You mean, you’ve been ten years in jail?”
“Nah. I didn’t have to serve. I was forced into workin’ for the sheriff. They had
this fuckin’ program, you know. A special little task force run by the sheriff himself.
I think it was legal. At least they told me. But fuckin’ strange, man. Every time some
of the officers made a drugbust — you know, they confiscate your money and your
stones, no receipts, no witnesses, no nothin’ — they kept the money and put the
drugs back on the streets. I took in a lot of cash that way. I was under the impression
it was all part of a program tryin’ to clean up the streets, but I think it was a fuckin’
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scam. I think they put everything into their own pockets. Millions upon millions of
dollars. They had at least ten girls workin’ for them.”
“Nah, sounds crazy. They couldn’t have done it that openly.”
“Everybody workin’ for them had long sentences pending. Up to ten years. We
were afraid to even breathe for fear of having to serve. None of the girls squealed,
that’s for sure. I’ve never been so straight in my life. I was afraid to even think dirty.
No, one small blunder, and whoops, you’re behind bars serving major time.”
“And none of the girls had to go to jail?”
“No, as long as we gave them plenty of pussy and kept our mouths shut, we were
safe. We even got some cash and some stones. Nah, it was a foolproof set-up. They
never got caught. None of them. But somehow it turned messy and the sheriff was
denied reelection. Not for pushin’ drugs, but for taking kickbacks from many of his
friends. They all ended up with a lot of fat Government contracts. This new sheriff’s
been investigatin’ and won’t honor the old deals. So, we all have to serve our old
sentences unless we testify in court. I’ve refused. I’d rather spend ten years in jail and
hopin’ for an early release on good behavior than to take the risk of bein’ picked up
from the Intracoastal in a few weeks. I have to present myself for incarceration next
Monday at ten. I have no regrets. Except for losing my boyfriend. The guy who shot
him is dead already, but he doesn’t know it yet. I’ve decided to get him after I’m
released from jail. I owe my boyfriend at least that much!”
“Were you planning on getting married?”
“Nah. We used to fuck together. He used to jump anything with a hole in it and
I didn’t mind as long as he let me keep my freedom. People don’t own each other, you
know.”
Jonny kept silent. He was beginning to feel uncomfortable and poured himself
another whisky. He needed something solid to settle his stomach. Then Cadilla, the
no drinker, also asked for one. A tall glass, no water.
“No, nobody owns each other. But it can’t be much of a relationship if one fucks
everything with a hole in it, and the other one fucks everybody with a dick in his
pants.”
“I look at it like this, this is the way it is: When you fall in love with someone,
that is usually because you like that person, and you like to be with him. But many
times when you fall in love with someone, he’s no fuckin’ good in bed. So, if you
want a good fuck, you also need a good lover. With a good-size dick. Even if you
love your husband, when you get high or drunk and horny, all that matters is a good
fuck. For that you need a boyfriend. A good lover! That’s how it is. The only way
that makes sense.”
Jonny was thinking about Shirley. She was probably living by the same philosophy. But it didn’t make much sense. It only created a lot of misery. He also heard
Ronald’s voice at the back of his head:
‘When bitches are all there is, what do you do then?’
“Did it — eh, make you happy?”
“Happy? Who the fuck gives a shit about happy! You live one day at a time.
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That’s all. Only once in my whole fuckin’ life have I been happy! Until two weeks
ago when my — spouse got killed. Shot dead like a worthless piece o’ shit over a
fuckin’ drug deal. I saw who done it. Right in front of my fuckin face. First my boyfriend, then my spouse! I’ll fuckin’ kill that fucker!”
Cadilla sounded so different now. Frustrated. Full of anger. Hatred. Junny felt
more uncomfortable with goose bumbs all over his body. This was America in the
nineties, tat’s for sure. It was hard to believe, impossible to come to grips with.
“Did somebody really kill your husband over a drug deal?”
“Not my husband. My spouse.” Cadilla had regained self control. She spoke
quietly now. “I fell in love with a woman who fulfilled all my needs. I told you I have
a hard time coming. It’s only happened a few times. Most guys come in a minute, and
I feel nothing. Disappointments, that’s all. But my spouse — —? She would suck me
to perfection up to three times a night. I loved her. We married three months ago.
And now she’s gone.”
Cadilla was softly crying. Jonny sat quivering and feeling upset. His stomach felt
queasy. He emptied his glass and poured another drink.
“And that’s why you moved here? With your girlfriend.”
“I needed to get the fuck away from Sistrunk Avenue and Niggertown. I got too
scared. Too many drug deals goin’ bad. Too many killings. And — eh, my ‘girlfriend’ is not my girlfriend, she’s my new lover.”
Jonny had a hard time grasping reality. He felt like running, running, running
away from it all. He felt nauseated and needed to puke, but managed to suppress his
unsettled stomach. Cadilla wet her lips.
“Got some more Scotch?”
Jonny poured her another. Hm. Two tall glasses full of pure whisky. The bottle
was getting empty now. Half a gallon. He emptied his own glass and filled it with the
reminder of the bottle, a tall glass full of pure whisky to make sure she wouldn’t
drink it all.
“Your new lover, heh?”
“Yeah, fuckin’ right. But it ain’t workin.’ I’m splittin.’ She’s holdin’ me back.
Won’t let me do one fuckin’ thing without her bein’ right next to me. She’s tryin’ to
own me. So I’m splitting. I’ll tell her when she returns Sunday night.”
Cadilla sat naked right next to him in bed, her naked body exposed from the waist
up. She no longer looked so beautiful and attractive.
‘How could he? How the hell could he?’
They both sat trembling side by side.
Cadilla suddenly got up.
“I need to go to the bathroom.”
Uff, that bitch spent a lot of time in the bathroom! Jonny also needed to go to the
bathroom. He opened the door.
To his surprise he saw Cadilla kneeling in front of the commode with the seat
covered. On top of the seat she had placed two lighters, her empty whisky glass, a
pouch and two small, black plastic bags. She was holding that empty coke can in
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front of her face. Covering the little hole at the bottom of the dent in the coke can
Jonny noticed a white stone about the size of a small fingernail. Cadilla was eagerly
trying to melt the stone with her lighter as she simultaneously kept suckin’ on the can
opening. Jonny quickly realized she was trying to get high smoking crack cocaine,
but burst out without thinking:
“What the hell are you doing?”
Cadilla jerked. Then started shouting.
“Get out! Get the fuck out! Get out o’ my face, asshole!”
“It’s ok. It’s ok. Calm down.”
“Damn! You scared the living daylight out o’ me!”
“It’s ok. Calm down.”
“I fuckin’ lost my stone, man. One of my last stones!”
She was feverishly searcing for her stone which fell to the floor when she scared.
Then she found it, and put it back in the dent in the coke can. She calmed, but was
still agitated.
“So now you know. I’m fuckin’ hooked on this fuckin’ shit, man. What do you
think I needed the fifty for? I needed a hit, man. The guy refused to give me any
‘cause I owed him. So I had to spend some time. Six beautiful stones for fifty bucks
and a fast fuck ain’t bad, man. Not at all! So now you know who I fuckin’ am. I know
who the fuck I am! I fuckin’ know! I’m a fuckin’ druggy and a drinky, a prosty and
a lespy, a pusher and a peddler. I know! But I ain’t sellin’ pussy no more! D’ja hear!”
“Yeah, I hear you. Relax.”
“No, you fuckin’ don’t hear me! You never listen! You’re fuckin’ deaf. And blind,
too. Don’t you fuckin’ remember me!? What the fuck’s wrong with you, man? Can’t
you tell one black from another! Don’t you fuckin’ remember me? Or are you just
fuckin’ playin’ a fuckin’ stupid game? So, you think I’m below your fuckin’ dignity,
heh? That’s why you never talk to me!”
“Relax. Don’t get so upset. I’ll talk to you. But your mind’s all twisted from
smokin’ all that shit. We’ve never met before. Until — in my office.”
“I fuckin’ well know you remember me! I could tell then that you wanted me. But
you were too much of a fuckin’ coward, asshole! Chasing me off the fuckin’ property! Now you remember, heh? Junior! My ex! Tryin’ to fuck me in the pool for
twenty bucks! Now you fuckin’ know who I am! But I ain’t sellin’ pussy no more!
D’ja hear!”
Jonny’s mind was in a state of numbness. He remembered only too vividly. He
had even thanked the Lord for keeping him away from women like that. And here he
was fuckin’ the very same bitch like an animal. He was close to puking.
“D’ja hear me! I ain’t sellin’ pussy no more. But I fuckin’ need this fuckin’ shit,
man! So what you gonna do now! Call the cops on me?”
“Relax. I’m no judge. Just take your time. Trust me, please. I won’t be telling a
single soul.”
Jonny reared out of the bathroom and headed for his last glass of pure whisky and
slurped down half of it. Damned this woman! He’d been trying to get shitty drunk all
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night, but felt more sober than ever. All he could feel now was remorse and regrets.
And sickness. He crawled back under the sheet to stop from shivering. Cadilla stayed
in the bathroom for more than half an hour. He started worrying why she needed such
a long time to finish, this time, but was struck with relief and astonishment when
once again she emerged looking fresher and more attractive than ever. She crawled
under the sheet like she was ready to start all over again, totally calmed and composed. Hm. Strange how the right dosage of cocaine can keep one going.
“I’m sorry, Jonny. I shouldn’t have exposed you to all this, but I needed someone
to talk to. I’ve gone through a lot of hardships lately. Without a single friend. Dead
lonely. All on my own. I’m scared! Dead scared for goin’ to jail. I’m okay now,
Jonny. I’m sorry. Please, forgive me.”
She had stopped shaking. Jonny got out of bed to finish his last drink. Half a tall
glass of pure whisky. He was unable to get drunk tonight. He only felt sick. Miserably sick. Returning to bed he noticed Cadilla having crawled out from under the
sheet stretching her body diagonally across the bed, slowly spreading her legs and
blissfully smiling at him.
“Jonny, I need to get fucked one more time before I leave. You’re makin’ me
crazy! Fuck me, Jonny! Fuck meeee!”
Jonny was resting on his knees between her legs on top of the comforter. Again
he felt the temptation. He quickly checked the time. — Seven o’clock. Seven
o’clock! Like someone pulled him out of a trance he remembered. Seven o’clock! His
mother’s funeral! One o’clock back home. He felt dizzy and had to close his eyes.
Oh, he could see it all so clearly. Her garland covered coffin being slowly lowered
into the ground while they were all gathered at her graveside, singing that familiar
song ‘We Shall Gather by the River.’ His father, Hans Andre, Lisa Marie and little
Cato. Uncle Finn. Borge. Margaret and the kids. All the friends, the relatives, the
neighbors.
He suddenly saw his mother’s sad, tear-filled face right in front of him, her voice
clear as church bells.
‘Are you running around with whores, Jonny!’
Suddenly he saw her face closer, heard her voice clearer.
‘Don’t lie to me. You’re running around with whores!’
“No, mother, how can you — —.”
Cadillas voice penetrated into his awareness. He saw her stretch her arms toward
him.
“Come and fuck me, Jonny. — Fuck meeeeee!”
Jonny strove to keep from getting sick. He couldn’t puke now!
‘Running around with whores, whores, whores.’
“Fuck me, Jonny! Fuck meeee!”
‘Whores, Jonny, whores.’
“Fuck meeee!”
“Whores.”
“Fuck!”
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It all echoed in his mind. Louder! Louder!! Louder!!!
Again he saw Cadilla in front of him, stretching her arms toward him, then his
mother trying to pull her away, and staring at him with a face full of sadness and sorrow.
No longer able to control his unsettled stomach he held his hands to his abdomen
he let it all gush out. All over the new bed! The linen. On the new carpet!
Like in slow motion Cadilla tried to get away, but the gush splattered all over her
like splashing sleet and mud from a heavy truck soaking a pedestrian on a day of
snowmelting.
Covering his mouth with his hand to keep the vomit from gushing too hard he
tried to reach the toilet bowl. He left a trail of puke before he hit the commode.
There, on his knees, next to Cadilla’s drug paraphenelia, he kept puking until he
had nothing but stomach acid left. A toilet bowl filled with half digested shrimps and
salad. Baked potatoes. And that tasty, tender, juicy steak prepared to perfection. The
way only the Americans could do it. Mixed with lots of vine and whisky.
Jonny’s remorse and regrets were agonizing. At the very moment of his mother’s
interment he had been fucking with one of the bloodiest whores in all of the United
States, in all of the world, for that matter. It was no excuse that he hadn’t known until
afterward. He ought to have known!
But there could be little doubt that he had effectively gotten rid of that whore!
In his sick state of mind Jonny wondered if he would ever have the right to ask
forgiveness. He knew his mother would never forgive him if still alive. No, she
would definitely be too strict for that. But there was more room for forgiveness in
death than in life. Yes, just like he had forgiven in death, she would also forgive him.
Yes, it is easier to obtain forgiveness in death than in life, even between mothers and
sons.
His mother had so often told him that ‘an unforgiven soul can never reach heaven
or obtain eternal salvation, but burn in Hell throughout eternity.’
Jonny thanked God he had sent her that poem for her funeral making sure his forgiveness had been announced in front of God and man alike.
So be it!
Amen.
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04
The Lost Dutchman
“I ‘m sorry I’m still behind on rent. — I get up at five in the morning. I take the bus
to the Swap Shop at six. I carry all the merchandise out of the van and set up the sales
stand to perfection. I have everything ready for them before they open the gates to the
public at seven.
I sell like crazy all day long. Come closing time I put all the unsold merchandise
back in the truck. I’m the first to arrive and the last to leave. I don’t get home until
seven at night. That’s fourteen hours a day. I do this seven days a week.
I get forty-five dollars a day plus ten percent commission on all my sales. If I’m
lucky, I sometimes take home sixty dollars in a day. Roughly four dollars an hour.
I am the best salesman in the shop because most of the customers are European
tourists and I speak their language. Dutch, German, Sweitzerdeutsch, English, French
— you name it.
When the French Canadians come down here, I’m one of their own. I earn their
trust, although they are usually skeptical at the beginning.
Most of the tourists get cheated, even by me. Half dead batteries. One ten instead
of two twenty. When they plug it in, it sometimes explode in their faces. Refurbished
merchandise instead of new. With worthless warranties. Cheap imitations placed in
original boxes. When we sell cheap American brands, we tell them they are subsidiaries of Panasonic or Sony. Cheap, cordless telephones we sell at three times their
value because they look like Motorolas. We use every trick in the trade. But that’s
a different story.
I feel I get further and further behind every single day. Sometimes I have to borrow money from Marcos to buy food. I don’t understand this. I have all the figures
for last week right here, Jonny. I was hoping you could help me explain this. I feel
that the more I work and the more I pay him back, the more I owe him.
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Last week I owed him one hundred and eighty five dollars. He deduct from my
eh, whatshamme call it? - eh, commission one hundred and twenty-five. Next week
I still owe him one hundred and twenty-five. The week before I owe him two hundred
and sixty, he deduct one fifty and next week I still owe one fifty.
One time when I owe only ninety and paid seventy-five next week, I still owe
seventy-five. I trust the guy so I never check him. He’s been very good to me. Every
time I want to pay him back in full, he refuse to take the money. Says he don’t want
to break me. I feel stupid about this, but I can’t figure it out. Can you help me?”
Freddy looked excited as he eagerly kept puffing on his huge cigar.
“Don’t you keep track of what you owe and what you pay? A total balance, I
mean.”
“Yes, every week. This is for the last two weeks.”
Fredriijk Niehuus placed two small pieces of cardboard paper filled with almost
illegible numbers in front of Jonny. He started explaining the numbers, but got confused in the effort. He could not give a full account.
Jonny remembered Eric trying to play a trick like that on him one of the first
weeks after he had taken over the Holiday Park Hotel.
“I had one of my tenants owing me $135.00 in rent. He paid $50.00 on account.
He came in one week later to pay the full balance and gave me another $50.00 maintaining that was the full balance he owed. I don’t give rent receipts until each week
is paid in full, but of course I keep everything on record. I told him he had only paid
fifty. He started a hell of an argument, but finally gave in when I showed him the
figures. It seems to me that you’ve been exposed to the same kind of trick week after
week. That’s why the guy keeps telling you you don’t have to pay in full so that he
can keep a balance playing the same kind of trick on you every time you pay him
back. Always charging you most of what you owe, but not all of it. Then he turns the
figures around and makes you believe that the sum you paid, is the sum you owe.
You get caught off guard because in your head you’re dealing with the same figures.”
“He’s been very helpful to me. That’s why I don’t have to pay up. He treats me
like a friend. I work for him.”
“When these Americans start treating you like a friend, you’d better watch out.
Their so-called friendship usually comes with a tag attached. Friendship in America
means you’re having temporary mutual advantages. Nothing more. Still, even then,
this guy’s been hardballing you.”
“This guy is no American. He’s a Jew.”
“Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. An American Jew, heh? That’s quite a combination, indeed.
You’ll receive no manna from heaven in dealing with these guys, friends or not.”
“Do you think a friend like him would do that to me?”
He took a deep puff on the cigar as to evaluate the improbability of such a stupid
idea.
“How the hell could I know? I’ve not even met the guy. But if the figures you are
showing me are correct, that’s the setup.”
“Thank you. But you’re confusing me. I’ll have to talk to Holly about this.”
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Only minutes later Freddy came bursting into the office, very upset.
“Holly knew about it all the time! Says she told me, but I would not listen. She’s
probably right. She says I’ve been stupid! — Can I use the phone?”
“If it’s local. Otherwise you won’t get through.”
Right away Freddy got Marcos on the phone. A little by little the conversation
turned into a heated argument. Then Freddy suddenly hung up, upset.
“You can’t even talk to these people. Right away it turns into an argument. He
started laughing at me! Making jokes and calling me stupid! Says we’ll talk about it
tomorrow. After this I probably won’t be in tomorrow. Wait ‘til next day hoping he
has cooled down. But he’s not an American. Just a Jew. He came over here two years
ago with a bundle of cash. He married an American woman. Nice, too. He’s got it
made. A good business. A nice home. Fancy cars. A son.”
Freddy’s mind started drifting away thinking of his family that he had left behind.
His two sons. Tears came to his eyes.
“Thank you, Jonny. Now maybe I can start catching up on my rent. Maybe even
start looking for a cheap car. If I had transportation I’d save two full hours every
day!”
“I’ve got an old car I don’t use very much. An old -77 Lincoln Mark V. That
blue, old battleship just outside your window. I like the design, but it’s such a nuisance bringing it along. If you like it, I’ll let you take it over at a reasonable price.”
“How much?”
“I paid twelve. I’ll take a thousand.”
“They don’t make cars like that any more. That one’s becoming a classic. If only
I had the cash, I’d grab it right away.”
“No problem. You could pay me a little every week. Like fifty dollars a week
together with the rent. I’ll hold on to the title until it’s paid in full.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yeah, I don’t need it much. Maybe you’ll let me use it once in a while if I’m
really stuck. The insurance is paid up for another five months.”
“You’ll let me keep the insurance?”
“Why not? It’s usually parked out there in front of your apartment, anyway. Idle.
I hardly use it any more.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
“So shut up, then. I’ll give you my spare keys and take you for a test ride. She’s
like a moody woman. You’ve got to learn how to handle her.”
Jonny liked Freddy. He was even beginning to enjoy the smell of that cigar.
Three hard knocks on the door to Jonny’s apartment at exactly midnight startled him.
He remembered Kirk. ‘If someone knocks on your door three times at midnight, it
might easily be the Devil searching for your soul.’
Jonny worried that one day when he opened the door at midnight, he might be
staring into Kirk’s bloodshot eyes over a gun barrel.
What kind of devil was it this time?
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“Who is it?”
“It’s me. Holly. Is Freddy there?”
“No. I haven’t seen him all evening. Not even to pay rent.”
Freddy still kept paying his rent on a daily basis. The fact that he had called Marcos’ ongoing deceit did not improve his economy much.
But Jonny enjoyed his visits to the office. They had a lot to talk about and a mutual liking developed between landlord and tenant, the lonely Norwegian and the easy
going Dutchman. They easily understood each other.
Freddy took every opportunity to let Jonny know how much he appreciated the
car arrangement, and would usually bring a beer or two, sometimes a full six pack.
He had already paid five hundred dollars on the car.
“Can I come in? I need to talk.”
Jonny opened. Holly quickly snugged inside.
“Sorry to bother you this late, but Freddy’s not come home yet. He left for work
at seven this morning and I haven’t seen him since. I’m worried something might
have happened to him. He spent quite some time in the office last night. Did he say
anything, anything at all, that indicated he might not be back tonight?”
Jonny remained silent, then slowly shook his head.
“No. — No, not that I can think of.”
“We were having such a nasty fight last night. I worry about him. Something
might have happened to him. Has he ever told you anything about me, Jonny? Or
talked about me?”
“Nothing special. Just that you met at a place called The Pirate’s Den, or something, and that you’ve been hanging out together for roughly six months. That’s all.”
“You should never let him have that car. He’s not always able to handle it. After
we met, I let him use mine. He drove it totally empty for oil and burned the motor
beyond repairs. He’s sometimes very unstable. Behaves like a nervous wreck. He
cries in my lap like a child sometimes and I have to comfort him. Last night the
thought of his sons and family kept nagging at him. I would not be surprised if he’s
halfway back to Canada by now. He has been talkin’ about it.”
“What! Do you mean to tell me he’s been planning to take the car to Canada?
That’s the stupidest! That old battleship won’t even reach the border. Georgia, that
is. No, he’s not that stupid.”
“You never know with Freddy. He’s very emotional and sometimes totally irrational. Did you know that he spent his last few weeks up in Canada in an asylum? For
tryin’ to commit suicide. By putting a plastic bag over his head. On his ex girlfriend’s
grave. The one that caused the break-up of his family. Before she drank herself to
death. You know, his sons wanted no part of him when he visited. They blamed him
for not sending them a single dollar when he knew they were havin’ a real hard time.
He took it real hard. In his emotional, irrational state of mind he’s capable of anything.”
“He’s not on his way to Canada. He told me there was nothing left for him up
there. Exactly the way it is with me and Norway.”
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Jonny tried to convince himself more than Holly.
“Except for a wanted poster. The last thing he did before he left Canada, after
being released from the asylum, was to beat up his ex wife’s new husband. Beat him
up real bad. While the kids were watching.”
“So the macho man beats up his ex wife’s new husband, then comes running back
all the way to South Florida to weep in his girlfriend’s lap, heh? I don’t believe this.”
“That’s Freddy for you.”
Jonny noticed Holly’s eyes filled with tears — and admiration.
“Do you have any idea why he’s not come home?”
Holly burst into tears.
“He might be seing another woman. He does that every time we have an argument. Visits a bar or just picks someone up from the street. He never should’ve had
that fuckin’ car!”
Jonny kept silent while Holly started drying tears falling down her cheeks with
the palm of her hands, smearing cheap, black mascara and eye shadow all across her
grimy face. A woman crying smearing cheap make-up all over her face! Jonny could
think of nothing more repulsive. Sitting there feeling sorry for herself while talking
Freddy down the best she could.
She talked through sobs and tears.
“Maybe I shouldn’t tell you this, Jonny, but I feel I owe it to you. As a friend. If
Freddy wants to borrow money from you, be careful. You’ll never see that money
again. When he left for Canada, he helped himself to twelve hundred dollars rent
money belongin’ to the landlord. Just sneakin’ out without even letting me know he
was leaving. Fuckin’ asshole. Leavin’ me behind without knowin’ anything! Don’t
ever let him know I told you this, but I feel I owe it to you. After he lost both his
restaurants and his new home in Montreal, he got a job as a branch manager with the
Kraft Food Corporation. After two years he was charged with having embezzled
three hundred thousand dollars! Enough to put him behind bars for three full years.
He told me so himself after a good night of lovemakin.’ When I asked what he did
with the money, do you know what he answered?”
“I have no idea.”
“I just blew it up my nose!”
Jonny felt relieved after Holly had left. He simply despised backbiters. He felt that
if he had offered a beer or a drink, she would easily have spent the night just to get
even with Freddy. For the sake of friendship. He decided not to like this bitch. He
could feel the tension growing between Freddy and Holly. Jonny had always had a
hard time understanding why people were sticking together when their togetherness
led to nothing but mutual destruction. But he thought he knew why: Most people
feared loneliness more than abuse and degradation. And in that respect Jonny felt
lucky. He had been lonesome all his life at that had developed into some sort of
refuge for him.
Freddy did not return that night nor did he return the next morning before seven
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125
o’clock. He did not return the next day, either. Jonny eventually realized that his old
battleship might well be in the process of battling its way north toward the Canadian
border.
Then, at seven in the evening, Freddy returned home like nothing had happened
bringing flowers and a bottle of red vine. Jonny overheard some heavy argumentation
going on inside the apartment, so, instead of knocking on the door, he returned to the
office.
Half an hour later Holly entered, and, looking pleasantly refreshed, invited Jonny
over for a snack and some red vine. When Jonny arrived, they’d both been drinking
rather liberal amounts of beer, but Jonny was offered a glass of the vine. He expected
Freddy to at least come up with rent for the two days he was behind, but Freddy
mentioned nothing until Holly brought it up.
“Of course, I’ll take care of the rent.”
He sounded irritated.
“And we agreed to pay that car in full so that we would get the title.”
“Yes, I know what we agreed on!”
Freddy sounded tense and defensive. He did not face Jonny, but the beer cans
disappeared more rapidly now. He did not get up to fetch any cash, either. For some
reason Freddy seemed reluctant to come up with any money tonight. Jonny felt disappointed. He had trusted Freddy to be different from all these people he had been
dealing with the last year.
“What about that cash! You cannot expect Jonny to hang around for it all night.
Give him the money, Freddy.”
Jonny had finished his second glass of vine and the bottle was empty. Freddy
stood, then went into the bedroom. He did not immediately return, but when he did,
he reluctantly and sullenly handed Jonny a hundred dollar bill.
“Thank you.”
Freddy did not answer. Jonny stood, and nodded to Holly, who seemed extremely
tense, but relieved. Jonny figured Holly knew something that he, Jonny, had no presupposition of understanding. Barely outside the door he heard them arguing heavily
and before he reached the office, he heard Holly screaming, then something breaking.
He realized Holly had invited him over mostly to serve as a tension diverter, because Freddy had showed little friendliness, but based on the noise coming out of the
apartment he figured his visit had achieved the exact opposite result. Although, during his visit they had both behaved in a civilized manner, he had sensed the tension
building up. Well, hopefully they would both get it out of their system without destroying too much of his personal property.
Half an hour later Freddy entered the office with an ash grey, confused expression
upon his calm face, still puffing his cigar.
“I almost killed the bitch. I almost strangled her.”
“What!”
“You heard me. I thought she was dead, Jonny, but when I let go, she still moved.
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I hope it’s okay to wait here until the cops pick me up. The bitch called the cops on
me! It’s the second time now.”
Jonny was so surprised that Freddy could remain so relaxed. Like nothing serious
had happened. Well, he couldn’t jump out of his pants, either. But it seemed unreal.
“You’re not kidding me, are you?”
Freddy got up from the chair, squeezing his hands together and looking at Jonny
with wild eyes.
“I held her between my hands like this, unable to control myself. I felt the urge
to squeeze her, squeeze her until there was no breath left in her, until all signs of life
had disappeared. I felt I hated her. I wanted her dead, Jonny.”
Freddy was beginning to shiver.
“I wanted her dead! Forever gone. Out of my life. No more cheating on me behind
my back. No more treating me like a stupid idiot. No more stealing my money. Last
night she stole the cash I had put aside for my boys. I had warned her if she did, I’d
kill her. She did it anyway. When I thought she was dead and I held her between my
hands, it felt so good. I really wanted to kill her, Jonny! But I’m scared now. The
cops will be here any minute. I’ll go to jail for years. Will you do me a favor, Jonny?
After she leaves tomorrow, will you look under the mattress for my papers and take
care of them for me? Please, take care of my papers, Jonny. It’s all I have left now.
It’s important. Please, promise me!”
“Yeah, I’ll take care of your papers. That’s not such a big favor.”
“Believe me, it is! Jonny, if I lose those papers, I lose everything. I have no legal
papers here in Florida. She might squeal to immigration. But they won’t know what
to do with me. I no longer hold papers for legal residency in Canada, either. Not even
to visit my sons! I’m lost, Jonny, totally lost. What do you think they’ll do to me?”
Freddy burst into tears and started crying like a child.
“What do you think they’ll do to me?”
Jonny felt uncomfortable watching a grown man cry. He felt no compassion.
“You should have thought about that before you lost control.”
“I don’t regret it. I wanted her dead! But if she presses charges, I could go in for
attempted murder. Then they’ll put me away for years. Should I try to run?”
Freddy fought to regain control of himself.
To Jonny the whole situation seemed unreal. Except for his tears Freddy seemed
so unrealistically calm after having been so close to strangling his girlfriend. Jonny
could hardly believe he was telling the truth.
They heard the sirens and saw two police cars park up front, sirens going full blast
as usual. Four officers entered the apartment. Two of them left immediately and
headed for the office. Jonny recognized the two middle aged officers that he had confronted in his office so many times. The Beavis and Butt-head of the Fort Lauderdale
police force! Freddy slouched back in the chair frantically puffing his cigar with
shaky fingers. “Damned, Jonny, I’m lost now!”
The officer with the mustache, he whom Jonny had met in the office so many
times before, just nodded, then turned his attention to Freddy.
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127
“Are you Freddy Nuhouse?” He mispronounced his name, but Freddy saw no
reason to correct him. He slowly nodded while still puffing his cigar. In a fit of anger
the police officer grabbed the cigar from his mouth and threw it on the carpet between his legs and stepped on it.
“Are you Fredrick Newhouse!?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Do you live in apartment twenty-five with Holly Carradine, your girlfriend?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Are you an American citizen?”
“No. No, sir.”
“You are under arrest! Fold your hands behind your neck and slowly leave this
office. As soon as you get outside you will be handcuffed and taken into custody.
Now, leave the office with your hands folded behind your neck!”
Freddy stood, put his hands behind his neck and slowly exited the office.
The officer waiting outside immediately snapped the handcuffs on him, and led
him toward the arresting vehicles.
Jonny followed the stooped figure of Freddy Niehuus with his eyes until he disappeared into the rear seat of the patrol car. With blinkers flashing and sirens screaming Freddy the Dutchman was on his way to experiencing American hospitality bhind
bars without being a citizen or even a legal resident. Jonny felt no mercy for him. If
you mess up your life like that, you will inevitably have to face the consequences.
That’s justice, although being thrown in jail for not being an American citizen was
anything but just, when next time around the statistics would be used to prove that
foreigners were involved in more crimes than Americans. He remembered the many
times the police had been over here for Ronald after he had beaten up Shirley, but
after meeting him, and calming him down, his police friends had just let him go. Over
and over again. Such haphazard law enforcement did not inspire much confidence.
He was surprised when Holly came to see him in the office immediately after the
arrest, her face and neck swollen, with bruises and lacerations, telling him she was
moving in with a longtime friend. The last few days Freddy had been on a cocaine
binge spending all his hard earned cash. And borrowing from Marcos. When he returned home, she had worried that he would disappear for another few days squandering the cash he had saved for his kids. That’s why she had pushed him so hard to
pay the rent the other night. For fear that he would otherwise leave her alone and
continue his cocaine binge with other women. That’s exactly what Freddy had planned to do. And that’s why he had been so reluctant to come up with the cash.
Well, that was Holly’s version. Freddy had painted a totally different picture.
Jonny had no way of knowing the truth.
Without purpose or destination, with sharks below, and vultures above, freely adrift
in the rough waters of an endless ocean of despair and hopelessness, Freddy Niehuus,
a lost Dutchman, at the age of forty-three, had left most of his future behind him.
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05
The Devil’s Disciples
‘Oh, what a beautiful morning! Oh, what a wonderful day!
I have a beautiful feeling everything’s coming my way.’
The crispness of the autumn air with clear skies and a shining sun made Jonny’s
heart fill with contentment as he headed for the office. He did not know the rest of
the song, but kept humming along. It did not happen every day that he felt like humming a tune. He felt good this morning. He had slept like a log all night. No early
morning grouchiness. Not even the slightest trace of a hangover!
“Open up! Open up, I tell you! She’s my fuckin’ wife! She has no fucking business spending the night with a bunch of faggots! Open up!”
With bloodshot eyes, an intense voice and agile movements Ronald kept frantically pounding on the door to Craig’s and Ross’ apartment.
“I’ve got the right to fuck that bitch whenever I feel like it! She’s my wife, damn
it! If she won’t give it to me freely, I’ll claim what’s rightfully mine! D’ja hear me?
Open up! If she won’t come out, at least leg me in. I need to get laid before I go to
work. She has no fuckin’ right refusin’ me! My own fuckin’ wife!”
While Jonny was on his way up the outdoor steps, Ronald started kicking at the
front door with his heavy work booths.
The door slowly opened. Grim-faced, foursquare and rugged, stocky looking
homosexual Craig Holliman from Southern Pennsylvania put his chest right into
Ronald’s face slowly forcing him up against the balcony railing five feet from his
front door.
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Craig’s voice, with his slow Southern Pennsylvania country drawl, sounded as
solid and stocky as the looks of his body. He was a solid country bye not at all looking like a homo.
“If you won’t haul your fuckin’ ass away from my front door, I promise you will
hit concrete below so hard you won’t have a whole bone left in your goddamned
body! Get lost!”
“I need to see my wife before I go to work. She’s my wife, dammit! But I guess
that’s something you wouldn’t understand. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!”
Craig jolted him so hard in his chest he almost tilted over the railing.
Jonny had reached the top of the stairs. He had to intervene.
“Heeey! What the hell’s going on here at nine in the morning?”
“Nine in the morning! Thus fuckin’ ruckus’s been going on all night. Since three
in the morning!
Too bad Robin is no longer living here. Shirley came knocking on our door before
three all beaten up, her face swollen and with bruises all over, and with nothing on
but a night gown. Ronald been assaulting her all night and raping her. Catching me
off guard he came bursting into my apartment just minutes later and literally dragged
her by the hair back to their own place. You should have seen her being dragged
down those steps! Like a ragdoll! When she hit the concrete, I thought she was dead!
But he kept dragging her until he had her inside his apartment!
Only thirty minutes later and there she was back again. Cryin’ and beggin’ for
help! And bringing young Jennifer! Both of them had been beaten up somethin’ terrible. I wanted to call the police, but Shirley refused. Said then she’s lose the kids.
This is your fuckin’ responsibility. You are the landlord. You must have heard
something!”
After Freddy being hauled in jail the other night Jonny had been unable to calm
down. it had cost him more than half a bottle of Jonny Walker to fall asleep. But no
hangovers. He did not feel like elaborating.
“No. When I fall asleep dead tired I could sleep through an earthquake.”
“That’s what you must have done this morning. This’s been going on for hours.
You had better start doing your fuckin’ job right!”
Craig’s accusations of negligence irritated Jonny, but he let it go. None of the tenants seemed to accept that he could not be on duty twenty-five hours a day.
“What happened to Jennifer?”
“Instead of calling the police, Shirley called her mother. She drove down all the
way from Tallahassee to pick her up. She left about an hour ago.”
“All she did was pick up the girl and leave?”
“This is nothing new to Shirley’s mother. She’s been living with it for years. She
is fully aware that she can do nothing to help anybody but Jennifer.”
“Was she beaten up pretty badly?”
“Looked pretty bad.”
Craig eagerly answering Jonny’s questions took some of his attention away from
Ronald. And before neither Craig nor Jonny was able to react, Ronald pulled away,
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darted into Craig’s apartment and shut the door behind him with the deadbolt. They
heard Shirley screaming, and through the window they saw Ronald attacking her.
“You are the landlord. You’d better call the police.”
Under normal circumstances Jonny would have called the police, but based on
their previous behavior, he felt reluctant to do so.
“I have no knowledge of what happened. You’re the only one able to explain. And
everything happened in your apartment. I’d appreciate if you’d talk to the police. Besides, you have the right drawl.”
“I hate dealing with those brownshirts as much as you do.”
Craig reluctantly followed Jonny down to the office and called 9-1-1.
Only minutes later three patrol cars arrived, flashers blinking and sirens screaming
full blast. Jonny had a hard time understanding this unintelligent way of using sirens,
tellig the criminals that ‘here we come.’ If this had been a robbery, the perpetrators
over the hills before the police arrived.
Jonny decided to stay in the office. He preferred not to get involved. To his own
satisfaction his tactics worked this time.
The police left the property without having questioned him, but when Craig later
entered the office, he was curious how it had worked out.
“Did they take him in?”
“No. Just let him go.”
“But he raped her! And anybody could see he was stoned out of his wits on crack
cocaine.”
“He said nothing had happened and that he was late for work. They bought it and
let him go.”
“But what about the rape?”
“What rape? She’s his wife! And they could prove nothing. I didn’t see it. You
weren’t there. And Shirley refused to press charges. When I showed them the semen
stains on the carpet in front of where they had consummated the intercourse, the officers shrugged their shoulders and laughed. Do you know what one of them said?”
“No.”
“Maybe he was just jerking off.”
“Nah! I don’t believe that! That’s rotten!”
Without Shirley testifying they cannot do a damned thing. Even that would have
meant little. She has a record as a prostitute and he is the son of the sheriff in Fort
Lauderdale.”
“What about Jennifer?”
“Yeah, what about her? She wasn’t there either. She’s already up in Tallahassee
with her grandmother. She was not even mentioned.”
“Jusses! What about Shirley?”
“She’s still in my apartment. She wants you to stop by. She needs to talk to you.”
“What about?”
“She’ll tell you herself. Besides, I’d like to show you the mess they left up there.
It looks like shit!”
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Jonny followed him upstairs and witnessed an apartment in total chaos. He was
not surprised. Nothing like that surprised him any more. The semen spots next to
Shirley’s feet, but did not comment on it. She just sat there in the sofa looking lost
and bwildered. For once she kept silent. Jonny did not know what to say either. He
dis not feel like saying he was ‘sorry.’ He felt she was too much to blame herself.
He decided to hit the problem right on, businesslike.
“Craig said you wanted to talk to me. What’s it about?”
“You never gave me that lease. And now I really need it. I want Ronnie out of my
life once and for all.”
“You never stopped by to pick it up, so I figured the problem had been settled.
Stop by in my office anytime and I’ll attend to it there and then.”
Except for a faint smile Shirley hardly reacted.
Jonny paid little attention to somebody knocking on Craig’s door, but was left
speechless when two police officers entered followed by sturdy women in their early
fifties looking strict and hostile, specially one of them.
“Shirley Lawrence?”
“Yes?”
“HRS. You have been reported for child abuse and neglect. Could you tell us the
whereabouts of your two children and lead us to them?”
Shirley stood, aggressively.
“No, damn it! Keep away from the children! Keep away from my children!”
The other of the two social workers was speaking now. She sounded more careful,
caring, considerate.
“You have been reported for child abuse. It is in your interest hat you help us to
investigate the validity of such accusations. May we see your two children, please?”
Shirley slouched back into the coach. She shifted about uneasily before she spoke
to them in a lifeless whisper. Her anger was gone. Her voice expressed fear.
“Jennifer is with my mother up in Tallahassee. She’s ok. My mother has taken
care of her before. I know she’s in good hands.”
“What about your son? His name is, eh — —” She checked the papers. “— — eh,
Louis?”
“Yes, he is still asleep. Please, let me check on him before you go over there.
Please!”
“We will go with you, fru Lawrence.”
To Shirley’s despair little Louis was crying intensively as they entered the apartment. He had been left unattended.
One of the workers automatically checked the refrigerator. The other kept an eye
on Shirley as she lifted Lou up from the crib.
He started crying even more intensely.
“We need to check his diapers.”
“I will take care of that. Please let me take care of that.”
Shirley placed the little boy on the bed and opened his diapers. His excrements
were scattered all over his tiny body from his legs almost up to his neck. The little
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infant who was constantly crying, stared howling more intensely every time someone
touched him.
He was full of rash from his legs almost up to his waistline.
The social worker looked very concerned.
“Mrs. Lawrence, when did you last change his diapers?”
“I don’t know. I’ve been away on vacation for the last three days. He’s been taken
care of by my husband and my daughter. I just got home the other night.”
“Is your husband staying with you in this apartment?”
“Of course. He’s been taking care of little Lou while I was on vacation.”
“Mrs. Lawrence, according to my papers you have a restraining order against your
husband. You are not supposed to be living together or you will once more lose
custody of your children. Can you confirm that you’re now actually living together
as husband and wife?”
“Oh, no! Of course not! He just comes over to visit and to help Jennifer with
Lou.”
“So you’re actually telling me that you’ve left your seven year old daughter with
sole responsibility for an infant while you have been away on a three day long
vacation?”
“No, Ronnie — —. Ronnie’s been over here helping her every day.”
“What kind of work does your husband do?”
“he’s an electrician.”
“Presently employed?”
“Yes, he’s got a good job. He works for Electronix.”
“Mrs. Lawrence, you leave us no choice but to take your children under HRS care.
Temporary custody hearings will be set for Monday morning at ten. if you want to
see your children again, you’d better be there.”
The two male police officer waiting outside now stepped inside, and a few minutes later they all left the apartment, the more militant of the women carrying the infant by her bosom.
Shirley started crying while hysterically screaming at the officers and the social
workers.
“If Ronnie’s behind this, I’ll fuckin’ kill him! At least tell me who reported me.,
plaease! Was it an anonymous phone call or was I officially reported by soneone?
I’ve got the right to know! Tell me! Please, tell me! Who did this to me? If it is
Ronnie, I’ll kill him for sure. I’ll kiiil hiiim!”
The most sympathetic of the two women, who also seemed to be the leader, took
Shirley by the arm and led her to one of the patio tables Jonny watched the two
women from inside the office as the social worker started checking her papers before
she spoke.
“No, Shirley, Ronald has not reported you. That does not make sense. The child
abuse report is an official dokument sign by the person in question. His name is —
let me see, I had it just recently — — yes, the report is signed by a Mr. Coleman. —
Kirk Coleman.”
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“Kirk — Coleman?”
“Yes.”
“Kirk Coleman! — So that fuckin’ devol’s advocate finally got his revenge as
promised. Damned be the Lord for letting animals like him loose on people!”
The social worker was still talking to Shirley when one of the police officers, a
new guy that Jonny had never seen before, entered the office.”
“I’m investigating an incident of child abuse. Do you have a Mr. and mrs. Ronald
Lawrence living on these premises?”
Jonny watched Shirley through the window, her head resting in her hands, her elbows on the patio table, crying.
He faced the police officer.
“Yes.”
“In what apartment?”
Jonny listened to Sirley crying.
“Fifteen.”
“Do they have a lease?”
Shirley’s heartrendering sobs tore at his heart.
“Yes.”
“May I request a copy of that lease?”
Jonny kept silent.
He knew that if he gave the officer a copy of that lease, Shirley would definitely
lose custody of her children. He listened to her crying.
He finally spoke.
“Yes, I do have a copy.”
Again he heard Shirley’s moaning sobs.
He pulled out one of the leases and handed it to the officer.
“Here it is.”
He heard Shirley’s sobs intensify. She had lost her children!
Jonny watched the backs of the officer and the social worker as they walked down
the walkway away from the Hotel. Shirley was left to herself, still sobbing, her head
resting in her hands on the patio table. Jonny studied her through the window as she
more or less staggered toward the office.
“Jonny, are you in there?”
“Yes. Come in.”
She sat down in one of the two chairs in front og the desk, crying. Jonny felt compassion with her, but at the same time she struck him as being extremely calm and
composed after having gone through such a terrible ordeal. He figured she was
probably on some heavy pain killers or tranquilizers.
She had been hanging out with Ollie in twelve quite a lot lately, probably
exchanging pills the way she had done with Kirk and Lillian when Kirk was on those
terrible killers for his backache.
“Jonny, do you know who fuckin’ did this to me! Du you know who reported
me?”
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“I have no idea. — Was it Ronald?”
“I thought so too. But it was Kirk!”
“Kirk. — Kirk Coleman?”
“Fuckin’ right! He is a revengeful bastard. Real dangerous!”
Jonny felt empty inside.
“Oooohh! — I didn’t know he was in the area.”
“Fuckin’ right he is! Ronnie told me last night. And do you know where he’s
staying?”
“I haven’t got the slightest.”
“He’s been together with Eric the last three days. He’s been spending the nights
there.”
“What!”
“Fuckin’ right! They’ve got something up their sleeves. Wanted Ronnie in on it,
but he refused. Said you’d been fair to all of them. They just laughed. Jake was there
with Speedy and that psychic faggot up in twenty-two. But I have no way of knowing
what they’re up to except that they work together about sabotaging the rent.
Jonny felt worried.
All of these tenants were behind on rent. Drastically in arrears every one of them.
He had decided he’d have to take them to court one by one. Although losing time and
money by evicting one by one instead of all of them at the same time, Jonny worried
that if he evicted five families in one shot, his behavior might become suspicious in
front of a judge.
And he knew the police would do nothing to help him. On the contrary.
He also worried about being in arrears on his property taxes, or his debt taxes,
which was a more proper name for it. But he did not know how to handle it. He
would have to discuss it with his accountant.
“Can I have that lease, Jonny? I worry that suddenly I may be in the street.”
“Of course. But I need to let you know that one of the officers was here asking for
a copy of the original lease. I had to give it to him.”
“”Fuck, Jonny, now they’ve got proof that Ronnie’s been living here. I’ll lose the
kids now, for sure.”
“I was afraid of that.”
“So why the fuck did you tell them?”
“Nothing. They did not ask. They knew already. it was in the report. Besides, all
they need to do is ask Jennifer, or Craig, or anybody. Everybody knows he’s been living here.”
Shirley’s expression of hope turned to resignation. She looked totally lost.
“I probably won’t need that lease, Jonny. If I lose my kids, I won’t be living here
with Ronnie.”
“Well, here’s the lease. As far as I am concerned feel free to do what you have to
do. And in court you may claim that it was a misunderstanding on my part that you
were both included in the lease. And if I am being asked, I will conform that such
was the case.”
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“Thanks, Jonny. You’ve always been a solid shoulder to cry on. I am due in court
Monday. If I lose custody, I’ll leave right away. I will have no future living here with
Ronnie without my children.”
“I’m sorry it worked out this way.”
Jonny had a hard time telling people he was sorry. It usually sounded so hollow
and superficial. Like all those people so sweetly telling they loved each other, when,
at first opportunity, they turned around and cheated on each other. ‘I’m sorry’ and ‘I
love you’ sounded like empty phrases to Jonny. And ‘I love you too’ even emptier.
Just like ‘have a nice day.’
Shirley just nodded, stood, and stoop-shoulderedly left the office.
He remembered the first time she’d been in his office: ‘Congratulate me! Congratulate me! My daughter’s been raped!’
Jonny had been reluctant to congratulate her then. He was equally reluctant to feel
compassion for her now. Sometimes your past carries a heavy burden, and Shirley
had always worried that she might lose her children one day. How you think is how
it turns out. Based on your own behavior your fears will materialize!
Before leaving for lunch Jonny decided to stop by to see how Craig had managed
to clean up that mess in his apartment. To Jonny’s surprise Craig was standing in the
middle of the living room, openly crying. He greeted Jonny without any attempt to
hide his state of mind.
“Jonny, how can normal people do that to little children?”
“Drugs and frustrations are a terrible combination.”
“But still, Jonny, little children? People behave like they’re the devil’s disciples.”
“Yeah, you’re so right.” Then it struck Jonny he hadn’t seen Ross all morning.
“Where the hell is Ross?”
“He’s not come home yet. He’s seeing somebody else. I don’t know what to do,
either. I’m terribly heartbroken. Like life’s totally empty. I love Ross more than
you’ll ever understand, but he’s not happy just living a normal family life. His ambition is to become a model. Right now he’s planning to move in with the guy who
owns the magazine.”
Craig’s tears were not only for Louis and Jennifer.
Jonny made one phone call. Only minutes later the police arrived and surrounded
apartment fifteen, Eric’s place. Kirk was taken to the police station and placed in a
holding cell. But he was released before three days had passed. The police did not
press charges against him.
Jonny was still positively surprised at how effective the police could be in cases
that had to do with trespassing.
Jake Bronx was now seven weeks in arrears. Sitting in the office talking to Jonny he
openly admitted he had been laid off, and, unable to find employment, he was also
unable to pay rent, but definitely unwilling to move. Staying at another location was
not an option.
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“That apartment is my home now. My twins were born while we were living
there. I’m not moving!”
His promises to come up with rent for at least one week, and then pay something
every day to catch up, were never kept. He probably never even tried. Jonny saw no
alternative but to give him a three day notice to vacate.
Jake kept motionlessly and intensively staring at Jonny for a length of time deliberately trying to intimidate him.
“If you think you can hounddog me the way you did Kirk, you’ve got a surprise
coming. I’ll follow up on you to the bitter end. I’ve got powerful forces behind me.
You’ll see!”
“It doesn’t take much intelligence to understand you cannot stay without paying
rent. Big promises will no longer be doing the trick for you. Your eviction process
is now under way.”
“See you in hell, motherfucker!”
“Are you inviting me over to your place? I know you’re praying to Satan every
night.”
“You’ll be sorry for this, Jonny. So fuckin’ sorry.”
Jonny could no longer contain himself.
“Yeah, I’m sorry already. I’ve become one among the many sorry Americans.
They crawl by the millions.”
Jake stood, stared at Jonny with blue, cold eyes and left the office with a contemptuous sneer.
“I never thought you’d do this to me, Jonny! How could you do that? That was my
apartment. You fuckin’ disappoint me, man! If she’s gonna stay here by herself, how
the fuck do you think she’ll support herself? By her pussy? Like she’s done so many
times before! I never thought you’d do this to me, Jonny!”
“I’ve done nothing to you, Ronald. Just trying to help Shirley, and you, so that
you would not lose custody.”
“She’s fuckin lost custody already. Jennifer will probably go back to her grandmother, and my parents are filing for custody of Lou.
Shirley’s an unfit mother! She’ll never regain custody. That’s a fucking guarantee!”
Jonny did not lose his temper.
“Well, whenever you need a place, I’ll always have a room for you.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yes, why not?”
Ronald, with all his mean streaks, had proved to have more backbone than most.
He paid his rent on time, all his rent on time, and had refused to be part of any conspiracy to avoid paying his rent on time. Jonny did condemn him for being a drug
addict without control of his life, but realized that in this neighborhood his only
option was sorting the good addicts from the bad ones, while trying to keep the pushers at large.
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After all, he had to function among these animals until he could get the hell away
from here. At the same time Jonny was hoping that both Ronald and Shirley would
decide to leave. They constantly caused a lot of commotion and tension. Jonny was
sick and tired of having the police on the premises every other day.
“Thanks. I’ll do you a favor in return.” He leaned over, eagerly. “I can help you
get rid of Jake Bronx within two days if you let me.”
He said it so lightly, so nonchalantly as if just thinking out loudly, but his breath
heaved a little faster.
Jonny eyed an opening. After all he was the son of the sheriff!
“How can you do that?”
“You’re sometimes so fuckin’ naive, Jonny. You need to attend to your problems
immediately. This is America! I’ll help you solve your problems the American way.”
Ronald sounded extremely confident.
“And how is that, if I may ask? By calling 9-1-1?”
“I’m an electrician, damn it! You don’t think they’ll hang out in that apartment
if I shut off their electricity, do you?”
“They’ll just put it right back on.”
“I’m an electrician. I have my ways.”
“Have you done this before?”
“Of course. It’s a common way of getting rid of unwanted tenants. You’re in
America now.”
“Yeah, I’ve noticed that.”
Jonny smiled.
“Don’t you like it here?”
“I don’t know.”
“I read in a magazine once that in some circles of British high society Americans
are considered rather rough individuals.”
“Well, the British are famous for their understatements.”
“You’re kidding me! Is it that bad?”
“Yeah. And then some.”
“Damn you, Jonny! Every time I’m beginning to like you, you piss me off.” He
laughed. “Anyway, do you want to go through with this deal?”
“How do I do it?”
“Just tell me when and give me fifty. I’ll handle the rest. You don’t have to be
there. You won’t even have to know about it.”
“Is it legal?”
“It’s the American way of solving a problem!”
“Ok. I’ll let you know if I decide. But it may not become necessary. I just gave
him the three day notice to vacate today.”
“Eh, about the fifty. Could you advance me?”
“I need to make —.”
”I’m desperate. I need the cash.”
“Okay then.”
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“Thanks. I’ll be happy to help you out.”
Jonny felt uneasy about this, but the thought of having Jake Bronx out of here
within two days seemed a tempting one. He was now seven weeks behind and threatening to fight all the way in the courts. Yes, damn it, he’d let Ronald handle it in his
own American way.
Word was spreading that Jake and Josey in fifteen were being evicted, so all the rents
were paid on time that Friday except for Eric.
Jonny locked the office door at eight and headed down to Beefsteak Charlie for
another New York strip with baked potatoes and red vine. In the restaurant they
simply referred to him as ‘the meat and potato guy,’ because he always ordered the
same New York strip with one extra potato. It was a meal out of a different world he
way only the Americans could do it.
His favorite waitress was no longer working there, and the new waiter, a bald,
inconspicuous guy in his late fifties, served him a very raw steak. His baked potatoes
looked more like two pieces of charcoal than potatoes. He returned the meal, waited
more than half an hour and was then served the same piece of meat almost as raw as
the first time, while he suspected the two potatoes, even more charcoaled than before,
to be the same ones returned to him. He only ate some of it, finished his vine and left.
Shitty service like that did not deserve a tip.
Approaching the Hotel he once again experienced commotion outside the apartments. Two patrol cars were parked in the middle of the road with flashers blinking.
He noticed someone laying stretched out on the ground just in front of the phone
booth. Maybe somebody had been shot in front of the property! A drug killing?
Eric was of course an eager spectator.
“It’s Ronald on the warpath again. Ollie’s the one on the ground, kicked in the
face beyond recognition. What do you give for a man like that, kicking a defenseless
woman! He’s a fuckin’ creep!”
‘Yes, it takes one to know one.’
Ronald kept running around telling his version of the story.
“I caught the fucking bitch red handed letting air out of my tires. That’s too low.
Everybody knows you leave the car alone, no matter what. That’s my livelihood. This
has gone on for weeks! I finally caught the fuckin’ bitch red handed sitting crouched
next to my front wheel with a hairpin in her hand, and my tire flat!”
“Did Ronald knock her down?”
“That’s the crazy part of it! Four nights ago, before Shirley went on her so called
vacation, she broke into Ollie’s apartment and robbed her clean of every fuckin’ pill
in the house. She knew exactly where she kept them ‘cause they’d been swappin’
pills so many times before. See that young blonde being questioned by the police?
Well, she was on the phone when Ollie noticed her. Stoned on prescription drugs
shortsighted Ollie mistook her for Shirley and attacked her. She hit the wrong woman. Holding the receiver in her right hand that young blonde knocked Ollie flat with
a left hook like she was Mike Tyson. Unbelievable!
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That’s when that creep Ronald got into the action and started kicking her in the
face with his working booths. The police won’t listen. They’re booking that young
girl on aggravated assault and taking her in based on Ronald’s testimony. It’s fuckin’
sick, Jonny, it’s sick.”
“Yeah, what’s Fort Lauderdale coming to these days?”
“It’s a crazy world, Jonny.”
“Yeah, part of it is going to the dogs.”
Then the paramedics arrived in their ambulances, and, after having checked on
Ollie and placed her on a stretcher and carried her into the ambulance, they were
rapidly on their way to the hospital with sirens screaming and blinkers flashing. The
police officers placed the young woman, she was only seventeen, but strong as a
wrestler, in the rear seat of one of their patrol cars. Eric was ecstatic.
“She told them she’d been attending a self protection course! And now, protecting
herself from Ollie’s assault is landing her in jail! With Ronald walkin’ scot free!”
The uniformed heroes had performed another heroic deed!
Saturday afternoon all members of the Lawrence family were gathered in war council
in apartment seventeen. Jonny got dragged right into it. Ronald’s parents were visiting and Ronald wanted Jonny to explain to his parents why he had been excluded
from the lease. Mr. Louis Lawrence Sr., a heavy set, six foot four, commanding
gentleman with a can of Busch in his hand, walked about the room like a staggering
Frankenstein throwing his questions at Jonny.
“Has Ronnie been evicted? Has Ronnie not paid his rent on time? Have you been
unable to recognize that my son’s wife is an unfit mother? Do you realize that Shirley
does not have a job? Do you not understand that Shirley has no way of supporting
herself? Does Ronnie’s friendship mean nothing to you? Are you incapable of
comprehending the fact that my son is a very fine, young gentleman?”
Mr. Lawrence changed his attitude after Jonny had taken the time to explain to
him in a matter of factly manner that this had been done at the spur of the moment,
and that, whenever the necessity would arise, Ronald could always expect to be
welcome for an apartment as long as he, Jonny, managed the place. However, he had
placed the property on the market and planned to leave Fort Lauderdale in the very
near future.
Looking like most of the air had blown out of him, Mr. Lawrence sat docilely
down on the couch fully content with concentrating on emptying his can of Busch.
Then, back on his feet, he started growling that Ronnie probably had no desire to
remain on the property after ‘all these unfortunate incidences.’
“I’m proud of my son. He’s a very good boy. Just make sure he gets all of his
security deposit returned when he leaves.”
“If he’s entitled to it, he sure will.”
Ronald’s mother, on the other hand, a Martha Bush type of woman with grey,
curled hair and rounded features almost to the extent of being chubby, with very little
make-up and plain clothes, gave Jonny a very positive first impression.
“Isn’t it disgusting how the young kids behave these days? We’ve known Shirley
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since her childhood. Bright, friendly, happy and beautiful. Although five years younger Ronald has been attached to her since his early teens. But she started hanging out
with the wrong crowd, living a terrible life dancing in the bars, escorting, drinking,
smoking.
Did you know that she’s been arrested for prostitution? It’s terrible! Although we
knew Ronnie was devastatingly heartbroken, we were relieved when she finally
married one of her many eh, so called friends. We were all so terribly disappointed
when, after her divorce, they eloped and were secretly married over in Vegas. I cried
my bitter tears.
But Ronnie’s my only son so we will always be there to help him. And now, this
is how it ends. Do you know what Shirley did last week? She just took off with a
rock group and headed for Nashville. All the way up in Tennessee. Telling nobody
and leaving her children. It’s not the first time she’s disappeared. But this time we
had to drive all the way up to Nashville to pick her up. She called from a motel robbed clean of everything she had, cash, clothes, not to mention whatever she might
have had left of her pride. Even her panty was stolen! Can you believe that? Oh, she
was so embarrassed when we picked her up! But Ronnie forgave her and took her
back.
That’s the kind of boy he is. With a heart of gold the size of Texas.”
Jonny decided to be straight forward. The description of Ronald the virgin and
Shirley the hooker did not render proper balance.
“Well, I think he had different motives than just the pureness of his heart. It takes
two to tango. I don’t know it you’re aware of it, Mrs. Lawrence, but Ronald has an
unsurmountable drug problem. Crack cocaine!”
He noticed the hurt in Mrs. Lawrence’s eyes. The way she cast down her eyes told
Jonny she must at least have questioned the irrational behavior of her son on more
occasions than one, but had still chosen to live in denial.
“That’s what a woman will do to a man! Build him up or drag him down. We
knew Shirley would tear Ronnie apart. That’s why we were so disappointed when he
married her. Strongly against our will. And right we were! She’s even refusing him
his rights as a husband because she is seeing someone else!”
“Ronald has a remedy for that, Mrs. Lawrence. He’s been seeing a lot of cheap
women while living here. It’s not all Shirley’s fault. They’ve both been doing each
other wrong.”
Again Jonny saw the hurt in her eyes.
“We’ve been trying to help them both the best way we can. Last time they were
having problems like this, Shirley fell down the stairs and had a miscarriage. They
were in real trouble, then. We built an addition to our house so that they could live
right next to us in some sort of privacy and security. At the same time we could also
keep an eye on Shirley.
Well, it only worked for a short period of time. Before they moved into your
place, Shirley had threaten to divorce Ronnie if he forced her to give birth to little
Lou while living in our house, and once more Ronnie had to oblige. We were so
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heartbroken. Ronnie is our only child and little Lou our only grandchild. Don’t you
see how much it meant to us that we could remain one happy family?”
Jonny was thinking of Lisa Marie and Hans Andre. Linda, too. His old father and
dead mother. And little Cato.
“Yes, I fully understand, Mrs. Lawrence.”
“Well, we’ve got Shirley where she belongs now. We have filed for custody of
little Lou, and we will get it. Ronnie will move back to his old apartment and we will
take care of our little grandchild. Shirley’s mother will probably regain custody of
lovely Jennifer, poor child. If Shirley desires to even see her little boy in the future,
she’s gonna have to start behaving. We will pull the strings from now on. Our only
wish is that Ronnie will decide to file for a divorce.”
She sighed heavily.
“I promise you Ronnie will talk to you about it all after the custody hearing, but
he will be moving back home shortly. Shirley will not stay here without Ronnie.”
“Thanks for telling me, Mrs. Lawrence. Whichever way they chose to handle their
lives, I hope it works out for the best — for all of you.”
“Thank you for helping out. Ronnie’s has appreciated it. He always speaks very
highly of you.”
“Thank you. And good luck, Mrs. Lawrence.”
They looked at each other and smiled. She had barely come outside the office
door when she turned and came back in again.
“Let me apologize on behalf of my husband. He has a tendency toward commanding everybody he meets. After thirty-five years on the police force, ten of them as a
police captain, he doesn’t always realize when it’s appropriate to stop bullying people! But he calmed down a little when he took over as sheriff of Fort Lauderdale.”
As Jonny was about to enter the office he heard Shirley eagerly calling his name. She
came strolling up the walkway arm in arm with Ronald, happily smiling and waving
her free arm at Jonny.
She demonstratively gave Ronald a long kiss.
“I love you, Ronnie.”
“Love you, too.”
To Jonny sometimes the words ‘I love you’ sounded so cheap. And ‘I love you,
too’ even cheaper.
With the sun still shining brightly on a late Saturday afternoon Jonny enjoyed the
clean freshness in the air. Fort Lauderdale in the wintertime was pure enjoyment!
What a difference a day makes! When Jonny exited his air-conditioned studio about
ten that Sunday morning, he was engulfed by a hot, humid air and an unpleasantly
hot sun burning through the misty haze. It almost felt like entering a car left for hours
in scorching sunshine.
He jumped into the battleship and drove up to Shoney’s for a good Sunday brunch
and decided to spend most of the day at the beach away from the Hotel. He decided
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to spend the day bar-hopping, but without drinking to excess. He always tried to hold
his liquor when driving.
After that night with Cadilla he had tried to cut down on his alcohol consumption.
He remembered how he had suffered when cleaning up all that mess. The stench. The
hangovers. His regrets. Just thinking about it felt so humiliating.
Then it struck him that he had not seen Cadilla since that very night. He did not
think she had moved, but would check on it when he returned. Cadilla’s rent was due
today. Damned! He could probably forget about that money, and also the fifty she
had borrowed.
When returning at about dusk, he drew a sigh of relief that everything was quiet
on the home front. No commotion, no fracas, no frenzy — and no brownshirts.
He decided to check on Cadilla before anything else. He suspected she had disappeared or he would at least have seen a glimpse of her. He fetched the key to her
apartment, jumped up the steps and knocked on her door. The air-conditioning and
the lights were on, but nobody answered. He knocked again, but no answer. He
unlocked the door and carefully entered. As expected the birds had flown. At least
the apartment was not a total mess like so many times before when crackmonsters
sneaked out in the middle of the night for lack of rent money. Jonny figured that
Cadilla’s new lover was keeping a clean house. He could rent this one without
cleaning it. Even the two keys had been left on the dining table in an open, used
business envelope. On a wrinkled piece of paper wrapped around the keys someone
had left a message without an addressee or signature: ‘You got it coming!’
Jonny shrugged his shoulders. They had such propensity toward making threats
every time they left, these revengeful Americans. He could not take them seriously.
On the other hand, he constantly read about all the drug killings that took place
in South Florida. One could never tell when someone among all these crackmonstres
really freaked out and came at you with a gun in their hand seeking revenge. For
whatever reason. Ever so often he read about tenants that took revenge on landlords
for having evicted them. Usually with a bullet through their brain.
There had been a lot of employer killings, too, lately. Just the last month fired
employees had taken revenge on three different occasions that had cost five lives.
Occasionally he also read about lawyers being shot by their opponents during
trials.
Guns and drugs don’t mix. Jonny felt he was close to living in a lawless society
where street justice prevailed over legal justice. That’s what automatically happens
when legal justice is only readily available to the very few with solid checking accounts — those eagerly shopping for injustices to avoid responsibility of their own
actions. So many times had Jonny heard the saying that ‘you have to look above and
beyond the law for justice.’ Disappointingly often it proved true.
Yes, Jonny had shrugged his shoulders, but four little meaningless words like ‘you
got it coming’ were enough to unsettle his nerves.
Sitting behind his desk in his worried state of mind the phone rang.
“Holiday Park Hotel. Hello.”
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“Mission accomplished.”
He heard someone laugh. Then nothing. Damned. Could it be Shirley? He decided
against it. All these stupid phone pranks really irritated him. He hated that torture
instrument! Feeling tired from staying in the sun much of the day Jonny decided to
crash as early as possible. — Tomorrow started another week.
Without a few shots of Johnny Walker Jonny Hell had a hard time falling asleep
lately. When he finally dozed off, his liquor bottle was as empty as his heart and
mind. He felt a strange sensation of drifting away into outer space, freed from time
and place.
At the same time he could feel himself floating around in his own little apartment.
The torture instrument kept chiming incessantly! Every lunatic in the whole damned
country seemed to be calling tonight. Police captains. Judges. Tenants. Women.
Blacks. Jews. Pushers. Americans. Brits. Dutchmen. Threatening him. Cursing him.
Arresting him.
Why wouldn’t they leave him alone? All he wanted was some peace and quiet.
And a better America. Why had it all gone to the dogs, when just years ago the future
seemed so bright? Who was that dead man resting in his bed staring at him with those
hollow eyes? A dead guy talking out of his own skeleton! Ha, ha, ha.
‘Why did you fail me last time? In Vietnam! Go do your duty this time!’ Suddenly
the skeleton sat straight up in bed, rattling his crooked finger at Jonny: ‘Uncle Sam
wants you. He needs you. Desperately! Drastic measures are necessary. Even at the
risk of getting your brains blown all over, you still need to perform your duty. Can
I trust you? Are you a true American? Will you perform your duty, this time?’
‘Mr. Skeleton, who are you? What is it you want me to do?’
‘I have been and I have seen, but I was taken away. It is up to you now. A human
life has very little value in this country. Dogs and cats and seals and whales and
animal rights seem to mean a hell of a lot more than human dignity. We have become
the most violent society in an uncivilized world! The most important of all tasks at
this particular moment in time is to stop your fellow countrymen from shooing each
other like mad dogs! Take away their guns and stop the senseless killings! Clean up
the streets and give shelter to the homeless. Stop this vicious, aimless marry-goround. Attack the drug lords and their servants with a specific, purposeful goal and
start prioritizing. Keep all goals in mind, but solve one problem at a time. Drastic
measures are needed.’
‘But Mr. Skeleton, even you could not do that.’
‘My time was too measured. So is yours, but you still have some time left.
Although not much.
First you tell the police to leave the vulnerable women, the homeless and the poor
alone. Then you build houses so that the women will have a place to work instead of
walking the streets and spreading their terrible deceases. Legalize hashish and marihuana and let the government take control instead of the criminals. Let the government spend the money wisely combating the crack, the cocaine and the heroin. Intro-
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duce the death penalty for everybody caught with as much as one single gram of
illegal substance. One strike and you’re out — cold. Within three months and without
rights of appeal. Make sure they all die. Introduce the rules they have in Singapore.’
‘But Mr. Skeleton, that might certainly lead to an array of miscarriages of justice.
Many innocent will die.’
The skeleton suddenly faced Jonny eye to eye.
‘Look at all the innocent dying right now! Watch the decadence! Anything will
be an improvement compared to this! Save our country!’
‘Yes, Mr. Skeleton, but I do not have the power.’
‘I will give you the power! But there’s more. You need to stop our judicial procedures from becoming cheap entertainment for the great masses so that they will
lose respect of our courts. Stop the plea bargaining that undermine the credibility of
our institutions by letting the worst escape at a discount while the next guy must pay
a high price. What lack of justice within our judicial system! Introduce justice to the
common man, and not just to those able to afford it. Stop all illegal tips from the
police to the press based on the hunger for money. Keeping the press free means
keeping it free of irresponsibility and vultureism and preventing it from becoming a
tool of evil. Introduce legislation to punish those journalists who stray from the truth
for the purpose of filling their own pockets! Even when we know our ways are
terribly wrong, we no longer have the courage to correct them, because so many
powerful institutions and corrupt individuals profit from the status quo. Most of them
show no concern for their fellow countrymen. Will you undertake this task?’
‘Yes, Mr. Skeleton, but how do I get the power?’
‘I will give you the power! But there’s more! Stop all the illegal immigrants that
swarm into our country without respect for our laws and legal institutions. Take it up
with the Mexican government. It’s their responsibility to stop it! Introduce a way for
the police to check on resident status. Today they are too lazy to care, and are not
doing their job. Then you must introduce the ultimate punishment for those officials,
within justice as well as politics, who turn to corruption. They must all die within
three months without rights of appeal. For they have committed the greatest of all
deadly sins for which there shall be no forgiveness on earth — betrayal of trust.’
‘But unlike homosexuality corruption is not a deadly sin, Mr. Skeleton.’
‘You will make it a deadly sin! Make them all die, so that our nation will develop
as a just society!’
‘You are asking the impossible from just one man, Mr. Skeleton. All the institutions across the entire United States have been unable to do that. Corruption has
become such an everyday occurrence that the perpetrators have lost their moral
scruples. They hardly feel it’s wrong any more, as long as it keeps them wealthy and
powerful. If I am to fulfill that command, there will be very few countrymen left.’
‘Because their goals have always been to uphold status quo for their own profits
our country has lost the pioneering spirit! Now we’re fighting for status quo!
You will introduce changes for the good of our country and reestablish the spirit
of our forefathers.’
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‘Mr. Skeleton, a task like this will surely cost me my life?’
‘Ask not what hardships this will bring on yourself, but ask what greatness this
will bring to your country.’
‘Yes, you are right, Mr. President! If necessary, I will give my life. Like you did.
Forces of evil are strong and powerful in this country.’
‘But there is more. Much more. Even in a great society like ours with religious
freedoms and the right to worship without fear of retaliations, there are great abuses
that slowly but surely undermine our respect for the word of God. Our national motto
of ‘In God We Trust’ no longer holds true. We have too many false prophets and fake
religions among us. Like the Church of Satan, the Church of the Occult, the Church
of Doubting Thomas’s, the Church of Judas, and the Organization of Religious
Mammon Worshipers. All these fake religions are formed mostly to spread the
teachings of the Devil, and to escape income taxes. You must introduce just taxation
on all denominations. ‘Give onto God what is truly his, but also give to the Emperor
what truly belongs to him.’ And the emperor is the state! In our society that has never
been the case. The Emperor has always been left with nothing. If they’re no longer
in for a free ride, most of these con artists will disappear because their true love is
neither for God nor their neighbor, but Mammon, the Almighty!’
‘Is that all, Mr. President?’
“No, your task is endless. But for now this will have to do. Except that during this
process you must also teach your fellow countrymen to help keep their country clean.
No more pinching cigarette butts all over, like they were all lowlife and hobos. No
more broken bottles scattered all over. Or empty beer cans. Styrofoam cups. Or used
condoms scattered about. And graffiti. Teach your fellow countrymen how to stay
clean, and how to keep a clean environment.’
‘This will be extremely difficult, Mr. President. Every two years during elections
the politicians keep telling the population how perfect they are in order to get their
votes. During elections they even travel about kissing them. Therefor most Americans think they are clean already. They do not know the difference. This will be impossible! — Are you sure you are not mistaking me for somebody else?’
‘Like whom?’
‘I’m not God, Mr. President. I’m not even a citizen!’
‘What! Not a citizen! But that’s treason! If you’re not a citizen, I shall have you
arrested and sentenced to death immediately. You will be leaving our country in a
bodybag — bodybag — bodybag — bodybag, — —.’
Jonny was restlessly tossing about in bed.
‘Boom. Boom. Boom.’
Uncle Sam was knocking on his door trying to arrest him. He had acted quickly.
Jonny was being arrested for treason. How could he do that when he was already
dead?
Jonny screamed. Waking up next to the dead President felt awfully apocalyptic.
He screamed again, and suddenly the skeleton was gone. He woke up.
“Boom! Boom! Boom!”
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Jonny jerked. Somebody was actually knocking on his door. Three knocks at
midnight! Addled and distraught he stumbled to the floor.
“Boom! Boom!! Boom!!!”
“Who is it?”
He expected no answer, and the time being exactly midnight, he was afraid to
open. Could it be Kirk this time? With a gun in his hand. Or the Devil himself disguised as a skeleton?
The fear that had taken hold of him would not let go.
“Who is it?”
He tried to control his fears of the unknown.
“It’s the police! Open up.”
Utterly confused of mind Jonny had difficulty distinguishing the realities of daily
living from the visions of his nightmare.
“Who is it?”
“It’s the police! Open up!”
Jonny realized this was not part of a nightmare. This was one of his daily mares.
“Just a minute. I was soundly asleep. I need to get dressed.”
“Hurry up! We ain’t got all night.”
“Are you sure you are the police?”
“You bet. You’ll find out as soon as you open up!”
“What’s wrong?”
“Unless you’re able to come up with some real fancy answers, we’re here to arrest
you!”
“That’s crazy! Just a minute and I’m ready.”
Jonny slowly opened the door. Death and plague! Or worse still, Beavis and Butthead of the Fort Lauderdale police force!
“What’s going on?”
“You have been reported by Jake Bronx in apartment fifteen for having sabotaged
his electricity.”
“What! That’s ridiculous! I’ve been sound asleep.”
Jonny felt empty inside. Something had gone wrong.
“Are you denying the allegations?”
“Of course I am! This is ludicrous! I have problems enough keeping people from
sabotaging that meter room, and the pump room, without myself starting at it. I had
no idea there were any electrical problems in fifteen. How come they did not tell me
about it? These people have no respect for police work. Pretty soon they’ll call the
police to help them change diapers. And I’m not kidding! They do have newborn
twins in there so they may need both of you!”
Jonny was performing the playact of his life. If Ronald was behind this, he’d give
him hell!
“You had no knowledge of this?”
“No, none whatsoever. If I had known, I would have tried to fix it instead of going
to bed.”
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“Can you fix it?”
“I don’t know. You just dragged me out of bed. But usually changing the main
fuses will take care of it. Especially on hot days like this. If they leave the air-conditioning going full blast, sometimes the fuses will blow. Didn’t they set another alltime high for electrical consumption today?”
Beavis and Butt-head exchanged glances. This was not such a clear-cut case, after
all.
“This Jake Bronx maintains you hired someone to shut off his electricity because
he’s behind on rent. Isn’t that a fact?”
“He’s behind on rent, all right. Seven weeks and being evicted, but I use the judges and the courts for that, not electricians. By the way, where is this Bronx?”
“He went into one of the apartments. His wife and kid are staying with her parents.”
“Well, if they had let me know, I would have tried to fix it for them.” Jonny dejectedly showed his palms. “But I can do very little unless they tell me.”
“Makes sense.” Beavis and Butt-head once more exchanged glances. “Well, I
guess that settles that.”
Jonny sighed with relief as the two police retards left the premises. Whatever
Ronald had done, in his American way, had definitely not worked out right, but really
backfired. He would talk to him about it in the morning.
Feeling rather upset Jonny chose to go over to Amoco for a tall Busch and two
packs of peanuts at a total of two dollars and fourteen.
Sitting by the pool fence he noticed Eric leave his apartment to make a phone call,
and see and behold, just minutes later the two police officers reappeared. Jonny
addressed them as they turned the corner by the patio. They seemed surprised to see
him.
“What is happening this time? Are you babysitting Eic in fourteen, he who just
called 9-1-1?”
“You’ve got that problem settled?”
“No. I do not even know what problem you’re talking about. I’ve been sitting here
waiting for him for two full hours, but he’s not returned yet. I’ll give him thirty more
minutes. If he’s not home by then, he’s gonna have to wait until tomorrow morning.
I need some rest myself. — By the way, how does it feel being baby sitters instead
of doing police work?”
Beavis and Butt-head did not answer, just exchanged glances and nodded, then
said ‘good night’ and left. They had never said ‘good night’ before.
Jonny smiled to himself. Eric calling 9-1-1 did not always produce the desired
results. This time it had backfired. Besides, these Fort Lauderdale police officers
were not all stupid — only rough and anti immigrant.
Shirley and Ronald were no longer living in fifteen. They had agreed to move into
their old apartment with the Lawrences, who were eagerly preparing for a tough
custody battle that very same Monday morning at ten. So when Jonny knocked on the
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door to fifteen to have Ronald repair whatever mess he had initiated in fifteen, nobody answered the door. Jake Bronx was waiting for him two doors down.
“You’re in fuckin’ trouble, man! You have just forfeited every possibility you
might have had of ever getting me out of here. Giving Ronald fifty to have my electricity shut off! Breaking the seal of the FPL! Shirley’s told me every fuckin’ detail.
So, you thought she was your friend, heh! Fuckin’ idiot. While Ronald was out there
working in that meter room, Shirley was sitting in our apartment explaining every
little detail of what happened. Didn’t you know Shirley and Josey are close friends?
Having those baby boys at the same time. They’ve become real close. If necessary,
Shirley’s ready to testify against you in a court of law. I’ll be fighting you all the way
through the courts before I’ll move out of here. I’ve already got my answer ready on
paper and will hand it to the court as soon as you make your next move. Fuckin’
asshole!”
“Sooner or later you’ll be out of here one way or the other. Why don’t you do
yourself a favor and walk your fucking ass out of here without ever looking back?”
“Oh, yeah, you wish. You fuckin’ wish! I’ve got you by the balls, man. Ha, ha,
ha.”
Half an hour later Jonny noticed two men entering fifteen. Almost one full hour later
Jonny had not seen them return and got suspicious. Maybe they were planning some
sort of revenge? He decided to check the meter room and found his suspicions
warranted. He caught them all three eagerly trying to disconnect the power from
seventeen, but left without resistance when he threatened to call the police. For
trespassing, breaking and entering and criminal damage. Jonny watched them leave,
then picked up hammer and nails and nailed Jake’s back door shut to prevent him
from having access to the meter room through his apartment without Jonny being
able to detect it.
He tried to get in touch with Ronald through his parents’ phone, but to his surprise
Shirley answered. No, Ronald was not in tonight. He was on the job working overtime and wouldn’t be back until after ten. He would be too tired to make repairs then,
but would take care of it the next day after six. Ronald could most definitely use the
money. They had already talked about it. Ronnie would charge one hundred to put
everything back in order. Everything except the broken seal, that is. At the same time
they would inform Jonny of their decisions, and have their security refunded.
“So you’ve both actually moved?”
“We’ll talk about it tonight and let you now tomorrow when we stop by.”
Damn that shit! That meant he would have to wait one extra day for the electricity
to be turned back on, and he would definitely have to deal with both Jake and the
police. Well, if they called the police on him again, he had something to tell them
himself. He saw no reason to worry too much, this time.
Jake, or Eric, did more than just call the police. He also called the fire department,
city code enforcement, and, without Jonny knowing it, Jake called the post office reporting Jonny for having stolen his mail; two checks that he had been waiting for.
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Because of that incident, he had been prevented from paying his rent on time and was
now in the process of being evicted.
Stealing someone’s mail was a federal offence, so Jake figured that Jonny would
now be investigated by the FBI and consequently deported as an illegal immigrant.
Jonny felt somewhat shaky when Beavis and Butt-head arrived, but since he could
prove to the officers that the power to number fifteen had also been tampered with,
they believed him. Jonny took advantage and maintained that most likely the same
had happened in seventeen, possibly by a former tenant who had been evicted. Or
maybe Jake was the one behind his own problems as well, in a desperate attempt to
avoid getting evicted. Jonny also told them that he had been unsuccessful in getting
the electrician at the spur of the moment, but that the electrician had been ordered for
repairs tomorrow afternoon.
Jonny had to reopen the back door because keeping it shot was a fire violation,
and could cost him a fine of five hundred dollars. Even worse; if something happened, he would be held responsible. In many such cases the insurance companies
had refused to cover damages. If lives were lost, it could lead to criminal charges of
negligence.
Worrying about his lack of insurance coverage Jonny pulled out the nails and
decided to rearrange the doorways leading from number seventeen to the meter room.
Jake was acting very self confident and scolded the officers for refusing to put Jonny
behind bars. With nobody ever telling the truth it was no easy task for the police to
arrive at the facts, either. In this case the fact that number seventeen had been tampered with, worked in Jonny’s favor. It did not make sense that the owner paid anybody to destroy his own property. And although they despised this foreigner for not
being a citizen, he had always proved reliable in his statements. — Sometimes more
so than they liked.
On the other hand they were fully aware of the fact that many landlords tried to
shut off the electricity in order to get rid of unwanted tenants. And often that was the
reason they moved rather quickly.
They decided to leave the property, but warned Jonny that they would be back to
check on him tomorrow afternoon.
Jake was running behind them begging them to put Jonny behind bars, but they
declined.
Jake now turned his anger on Jonny.
“My sons are coming home in less than an hour and we have no fuckin’ electricity! We cannot live like that! Do something, or this is gonna cost you, fuckin’
asshole.”
“So, how were you planning to get the electricity back on if I had been taken to
jail like you were begging them?”
Jonny smiled a very sleazy, friendly smile at Jake.
“Damn you, fuckin’ asshole, my little sons cannot live in that hellhole!”
“Then why don’t you just walk your fucking ass off the property once and for all,
and that problem will be solved? It’s a free country, right?”
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“Okay! If I get my security deposit refunded, I will get the fuck out o’ here. If not,
I’ll be hanging out in this fuckin’ hellhole just to watch you suffer!”
“That’s a fucking good one! You owe me seven week’s rent, call the police on me
at any given chance you get, beg them on your knees to put me behind bars, try to
mess up my electricity, tell me openly you have no intentions whatsoever of paying
as much as a single dime in rent, and now you expect me to give you your security
deposit back! Do I look that fucking stupid, or are you the dumb one?”
At three in the afternoon, when Jonny returned from a good lunch consisting of a
large hamburger with fries and a cold, tall beer over at Spats down in the Galleria,
Jake Bronx was sitting outside his office waiting for him. He had a desperate look
upon his face.
“You’d better turn on that electricity before we go crazy in there. It’s stifling hot.
My little boys are in danger of suffocating from excessive heat and humidity. Can’t
you hear the babies cryin’? Have a heart, man. Put that electricity back on.”
“I’ve made arrangements for that tomorrow afternoon. Ronald will be here to take
care of repairs. He’s working overtime tonight. That’s the best I can do. I’ll find out
then if he’s the one behind this. I have not paid him do anything like that.”
Jake did not answer. Just silently stared at Jonny. In surprise Jonny realized that
Jake believed him over Shirley. Jonny was known for telling the truth. Shirley was
known for making up any kind of story to serve her immediate goals and to make
herself more interesting.
Jake no longer knew what to believe.
“At least let me borrow a fan or something.”
“I don’t have one.”
“You’ve had a pretty fancy fan blowing in that office all the time while you’ve
been away. We have nothing. It’s a living hell in there. You could at least let us use
your office fan. I’m seriously worried about my little boys.”
“You know very well that we’ve reached the point of no return. I want you out of
here. If you’re that desperate, why don’t you ask a neighbor or somebody.”
“I’ve asked every fuckin’ tenant in the building. They’re all using theirs. It’s fuckin’ hot, man! You’re the only one left to help me out.”
“See this office window facing that scorching sunshine? It’s an oven in there. At
least your apartment’s to the rear without direct sunlight. Open the windows for some
breeze. My fan stays in the office. If you need one, why don’t you buy one? That’s
what I had to do. And all the other tenants as well.”
“If I find my little boys stifled from heat in there, I’m fuckin’ gonna kill you,
asshole!”
“Good — then my miseries will all be over and yours will just begin!”
Just before sunset, with Jonny sitting behind his desk sweating, Beavis and Butt-head
of the Fort Lauderdale police force once more entered his office. Jonny made no
effort to try and hide his surprise. He sighed dejectedly.
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“So, gentlemen, what have I done wrong this time?”
“Hm. It’s not so much a question of what you have done. It’s more a question of
what you haven’t done. There’s still no electricity in number fifteen.”
“But, gentlemen, you were here less than four hours ago. I informed you then that
I had made arrangements for electrical repairs tomorrow in the late afternoon.”
“Well, you’ve been reported for refusing to let Mr. Bronx borrow your fan.”
“Gentlemen, is this police work?”
“It was a 9-1-1. A baby boy might die from excessive heat. You could be held
responsible for his death!”
“Do you realize that in New York City alone they have forty thousand convicted
rapists and murderers on the lose without the police having resources to make the
arrests because they are too damned busy answering 9-1-1s? I think this is an abuse
of police availability; a waste of police intelligence and resources. There ought to be
fines for such abuse. There are for everything else. Don’t you feel that you are sometimes being taken advantage of — a little bit — eh, hounddogged?”
Beavis kept his mustache silent. Butt-head butted in.
“He’s got a little baby in there with no electricity and you have refused to let him
use your spare fan!”
“I don’t have a spare fan. I’m sitting her in direct sunlight and sweating. So are
you, gentlemen. That fan — —”
Jonny pointed on the fan behind their backs.
“ — — is blowing full blast and we can hardly breathe in here. Well, that’s the
fan he wanted. Now, if you check out apartment fifteen, the apartment he’s living in,
you will find it a lot more pleasant than in here. I know. I used to live there myself
while refurbishing it. That apartment lies in the shade with no direct sunlight. With
the windows open you get a nice, soothing breeze in there. Why does he keep his
windows shut?”
Beavis was about to speak but Butt-head cut him off. “I strongly suggest that you
bring that fan over to fifteen. It might save you a lot of trouble.”
Jake appeared in the doorway, impatient.
“Can I have that fan now?”
Nobody answered.
“Can I take that fan now!”
Butt-head stared at Jonny trying to intimidate him.
“I strongly suggest you let him have that fan.”
“Gentlemen, what are you trying to do here? Are you depriving me of the use of
my own fan and forcing me to hand it over to a tenant who is not even willing to buy
his own?”
“Give me that fan, damn it! I’ve got two little baby boys in there.”
Jake was still impatient. Then, after a short silence, again spoke Butt-head in an
un-friendly voice.
“We are not authorized to do that. If this is how he chooses to run his business,
there is nothing we can do about it! I wish we could help you, but our hands are tied.
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I suggest you see a lawyer and have him file a formal complaint. If this guy is too
stubborn to heed a friendly recommendation, then let that be his problem. If I were
you, Mr. Bronx, I’d refuse to live in this fleabag for another day!
If you want to take it any further than that, you’ll have to take the law into your
own hands.”
“If something happens to my boys, I’ll kill this guy!”
Jonny felt that indirectly that’s what the officers had encouraged him to do.
Then Jonny addressed Butt-head directly.
“I consider the two of you to be intelligent police officers. Therefore I hope you
can answer my simple question:
“What use can he make of an electric fan in an apartment with no power?”
Ronald and Shirley arrived a little after six on Tuesday as promised. Shirley wanted
to spend the time with Josey while Ronald reconnected the electricity, but Ronald
refused. Obviously they had been arguing about it. It only took him a few minutes to
have everything taken care of.
In the meantime Shirley waited in the office informing Jonny that she had once
more lost custody of her children. As anticipated Jennifer had been given to her mother and little Lou had been placed with Ronnie’s parents. They themselves had
moved into Ronald’s old place. That way she would be able to take care of little Lou
as if nothing had happened. Jennifer, on the other hand, would be better off with her
grandmother. Ronald could be so obnoxious at times.”
‘Obnoxious’ she called it! Didn’t she know that her seven years old daughter had
been knocked half dead, and raped on numeral occasions?
When Ronald returned, he asked to be paid the one hundred for his efforts in the
meter room plus to have his full security deposit refunded. The keys were properly
returned. Jonny wanted to check out the apartment before they left, but that left Ronald in a frenzy.
“That’s fuckin’ offensive, Jonny. You know we would never trash the apartment.”
“Take it easy, Ronald. It’s routine.”
The apartment desperately needed cleaning. Then Jonny noticed all the pictures
missing from the walls. Six pictures, one of them a fancy glass mosaic of a beautiful
bouquet of flowers. They denied that there had been any pictures on the walls when
they moved in, but started making excuses when Jonny shoved them the list of inventories.
After a heated argument they agreed to pay the twenty dollars a piece stipulated
as value during inventory, plus fifty for the mosaic. It irritated Jonny, but he knew
he could easily obtain some used pictures either at Hotel Liquidators or the Faith
Farm. Jonny asked that they clean the apartment before they left, but he was told that
it was cleaner now then when they moved in.
“Ok. I’ll deduct the same twenty, then, as I did when you moved in.”
Shirley protested but Ronald agreed.
“Well, I guess that’s fair enough.”
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That left them owing one seventy toward Jonny owing them two forty-five. He
wrote them a check of seventy-five dollars.
It was not the worst departure he had experienced. They shook hands and both
Shirley and Ronald eagerly told him that they considered him one of their best
friends ever. They left wishing each other good luck in the future. Shirley even gave
him a quick, wet kiss.
Jonny felt somewhat empty after they had left. He also felt somewhat corrupt.
Actually they were not entitled to a refund, because they had not given a week’s notice to leave as it said in the lease. Mut Jonny had remembered the sheriff’s warning
about paying Ronald’s deposit in full , and Jonny simply had to admit that it did pay
off having friends in high places. Again he had been too weak for these people.
The Holiday Park Hotel experienced a tenant explosion that week. Just a few days
ago Freddy and Holly had left under rather dramatic circumstances. Then Cadilla and
her lover had disappeared.
And now Shirley and Ronald had moved back into the same apartment that they
had been in such a hurry to get away from when they moved in.
Then, to Jonny’s great disappointment, J. R. Gilbert entered the office to give notice to move in one week. After that terrible attack in the phone booth, and what had
happened both before and afterwards, Ollie no longer wished to remain on the premises. Because of her battered, swollen face she simply refused to leave the room.
Telling him that Ronald and Shirley had been evicted as a result of the incident,
did nothing to change his mind. They had paid a deposit on another apartment situated not so many blocks north-west of here. Just minutes after J. R. Gilbert had left,
Zephyr Gentry, the psychic in number twenty-one and a first cousin of country singer
Bobby Gentry, entered the office to tell Jonny he was unable to pay his rent, but had
been offered a position as a papasan to an escort agency in Houston, Texas that was
too good to refuse. He would be leaving the same night. Like all the others he asked
to have his security deposit refunded, although he was now three weeks behind on
rent.
Jonny’s refusal sent him into an uncontrolled frenzy of homosexual expressions.
“Oh gosh, I need that money to get to Texas. I’ve counted on it, and, gosh, it’s my
own cash. I cannot afford to give it to you! I’m not giving you an option. My God,
I need that cash now!”
“The situation is like this, Mr. Gentry: You owe me three weeks’ rent. I owe you
one week security and nothing for the key. Doesn’t it feel wonderful, Mr. Gentry?—
now you no longer need to have a guilty conscience for owing me three weeks’ rent.
You should be ecstatic knowing that as of today you only owe me for two weeks.
Thank you, Mr. Gentry.”
“I’m in possession of very special powers, Jonny boy. I’ll place a curse on you
that will surely take you to your grave.”
He shifted his weight to his other leg and rested his hands on his hips like a challenging woman.
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“Yeah, curse or no curse, that’s usually where we end up. If you’re competent of
speeding up the process a little, the more power to you. Do you plan to bill me?”
Later in the evening Lisa and Jennifer in eleven also gave one week’s notice to
move.
Those who fought for the right to stay, were such who consciously refused to pay
rent.
It seemed to Jonny that no matter how hard he tried, he was unable to pick solid tenants and stabilize the situation. He now had six empty apartments, with ex tenants
that basically paid their rents on time if left alone. He was actually losing the wrong
tenants, maybe except for Shirley and Ronald.
If Speedy, Jake or Eric had been the ones to leave, it would have been an occasion
to celebrate.
So, out of fifteen, he now had nine apartments without income, while expenses
were basically remaining the same. Those who did not pay the rent on time, or ran
away without paying, were still running their air-conditioners full blast, not even
shutting them off when sneaking out. Jake was even calling the police on him for not
supplying electricity while he openly refused to pay rent. He realized that an empty
apartment was a better investment than a tenant living there without paying rent.
Things did not make sense here.
Jonny started wondering if he could change this, and started evaluating every
single tenant since the very first day he took the place over. It slowly dawned upon
him that the few blacks he had had in the building, had caused very few problems
compared to all the whites.
He remembered Hardee that first night in the office: ‘Now, there are black nigges
and there are white nigges, and the white nigges ain’t no better than the black nigges.’
Maybe if he got more blacks in here, the place would stabilize? Lori had paid her
rent on time, and when evicted had left on amicable terms. She had even tried to set
him up with her own daughter. Jerry in twenty-three he hardly saw except every time
he paid the rent, always on time.
Hardee Hancoch always paid his rent on time even when he was short on cash for
gin and pussy. Jonny even enjoyed his company every time he came limping into the
office citing his Spanish around ten at night every Friday to pay rent. A couple of
times Jonny had even presented him with a flask of gin, and Hardee’s appreciation
had been a genuine one. He had been here a few months by now, but never once been
late on rent. Maybe from being second class citizens the blacks had learned to take
care of their rents on time without causing problems?
The situation for Jonny had never been more precarious. He was getting behind
on every single bill, and money was too slow coming in. In addition he needed close
to nine thousand dollars within a short period of time, or he would be unable to pay
his property taxes.
So when the black nurse Sarah Elliott wanted to move into number seventeen,
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Jonny had no objections. Hardee asked to move into twenty-five because it was such
a centrally situated apartment, and Jonny was happy to give it to him. When Dennis
Jordan, a black construction worker living with his white girlfriend and her little
daughter from one of her ex husbands, wanted to move into number nineteen, Jonny
was more than happy to see them move in. They even paid two weeks up front.
When another mixed couple, married, this time, tall, timid and extremely whitecomplexioned Tabby, with her chubby, short legged, black husband, Robert Major,
and her toothless, teenage son, Torry, wanted number sixteen the very same day J.
R. Gilbert and his battered girlfriend Ollie, still wearing her stiff collar for judicial
reasons, moved out, Jonny was more than happy to give it to them as well.
The young, black couple that moved into twenty-three replacing Cadilla and her
lover seemed rather nice, especially the young girl who openly showed an interest in
Jonny.
In just a few days the Hotel was full again, and Jonny had taken in enough cash,
almost thirteen hundred dollars, to pay his most pressing bills.
Ted had told the truth about one thing: The apartments at the Hotel were easy to
rent. Lori King was right, too: ‘While in Fort Lauderdale you have to rent to the riffraff that live here.’
Hopefully renting to blacks would improve the situation.
With Jonny’s roots not having grown deep enough into American culture and history, he had no way of anticipating the uproar and revengeful hatred this caused with
most of his neighbors.
Thursday morning Jonny went down to the courthouse to prepare the eviction papers
for Jacob L. Bronx and his little Jewish bitch, Josey, and their two month old bastard
twins. The detective agency responded very quickly, and, before Jonny had returned
home, the official notice had been delivered to Mr. Bronx personally.
Ironically, that same evening Jake Bronx blew the fuses to the air-conditioning
and again called the police on Jonny without first telling him about it. Again they
knocked Jonny out of his apartment to give him the good news. Beavis and Butt-head
were anything but friendly when they addressed Jonny, who realized that no matter
how many times he proved them wrong, they would forever remain favorable to Jake
over Jonny. They would prefer a Satan worshiper with an American drawl to a halfdecent foreigner with an non-American accent any day.
Human creatures were sometimes equipped with strange instincts. They could
work like mad dogs and make inhumane sacrifices in order to succeed, but when they
finally realized that their situation was beyond repairs, they would sometimes become so relaxed and indifferent, with a devil may care attitude. This happened to
Jonny that night. He returned their hostility.
“Look! I cannot help it if that Satan worshiping imbecile in there is not intelligent
enough to correctly use his air-conditioning! Or is it common that tenants call the
police instead of the superintendent every time they blow a fuse? If that’s the case,
it does not take a genius to understand why the police are too damned busy to arrest
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criminals! Now, give me the opportunity to show you how easily this can be remedied without wasting valuable police time and effort. I have one box of new fuses in
my office. Allow me to pick them up, then walk over to the meter room with me and
watch me change the fuses. If I try to mislead you, feel free to haul my ass behind
bars. That’s what you’ve been drooling to do ever since the first day you entered my
office. I have no way of knowing why, but maybe you’re following the orders of this
albino police officer, your faggot boss Captain Anderson!
If the three of you find it more important to use valuable police time to pester me
than to properly do your job, then your minds are more corrupt than mine is able to
imagine! People abusing the police to that extent are the ones that ought to be put
behind bars together with officers who allow themselves to be abused in that way.
— Follow me, gentlemen!”
Jonny now discovered another aspect of human nature. Only through another
person’s own servility will others become superior. When aggressively taken my
surprise even people in uniforms are pulled off guard. They both obediently followed
Jonny to the meter room, watched him replace the fuses and obediently knocked on
Jake’s door to verify the functionality of the air-conditioning.
“Yes. It was working, but the fuse blew immediately after he turned it back on.
He says you’re full of fucking bullshit.”
“Ok. Then allow me to replace the fuses one more time and let me be the one to
turn the air-conditioning back on. Jake knows how to turn it on and at the same time
automatically blow the fuses. He also knows it’s easy for me to fix it. So he called
on you to help him make it difficult for me. Now, after I replace these fuses, I’ve lost
count of how many times, allow me to put the air-conditioning back on without
blowing them. Then you know he’s doing it on purpose.”
Butt-head refused.
“This is not police work. It’s babysitting the landlord.”
“This is a way of doing your job so that you won’t have to come over here once
or twice every night just wasting your time.”
They reluctantly agreed, but Jake refused to let anybody in, this time. He asked
if they had a search warrant and maintained that he had the right to refuse Jonny
entrance. He was right.
The landlord had won a small victory.
“Well, I guess this proves my point. If that air-conditioner needs new fuses, from
now on Mr. Bronx has two options only: Either he will have to replace his own fuses,
or he’s simply going to have to live without the air-conditioning running! Unless he
chooses to get the hell out of here. Like me or not, but you will at least have to admit
that I give you the facts every time you come over here.”
The two police officers did not answer, just exchanged glances and, looking rather
unhappy, left the property.
Jonny watched them as they disappeared down the walkway. He felt confident
that he had won the last battle, but at the same time knew instinctively that the war
was still on.
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Jonny never met either one of them after that night, but learned about half a year later
that they had retired from the force and moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, living on their
pensions.
They were secretly married and living as husband and wife, or spouses, as they
would prefer it in the gay community. They had been working and living together for
more than twenty years, and were among the first to marry after matrimony among
gays had been legalized down in Florida just a few years ago.
Jonny received the answer to the tenant eviction only three days later:
‘I have been lieving at The Holiday Pk inn for 7 ½ mos
for 1 yr I have been working for IPC here in Ft.
Lauderdale my income was $350,00 per wk. I had been
layed off 6 wks from this date. The week after I lost
my job I was unable to pay my rent. Owner of complex
credited me that week. The following week I was only
able to pay for 1 wk $160.00. I had been giving him
$40.00 per day to try to catch up on my rent. I had
found an odd job witch paid me $45.00 per day. I did
this for only 1 wk. Jonny and I sat and discoused the
matter. I told him I needed to get a real and steddy
job that I would be unable to pay him every day, he
said he agreed! So I began a job serch. I am only three
wk’s late on my rent and it looks like I may be working
as a server with the olive garden rest. Prier to the
arrangements that the plaintiff and I had made he
begaine to realy put the presser on me by employing a
former tennent who once resided in apt. 15 Ronnie he is
an electrisican. Jonny paid him $50.00 to turn off my
eklectric pover. I felt this was unjust and called P.D.
The investigating officer told him he had to get my
power back by that evening. To make matter’s worse oct.
3, 1093 6:40 am Sunday my twin sons had been borne at
the Holy Cross hosp. They were at three weeks old when
Jonny paid Ronnie to turn off my power in spite of what
the officer had told Jonny he still refused it was 3
days latter oct. 29 8:00 pm till he paid Ronnie $50.00
more to turn my power back on although after he turned
off my air. My babbys was screeming do to the heet my
soon to be wife and I had to spend the week end at her
parent’s house.
Fri the 29th of oct Jonny alsow nailed shut my back
door leiving me only 1 entrence and exit. He told me if
I call the police on him again he would evict me. Tue.
The 2nd of this month Jonny threten me agen after
making arangement with me on Fri. the 29 of oct. The
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arangement was that if I gave him $160.00 on Now 2
everything would be Fine altho Nov2 Rolled in and I was
served with this. Please for the sake of my Family
witch I am the only Bread winner. I need time to save $
and locate another Plase my feansa and I have about
$50.00 saved so far I’ll need at least 30 day’s. I unde
stand That The hole Time I do stay There, my Family and
I will be subject to more threts and only God knows
what else he can do to us.
In closing I must ADD Just for your awareness.
Jonny thretend me again last night 6:30 PM at 11-293. Buy turning on and off my electricity. Agen I
called 9-1-1 the officer looked in my house and I
showed him my back door. He said That is ellegle and I
showed the investegating officer the meter room he said
he would have the city code comm. Come and look at the
mess back there some time this week. I do have some
kind of rights to Jonny’s action’s. Don’t I? I mean is
it rite that my children and their mother be subjected
to this kind of treament?’
Then immediately underneath in scribbled handwriting the following:
‘I hereby certify that I will send a copy of the
foregoing Answer to the Plaintiff or his attorney’.
And at the very bottom of the page:
ALL PLEADINGS IN THIS CASE MUST BE FILED IN:
COUNTY COURT - CIVIL DEPARTMENT,
201 S.E. 6th STREET, ROOM 120,
FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA, 33301 - 3303.
It was dated Nov. 3rd and signed by Jacob L. Bronx, not just a devil’s disciple,
but a minister ordained to the Church of Satan of Southern California. The meeting
in Judge Skolnic’s chamber, room 120, was set for Friday Nov. 16 at four o’clock in
the afternoon.
George Churchill, the owner of the five apartment building across the street from the
Hotel, introduced Jonny to his friend and working buddy, Frank MacFadden just
returning from his brother’s funeral up in Pennsylvania. Frank had stayed in Pennsylvania much longer than expected after the brutal stabbing of his brother while
working as a clerk in a hardware store. His brother’s death had been such a heavy
blow to their parents that he needed to stay there for a longer period of time than
expected. Besides, he had met a woman up there. Frank’s oldest brother, Chris, was
also staying with George and they were all working together as painters, but because
of Frank having stayed away so long, George had rented his apartment to someone
else, a heavy set guy from India who worked as a driver for the hotels.
“Can you help me out, Jonny. I need a place for this guy. He’s a good tenant. He’s
sometimes drinks a bit, but he’s clean and he always pays his rent on time.”
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159
Jonny studied George. Short of growth with short legs and a thin, scraping voice
George did not command much attention, but he was known as one of the nicest guys
in the neighborhood. He had two marriages behind him, and both times his wives had
become tired of him. He was now living with the secretary of Attorney Welsh, so
Jonny figured that George had knowledge of both the external and internal life of the
hotel. But he did not expect this relationship to last very long either.
“She’s only giving me some pussy now and then in exchange of a nice place to
stay. I think at least it will last as long as she keeps her job. She’s pretty stable that
way and seldom changes lovers between jobs. When she gets another job, she’ll probably leave me.
Well, what can I do? I know I’m not the sexiest guy in the world. For all that I
know she might even be seeing somebody else. I suspect that she’s fuckin’ her boss!
Before she used to work as a waitress over at Houston’s.”
After Beefsteak Charlie no longer being so tempting, Jonny had many times planned to eat over at Houston’s, but had always shied away because of long lines of
patrons outside the restaurant waiting to be seated.
George was a talker, all right, but only until he had matters solved, then he would
suddenly turn around and walk away.
“I’m full right now. But you know, there’s always an opening. When do you need
it?”
Jonny turned toward Frank MacFadden, an unfriendly, sinister looking guy in his
early thirties just recently divorced from his wife of German descent.
“I need it right away. I can’t wait.”
“He’ll be staying for at least two years.”
Jonny nodded toward George.
“I have my own place. Recently refurbished after that crackmonster and that
hooker left. I’ll show it to him and let him have it for one twenty a week, plus securities.”
“Are you going seasonal?”
“No. This place has never been seasonal.”
Grouchy, hung over Fred MacFadden did not particularly seem to like the place,
but somehow managed to grunt out:
“I’ll take it.”
For some time Jonny had planned to rent out the apartment now that it had been
refurbished, because then he could also increase the rent somewhat. And then he
could move about as the apartment became available. He spent most of his time in
the office anyway. But it was a difficult decision.
So, later that evening, Jonny once again became illegally homeless in Fort Lauderdale. He wondered why the police had so eagerly checked on his residency when
they had about three thousand homeless people living in the streets every night. He
also worried about his investor’s visa and wondered why he had heard nothing from
immigration. Lucy had been rather aloft after his refusal to marry for residency, but
last time he talked to her, she sounded as if she was back to her old self again.
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Eric had not been to the office for weeks now, so therefore Jonny was surprised to
see him enter around noon that Friday. He proudly informed Jonny that he had now
caught up on rent. However, he had no intentions of following through on that part
about his in-laws. He showed Jonny a writ he had had prepared by a lawyer. Jonny
had no right to charge extra for close relatives living in the same apartment. If he had
no hotel license, he simply had no right to do that. Speedy knew it, Jake new it and
Craig and Ross had also been informed so that there would be no dispute when
Craig’s sister would move down to live with them. If he, Jonny, was unwilling to
change that part of the agreement that forced him to pay for his in-laws, then he,
Rick, would stop paying rent altogether until the matter had been settled in court.
“Ye’ll get nowhere, Jonny. The police won’t lift a finger to help ye. Especially
after all this shit with Jake in fifteen. Ye’ll probably go to jail for that. It is strictly
illegal to shut off the electricity for someone. Ye could get up to three years if found
guilty on all counts. If I were ye, I’d grab my shit and leave before it’s too late for ye
to get anywhere. Ha, ha, ha. We’re all together on this. If ye won’t stop charging
extra for guests, we’ll all stop paying our rent. Ye won’t last long then, that’s for
sure. Serves ye right being stupid enough to sign that fucking deal. The police
laughed when I showed it to them. Said not too many people are dumb enough to sign
their own death sentences. Let me tell ye, Jonny, I won’t rest a fucking day until we
got ye out of here!
So for now ye give me that new deal or you’re gonna wish ye never heard of a
place called the United States of America.”
Jonny felt confused. Back home it was always wise to put a business deal down
on paper, but over here a written agreement was nothing more than a basis for
lawyers to start a dogfight.
Eric had declared open war now. Jonny’s two options were to give in or fight
back. He envisioned only one real option — surrender and face defeat. If you could
call that an option.
Although totally empty inside, and fully convinced of a final collapse, Jonny
refused to give in to Eric’s threats. He slowly took out the ‘three day notice to move’
and filled it out while Eric watched with hatred and contempt. He sneered as Jonny
handed it to him.
“If ye think a fuckin’ piece of paper’s gonna change anything, ye’re all fucked
up!”
“You give me no choice. Jake Bronx will be out of here in less than ten days, and
from then on it’s you and me. Prepare to be out of here before Christmas.”
Eric stared at Jonny with his dark, obstinate eyes for a long time before starting
to laugh contemptuously.
“That’s a fuckin’ good one considering that come Christmas ye’ll be behind bars.
If ye fuckin’ don’t believe me I suggest ye talk to Jake about it. Ye have no way of
knowing, and I shouldn’t have told ye, but Ronald has agreed to testify against ye in
a court of law. This is no longer civil, but so fucking criminal, and with such heavy
penalties yer fucking chicken brain won’t know what hit ye. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.”
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161
Jonny was now beyond the point of having the slightest fighting spirit left. He had
become paralyzed. The more he pondered his hopeless situation the more paralyzed
and incapable of taking some sort of intelligent action he became. If only he could
trust the police! But no. The only reasonable course of action he could think of was
seeing a lawyer. But that would cost him an arm and a leg, especially if this turned
into criminal proceedings against him. He was not surprised that Ronald had agreed
to testify against him. Or Shirley. They wanted friendship one moment, then stabbed
you in the back the next. That’s how they lived their lives, even in their own relationship. Jonny realized their brains of both of them were burned out, one on crack
cocaine and the other on booze and pills. They were both unpredictable. Jonny knew
that, but would the court know? Of course not. Not against the sworn statement of
a police captain’s son. Not when up against someone who was not even a citizen.
Jesus Christ in Heaven!
Jonny was all shook up. What would happen to him? He was not a citizen. He was
not even a legal resident!
Jonny clearly envisioned his future. A quick, tough sentence. Maybe years behind
bars. And of course losing his property within weeks. On top of everything else he
would probably be deported! Jesus Christ in Heaven! He would be fighting all these
Satans from Hell all on his own and without a chance of survival.
Oh, shit in Hell! He no longer had the buildings on the market, either, so nobody
would believe him when telling them he was trying to sell and get away from here.
Well, maybe he could call Pearly Jo as a witness and have her tell them what his situation was in that respect? Oh, shit, he also needed to get in touch with Paul Kronke
about the property taxes. It was after Nov. 1. His property taxes were delinquent by
now.
Oh, damn this shit! He no longer had a place to stay, either. Now they could even
take him in on a vagrancy charge!
The only thing missing now was a brain hemorrhage, a heart attack, aids or syphilis, or something. Yeah, why not! Why not get it done and over with? A handy little
gun in his hand, a clean bullet through his brain, and his miseries would be over.
He’d been telling his tenants that so many times when they had been threatening him.
Never thinking much more about it! Maybe that would be the smart solution to his
miseries? A sure way of getting out of this hellhole. Much better than rotting his life
away in prison.
Jonny felt exhausted.
Right after midnight the torture instrument started ringing on his office desk. In a
daze he grabbed the receiver.
“Yes.”
“Eh, is that you, Jonny?”
“Yes.”
“Eh, this is Ronald speaking.”
“Yes?”
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“Eh, I need to talk to you.”
“Ok. Talk.”
“I don’t know how to tell you this, but Shirley had told everything to Jake even
before I had finished.”
“Told what?”
“That you paid me fifty to disconnect their electricity.”
“And?”
“Jake wants me to testify against you in court.”
“Yes?”
“He’s offered to pay me one hundred dollars.”
“And?”
“I was hoping that maybe you would like me to testify for you instead.”
“I don’t think so.”
“But, Jonny, I want to help you. You’re one of my best friends. It’s unfair if
you’re put behind bars for this. I would be more than happy to testify for you instead
of that fuckin’ Jake and his mute little Jewish bitch. They’re all fucked up.”
“And what would you expect from me?”
“I want you to know I’d be taking a big chance for you. I wish I could do it for
free, but I’m desperate right now. I really need the money. I could get into a lot of
trouble for this, but since you’re such a hell of a good friend, I’m willing to do it for
as little as five hundred dollars!”
“I really appreciate your friendship, Ronnie, but you’re a little too late. Eric told
me you would testify for Jake, so I decided to do some testifying of my own. I have
prepared a few writs, or affidavits, or whatever you wanna call them, as to the abuse
and mistreatment of little Jennifer. I’m ready to file a report with both the police and
the HRS. Just imagine the HRS-people questioning Jennifer, and Shirley for that matter! And Shirley’s mother. Or Robin. And me! With everything being substantiated
by medical examinations! All your corrupt police friends won’t do you much good
then. I also believe that the sheriff of Fort Lauderdale would get into a fit!”
Ronald silenced at the other end. He whispered his threat.
“Do that — and you’re dead!”
“Oh, there’s one more thing: I usually hurry very slowly. Although you told me
that in America you must act right away, you should know it’s not in my nature to
make irrational decisions or unnecessary haste. I will not publish my reports to the
HRS until the day after you’ve testified against me!”
163
06
‘I, Claudia! —
I Tell Them Tobby’s from Chicago!’
The couple attracted Jonny’s attention from the very moment they exited their old
Chevy Impala station wagon and started walking up the walkway toward the office.
His attention concentrated on the woman walking to the right, a little bit ahead
of her male companion. Right away she struck Jonny as authoritative and demanding.
The way she walked, with her body moving left and right, and slightly stooped, combined with the sheer size of her when compared to her companion, left the immediate
impression that this woman would take no abuse.
Her large torso somehow accentuated the fact that her legs and thighs protruded
from underneath her body like two sticks the same width all the way from her thighs
down to her wrists. In a way she appealed to Jonny’s sense of humor, but at the same
time he realized this woman was not the kind to be taken lightly. Something about
her manner demanded immediate attention. In a way her size and shape reminded
Jonny very much of Eric. Looking straight forward she projected definite determination as she steadfastly approached the office. Her comparatively large head with
a thin, blondish hair resting on a short, solid neck unarguably confirmed Jonny’s
speculations. She commanded extreme self-confidence.
Her male companion, on the other hand, a small, whimsical individual unable to
hold his head still for a single moment, and looking in all directions as he constantly
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I, Claudia —
I tell them Tobby’s from Chicago
shifted his eyes about the property, exerted the exact opposite reaction in Jonny. A
whimsical little mouse running this way and that! Jonny decided they were mother
and son.
She stepped right into the office while her son waited outside at one of the patio
tables.
“I’m a Born Again Christian. My name is Claudia. Claudia Hoskins. I was born
Schwartzenberger. I’m looking for an apartment. What do you have available?”
“Nothing right now. I will have the apartment next to the office available in a few
days. That’s the nicest apartment in the building. Huge. Only $175.00 a week. With
everything included. Pool. Water. Gas. Electricity. Air-conditioning. Fully furnished.
Wall-to-wall carpets. How many people is it for?”
“Myself and my husband. And my daughter who is also living with me. We are
three persons. I need a two bedroom apartment.”
“Well, the only two bedroom apartment I have in the whole building is the one
that’s becoming available in a few days. If you’re interested, I’ll show it to you.”
Claudia stared Jonny straight in the eye.
“We’re presently staying at the Seaside Inn down by the shore. My daughter,
Claudette, is living with me. My only daughter. She came down here together with
me and my husband, but she has a son who is presently staying with his father back
in Kalamazoo. Before I make a decision I’ll have to talk to my husband about it. —
Eh, you wouldn’t be needing a manager, would you?”
Jonny felt intimidated by her strong presence.
“Eh, the idea has occurred to me, but I’m afraid that’s gonna cost me too much.
The place is a bit too small for that. Do you have any experience?”
“You bet. Just before we came down here I was running a forty-tree family condominium owned by an elderly woman unable to take care of it herself. I am a true
professional. The best there is! I already have a job offered. They want me to start
managing the place where I’m staying right now, at the Seaside Inn. However, they
have no use for my husband and we’re looking for a place we can manage together.
I’ll be the manager. My husband will come in pretty handy as an all-round handyman. The grounds, painting, plumbing, cleaning. You name it, my husband will do
it. Just like myself he’s among the best in the business. Come, let me introduce you
to my husband. He’s from Chicago!”
Jonny automatically followed her outside as she determinedly headed for the
patio table where her companion had seated himself.
“This is my new husband, Tobby Hoskins from Chicago. We were just recently
married and decided to start our lives afresh here in the sunshine paradise of SouthFlorida. It’s lovely, isn’t it?”
The little fellow, whom Jonny had thought was the son, rose from his chair and
stretched his arm toward Jonny.
“Tobby Hoskins. Ifp you’re the landlord, it’s nice to meet you.”
He spoke with a strong lisp. Jonny shook his hand.
I, Claudia —
I tell them Tobby’s from Chicago
165
“I’m no lord, land or otherwise, but I am the owner, yes. — Hello.”
Jonny hated all these empty phrases. Whether or not it was nice to meet them was
too early to tell. He preferred neutral greetings like ‘hello’ and ‘good bye.’
As they settled around the table Tobby from Chicago started shifting his eyes
again almost as if Jonny were no longer present. Like any good dog Jonny realized
he was well trained. He new when to obediently shut up and leave the talking to his
dominant wife.
“I have been married to Tobby for three months now. After I divorced my alcoholic first husband, with whom I have no children, and Tobby finally got rid of his
constantly cheating third wife, I decided we’d better stop living in sin and tie the
knot to live by the word of God. I just recently sold my farm up in Kalamazoo, and
I am now looking for some small investment here in South Florida. We have decided
to start building a new future together.
A place like this would really be ideal, but we need the experience before we
jump into anything foolish. And we’re waiting for the cash to come through from the
sale of the farm. Probably in a couple of months from now. If it takes longer than
that, my brother has agreed to advance the money to get us started. He’s a local big
shot, you know. He practically owns all of Kalamazoo. Very business minded. He
runs a solid manufacturing corporation making frames for the Apple computer systems. Last year he planned to buy part of the MacIntosh Corporation just to secure
his interests. He’s also planning on buying a major chunk of the Microsoft Corporation. That’s the kind of man my brother is.” She paused for Jonny to let it all sink
in. “Well, why don’t you think it over? — and I’ll discuss it with my husband. But
before I leave, let me assure you one thing: If I start working for you, it will not cost
you money. It will become my responsibility to make sure that I make money for you
— lots of money!”
Jonny kept studying her as she eagerly presented him with her excellence. He
considered her just another bragging, self-centered simpleton. At the same time he
could not prevent her determination and self-assertion from rubbing off and influencing him. He studied her pale, almost pink complexion, her blond, thinning hair,
her plain, flat bulldog face which he did not at all find attractive with her hanging
jaw, her undershot trembling every time she felt she had said something excellent.
He realized that her boundless conceit might be exactly what he needed to run this
place. At the same time he felt it might be a little too late. Maybe he had already
accrued too many unsolvable problems?
Every time he looked over to study Tobby he felt the urge to start laughing,
especially when watching him in profile. Tobby’s bald head, his flat forehead and
pointed, protruding nose reminded Jonny more of a timid shrew mouse than a formidable manager. His retracting lips and almost total lack of a chin, together with his
constantly shifting eyes, gave him a distinct mousy facial expression. He commanded
anything but self-confidence. Instead he generated feelings in Jonny that easily evoked laughter.
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I, Claudia —
I tell them Tobby’s from Chicago
Claudia seemed to be reading his mind.
“I, Claudia, will be the manager, and he, Tobby, will back me up in any way
necessary for me to become successful. He’s an excellent handyman. I can guarantee
that your interests will be in good hands. Will you think it over and make a decision
two days from now?” She checked the time. “I will be here the day after tomorrow
at two o’clock sharp. I will bring my husband and my daughter and we will take the
time to discuss matters a bit more thoroughly. You will not regret it. I am one of the
best managers in the business in all of the United States. And I will start making
money for you — tons of money!”
She stood, and automatically Tobby did likewise. They more or less marched
back toward the car in unison, but at the same time they reminded Jonny of Mother
Goose striding down the road with only one little duckling behind her.
Jonny had already made up his mind. He could not hire a couple like that!
“Look at that guy! Look at him. He just came running out of the bank. Look! Look
at him waving his hand in the air. Fuck! He’s got his hand full of cash! He’s fuckin’
robbed the bank in broad daylight, and now he’s running back home waving all the
cash in the air. He’s fuckin’ robbed the bank!”
Eric’s excitement caught Jonny’s attention. A guy came running down the street
waving a hand full of paper bills. Just two houses down he jutted off the road and
entered the corner apartment. Eric became ecstatic.
“He’s fuckin’ robbed the bank, man! Look! He fuckin’ lost some cash, man. In
the street. It’s fuckin’ five hundred dollars!”
Eric bent down to pick up the five hundred dollar bills.
“The guy’s fuckin’ crazy, man. Stoned on crack cocaine! Damned! Did ye see
that?”
Jonny smiled. And nodded confirmingly.
“Yeah, that guy was in a hell of a hurry. And wasted.”
“Damn, Jonny. I’ll call 9-1-1. It’s a fuckin’ bank robbery in broad daylight! I
don’t fuckin’ believe this!”
Eric had hardly put the receiver back on the hook when two patrol cars arrived,
independent of his phone call, with all sirens going full blast and blinkers flashing
as usual. Eric eagerly flagged down the first of them.
“Ye’re looking for a bank robber, heh?”
“Fuckin’ right! Have you noticed anything unusual?”
“It’s gonna be the quickest job ye ever did, officer. A fuckin’ crackhead came
running down the road and entered that second building to the right. In the corner
apartment!”
“If you’re fuckin’ with me, you’re in trouble!”
“It’s the fuckin’ truth, man!”
Barely seconds later the street swarmed with patrol cars and police officers surrounding the building. To Jonny it looked like a scene out of a gangster movie. Two
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officers knocked on the door, but when nobody answered they quickly shot their way
into the apartment. Only minutes later they came back out dragging a handcuffed
individual between them. Effectively they threw him into the rear seat of one of the
patrol cars and had him taken away, sirens going full blast. The two officers approached Eric.
“Allow me to commend you on your excellent powers of observation. Short of
being caught red handed this was probably the quickest solved bank robbery in US
history. Help me with some facts here, my friend, and I’ll recommend you for a
generous reward. Truly an excellent observation!”
Eric just shook his head in disbelief.
“The guy wasn’t exactly trying to hide anything. He simply came running down
the road waving the cash in his hand for anybody to see. He was fuckin’ stoned, man.
How much did he get away with?”
“Twenty thousand dollars.”
Eric’s drug addiction and laziness had at least helped solve a bank robbery. He
kept telling his story all day long to anybody who would take the time and listen to
him. He was now the center of attraction, the self-proclaimed hero of the day.
Out of sight, out of mind. Jonny did not feel convinced that he would ever see the
Hoskinses again. So many times apartment hunters had promised to return without
ever coming back. Instead of telling him they were not interested, or that this was not
exactly what they were looking for, they pretended to be very interested without ever
having any intention of returning. The easiest way out. Americans were funny that
way. Therefore he felt ninety percent sure that he would never see the Hoskinses
return to the Hotel.
He was wrong. At two sharp, just as promised, Mother Goose and her little duckling came striding up the walkway heading straight for the office, her hungjaw trembling with every step she took. She started speaking from the doorway.
“Well, here I am at two sharp just as promised. My father always impressed upon
me the importance of punctuality in a business relationship. Have you considered my
proposal?”
“I have to tell you straight forward that I am not in a position to hire two full time
professionals like you right now. This is only a fifteen unit apartment building which
in no way can sustain such extra expenditures. That being said I must admit the idea
is a tempting one. I could definitely need a hand running this place. I’ve been here
over a year now without hardly having as much as a weekend off. — Well, I’m afraid
my resources are too limited. However, the apartment is still available if you want
it.”
Claudia Hoskins’ hungjaw started shaking again. “I have no intentions of letting
my managerial skills result in a strain on your economy. My father, who was a German, always impressed upon me that working for someone is identical to making
money for that person or organization. If I run a place like this, I intend to make
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money for you. Lots of money. I’ll turn this place into a solid goldmine if you let me.
After that, if you would ever be interested in selling the place, I would be most
interested in taking it over. My father always thought me to prove my worth before
making demands. I will start making money for you. Lots of money. I am good people! Including my husband, of course. My mother, Amanda, who was a Norwegian,
always impressed upon me the importance of being trustworthy.”
“Your mother is a Norwegian”?
“She came from a small place on the west coast called Bergen. Died five years
ago. But I was never my mother’s favorite. I was always my father’s little girl. Wolfgang Schwartzenberger. Solid name. Solid man. My mother, Amanda Schwartzenberger, cared more for my sister, Lillemor. They’re both dead now.”
“Do you speak the language?”
“Heeh, he. All I can say is ‘lutefisk’ and ‘tissen takk.’ But I am good at making
krummkakes!”
“Ha, ha, ha. Yeah. Well, I decided last night I wanted to make you a proposal.
Then I decided against it because I figured you wanted to get started immediately.
However, if you don’t mind waiting until January 1, we might work something out.
Money is better during season. I will not be able to hire your husband, but if he’s
interested, I could start him off by giving him all the odd jobs immediately.”
“My husband accepts. We also need the apartment. In just a few weeks Seaside
Inn will go seasonal and the rent will increase from $140.00 a week to $430.00 for
two little rooms. That’s triple. Some of the apartments they even quadruple. It’s
extortion! — — So, congratulations! You’ve hired two future managers. I promise
you won’t regret it!”
“Well, I must stress —”
“I need to take a quick look at the apartment. I will not accept it blindfolded.”
“Of course. I’ll show it to you. Please, let me talk to the tenants first.”
Lisa was out working so Jennifer opened up. Grouchy and unfriendly as usual she
made excuses for the mess in the apartment, and declined to let them in. Somehow
Claudia made her change her mind, so she finally let them take a look. Claudia inspected the apartment much in the same manner a drill sergeant would inspect his
company. Timid Tobby kept his distance two, three feet behind her and just nodded
confirmingly to any and all of her comments.
“I’ll take this apartment, Tobby! It’s exactly what we’ve been looking for.”
“Ifp you s-say so, it’s fine wifp me. Maybe Claudette would like to see it?”
“Claudette will do as I say!”
“Ifp you fink so.”
Right away Claudia seemed to be hitting it off with grouchy Jennifer. Somehow
they seemed to have a lot in common. At least they had a lot to talk about. Jonny did
not realize it, but ‘the new manager’ was already inquiring about the property, it’s
tenants and how it was run. When Claudia entered the office, she immediately informed Jonny that they would be moving in the same evening.
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“I’m afraid that’s impossible. They won’t be moving out until Sunday night.
They’re not the friendliest tenants you can come across, that’s for sure.”
“They have rented a house as of November 1. Fully furnished. The only reason
they’re still staying here is because the electricity is included in the rent. I’ve made
arrangements with them. They’ll be out of here before eight this evening.”
Although taken by surprise Jonny had no objections. He prepared the papers, the
security deposit and gave her the receipt for one week’s rent. He immediately experienced the fact that Claudia Hoskins had a strong will and a mind of her own.
“That’s unfair!” Her hungjaw started shaking. “I will only pay rent as of Sunday
morning. The balance is a matter between the tenant and myself. You’re not going
to punish me for getting rid of them three days earlier than expected, are you? I shall
start paying rent as of this coming Sunday!”
Again Jonny had no objections.
“Well, I’ll accept, provided they will not come running into my office demanding
a refund.”
“I have settled that!”
“Then it’s ok.”
“There’s one more thing.” Her hungjaw started shaking again. “If you want me
to run this place for you, it has to be based on mutual trust. It makes no sense to me
that you will trust me with running this place, but at the same time you will not trust
me enough to let me move in without paying a security deposit. Do you see my
point?”
“It has nothing to do with trust or not. It’s just routine. Everybody pays security
deposit.”
“I’m not refusing to pay. Just asking you to reconsider, and to make a positive
exception for me as your future manager. You will not regret it.”
So this was the woman who believed in proving her worth before making demands!
Jonny started getting irritated. First she had talked the tenants into moving out
earlier than supposed. Then she refused to pay her rent from the day she moved in
and now she more or less demanded not to pay the security deposit. And at the same
time making it all seem so reasonable. This woman had all the requirements it would
take to turn into a true nuisance and pestilence. Maybe a female Kirk Coleman.
Jonny once again hated himself for being so yielding to these people.
“Ok. I’ll forget security and key deposits. I’ll let you stay for free until Sunday
and I’ll let you move in tonight. Make sure you prove worthy of it.”
“You will not regret it. I’m good people! We’re good, solid Americans with a
solid country background. You’ll soon learn the difference between good, solid
country folks and phony city slickers, I promise!”
Looking out the window between the blinds Jonny noticed some female-looking
creature heading up the walkway and approaching the office. Jonny sat mesmerized
watching her as she determinedly headed for the office door. In a very slow walk, as
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if she were more or less floating through space, she approached with large eyes
staring emptily into the air, her body huge, her face flaccid and her movements slow.
She quietly entered the office. Still, her presence felt overpowering. When Claudia
realized her daughter had entered, she angrily turned toward her. She growled at her
rather than talked.
“What are you doing here? I told you to wait in the car! Go back and wait in the
car right away!”
With a lifeless expression upon her face Claudette slowly opened her mouth to
speak. She had a hard time moving her tongue and uttered the words in a slow blur.
“But mother, it’s burning hot inside the car. I am soaking wet. I needed some
fresh air.”
Jonny’s heart sunk. ‘Damned. What an ugly bitch! Another crackhead!’ That’s
why the daughter hadn’t accompanied them in the first place! — Well, it was too late
now. He knew he shouldn’t have rented to these people.
“Jonny, this is my daughter, Claudette. Named for myself. She’s experienced
some problems lately. Hopefully moving down to South Florida will do her a lot of
good. Claudette, this is our new landlord. Say ‘hello.’”
“Heelloo.”
She smiled emptily, as if searching for somebody in the room to smile at.
“Hello.”
Jesus Christ, this was a weird one. Jonny returned her smile, hoping nobody could
read his mind. But no such luck. Claudia knew right away what he was thinking.
“Jonny, I will explain about my daughter later.”
Then she addressed her like a growling dog.
“Go back in the car.”
“But mother, it’s scorching —”
”Go back in the car!”
“Yes, mother.”
With a heavy sigh, like somebody letting air out of a huge balloon, and, after having lifted herself around, she started walking back toward the station wagon. Jonny
felt confused. He looked from Claudia to Tobby, from Tobby to Claudia. Tobby
hadn’t said a single word since they came. He just sat there flashing his stupendous
smile and nodding in confirmation every time Claudia shook her hungjaw. But then
she also barked at Tobby.
“Tobby, go make sure Claudette stays in the car!”
“Ifp you say so.” Tobby stood, somewhat confused, but did not protest.
“Let me apologize for my daughter. She usually behaves better than this.”
“I’ve seen no wrongdoings by your daughter. If she has to stay inside that car in
this scorching sunshine, I feel sorry for her. Besides, she’s obviously no minor.”
“She’s twenty-nine years old, but she’s not like other children. You may say she
is a little slow. I don’t always know how to handle her. Anyway, she’s my responsibility!”
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Jonny had no answer and the office filled with pressing silence. Claudia Hoskins
simply would not allow an atmosphere like that to linger, so instead of continuing the
conversation in a normal manner, she stood, shook her hungjaw to inform Jonny she
would return with some of their stuff in about two hours, and strode down the walkway like a queen on stilts. Jonny shook his head admitting to himself that he was
not cut out for this job.
Once again he had jumped from the frying-pan into open fire.
Except? Well, he did not really believe it, but maybe the Hoskinses would buy the
place from him before it became too late. He silently prayed for a miracle.
He felt tired now. If only he had a place to rest his head!
As promised the Hoskinses were back in two hours with a wagon-load of personal
belongings. Lisa and Jennifer had more or less vanished into thin air. They did not
stop by in the office, not even to collect their security deposit, so Jonny wondered
what was going on. Well, he’d leave that to Claudia. She seemed more than capable
of taking care of herself and her family.
He needed to get away from the property for a few hours and decided to try Beefsteak Charlie one more time. To his pleasant surprise his favorite waitress spotted
him while he waited to be seated. She smiled invitingly.
“Nice to see you, Jonny. Still enjoying your strips, heh?”
“A man gotta eat. But I’m surprised to see you here. I thought you were working
someplace else.”
“Just stopped by to pick up my last paycheck. I have a few minutes. I’ll talk to
you at your table.”
“Maybe you’ll let me buy you a steak, heh?”
“Maybe. Talk to you in a moment.”
She kept watching as Jonny was taken to one of the nice tables by the picture
windows overlooking the Intracoastal. Or New River. To his disappointment he was
approached by the same waiter who had served him the last time. He nodded stiffly
without smiling as he handed him the menu. Jonny was about to order as the waiter
was interrupted.
“Be with you in a moment, sir.”
He did not return, but Jonny did not mind because his favorite waitress did. He
had never seen her this friendly before.
“So you’re ready for that steak, heh?”
“I’d love to, but I’ll have to take a raincheck. I wanted to talk to you because I
learned about that incident the last time you were here. Many of the waiters and
waitresses were rather unfriendly toward me when I was working here because many
of the patrons always asked that they be served by me. I encouraged them, of course.
Just like I did you. So I left much because I did not feel wanted here. Now the servers
are taking it out on my old customers. Last time you were here, they deliberately
served you a lousy meal. A cold, bloody steak, burned potatoes, slow service — and
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they spit in your vine. Anything they could think of. When someone returns their
steaks, they simply have a habit of spitting on the food before returning it. Believe
me or not, but when you were here the last time, they served you potatoes that they
recovered from the waste basket. I saw what usually went on in the kitchen, so I quit.
Just a few weeks ago they hired a new cook. A rough Haitian guy who’s too lazy to
properly prepare the meat. He just serves what he’s got. Many servers have tried to
get rid of him, but without success, simply because he’s engaged in a sexual relationship with the manager, that tiny, little bald fellow. With sloppy service like this the
patrons simply stop coming. If you look about you, don’t you see how much slower
they are now than they used to be?”
Jonny was fuzzy about his food. He started feeling uneasy, and queasy.
“Yes, but I thought it was only the quiet before the storm. The season starts in
a few weeks.”
“No. Rumors are spreading. They’re getting a hell of a reputation. People are
staying away. I’m working over at Houston’s now. Why don’t you come over and see
me at my new workplace? I promise you’ll be in good hands. Their steaks are excellent. Their potatoes, too. Ha, ha, ha.”
“Thanks. That’s nice to know. I’ve been over there a couple of times, but the lines
were so endless I gave it up.”
“Yeah. It’s busy. Very popular. You have to pay for the vine, too, but their food
is good value for the money. Anyhow, hope to see you soon. Just ask the hostess for
Holly and I’ll be your server. By the way, I hear you stiffed the waiter last night?”
“Well, you just told me they served me trash for food. The service was no better.”
“I’d be careful with my next meal if I were you. Good luck.”
Jonny was left alone. He did not realize that not giving a tip was such a big deal.
To him ‘tips’ were the initials in ‘To Insure Proper Service.’ If he did not receive
proper service, he did not offer tips. He had always considered the American system
of giving tips a rather degrading system for the waitresses. Like having to live on
handouts because the restaurant owners were too cheap to give them proper wages.
At least they should have the service charge included in the price in a civilized manner. But then again, with an attitude of measuring every little trifle in dollars and
cents nobody would probably care to insure proper service if they new they got the
cash, no matter what. He was kept waiting for exactly twenty-two minutes before the
waiter reappeared. Jonny suspected what he had coming.
“Sorry to keep you waiting, sir. Ready to order?”
“A New York strip, well done, with two baked potatoes.”
Again Jonny was kept waiting. For thirty-four minutes, to be exact. Not even the
carafe of vine was brought over to his table as usual. When the waiter finally did
return, he was served a very small steak, not well done, but raw, with two pieces of
charcoaled potatoes like the night before. The carafe of vine was hardly half full. He
checked the food to see if someone had spit on it, but of course he saw nothing.
Still, Holly had effectively killed his appetite. He flagged down the waiter.
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“This must be the smallest 18 ounce steak in America. And it’s not well done. It’s
not even raw. It’s bleu. Besides, I ordered my potatoes baked, not charcoaled.”
“Sorry, sir. I’ll attend to it immediately.”
“Thank you.”
Jonny waited exactly fourteen minutes for the food to be returned to him. Instead
of having the steak returned well done, it was as bleu as ever, and cold. Again Jonny
checked to see if his food had been spat on, but of course he saw nothing. His two
potatoes were as charcoaled as ever. And cold. He felt convinced that the plate had
simply been left in the kitchen and then returned to him when cold. He felt an inexplicable irritation surge through his body. He felt like getting up and knocking that
little baldheaded simpleton flat to the floor. He managed to control himself.
“This is an insult. Please let me see the manager!”
“Sorry, sir. The manager is not available tonight.”
Jonny stood. “Then I suggest you take your shit and shove it! Pigs back home
don’t eat food like this!”
“Sorry, sir. I can only serve you the food as prepared. You don’t have to eat it.”
“If you will not let me see the manager, I’ve told you what you can do with that
pigfood. I’ve not touched any of it. Serve it to somebody else!”
Jonny started walking away.
“You have been drinking more than half of that vine, sir. You’ll have to pay or
I’ll have to call the police, sir.”
Jonny started toward the exit.
“I’ve touched nothing, and you know it. If you will not let me see the manager,
or the hostess, I suggest you do call the police the sooner the better. And I will call
the press!”
Jonny was nearing the exit with the waiter at his heels.
“You have to honor the check, sir.”
Jonny was about to throw a twenty dollar bill in his face, but decided against it.
The waiter would probably just put it in his pocked, anyway. Jonny managed to control his first impulse. He would not give him the satisfaction.
“Tell your fucking manager that I will stop by to see him when he becomes available. Until then — good bye! If you want to call the police — good luck!”
When Jonny turned the corner into Progresso Road he experienced a sight only too
familiar. Two police cars with blinkers flashing were parked in front of the Hotel.
Plus three ambulances. The same surge of anxiety that he felt every time he saw a
police officer, hit him. Damned! They were already waiting for him! That fucking
waiter must have called the police on him, after all. But why the ambulances?
When he turned the corner into the walkway leading up to his office, he noticed
the door to eleven being wide open, with police officers running back and forth in
front of the door. Then two officers came dragging someone, a caucasian male in his
early twenties, between them out through the door of the apartment.
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Behind the officers came Claudia, behind Claudia little Tobby and behind little
Tobby huge and flaccid Claudette, the half-wit. What a procession! So out of this
world, but still for real. Jonny wondered what had happened. He passed the officers,
a black male and a white female, and addressed Claudia.
“What’s happened? Is there a problem?”
“Not any more there is!”
With her hungjaw shaking Claudia stared Jonny straight in the eyes.
“That drug addict over there broke through the back door and right into
Claudette’s bedroom almost taking her out of her wits. With her screaming and him
yelling and cursing he came right at me on the kitchen floor. I was busy unpacking,
so with both hands on the handle I knocked him down cold with the frying pan. I
thought I had killed him, but the paramedics managed to get him back on his feet. All
wasted on crack cocaine! — What kind of place is this? A crack den in a drug
neighborhood? The first night here and we have our apartment burglarized by a drug
addict! You did not inform us of this.”
“No. That’ss right. He didn’t!”
Tobby automatically confirmed Claudia’s accusations. Claudette said nothing.
Just stared into empty air with lifeless eyes. Jonny smiled.
“I had no way of knowing this would happen. I don’t know if this is just the way
life is living among crazy city slickers instead of solid country folks, but I do know
that I’m not willing to take the blame for the deterioration of the inner cities all
across Southern Florida. Maybe the situation is beyond repairs, but I can promise you
one thing: I’ve had nothing to do with it! As much as I have been trying to keep this
place free of drugs it’s been useless. And the police have caused more problems than
given solutions. I used to believe they were scared or stupid. Now I believe they’ve
been bought.”
Claudia’s hungjaw started shaking again, but without making any sounds, this
time. Jonny concentrated on the officers just about ready to throw the perpetrator
inside the vehicle when they were distracted by two other officers.
Quicker than a jolt out of the blue the crackmonster pulled away, and, freed from
the grips of the officers, started running down the street. There he stopped to evaluate
his situation and amazingly fast managed to climb the six foot high fence surrounding the property. On top of the fence he once more changed his mind, and, instead
of jumping down on the other side of the fence, made a giant leap from the top of one
of the aluminum fence poles and on to the rooftop of the one story apartment building in front of him.
While he kept running around the slightly hipped roof looking for a way to get
down, the police called in reenforcements and surrounded the whole building. Looking confused and wasted he kept running around the edges of the hipped rooftop.
Jonny felt certain he did not even realize he was on top of a roof. Three of the
officers had their guns pointing at him and screaming for him to come down or take
a bullet.
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Apparently the guy did not know what to do, so in desperation he ran back toward
the front of the building. With the shrill, penetrating cry of an eagle in flight, he tried
to jump down from the roof and into the street. One of his legs got caught in the top
fence wire, and he fell face down right into the sidewalk underneath. Jonny could
heard bones crackle as he hit the concrete. But somehow the guy got back up on his
feet, and, with a bloody face he started shouting obscenities at one of the black police
officers approaching him.
“Stay away! I don’t want your fucking hands on me, you fuckin’ blackassed niggerqueer! Keep your fuckin’ paws away from me, you filthy nigger! I hate them niggers! Fuckin’ niggers! I’ll fuckin’ kill you, motherfuckin’ monkey!”
Jonny could see the anger and hatred in the eyes of the police officer. One of his
comrades moved in behind the mad kid and knocked him out of this world with one
fierce blow from his baton. As he fell, they jumped him from behind and had him
handcuffed before he hit the ground.
Taking no chances this time they had him shackled in seconds, and, with about
a dozen spectators watching, including Eric as usual, Jonny heard the hard, muffled
thud from his head hitting the opposite door as he was thrown face down into the
back seat of the patrol car. That black officer jumped into the rear seat almost simultaneously. Two other officers jumped into the front seat, and, with sirens howling
and flashers blinking, took off with screeching wheels. Jesus Christ, that guy had
seen better days!
Two of the officers came running toward the Hoskinses.
“Somebody will file charges, right?”
Nobody answered. He addressed Claudia directly.
“He broke into your apartment and tried to rape your daughter, right! You don’t
want to let him get away without paying for it, do you?”
Claudia seemed reluctant, a bit confused, but for once Tobby took action as he
shot his lacking chin forward.
“Ifp you say so, officer, I will file charges.”
“I appreciate it. Come into my car and I will fill out the papers before you sign
them. Assaulting and insulting a police officer is going to cost him dearly. When we
finish with him, he’s gonna wish he never saw daylight!”
Eric stood next to Jonny.
“Did ye hear that, Jonny? ‘Assaulting and insulting a police officer.’ No need to
go to the courthouse to file charges this time. This time the officer will do it voluntarily out of the good in his own pure heart, and out of his own vehicle. That’s how
they’re supposed to do it every damned time, but they’re usually too damned lazy to
lift a finger for ye. That guy’s in trouble. When he wakes up tomorrow he’s gonna
wonder what mountain hit him. Not remembering anything! He got wasted on a bad
trip, Jonny. A real bad trip. That’s all. He didn’t know what the he was doing. Oh,
my God, I’d hate to be in his shoes when he wakes up tomorrow.”
Eric moved closer.
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“If he wakes up tomorrow morning. Why do you think that black officer jumped
into the rear seat with him? For revenge, of course. If this guy will ever see the daylight, he’s gonna be one lucky devil. In a couple of days from now, somebody’ll probably pick him up from the Intracoastal, and you won’t even read about in the papers.
Mark my words.”
Jonny shivered with goose bumps. He had wondered why that black officer would
jump into the rear seat with the prisoner. Eric knew the system. Jonny also realized
that Eric had a two-way attitude toward the police. He hated and despised them from
his own experiences with them, but applauded and defended them when their rotten
behavior sometimes came out in his own favor.
Then again, that was typical of many Americans’ attitude toward their own police
force. They kept calling 9-1-1 all day long, but when the police really needed help
to put dangerous criminals away behind bars for some time, they shied away, partly
out of indifference and partly out of fear of retaliation both from the police and the
criminals. Too often, however, because of lack of confidence in their own police
force. Jonny saw so many dilemmas in this country. Catch 22s. Dead ends.
Just like the Americans he experienced the frustrations, but had no solutions.
Jonny inconspicuously retreated to the office for some rest and solitude. Only minutes later Claudia Hoskins authoritatively knocked on the office door.
“I’d like to talk to you, Jonny. May I come in?”
She entered without waiting for an answer. He sighed.
“Ah, yeah, what can I do for you?”
“I actually came to apologize for Claudette’s behavior the other day, and also for
my own behavior a while ago. I’m sorry, but we were all so upset. I hope you accept
my apology. Of course you cannot be blamed for some drug addict breaking into our
apartment even before we’ve properly moved in. I learned that one of the girls in our
apartment was dealing drugs, and I figured somebody tried to break in looking for
marihuana or cocaine or something.
We do have a terrible drug situation in this country, not only in the cities, but also
in the rural districts. Our country’s taken a dip, Jonny. A great plunge. It’s the pits,
and I think it’s going to get a lot worse before it starts getting better. I knew before
we decided to come down here that South Florida was having a terrible drug problem. And, as beautiful as it is down here in Fort Lauderdale, the Venice of America,
I have read about this city being the most crime ridden in the entire United States. I
have felt appalled by all the homeless, the prostitutes, the drug addicts and all the
pushers. Not to mention all the homosexuals.
It feels to me as if God has totally forsaken us. Or we God. We have totally moved away from the commandments of the Lord. Day by day we’re moving further and
further away. That’s why our beloved nation has not hit rock bottom yet. When it
does, I promise you it’s gonna be a hard fall — like an eagle plunging into the ground
with broken wings. That’s how eagles fall, Jonny. With broken wings. After they hit
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177
the ground they crawl back on their feet again. And learn to fly. So will we. Just like
we always have — if our politicians do not totally destroy us by sending all our jobs
to overseas countries. This new, draft-dodging, pot-smoking, womanizing President
epitomizes the decline of our great nation. Being carried into the White House by the
homosexual vote the first action he took was trying to put homosexuals into our armed forces. He’s an abortionist, a Hollywood-lover, a manipulator and a totally corrupt individual presenting himself as a Christian. That’s blasphemy!
At the same time he is a true and patriotic American, fully representative of his
generation. They say he’s just the first among a new breed of Presidents! It’s the pits.
It stinks! It’s a political cesspool where the biggest shits always float to the top. No
wonder God is punishing us! No wonder we are so far away from rock bottom yet!
But if God does not totally destroy us, like he did Sodom and Gomorrah, we’ll crawl
back on our feet again. Like always. The Lord willing.”
“Hopefully that will happen before it is too late. The world is not standing still,
you know. Take Japan, for instance. Just one of the seven tigers on the march around
the Pacific rim. And China, with one fifth of the world’s population. Take a new and
unified, powerful Europe. And a slowly emerging Eastern Europe. Not to mention
the Arab countries impoverishing this country as a result of it’s dependency upon oil
— with sky high oil prices!
After the second world war, the Pacific, a body of water comprising one third of
the world’s surface, was considered an American lake with the United States in
reality ruling all the nations in that hemisphere except for Tahiti under France.
Where is that power now? Where is that influence now?
Except for inconspicuous American Samoa and tiny Guam the United States has
nothing left! But Tahiti is still a French possession!
Why has this country dropped from the world’s most influential creditor nation
to the world’s decidedly largest indebted nation in less than three decades? Today
an average American must work three times as many hours to be able to buy an
average new car. I used to live here in the sixties, and I’m living here now. The
contrast is short of Heaven and Hell only. Why!”
”Maybe we’ve lost a few battles along the way, like the one in Vietnam, but we
won the big war. The Cold War.”
“Bullshit! Except for Germany and Japan no major participant won the Cold War!
The Soviet Union lost it just a little bit ahead of the United States, that’s all. After
the termination of the Cold War the remains of the Soviet Union, as well as the
United States, were left sitting on the economic pissing pot with their pants down.
That was no victory the way the Second World War was for the United States!”
“We moved away from God, Jonny. We started living our lives in immoral selfindulgence. As a nation we let riches corrupt our souls and started praying to Mammon. The women let corrupt individuals like the new President and perverts like the
entertainer Michael Jackson become role models. Our men started praying to the
likes of Madonna instead of Jesus Christ.”
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I, Claudia —
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Jonny sat shivering. He had been thinking along the same lines himself. Except
for her looks Claudia started reminding him of his own mother. How could an American think like this?
“So — you’re actually saying that this country deserves punishment like Sodom
and Gomorrah?”
“Punishment — yes. Total destruction — no! Remember, in the cities of Sodom
and Gomorrah the Lord found only three righteous souls — Lot, the only man not
living in deadly sin, and his two virgin daughters. I’m sure we’ll do better than that
in this country. At least there’s me, Claudia, my husband, Tobby, and my daughter,
Claudette, and her son, Perry. But there is no guarantee that the United States will
not lose its greatness. It is written in the Good Book that when the people of Israel,
God’s own people, have returned safely to their homeland and start living in relative
security, God will no longer need a strong United States for the protection of Israel.
We see the coming of that time now. But it will not happen while the two great peace
doves are still alive. After that, maybe the Lord no longer has the need for a strong
and powerful United States.
There is no longer a Roman Empire, Jonny, but there is still Rome. The British
Empire, once the greatest of all empires, has all but lost it’s former glory and greatness, but London still exists. Hitler is dead and there is no longer a Third Reich, but
Berlin has once again risen. The Soviet Union no longer exists, either, but Moscow
is still strong. Even if the United States shall disintegrate, Washington will remain!
And Jonny, do you believe that the Romans were happier under Nero the Emperor
than they are today under John the Pope? I doubt it!
Maybe, Jonny, when the United States no longer has the power to carry the burdens of the rest of the world on her shoulders, and Mammon is no longer King and
Madonna no longer Queen, we shall see a new Washington of brotherly love. And
new Philadelphia! Maybe that’s when we’ll start crawling back on our feet again!
Like a giant revitalized.
Can’t you see it, Jonny? An impoverished old giant barely managing to crawl
along on his belly because of overexertion. He lays down to rest and his power
slowly starts flowing through his veins again until his arms become strong enough
to lift him up on his knees. He keeps crawling on his knees until he reaches a
mountain cliff or a tree strong enough to help the crawling giant pull himself back
on his own two feet. From then on the giant will no longer stagger along on the broad
road that leads away from God, but start walking steadfastly on the narrow path
leading into the Kingdom of Heaven. The eagle shall once again rise! Glory Hallelujah! The Lord be praised!”
Claudia stretched her two arms into the air with her face lifted and her eyes staring at the ceiling. Jonny sat silently watching her work herself into a frenzy, her eyes
wild, her countenance sinister. She was a Born Again Christian, all right!
When Jonny did not answer, she let go some of her tension and sat silently remaining in her own world. She finally asked him very quietly.
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“Do you believe in God, Jonny?”
“Few people have the guts not to believe in some sort of God. You tell me what
is God, and I’ll tell you whether I believe in him or not.”
“God is love, Jonny.”
“Well, what does love look like?”
“God is almighty!”
“What does omnipotence look like?”
“Surely, Jonny, you must know God!”
“Do you know God? Do you know what he looks like? You tell me he is love and
almightiness, and pretend to know. Well, I don’t. I know some Americans think of
him as an old, senile Uncle Sam sitting on his golden throne somewhere beyond the
skies pointing at people with his crooked, old fingers deciding whether to help them
or hurt them, whether to kill them or let them live, whether they shall be allowed in
Heaven, or doomed to Hell. It would take an idiot to believe in something like that.”
“So what do you believe in?”
“I don’t know. Others, and I think Billy Graham is among those, believe that God
is an ever present spiritual power, without form or shape, in charge of all the powers
of the universe.
Well, that makes better sense, but totally destroys the idea of a personified God,
and the belief of man being created in God’s own image. It leaves you with nothing
but your own imagination. Those heathens praying to the moon and the sun or thunder and lightning were just as correct as anybody else, then. To be honest with you,
nobody has ever been able to explain to me in a sensible way who or what is God.
Neither did you whether born again or not!”
“Don’t you believe in God at all?”
“What God? Allah? Buddha? Jesus Christ? Satan? Icons and effigies? The sun
and the stars? Thunder and lightning? Sacred stones? Totem poles and eagle feathers? Or the god that the whole world prays to more often than all these others combined: The image of George Washington on the single dollar bill? It is difficult to
believe in something you don’t even know what is. It’s as difficult to believe in a
personified god as it is to believe in mountain witches flying on broomsticks or forest
trolls with triple heads. At the same time it takes a mighty, mighty man to admit there
is no God at all. Everything would be in vain then. Without purpose whatsoever. No
future hope. And what would you live for if you had no future hope? — Your everyday struggles?
First you get born into this valley of tears in sin and degradation. The first thing
they do to you is smack your behind and watch you cry. Then they wash you clean
of blood and body fluids.
Finally, after a long life in struggle, you leave this world in total defeat and humiliation. No more bowel movements. You can no longer hold your body fluids or
excrements. As a final farewell to this miserable existence you’re forced into the humiliation of having to piss and shit in your own pants!
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Again you have to be washed clean. Before you start rotting away. ‘From dust to
dust.’ If they don’t burn you to ashes. ‘From ashes to ashes.’ There is no such thing
as a successful life. Only death triumphs! Life always expires in the same manner —
in ultimate defeat and degradation.
Does all this seem like the act of a loving God? Definitely not! But it does, indeed, take a free and brave man to accept that this is all there is!”
About nine Saturday morning Jonny concentrated on reading his newspaper and
enjoying his coffee as usual. Saturdays always meant peace and quiet, sometimes
until late in the afternoon, and Jonny loved it. This morning he was interrupted by
Claudia Hoskins just minutes after he had started reading the paper.
“I’ve come to apologize for last night. I got carried away.”
Jonny hated people always running around apologizing. Why not behave in such
a way that you could live with it?
“There’s no need to apologize for everything you say or do. I enjoy a good discussion on religion as well as politics.”
“I’m not talking about that. I mean the rest of it. It’s the first time in my life I recall having discussed my love life and my first marriage. Not even with Tobby. I
don’t know what came over me, but somehow I felt we were quite compatible.
Anyway, I hope it stays between you and me only. Let it remain a secret between you
and me and the fencepost, as we say back home. No third person will ever know.”
“Of course. What happens in this office, stays in this office. You need not worry
about it.”
“I do worry about it! And it embarrasses me. I made a mistake. That’s why I want
you to confirm that you will never tell anybody. I don’t want my daughter to know.
Or Tobby. Not even God.”
“Trying to outsmart God is a little beyond me, but I want you to know that every
word spoken within these four walls remains within these four walls. I would expect
nothing less from you or anybody else I have confidential discussions with inside this
office. That’s the least I would expect from a manager. Any and all information
about tenants living in this building remains within these four walls.”
“You bet! Thank you. Eh, I actually came to explain about Claudette and I ended
up exposing myself like an open book. That’s unforgivable! For how long did we sit
and talk last night?”
“It was a little after one when you left.”
“Gosh! Five full hours? Well, I did find it interesting. I enjoyed your company,
but I forgot my original purpose. Claudette has gone through a very difficult period
just recently. A nasty divorce. In the process she lost custody of her son, and he is
basically all she cares about.
She’s under heavy sedation, and you cannot always pay attention to her — eh, to
everything she says. She refused to come with us down here because of her boy, so
therefore I — eh, I actually had her declared an unpredictable individual incapable
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181
of motherhood. I then had to sue for custody of my own, grown daughter. I won. So
by law she had to come with me when we moved down here. She always talks about
her situation, and I just wanted you to know the facts before she tries to fill your head
with poisonous lies.”
“There’s no need to tell me anything. I’ve learned to take life for what it is. I’ve
seen more misery the last year alone than the rest of my life combined. I no longer
believe anything I hear. I just register it. So what you told me last night has been duly
registered. It went in through one ear and came out through the other. I’ve also learned to believe only half of what I see. The saying ‘things are not always the way they
seem’ is sometimes so correct — terrifyingly correct. Seeing is not always believing,
Claudia.”
“What exactly do you mean?”
“With everybody telling their lies twenty-five hours of the day trying to present
them as truth, how could I possibly know how to distinguish the truth?
I often feel sorry for the judges in a court of law. With both sides arduously lying
to the best of their professional ability, and they’re highly educated and well trained
for the purpose, the decisions of the juries and the poor judges are too often nothing
but fifty-fifty guesswork.
It also used to be so that a person moved up the corporate ladder based on merits,
but that no longer holds true, either. Today, when a secretary gets promoted, you
know she’s been sleeping with the boss. Today, when a man gets promoted, it is
more often a result of pleasing a homosexual master than the result of hard, decent
work. Just look to Hollywood and the record industry. Or the world of high fashion.
Therefore, how can you believe what you hear if you don’t see? How can you
believe what you see if you don’t know the background? That’s the point!”
Claudia’s hungjaw started vibrating again.
“You confuse me. Are you actually trying to tell me you don’t believe me? That
I’m a liar!”
“No. I was merely trying to assure you that no matter what your daughter might
be trying to tell me in the future, or anybody else I don’t know, I would not automatically take their word for it.”
“Oh? — Oh! — Well, let’s stop wasting our time. Show me how to start managing this place.”
“Already? On a Saturday morning the first day you’re here? You’re not supposed
to get started until after the Holidays.”
“The sooner the better. You teach me what I need to know and I’ll start making
money for you. Lots of money. Tell me about the tenants. Show me the rent roll. Let
me know what bills to pay.”
“Eh, we could at least wait until Monday. Don’t you need the weekend to rest up
a little?”
“Nonsense! We need to get started. Claudette will take care of the house. Tobby
will take care of Claudette and I’ll take care of business! You start introducing me
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I, Claudia —
I tell them Tobby’s from Chicago
to your tenants as your new manager and I’ll start making money for you. Lots of
money. Tons of money!”
Again Jonny was feeling too weak for these people. But okay, if she was that
eager to get started on her path to making him a millionaire, no problem. Although
he figured her more talk than action, he started informing her of the tenants pretty
much in the same manner Ted had done when he himself took it over. She proved an
attentive student, snuffing contemptuously every time he told her somebody was behind on rents. She really got excited when he told her about the eviction procedure,
and the fight he was having to get Jake in fifteen out of the building.
She was left more or less stupendously silent by the time he finished, although
Jonny had not deliberately made things seem any worse than they really were. He
had barely mentioned the drug and prostitution problems.
After a long period of silent contemplation she suddenly slammed her fist on the
desk.
“Come Monday morning I’ll start getting rid of the rent dodgers and have them
in the street before the sun has gone down! I’ll call the police and have them thrown
in the street in no time. This is ridiculous! How can you run this place if you let the
tenants live here without paying rent?”
Jonny took the necessary time to explain to her about the police and how they had
deliberately caused problems for him instead of helping him according to the law. He
also mentioned his suspicion that some pushers were under police protection and that
some officers in all probability got paid off. He also explained how the former sheriff
had more or less been running his own narcotics and pussy dealership with confiscated drugs and arrested prostitutes, in exchange of them not being prosecuted or
incarcerated.
Claudia sat listening to him with her mouth half open and with involuntary outbursts of indignation.
“I’ll have this cleaned up in no time! And I know about Louis Lawrence, the former sheriff. You see, my nephew runs the whole sheriff’s department. He considers
the present sheriff one of his best friends. But, before anything else, come Monday
morning I’ll have the police over here. I won’t let them leave until I watch the rent
dodgers crawling in the gutter! Grown-ups and children alike. I promise you!”
Jonny studied Claudia as she exposed her self-consciousness. With her eyes wild,
her hungjaw trembling and her pinkish complexion reddened with excitement she
reminded Jonny pretty much of a pitbull ready to lock jaws. He felt sorry for little
Tobby. His life must be a bitch, all right!
“I’ll take care of this, Jonny. The only thing I’m asking from you is that you back
me up. When the tenants pay rent during the day and evening, I want you to introduce me to all of them informing them that I am the new manager. Remember, I am
the manager! If you’re not present, I’ll tell them myself. As of this very minute I’ll
start managing the office for you while you eat. — Then, after we get rid of all the
rent dodgers, we need to start looking for a better clientele. I’ll be screening the
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183
tenants from now on. I’ll run a thorough credit check on every single one of them
before I let them move in. Things are gonna be different from now on! I’ll start
making money for you — tons of money. You’ll even be able to make a trip back
home knowing your place is in good hands. I’m a Born Again Christian. I do this out
of love for my fellow man and out of respect for the word of God. ‘Do to others as
you would have them do to you.’ I’m goood people, Jonny!”
Jonny became more and more skeptical as he listened to her. ‘Big words and fat
pork don’t get stuck in the throat,’ as they say about politicians, but in Jonny’s mind
Claudia was bragging hard enough to choke herself. At the same time he’d like to
give her as free hands as possible. If she was good for only a fraction of the impression she tried to give, he had found himself a manager, all right. A formidable one!
All day long Claudia spent in the office. When Jonny left for lunch, she remained in
the office. When Tobby put his little mouseface into the office informing her lunch
was ready, she excused herself, but returned within minutes.
To Jonny’s surprise she had a very special way with people. Friendly, but authoritative, she commanded liking as well as respect. Jonny often felt embarrassed at
things she would say, and the way she sometimes intimidated people, but somehow
few seemed to mind.
At four he went down to Tom’s Alley Bar so that he could be alone for some
time, but when he returned after one Johnny Walkers in each leg, and one in the middle, she was still on post like a general without uniform. She recommended that the
spare desk, now placed against the wall, be turned around and moved away from the
wall with enough space behind it so that she could place a chair there for herself.
That was also the way Allan had done it.
She brought an old telephone and connected it to her desk. Just like that, without
spending a single dime, she had created a separate work station for herself situated
opposite the door so that people would face her first when they entered the office.
In front of the desk she placed one chair. Tobby also needed a place to sit whenever
he chose to come for a visit, which he started doing more often than Jonny liked.
He had no way of knowing, but behind their backs the tenants started calling them
‘the Three Stooges.’
At eight in the evening on that first Saturday Jonny had to ask her to leave because he needed to eat dinner. Then, to his great dismay, he was invited to eat with
them as part of the family, but he politely refused, his silly excuse being that all week
long he had been yearning for his weekly steak. He did not want to eat with the Hoskinses. They were too sloppy.
He would never more return to Beefsteak Charlie, so he decided on Ruth’s Chris
Steak House that evening. A bit too expensive, but he would at least allow himself
a decent steak now and then. He enjoyed one of his best steaks ever, but with only
half a bottle of red vine. He missed the generous number of carafes served at Beefsteak Charlie.
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On his way home he stopped by at Solid Gold for a couple of drinks, but since he
was not approached by any of the girls, he left after a very short stay.
He entered the office feeling relaxed and tired, and planned to lock the door and
roll out the futon within minutes, but to his disappointment Claudia was on the door
before he had managed to properly sit down. She had her own desk now, and really
seemed to enjoy it. And she simply loved delivering her many speeches to Jonny. But
he was in doubt of how long he would be able to endure this.
“I try to talk to Tobby now and then, but unless we’re having an argument, all he
says is ‘ifp you say so’ and ‘ifp you fink so.’”
She imitated him in such a way Jonny could not keep from laughing. Under different circumstances, when he was less tired, he would have enjoyed her discussions,
and stories, as well. She was quite a storyteller. But right now he was more asleep
than awake as he tried to keep his eyes open.mAt eleven he reminded her of the time,
but she did not take the hint. At twelve he once more reminded her that it was now
after midnight. But it was still close to one o’clock when she left. Tobby had been
over a couple of times wondering what went on, but when she finally decided to call
it a day, Tobby was sound asleep. She had told Jonny straight to his face that she
enjoyed his company better than that of her daughter and her husband.
“Claudette’s a mere simpleton. All Tobby ever says is ‘ifp you say so.’ So, besides myself, you are the only interesting person in the vicinity. The only one I can
intelligently relate to.”
When Jonny rolled out his futon after two that Saturday evening, with his clothes
on, he immediately fell asleep. But only few hours later, a little before seven in the
morning, he was awaken by someone knocking on the office door. Half dazed and
grouchy he staggered to his feet and opened.
“Claudia? How come you’re up before seven on a Sunday morning?”
“Tobby kept snoring, and I couldn’t sleep. I had too many things on my mind. —
How come this company is still called the Bordeaux Investment Corporation even
after the owners have sold it? Is Andy Bordeaux still the owner?”
“We’ll talk about it later. I need to get back to sleep.”
“I need to know now. Does the corporation still belong to Andy Bordeaux?”
“Of course not. I just bought the stocks without changing the name. Andy actually
never owned the corporation. It was just registered in his name. The owner was Ted
Littlefield. The name doesn’t matter. Everybody’s just calling it the Holiday Park
Hotel, anyway. It’s legally registered as The Bordeaux Investment Corporation, DBA
Holiday Park Hotel. — Now, if that satisfies your curiosity, I’ll go back to sleep.”
“It doesn’t make sense. If you own this company, it would also be registered in
your name.”
“It’s not a company. It’s a corporation. I just bought the stocks. All the stocks are
in my name.”
By now Claudia was seated behind her desk. Jonny felt infuriated by her ignorance, stupidity and stubbornness. And her implications that he was telling lies.
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185
“That’s what I figured. You just bought the stocks! So therefore you don’t own
the company. If I buy stocks in General Motors, it does not mean I own the company.”
“If you buy them all, you do.”
“That’s ridiculous! And impossible! Nobody can buy all the stocks in General
Motors. You’re hiding something from me!”
“No, I’m not. But I understand now how little you know about this. This is not
General Motors, you know. Please, Claudia, I need some sleep. Then, if you want me
to, I’ll explain it all to you in detail. But right now I want to sleep!”
“Don’t come here telling me what I know and what I don’t know! I know very
well that there is a big difference between owning a company and owning some
stocks! You’re hiding something from me!”
“No, I’m not! But right now I want to go back to sleep! Please. Let’s talk about
it later.”
“Are you throwing me out of my office?”
“No! But I’m asking you to leave. I’m dead tired. I need to sleep.”
“You’re too lazy! I can see how you’ve mismanaged this place. But from now on
it’s gonna be business before pleasure and work before sleep! I demand that I get
access to the office twenty-four hours a day, and that I be in possession of my own
key! That is the least I can expect as your manager.”
“Yes, yes. But right now I need to sleep. Let’s talk about it later. Please.”
“You’re being rude, but I’ll leave.” She got up, but stopped, staring at Jonny. “But
I will not accept that you hide the facts from me. If you do, I shall have to perform
my own investigations!” She slammed the door behind her.
Ironically Jonny felt like one among the many homeless Americans. Although not
at all too pleased with his socialistic homeland, he did feel proud to come from a
place were people were civilized enough to create a society where everybody could
have a place to call home. But here the homeless were teeming the streets like cockroaches. In this country they spent such great resources building new prisons inevitably increasing the burden on taxpayers as the new prisons started filling up. When
would Americans become civilized enough to start realizing that a welfare check
generous enough to cover basic room and board would create a lesser burden on society than prostitution, crime, police investigations, court cases — and death row?
If families did not have to worry where the next meal was going to come from,
there would be fewer mothers and housewives in the streets selling pussy, and fewer
husbands pushing drugs. And fewer homeless people. As for himself living in the
land of milk and honey he no longer had a place to rest his head. Not even for a few
hours of privacy.
Maybe Claudia was too dumb to understand his situation, or she simply did not
give a damn. He would try and explain it to her tomorrow, or later today. Right now
he needed to sleep. But sleep would not come. He felt too upset about Claudia being
so pushy. Still, he figured it might be to his own advantage once she got properly
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started. But how come she obviously did not know the difference between a company
and a corporation? Besides, what did she have to do with it?
He was looking forward to Monday when, according to Claudia, the sheriff’s
department would solve his tenant problems. At the same time he worried about
Friday.
Friday was court day, and Ronald would probably witness against him. No matter
what was the truth, Jonny knew the judge would listen to the son of a police captain
who was a citizen and spoke with a genuine American drawl rather than to a foreign
scumbag with an accent, and no influence, seeking residency through an investor’s
visa. It looked good on paper, but it was sabotaged by local authorities.
On a Sunday morning the sun was shining brightly when Jonny finally dozed off
into a deserved but restless sleep.
Claudia and Tobby approached Jonny as he was sitting at one of the patio tables enjoying a Busch and some peanuts.
They wanted to discuss the corporation, but no matter how detailed Jonny tried
to explain the difference between a company and a corporation the more confused
they both seemed to become.
Then, when Jonny mentioned that the corporation was a separate legal entity and
in no way identical with him as a person, they both became convinced that he was
hiding something from them, or worse — bullshitting them something terribly.
Claudia snuffed contemptuously.
“It’s a bunch of crap! You deliberately try to confuse me! You’re hiding something from me! But I shall find out. Or will you try to deny me the right?”
“Ask anybody. I have nothing more to say.”
“Okay. Then we need not discuss it any more! We need to concentrate on tomorrow. What do you want me to do?”
“I don’t know. You’re the one who suggested to get in touch with the police.”
“Will you allow me to throw every tenant who is not paying rent, in the gutter?
Also women and children?”
In anticipation Claudia eagerly rubbed her hands.
“Every single one! And I will love you for your work. I leave everything to you
now. You are the manager!”
“Ok.” She smiled deviously. “I’ll go far for a man’s love. Then I’ll see you tomorrow at seven.”
“No. Not at seven. Not until nine. Most offices are not open until nine, anyway.”
“Ok. First I will take care of the unwanted tenants. Then I will check on the corporation. Ha, ha, ha.”
Trying to make it all sound like a friendly joke she started laughing. “Ha, ha, ha.
You lazy foreigners.”
Tobby tried to laugh in unison with his dominant wife. “Yeef. Ifp you fay so. Fha,
Fha, Fha.”
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187
Jonny could not help but feeling uncomfortable with the Hoskinses, but decided
to give them a chance. For now they might be exactly what he needed. He would
only need to wait until tomorrow to find out.
Monday morning Claudia had barely closed the office door behind her before she
started shouting her first commands.
“Jonny! You go and get me a spare key to the office. In the meantime I’ll get in
touch with the cops and have these rent dodgers either pay up in or face eviction. In
the name of the Lord their days of grace are now over. They’re living at the end
time.”
Jonny was about to object, but decided to combine the trip with a good morning
breakfast. Hm, he had a manager now. Ha, ha, ha.
The walk up to Searstown for a $2,50, plus tax, spare key took him almost an
hour. On his way back, as he was about to turn into Progresso Road, he noticed a police car parked outside the Hotel, so he kept walking until he reached the Pancake
House. He decided to enjoy a good breakfast before he returned to the Hotel.
When Jonny entered the office feeling good on a full stomach, he was greeted by a
grim and sinister-looking couple. The Hoskinses.
“I had the police on the property, Jonny. They tell me you do not have a proper
licence! Why haven’t you told me? I knew — I simply knew you were holding something back on me!”
“What do you mean, ‘not a proper licence?’”
“The police officer told me you could not run this place as a hotel with a licence
for an apartment building. You need a motel licence. You do not have a motel
licence, Jonny!”
“I know that. I have a transient licence. My lawyer has told me in no uncertain
terms that it’s governed by the same law as a hotel licence. It is the same kind of licence that everybody around here has, but they do not have the same problem getting
rid of rent dodgers as I have had! ”
“The police told me that unless you get a motel licence, they could do nothing to
help me.”
Tobby could no longer contain himself.
“Fwhy don’t you tell him fwhat else they said?”
“Let me handle this, Tobby. I know what to tell and I know when to tell! — Yes,
the police told me that they thought you were a French Canadian. That’s why they’ve
refused to help you. They hate the French Canadians down here. They call them, —
well, pardon my French, but they call them ‘cheap bastards’ that have no business
down here in Florida. I had to tell them you were not a French Canadian, but a
Norwegian.”
Tobby grinned.
“Fwhy don’t you tell him fwhat they said then?”
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“Tobby, let me handle this!”
“They told you it made no pfucking difference as long as he fwas a foreigner.
Canadian or Norwegian, it fwas the same pfucking shit, they said.”
“Tobby, stop cursing!”
“I’m not cus-ssing! I’m jus-st telling him what they s-said.”
“Yes, but when I told them I was taking over now, their attitude changed drastically. They became so friendly. Besides, I was so darned lucky. The police officer
on duty was born and raised just a few blocks down the road from our place back
home in Kalamazoo. It was almost like meeting an old friend. And would you believe, Jonny, he told me how to get a motel licence.”
“I don’t think a motel licence is going to make a difference. It’s the same law! It
is just a matter of how they will enforce it.”
“Here in Fort Lauderdale it definitely makes a difference! You know something,
Jonny? It only takes two weeks to get the motel licence. It will only cost you fiftytwo dollars extra. My friend from Kalamazoo gave me all the information I need. I
have called the Hotel and Restaurant Division of Broward County and made arrangements for one of their representatives to stop by and see me. They are the ones to
issue the licence, not the city. I will have this settled in no time.”
“Well, I must say, you definitely don’t waste much time.”
“I have told you before, Jonny, I’m here to make money for you. Tons of money.”
“So this means we’ll be stuck with the rent dodgers for some time to come. What
about Jake Bronx?”
“Oh, they could do nothing about him since you were in the midst of litigations.
You will have to go in court to evict him.”
“That might cause a lot of problems. He’s fighting the eviction with every trick
in the book.”
“Let me handle it, Jonny. I’d love to teach him a lesson!”
“Do you think you could handle it?”
“What a silly question! I took my own thirty year old, recently divorced daughter
to court! I sued for custody and won. The judge said I did great. So he awarded me
custody. I’ll show this guy, Bronx, who he’s dealing with! —
My brother does not own half of Kalamazoo for nothing! And I have the police
on my side. In addition, Tobby’s from Chicago! I know they won’t do much for you
since you’re a foreigner, but come Friday I’ll have that cheap bastard out of here!
Before the evening!”
“You ought to know that Jake Bronx in an ordained minister. He’s an ordained
minister with the California Church of Devil Worshipers. He’s a Satanist.”
Jonny could not have anticipated Claudia’s reaction. She paled, then started sucking for air with an expression of total disbelief hitting her face before she regained
her powers of speech.
“A Devil worshiper! A Satanist! In this building! Are ye telling me you’re renting
to Satanists? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: You’re not doing your job right!
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I tell them Tobby’s from Chicago
189
You leave me no choice, Jonny. With God by my side I’ll get him out of here! And
I’ll send him straight to hell where he belongs! You’re going to have to let me go to
court for you, Jonny. I simply refuse living next door to a Satanist.”
“You bet.”
Claudia’s enthusiasm and self-assuredness started rubbing off. Tobby also seemed
very excited about the idea. He had experienced Claudia in court before. But Claudia
was immediately beginning to seem more concerned about it.
Her belief in God’s glory was not quite strong enough to convince herself that
she’d be able to handle a rent dodging Satanist in a court of law.
“I will not be able to do it all on my own, Jonny. You’ll have to accompany me
to the courthouse. Just in case. You never know what a Devil worshiper might have
up his sleeve.”
Jonny slowly shook his head. He did not at all feel confident that this might work
out. According to his lawyer a landlord was supposed to meet in person. And neither
had he mentioned to Claudia that the son of ex-sheriff Louis Lawrence, would probably testify against them.
Jonny studied Claudia in action that afternoon. Although few really liked her after
getting to know her properly, she had an amazing ability to connect with people.
Friendly, but authoritatively, she cockwalked about the property as if she had managed the place since the first day of it’s construction. She chatted with all the tenants
and told every one she met that she was the new manager. Well, as a matter of fact
she was contemplating a takeover within a couple of months. Money was no obstacle, her brother being one of the wealthiest men in all of Kalamazoo. Her brother
owned most of the city and much of the countryside. And he owed most of his success to her, because she was the one that had provided him with that fabulous business idea. If it hadn’t been for her, he would still be working as a janitor cleaning
toilet bowls for one of his competitors. So, obviously, she’d have no problem coming
up with enough cash. To her brother it would be nothing but peanuts.
Just by chance she started talking to an Italian woman living across the street in
the pink building. She had received notice to move because the place had been rented
to a group of French Canadians willing to pay seasonal rent, actually triple that of the
summer rates.
The woman’s name was Glenda Olden, married to Freeman Olden, a painter and
a Vietnam veteran, not necessarily in that order. They had seven children, but only
three living with them. The oldest, a son, served a prison term on a narcotics conviction. Their oldest daughter had already married, and number three, also a daughter,
were no longer living with the family. Actually, their youngest daughter, Valery, also
spent most of her time staying at her sister’s, so the only ones living with the parents
at this time would be the two youngest boys, Carl of eleven and Freeman junior of
eight. They needed a place within a week. Jonny told Claudia nothing was available
right now, but something might come up any time. One never can tell.
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“Yes. I can tell! They’ve been paying three hundred and forty a week, and now
the rent has increased to six hundred and eighty dollars. For one single week! I told
her she could have a nice apartment in our building for as little as three hundred and
twenty. She considered it inexpensive. Do you realize, Jonny, if we get three hundred
and twenty for a one bedroom apartment, that’s twice the amount you’re presently
getting?”
“Yes, but this place has never been seasonal.”
“That’s a sorry excuse for not making money. This place has never been anything
but a drug infested home for transients. Let me tell you, Jonny, as soon as I get that
motel licence, I’ll start making money for you — tons of money. I’ll go seasonal.”
“No. Half of Florida are transients. And we do not have the standard required for
international tourism. Ted told me they had a French Canadian living here once, but
he was a true pestilence. He wanted everything fixed up. When Ted refused, he
simply moved out the very next day.”
“Yeah, he probably moved across the street and paid triple. Stop making excuses
for not making money! Let me handle this. I’ll let you know after I get the motel
licence. I’ll go seasonal. I’ve promised to make money for you — tons of money.”
Jonny realized that if he had a tool to evict the tenants that refused to leave voluntarily, the idea might be en excellent one, but he worried about the lack of judicial
guidelines. Some people got away with murder, even got praised for it, while others
were put behind bars for firting too hard.
If he went seasonal, he would have a small revolution on his hands. Hard working
Connie would probably shoot him. As a chambermaid she hardly made enough for
food. And Bonnie had no way of paying that kind of money. She had payments to
make on her eight years old Chevy Monte Carlo that she had bought almost a year
ago. When Frank MacFadden moved in, Jonny had confirmed to him that the place
was not seasonal. He hadn’t been promised anything, but Jonny remembered what
he had told him.
Maybe they could increase the rent for those moving in, but he knew from his
experience last year that few tenants moved during season. That’s the reason why
during seasons it was so stable. Or, maybe they didn’t move because they were all
enjoying such low rates? He’d think it over. If only the apartments had had a better
standard. No, no way! It would cost more than it tasted. It made no sense spending
a lot of money on the property just before he was going to sell it.
‘Is it any wonder they shoot people?’ He was thinking of Edward B. Littlefield
and the idea became increasingly tempting.
Friday morning Jonny felt anxious and tense. This was D-day. Survive or perish.
The time passed very slowly that Friday. He did not feel much like eating, but went
over to Arby’s for a roast beef sandwich, fries and coke. And a paper cup of coffee.
A sloppy black girl was cleaning the tables. Then Jonny noticed that she used the
same cloth on the seats as she did on the tables. Gross! Terribly gross! She was using
I, Claudia —
I tell them Tobby’s from Chicago
191
the same cloth cleaning the seats where people were sitting firting with their dirty
behinds as she was using cleaning the tabletops where people were eating their food!
Jonny observed one of the homeless females leaving the seat full of blood. After
the table had been cleaned Jonny noticed red streaks of blood on the tabletop. Then
a young couple with two children sat down by the same table and the kids started
playing with their french fries on the bloody tabletop before they ate them. Jonny had
to look the other way. This was so unclean. Gross!
He ate his sandwich with long teeth. He felt like telling the management, but realized it had been done the same way since the beginning of time. At least in America.
If a restaurant had done something like that back home, the place would have been
empty and out of business within weeks, if not shut down by the government. He
bought three milk shakes, one for himself and one each for Tobby and Claudia, but
when he returned home, also Claudette was seated at the patio table so Jonny felt
obliged to give her his own milkshake. Then he ran over to Amoco for a cup of black
coffee for himself.
Claudia was very quiet in the car on their way down to the courthouse. The gravity of the situation seemed to bother her. She no longer seemed infallible or overly
confident, but silent and contemplative. She had never dealt with a Satanist before.
Down at the courthouse there was no available parking. Jonny drove around
looking for an empty space at one of the private parking lots, but was out of luck. He
dropped Claudia off outside the front entrance, and kept driving around until he
finally came across an empty space not too far away. On his way to the courthouse
he noticed it was slowly beginning to drizzle, until, like out of the blue, it started
pouring down.
He accompanied Claudia up to the forth floor and found Judge Peter Skolnic’s
chamber. There were many people present, but neither Jake nor Ronald had yet
arrived. Jonny felt too nervous to sit down inside the waiting room, but instead
started roaming around in the building keeping his eyes open for either Jake or
Ronald, but neither showed. At four thirty Jonny returned to the waiting room
outside the chamber looking for Claudia, and yes, she was still waiting. She had been
informed that their opponents had been delayed, but that they were on their way, so
the judge had postponed the hearing until five o’clock. Jonny felt surprised that the
judge kept such late hours on a Friday, so his hope of getting a judgement by default
did not materialize.
He went back down in the street to keep an eye open for him, and also to check
if Ronald would arrive. He worried that his threat would backfire. He had not heard
from Ronald since that evening. Uff. He started biting fingernails. This was pure hell,
American style.
Damned! Just inside the front entrance Jonny suddenly faced Jake, with a sinister
expression upon his face, anxiously searching for directions to the judge’s chamber.
He noticed Jonny, but was too preoccupied to react to him being there. Jonny’s heart
jerked. He had hoped the guy wouldn’t show. Then Jonny started searching for Ron-
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I, Claudia —
I tell them Tobby’s from Chicago
ald, but he was unable to detect him. He could not help crossing his fingers and hoping his threat had achieved the desired effect, or that he had reconsidered testifying
against him. He felt too nervous to return to Claudia in the waiting room. Hopefully
she would do better on her own.
He waited more than half an hour, then forty-five minutes, then more than a full
hour. This did not at all look too good. What the hell took them so long? Jonny was
now prowling the sidewalk across the street from the courthouse unable to stop biting
fingernails. The slow passing of time felt like constant torture. Confident that they
had lost since it all dragged out so indefinitely, he finally noticed Jake walking toward him. With his head down, and the same sinister expression upon his face, he
passed Jonny only a few feet away without noticing him. Or maybe he just pretended
not to? Jonny could make nothing out of this. But where the hell was Claudia?
He returned to the courthouse looking for her, but she was like vanished into thin
air. He ran back to the fourth floor to se if she was still in chambers, but the door was
now locked, and nobody was present so that he could ask for her. He ran back down
again, but she was not there, either. He checked the car to see if she was waiting
there, but no. Again he ran back to the courthouse, but still no sign. Most people had
left now, and he was close to giving up, when he noticed her approach from down
the street. Jonny ran to meet her as she bulldogged her way toward him looking
pooped and upset. She sighed, throwing her arms in the air.
Judging from her sinister expression Jonny expected the worst.
“Jonny, you let me down! — — —
“What do you mean?”
— — — But let me tell you that I saved your case!”
“Did we win?”
“I won! I, Claudia! But it was a darned close call. I almost had to go to jail for
you, Jonny! I almost went to jail for you!”
Jonny had never seen her hungjaw shake like this before, her whole body trembling and her face sharply pink from excitement.
“But we are not done yet. I must bring these papers down to the sheriff’s office.
I want that Devil-worshiper and his little Jewish bitch out before eleven tonight if I
have to see the sheriff himself.”
“But it’s after office hours! We cannot go there tonight.”
“Nonsense! Why do you think I’ve been doing this? Drive down Broward and the
sheriff’s office is situated in that fancy building to the right just a few blocks down
the boulevard. They’re open twenty-four hours a day.”
“For emergencies, maybe, but not for evictions.”
“Stop making excuses for yourself! I’ll handle this! I’ve promised to start making
money for you — tons of money!”
Jonny turned left on Broward, stopped outside the Broward County Courthouse
and entered the foyer together with Claudia. He sat down on a coach while Claudia
headed for an small, teller-like office hidden in the far corner.”
I, Claudia —
I tell them Tobby’s from Chicago
193
“I have these eviction papers. I need the eviction to be handled immediately.”
The teller, or clerk, behind the bullet proof window countered in an equally bossy
manner. “Sorry, all offices are closed for the weekend. Besides, no eviction can be
performed until we receive the papers from the city courthouse. That might take three
to four days. — Sorry.”
“Don’t give me that ‘sorry’ crap! I am personally bringing the papers you need
for the eviction. Handed to me by my personal friend, Judge Peter Skolnic himself
and officially stamped by the court clerk. I was ordered down here to personally see
the sheriff. He is a very close friend of mine.”
“I’m sorry, ma’am. The sheriff is not available.”
The office clerk sounded a little less bossy now.
“Then get in touch with him and tell him his friend Claudia Hoskins needs a
tenant eviction attended to immediately!”
“I’m sorry, ma’am, the sheriff is not available.”
“Then, give me his phone number!”
“I’m sorry, ma’am, that’s against regulations.”
Claudia’s pinkish complexion turned a deeper shade of pink. She snuffed contemptuously.
“Regulations, indeed. The sheriff is my best friend. I need this taken care of immediately! Besides, my husband’s from Chicago. This is urgent!”
“Ma’am, I assure you you will have my immediate attention as soon as we receive
the proper papers. Until then I can do nothing for you. Have a good day!”
“Don’t ‘good-day’ me! I need to see the sheriff.”
Claudia would not take no for an answer, and was about to start a scene. Jonny
felt awkward and embarrassed just listening to her. He carefully approached her to
prevent her from making difficulties for them.
“It’s ok, Claudia. You’ve done a hell of a good job so far. Let’s call it a day and
go celebrate with a good steak. It’s on me.”
“They have no right refusing me to see the sheriff. He’s a friend of mine.”
“I’m sure he has more important things to do than taking care of evictions on a
Friday evening. Besides, I guess your overplaying the part of friendship in this case.
I hardly think they believe you.”
“As soon as I set foot in the office I’ll call my brother-in-law and have him handle
this. I want Jake Bronx out of the apartment this very evening. I’ve got it rented. I
will explain later.”
“Ok. Let’s go, then.”
Angry and upset, with all of her body shaking in excitement, her face sharp pink,
she reluctantly chose to come along. She remained in a gloomy mood on her way
back to the hotel..
“All this extra work for nothing just because of this stupid office clerk! I shall
personally see to it that he gets fired for poor performance. I’ll tell the sheriff personally!”
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I, Claudia —
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“But you really don’t know the sheriff, do you?”
“My nephew does. That amounts to the same.”
“Ok, let’s go home and eat now.”
Reluctantly Claudia chose to leave the foyer. As they headed for the exit door,
two security guards slowly approached the clerk’s window. They watched Jonny lead
Claudia out the door, but took no action.
Jonny had watched Claudia from yet another angle, so stubbornly unintelligent.
But so thoroughly convincing. For a while, there, she almost managed to make Jonny
think she knew the sheriff personally.
Back in the car Claudia remained aggressive and upset.
“I almost went to jail, Jonny. I almost had to go to jail for you! And now I feel I
did it all for nothing. If I had known this, I would never have agreed to go to court
for you!”
“Well, you didn’t exactly go to jail, did you? What happened?”
“I told my side of the story. When it was Jake’s turn, he started lying. Lying!
Everything he said was a lie, so I had to interrupt him. The judge told me to keep
quiet. But the guy kept lying so I had to interrupt him again. The judge suddenly
screamed ‘shut up, ma’am, or I’ll hold you in contempt!’ That means he would put
me in jail. — I almost went to jail for you, Jonny! — In the beginning he kept asking
for you. Said you should have been there in person. I told him you’d been outside
waiting, but since it dragged on, you had another appointment to keep. Another eviction.”
“And he believed you?”
“Why shouldn’t he? He’s dealing with evictions all day long. Hundreds of them
every single day! Besides, you were there just about an hour earlier. It was his own
fault for postponing it.”
“That’s why he accepted you, he?”
“I think so. He kept referring to you, though. Said he wanted to face you eye to
eye. He read Jake’s writ to me. I was under the impression he had decided to give
you hell. He had it all in for you, Jonny, but I prevented it! I, Claudia! When Jake
told him you had disconnected the electricity, I told him that it was nothing but a
blatant lie. Make believe! Wishful thinking!
I told the judge you had had electricians working to repair the electricity, not to
shut it off! I told him Jake had made it all up! Then Jake said he was waiting for the
electrician whom you had hired to shut off his electricity and that he was supposed
to witness for him to that effect. I scared stiff. If that electrician had testified, I would
have been frying in the electric chair. But, thank God, he did not show. And that’s
why Jake was delayed. From trying to get in touch with him. But he was like disappeared into thin air. And thank God for that!”
Jonny sighed with relief. So his threat had worked, then, after all!
“When the judge asked why he had not paid the rent, Jake said that you and him
had an understanding. I said it was just another lie. No landlord would make any
I, Claudia —
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195
arrangement for a tenant not to pay rent. So the judge did not believe him. Then the
judge asked why he had not made any arrangements with the manager, me, to pay the
rent. Jake said he only talked to the landlord. What really made the difference was
when the judge asked me how long I had managed the place. I told him I’d been there
for more than three months and that I was planning to take it over!”
“Three months? But three months ago you were still shoveling cow manure up
in Kalamazoo!”
“How was that darned judge supposed to know that? That’s when he changed his
negative attitude toward me. He looked at Jake in shock and asked if he had not, not
once, during those three months, been in the office to see me for rent, or at least tried
to make some arrangements with management. Jake started mumbling something
about only speaking to the owner, which really upset the judge. ‘What,’ he exclaimed, ‘for three months you have not even once tried to get in touch with management! If so, what do you expect me to do for you?’
Jake told the judge that he was out of work and needed the judge to grant him the
right to remain in the apartment for two more months without paying rent, until he
got back on his feet. You should have seen the face of that judge when Jake told him.
He sat his eyes on Jake, hard and long.
‘You’ve been dodging rents and management for three full months, and you expect me to give you two more months for free! That’s the most outrageous request
I’ve heard during my entire tenure!’
Then the judge formed a zero with his thumb and index finger, like this, with his
other three fingers in the air, and shouted at him while holding that zero to his face.
‘See this? This is how much I’ll give you. Nothing! Zero, zero! Nothing! Your
rent dodging days will be over, my friend, at least for now!’
Then he showed Jake the door telling him if he ever saw him on a rent dodging
charge again, then he, Jake, would be in a heap of trouble. I enjoyed myself tremendously. When Jake left that chamber, he looked more like a hounddog than any real
hounddog I’ve ever seen. I asked the judge if I could have him evicted the same day,
and he actually gave me the verdict and the court papers. I had to go down to the
office for tenant evictions to get them stamped and then deliver them to the sheriff
who will take care of the eviction. That’s what took me so long. The clerk refused
to stamp my papers because she maintained the judge went beyond his powers when
giving them to me. I refused to take ‘no’ for an answer and told them it was an emergency. If they would not stamp my papers, I demanded they get in touch with Judge
Skolnic for verification. I don’t know if they got in touch with him or not, but I refused to leave, so they finally gave me that stamp. Little good it did me since the
sheriff refused to follow up on it.
Well, come havoc or hell I’ll have that perjuring bastard out of that apartment before the end of the day. Mark my words! I will have no Satanist on the premises!”
“We have to do this by the book, Claudia. Let the sheriff settle it. They’ll handle
it according to law and regulations.”
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“Law and regulations? Hah! That’s for losers! If you don’t know how to fight
your own battles, you won’t get nowhere. Ever heard of private enterprise?”
“Of course.”
“That’s the essence of American society. When the law no longer works in your
favor, you have to take the law into your own hands! Without breaking it, of course,
but the law is sometimes so awkward. You cannot let the law stop legal progress,
Jonny! Sometimes you have to stretch it to the breaking point, and beyond.”
“So, what do you want to do, then?”
“Don’t worry! I’ll handle it. When I get back home, I will call my brother-in-law
and have him bring the sheriff over. I will also personally talk to Jake. I want him
out!”
Claudia started rubbing her hands again.
Devil-worshiper or not, Jonny almost felt sorry for poor little Jake.
“You go and have your steak and let me handle business. That rent dodging purgerer will be out of here before you return! Mark my words!”
To Jacob Leehigh Bronx, the Satanist, the encounter with Claudia Hoskins would
not be remembered as a pleasant experience.
To the owner of the Holiday Park Hotel, Mr. Jonny Jakobsen Hell, this woman
was a gift from God — a Born Again Christian!
Jonny returned from Ruth Chris’s Steak House feeling better than ever. A perfectly
well done steak still sizzling in it’s sauce, a huge, perfectly baked potato with generous amounts of genuine, hot bacon bits topped off with half a bottle of red wine. On
the house.
Jonny walked all the way back home contemplating his situation. That abominable Hoskins-monster increasingly materialized in Jonny’s mind as a blessing from
above. He entered the office in his own thoughts and jerked as he was suddenly
facing Claudia grinning at him from behind her desk. Initially her unexpected presence created a surge of irritation. He needed some privacy.
“I told you I’d get him out!”
Jonny was left dumbfounded.
“Are you telling me he’s left already?”
Her hungjaw shaking she sat spreading her peacock feathers.
“You’d better believe he has! I didn’t even need the sheriff. Or my brother-in-law.
I did it. I, Claudia! — When I came over to see him in his apartment, his family had
left to stay with his in-laws. Or whatever. I gave him a copy of the verdict, and he
took it literally. The judge had told him zero, and he thought that meant zero.
I told him to leave immediately, or I would call the police and have them pick him
up. He asked if he could finish a few washloads before he left, and there was at least
some cash in that, so I accepted. When he asked if he could stay until tomorrow at
eleven, I refused. I told him my husband was born and raised in Chicago.
Jake has no place to stay because his in-laws will have nothing to do with him.
I, Claudia —
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197
A miserable satanist does not go to well together with Jews. And now he blames you
for having broken up his family. Well, he’s no longer my problem. But that’s not all,
Jonny. I’ve even got it rented for you. I cleaned it and rented it. The new couple
moved in about half an hour ago. Guess what they’re paying a week!”
“Having seen you in action I wouldn’t be surprised if you got — eh, two hundred?”
“Two hundred! Hah! Hogwash! This was a young woman with an elderly boyfriend. He’s a marketing manager of one of the large hotels down on the beach.
Horny — and hungry for a hot pillow. His girlfriend really liked the place so I realized right away he wouldn’t embarrass himself by refusing because of the price. I
asked three hundred and sixty a week and he accepted without blinking an eye. Plus
security and key. He paid seven hundred and thirty dollars to move in. I gave him a
temporary receipt. Here’s your money. I told you I’d make money for you — tons of
money!”
Proud as a peacock she handed Jonny the cash. Flabbergasted he accepted it. This
was indeed too good to be true. One big problem, one that Jonny thought might land
him in jail, or his ass hauled behind bars, as the police officers usually phrased it, had
vanished into thin air. On top of everything else Claudia had cleaned the apartment
and rented it at better than double the normal rate. Jonny could not help but being impressed at both her speed and her bulldozing tactics. He told her so in no uncertain
terms.
“Oh, it’s the German in me, Jonny. My mother never really liked me, but I was
always my father’s favorite. He thought me everything I know. Looking at me now
it might seem like bragging, but to tell you the truth — I was really gorgeous in my
younger days! I was so popular it almost went to my head. Oh, yes, I was really conceited during my high school years. And rightfully so. I was beautiful!”
She lifted her head and shook her hair as if to reveal herself in all of her beauty
and glory in front of Jonny. Hun løftet hodet og ristet seg på håret for å åpenbare seg
i all sin skjønnhet foran Jonny. But instead of being attracted to her beauty, he found
her repulsive.
“The boys gathered about me like flies on a cowcake. I was the very woman for
the post as a cheer leader, and every year at my school a was voted the most likely
to succeed. I was also elected ‘Miss Personality,’ but because I was so indescribably
gorgeous I gave the title special meaning. The principal said that they needed a
special title for me alone, so they changed my title to ‘Miss Personality Plus.’ Imagine that, ’Miss Personality Plus!’ I was really gorgeous in those days!”
Again she straightened up and posed for Jonny.
“But my first husband changed all that. We had barely met when we eloped together. His family being a bunch of alcoholics my mother of course did what she could
to break up the relationship, but, more stubborn and self-confident than ever, I felt
convinced all problems could be conquered. Was I ever so wrong!
Life turned nasty and miserable. My husband was constantly drinking and wo-
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manizing leaving me with hardly enough cash for milk for my only daughter. As a
good woman of her time I put up with it even though my life turned into a routine of
daily abuse and degradations.
Only when he started abusing my daughter every time he got drunk, did I file for
divorce. He threatened to kill me if I sued for custody, but of course he had no way
of supporting the poor child, not even financially. He was not the father, anyway.
So one night after the divorce was finally settled and the judge had awarded me
custody, without even awarding him visiting rights, since she wasn’t really his
daughter in the first place, he broke into my little apartment and tried to kill me. He
shot me half dead through my right shoulder. Luckily he was dead drunk and unable
to aim properly. I ran out of the house leaving the girl behind all alone.”
“He almost killed you and you still managed to run out of the house?”
“Don’t interrupt me! Just listen! — He went berserk destroying close to everything I had. But he left the girl alone and never harmed her. When the police came
to pick him up, he had quieted down and accepted arrest without resistance. He
swore revenge, but left me alone after that.
I had lived alone for close to twenty years when I met Tobby. Well, except for the
fact that we were living together for about six years before we tied the knot. My pastor kept blaming me for not marrying, so I finally decided on matrimony instead of
a continued life in sin.”
“Whether you see a preacher or not does not make the difference between living
in sin or not. The Bible never once mentions matrimony. The Bible never tells you
to see a priest or a pastor to avoid living in sin, either. On the contrary. The Bible
states explicitly that the relationship between a man and a woman is a pact between
them and God only. According to God sex is one of the original sins. The sin that led
to the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and introduced to mankind the
knowledge of sex.
I can’t much think of the alternative, but, having allowed man to gain the knowledge of sexual pleasure, God more or less reluctantly blessed the relationship between man and woman on one condition only: Two people were allowed to give and
take in marriage only once during their lifetime. God only made one exception: If
God takes the life of your spouse, you’re allowed to remarry. The Bible does not
mention how many times this is allowed, but it stands to reason to believe that if you,
for instance, lose two husbands and have not been seeing anybody else, you may
marry for a third time. And in the eyes of God marriage does not mean a ceremony
in the church or a civil office. It means giving and taking sex.
So, if two people of the opposite sex without prior sexual experience decide to
move in together and remain faithful to each other in a pact with God, they do not
live in sin.
But bitches like Liz Taylor and whoremongers like little Mickey Rooney do no
matter how many times they’ve said ‘I do’ in front of the alter.”
“That’s a heap of crap!”
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“I’m only quoting the Bible. Maybe the whole Book is a heap of crap?”
“That’s blasphemy!”
“Oh yeah? The things you don’t like in the Bible are nothing but crap, but if I
question some of the things you agree with, then all off a sudden it’s blasphemy.
That’s the problem with modern day society. What does not fit the pattern gets discarded. Only what suits society becomes accepted. The rest of the Bible get put
aside. Maybe that’s religion, but it sure as hell is not Christianity. If you can come
up with one passage in the Bible that mentions matrimony, I’ll give you one thousand
dollars cash.”
“I’ll take you up on that. I guarantee that I will show you the passage in the Bible
that describes matrimony. Otherwise we’d all be living in sin and go to Hell.”
“Most of us are living in sin, all right. But not the ones you think. As for going
to Hell some will and some will not, all according to whether we ask forgiveness for
our sins or not. Unlike homosexuality adultery, fornication and whoremongering are
natural sins for which there shall be forgiveness. But it’s still a sin. If you die without
forgiveness, you go straight to hell.”
“Are you telling me that you advocate young people just moving in together and
living in sin. That would create chaos.”
“Not if done according to the word of God. Then we’ll all have one partner each
throughout our whole lives. We’ll remain faithful to each other until death do us part,
as it says in the Bible. How could that create chaos? But what we have today, that is
chaos. Now we talk about your children and my children and our children. We talk
about the illegitimate children you had before you married, the children you had with
your first husband, the children you had between husbands, the abortions you had
because you didn’t have a husband or because you didn’t want any more children,
and how your present husband is threatening to divorce you because you don’t want
his children — and whatever other versions you want to think of. Now everybody is
running around with hard-ons without being willing to take responsibility of their indulgences! — What about Clint Eastwood? How many different women does he have
children with? And with how many has he committed fornication. And what about
little Mickey Rooney? — No, what we have now is chaos!”
“You need a marriage license, Jonny!”
“What for? So that the church can exert it’s influence? Marriage has nothing to
do with walking down the isle in front of a preacher. Let me ask you: How many
people have been born without sin?”
“Just one! Jesus Christ himself.”
“Wrong. Jesus Christ supposedly lived all his life without sin, but two more were
born without sin. Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve were created by God in his own
image — and Jesus was born by a virgin. None of them were conceived through
sexual intercourse. In the Bible sin is synonymous with sex. Does it not strike you
that Jesus Christ supposedly lived all his life in celibacy like the monks were supposed to do?”
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“That’s blasphemy!”
“Oh, yeah? Well then, what about Adam and Eve? They were both created by
God in his own image before the introduction of sin in the Garden of Eden. No sex
involved. It seems to me you have totally forgot the story of creation.”
Claudia turned silent, then spoke in a very quiet and contemplating way.
“You might be right about three people being born without sin. I had forgot about
Adam and Eve.”
Jonny calmed down as well. He found a religious discussion as engaging as a
political one. But he realized he would have to be careful with Claudia.
“Thank you. And when you find that passage in the Bible where it says you need
to see a preacher to avoid living in sin, I’d really appreciate it if you’ll show it to me.
I’ve never been able to find it.”
“I will find it! And I will collect the thousand dollars. You can bet on it. — — —
Oh, by the way, Jonny, there was a couple here asking for you. Shirley something,
and her husband. They said you owed them five hundred dollars. You should start
paying your bills, Jonny. They got rather upset when I refused to pay them. I said
they needed to talk to you about it.”
“I don’t owe them a dime, Claudia. Ronald had offered Jake to testify against me
in court. He’s the guy Jake was waiting for. He called me one night and said he’d
testify for me instead, but he would need five hundred dollars. But he’s such a stonehead, so I refused. Now he probably feels that I owe him the five hundred for not
showing to testify against me.”
“But that’s extortion!”
“Well, the American definition is friendship. He chose my friendship at five hundred dollars over Jake’s at only one hundred.”
“Well, the only way to keep people’s loyalty’s to pay for it, we all know that. But
why didn’t he show?”
“I don’t know for sure, but I guess he had second thoughts about being too
friendly.”
“These people were not your friends, Jonny. They were a couple of backbiters
playing two against the middle and talking you down. She said you were conning
people into moving in here by sometimes dividing their security deposit into three
or four. She said you coaxed people into living here against their will. She said you
were constantly abusing your intelligence in order to get the better of the tenants.”
“I used to think I was helping people every time I split up their security. My
problem has never been getting people in here. My problem has always been getting
them back out.”
“That’s exactly what I told her. I, and Tobby, would never treat friends like that.
We’ve learned the meaning of loyalty. Although sometimes a bit rough coming from
Chicago and everything Tobby is the most loyal friend you can think of. I told Shirley the same thing. I also told her we were sick and tired of pushers and prostitutes
prowling the neighborhood, and that, through the sheriff’s office, we were planning
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201
to have it all cleaned up in a matter of weeks. I told her that the sheriff was one of my
best friends!”
“Do you know who Ronny actually is?”
“Eh? Nooo? Should I know that?”
“He is the son of the former sheriff Louis Lawrence. His name is Ronald Lawrence. You know, the apple does not fall far from the tree.”
Claudia was sitting with her mouth half open. Then she uttered carefully.
“Maybe I came on a bit too strong? Maybe I should not have told him that we
were about to clean up the whole neighborhood? And maybe I should not have involved the sheriff in it? But we have some pushers just across the street, as I’m sure
you know. And I am of good people, Jonny. Of good people! And also Tobby even
is he is from Chicago!”
Both Jonny and Claudia felt a stronger togetherness after conversations like that.
Jonny realized that Claudia really appreciated their verbal exchanges because every
single night around nine she came back for more. If Jonny did not specifically tell her
he needed some sleep, she would sit and talk until two in the mornings. Although
Jonny started enjoying their many night sessions, he had to tell her he needed rest
after nine o’clock, something she would forget, or simply chose to ignore. When he
started engaging the deadbolt at exactly nine in the evenings, at first she took offence, but a little by little started to respect his very limited privacy after working
hours.
Ever so often, when Tobby and Claudia were out shopping, huge, flaccid Claudette started sneaking into the office to talk to Jonny when she felt safe to do so.
Claudette exposed more about the Hoskins in ten minutes than Claudia had done
since she moved in. Naive and retarded Claudette told Jonny the story of her life in
minute details. She had committed a great sin and that’s why God was punishing her.
That’s why her husband had left her. That’s why she had lost custody of her beautiful
boy. Oh, yes, she missed her son. Her pride and joy. She had been so unwilling to
leave him behind to settle in Florida, but her mother had forced her. Mother and
Tobby had needed her disability pension to live off, and that’s why they had forced
her to come along. Herself she only got ten dollars a week in allowance. Unless she
needed something extra. Mother always blamed her expensive pills for being short
on cash, but she knew better.
She knew they were spending her money to cover living expenses. It was unfair
that her mother had her declared insane just to get hold of her money and to prevent
her from living her own life. She had run away from home more than once, but had
given it up. The police always picked her up, anyway. — She would sigh heavily.
“Yes, Jonny, God is punishing me for what I did wrong. At least that’s what my
mother says. And she knows, because she is a born again Christian.”
“So what did you do wrong to warrant this endless wrath?”
“My mother would kill me if I told you, Jonny.”
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“It’s okay. I didn’t mean to pry.”
“I would like to tell you about it if you promise to cross your heart and not to
tell.”
“I won’t tell. On the other hand, I’m not curious, either.”
“I ran away with another man. I really loved him. We stayed in the same room
making love for more than three weeks before the police picked us up. You see, my
husband never wanted to have sex with me. He scorned me for being so fat. He never
really loved me. Not one single day.”
“So why the hell did you get married?”
“We were forced to. By my mother. I got pregnant. They called it a ‘shotgun wedding.’ We had two boys, but the firstborn got killed in a car crash. And it was my
mother who drove the car. I love my boy, but I don’t know when I can see him again.
I want to go back to Michigan. I can give you sex all the time if you only will take
me one trip back to Michigan to see my boy. — Promise?”
“I’m afraid that’s impossible.”
“You don’t love me enough, that’s why!”
“Yes, that’s true enough. I don’t even know you.”
“See? God keeps punishing me for what I’ve done. That’s why he keeps me from
going back to see my boy. He wants to punish me for my sins. — Do you believe in
God, Jonny.”
“If you’ll explain to me what you think of when you say the word ‘God,’ I’ll let
you know whether I believe in him or not.”
“Don’t you know God?”
“I’ve never seen him. Have you?”
“Nobody’s seen God. But he’s good. He’s forgiving. He’s love.”
She stared at Jonny with wide eyes, like she was seeing through him, and beyond.
“Is that why he keeps punishing you all the time? Out of love?”
“In life, yes. But I know he will forgive me in death.”
“So, to get forgiveness you have to give your own life. Sounds like a true bloodsucker to me.”
“Ooohh! You must not talk like that! God will punish you.”
“Like he keeps doing to you, heh? Maybe it’s your mother who punishes you, and
not God? So — — eh, when do you actually plan to go back and see the kid?”
“I don’t know. When mother lets me, I guess. Which will not be until she decides
to go back home to Michigan. I miss Kalamazoo. It’s always been my home.”
Jonny had a hard time relating to Claudette — the open, childish and confident
way she spoke, while she at the same time she sat almost lifeless staring into the air.
Jonny figured it was the pills. According to what Claudia had told him, she took
enough pills during one day to knock out a horse. She looked like she was in a different world. At the same time she seemed tense and alert. Every time she hears a car
drive by, she stiffened from fear that it might be Tobby returning. Apart from that
she looked like she was lost in space. Jonny felt compassion for her. he reaalized she
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203
was as lost on earth as if she were in space. She was a woman with nothing living a
life in agony and being held prisoner by an abusive and oppressive mother and kept
in line through threats of God’s punishment in an everlasting burning Hell. And her
new stepfather from Chicago. Every time Tobby mentioned Claudette’s name, he did
so in a contemptuous voice.
Yes, Jonny really felt compassion for Claudette. At the same time he was honest
enough to admit to himself that he simply could not stand the sight of her; a fleshberg
too much a simpleton and too damned repulsive. All day long she just sat there on
that coach in the apartment staring into thin air and nothingness.
Jonny considered her one among the many millions sub-humans that God himself
had betrayed in birth.
“You’d better make sure you get that crazy woman off by back! She’s been over at
my place now for the third time telling me to pack up and leave. I’ve got no place to
go, damn it! I’m telling you for your own good, get that bitch off my back! If you
don’t stop her, she’ll destroy this place. She’s already kicked Jake into the gutter and
destroyed his family. She says I’m next in line, and then it’s Eric’s turn. Before you
know all your tenants will be gone. She’ll destroy this place for you. And she enjoys
it! That bitch is a naturally born killer. She loves it!”
Bold and brazen Speedy Fleece looked extremely upset as he offered Jonny his
predictions of doom.
“Well, she’s the manager now. In all probability it’s only a question of weeks before she take over the buildings. Besides, getting Jake out of here I consider a true
blessing. I took him to court for that purpose, and had him evicted by the sheriff. And
you know as well as I do that Eric’s caused a lot of problems lately. He’s stupid
enough to believe he’s helping himself by causing trouble for me. Which leaves you
and me. How long now since last time you paid your rent in full? Two months? And
the last two weeks you’ve paid nothing as a result of this rent dodging scheme between you and Eric and Jake.
Well, if Jake’s in the gutter, he’s only got himself to blame. He’s not only in the
gutter; he’s also on the court’s shit list of rent dodgers.”
“I’ve proved to you that I pay my rent when I have the cash. But I’m telling you,
get that fucking pitbull off by back before we loch jaws. We both know I’ve had
some problems lately, but I’m a good tenant. So far you’ve been lucky to be able to
count me among your friends. But let me tell you: I’m not the kind of guy you’d
wanna count among your enemies. Have I made myself clear?”
“You wouldn’t just happen to be from Chicago, would you?”
“No, I’m from New York City!”
“Yeah, you told me. Well, if keeping you as a friend means I’m expected to let
you live here for free, let me tell you I have no objections to counting you among my
enemies. If you were anything close to a man, you’d leave on your own when you’re
unable to pay your rent.”
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Before Jonny could blink an eye Speedy suddenly held a small gun in his right
hand pointing it at Jonny.
“Do you know what this is?”
“I think it’s called a gun. Maybe a pistol. Or revolver.”
Jonny sounded sarcastic.
“You know what it’s for, don’t you?”
Speedy’s return sarcasm irritated Jonny.
“I hear some cowards use them to scare the water off of little old ladies.”
“You know what this will do to you, don’t you? Just a little twitch of my finger
and you’ll be gone. I’ve killed before, and got away with it. If you kick me out of
here, I swear I’ll be back for you!”
“If that’s what’s on your mind, why not just as well get it done and over with?.
It’ll save you a trip.”
“Don’t push your luck! Bravery is nothing but successful stupidity, you know.
Consider this a warning! I stopped by here because I thought that fucking bulldog
was in here. I’ll be back in the office around nine. If you don’t back me up then,
you’ll learn what a bullet feels like.”
Jonny hated all these empty threats. In the beginning they had really upset him,
but it had developed into such a common occurrence that he no longer took them
seriously. He shrugged his shoulders.
“Fine with me. Then my miseries will all be over and yours will just begin. At
least you won’t have to worry about not having a permanent address.”
Jonny made a mistake that afternoon by telling Claudia about the incident. To his
surprise she took it very seriously and obviously worried about it.
“I knew from the very first day that this guy was dangerous! We’d better take our
precautions, Jonny.”
“Ahh, it’s nothing. I’ve been threatened so many times. All they try to do is to intimidate you.”
“Maybe, but you never can tell. I’ll never forget the day my husband tried to shoot
me. I’ve also worked the streets of Chicago, Jonny. Eh, eh, with the Salvation Army,
of course. People are too often living on the edge and it does not take much before
they tilt over. You never know what they might do next. I’ll call the police on this
one.”
“Nah, I don’t think that’ll be necessary. When he comes in the office, I’ll talk to
him. I’ll give him an offer I don’t think he’ll refuse.”
“Count me out. I know a lot of landlords and managers get killed during evictions.
Count me out. Remember, I’m not a manager yet.”
“Hah, hah, hah. That’s not what you’ve been telling him. Or any other tenant, for
that matter.”
“I know. I had to say something. Use some authority. But this was about my life.”
“Ok. You’ve upset him enough for him to take it seriously. I’ll handle the rest.”
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“So, you’ll count me out on this one?”
“I thought you were the one from Chicago, not me.”
“No, not me, either. That’s Tobby. I’m from Kalamazoo. But I do not tell them
that. I tell them I am from Chicago! But Tobby, he’s the one from Chicago!”
Ernie ‘Speedy’ Fleece came bursting into the office like a hurricane pretty much the
same way he had done the first time when he was looking for an apartment. He also
wore the same outfit, bare chested with two huge copper rings penetrating his
nipples. Claudia sat there as if she were petrified for a few seconds, as Speedy angrily turned toward her, and not Jonny. He stretched his body all across her desk and
put his face right in her nose in his typically intimidating manner. Claudia reacted
spontaneously, even before her hungjaw started shaking.
“Get out of my face, you ugly child molester! If you don’t sit down in that chair
in front of my desk and behave like a human being instead of a monster, I’ll have the
police here within minutes!”
Speedy was taken by surprise at her sudden and intense outburst of anger and
automatically withdrew to the edge of the desk. Even Jonny was astonished at her
spontaneous outburst. He realized her reaction was one out of fear as well as anger,
her face turning sharp pink as she quickly rose. With shaking fingers and an unsteady
voice she shrieked at Speedy as she pointed toward the chair in front of her desk:
“S-s-sit!”
Speedy automatically pulled one step backward, with his mouth half open staring
at Claudia in disbelief. Then he exploded.
“Shut up, you ugly bitch! You fuckin’ abominable monster! Do you think I’m a
dog!?
If you think you’ll get me out of here, I’ve got news for you. If you think you’ll
ever be able to take this place over, think again. You’ll destroy this place unless you
get your fucking fat ass kicked right back to where it belongs. Up in cow country!
And while you’re at it, bring that fucking little eunuch and that humongous bastard
daughter of yours as well. You fucking ugly pig! Yes, pig! A marzipan pig on stilts!
Miss Piggy! That’s who you look like. Miss Piggy. Yeah, Miss Piggy! Ugly Miss
Piggy! Pink’n ugly Miss Piggy! Putting you into this fucking office is like putting a
goldring in a pigsnout! Ugly Miss Piggy!”
Jonny heard Claudia suck for breath over at the other desk. Her complexion was
indeed pink and her features did remind Jonny of Miss Piggy. He had to look the
other way to keep from laughing, although he knew this was dead serious. No doubt
about it, Speedy was right smack in the middle of a hit, all right. He was stone high!
And he was not ready to give up yet. He suddenly turned toward Jonny.
“As for you I considered you a friend. A close friend. A very close friend! If this
is how you appreciate my friendship, I’d be better off without it! What the fuck do
you think you are, anyway? So much fucking better than the rest of us! Well, I got
news for you, scumbag! I know what’s going on over there in that little room of
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yours. Don’t you think I’ve seen those little black bitches sneaking in and out all
night? I know you’re nothing but a fucking crack addict no better than anybody else.
Motherfucker! Whoremonger! Niggerlover! Do you think I’m blind? Fuck you! If
you try to kick me out of here, I shall most certainly have you arrested on possession
of drugs. And I’ll testify to it myself in a court of law.
Now that you know what time it is, do you still think you’ll get me out of here for
not paying my rent on time?”
Jonny noticed Claudia staring at him dumbfoundedly. The allegations had shocked her. Jonny, on the other hand, felt the anger surge throughout his body. He mustered all his strength to control himself.
Then Speedy abruptly turned toward Claudia again.
“If you as much as open your fucking mouth just one more fucking time, I’ll kill
you, bitch! Fucking ugly pig! Anyway, I won’t talk to you any more. Ever. From now
on you stay out of my face, fucking bitch! From now on I’ll talk to the landlord only.
Got that, Miss Piggy!”
Jonny realized that Speedy was too high on shit to be properly reasoned with.
Well, that was hardly an exception. Jonny knew he seldom left the apartment unless he was high on something. During his withdrawals he always kept inside his
room. He had actually seen less and less of him lately. But right now he had arrived
with a vengeance in an attempt at intimidating both of them to the extent that they
would refrain from evicting him.
But not this time. It was time to get this matter settled and over with once and for
all. When Speedy stretched his face across Jonny’s desk the same way he had done
to Claudia, Jonny knew he did it in a deliberate attempt at intimidating him.
“Now, get Miss Piggy out of this office so that we can start talking business.”
“Claudia is managing this place and she’s doing a good job at it, too. Whether she
stays or leaves is entirely up to her. If you don’t want to talk to her, fine. But she’ll
remain in this office until she herself chooses otherwise.
Now, as for talking business we have very little to talk about until you start behaving in a normal manner. And our topics of conversation will be limited to one
matter only:
How to arrange your voluntary leave of these premises.”
“Are you really serious about this? I’ve been a good tenant, Jonny. I’ve considered you my friend. Until that ugly woman started bugging me. She’s a natural born
killer, Jonny. Ugly to the bone with a heart of stone. She aggravates me to the point
that I’m about to lose my mind. She’s a fucking nasty, nasty bitch. If you don’t get
rid of her, she’ll destroy you!”
“So what’s your problem? Are you worried that she might be doing a better job
at it than Eric, Jake and yourself were able to do?”
“My friendship means nothing to you?”
“None whatsoever. For one simple reason: There never was any. And that’s not
what you worry about, either. You worry about your own situation. So let’s concen-
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207
trate on that. Now that you know there are no options, how would you prefer to leave
this place?”
To Jonny’s dismay and irritation Claudia interrupted the conversation. She sounded more relaxed and composed now, her hungjaw barely moving.
“I have something to tell you, Jonny. Before you make a mistake. Last night when
you were out enjoying your steak, I and Tobby were sitting outside watching the
action. We saw what went on. We saw two young kids sneak into apartment number
twenty four.
After about half an hour I decided to knock on the door. It took him some time to
open up, but when he did, I rushed right passed him and into his bedroom to see what
was going on. And there they were, both boys, hardly more than little kids, stark
naked in bed. Rather obnoxiously he forced me out of the bedroom and threatened
to take action against me for breaking and entering. I countered by telling him I had
every intention of reporting him to the police for the sexual abuse of two boys, still
minors. I actually caught him red handed in the act of prostituting minors. That’s
why I aggravate him. He knows that all we have to do is call the police and he’ll be
out of here.”
They started shouting simultaneously now.
“You’re so fucking nasty the Devil himself pales in comparison! You know
fucking well you’ll get nowhere with such allegations! You’ve fabricated them to get
me the hell out of here just because I’m a little late on rent. You fucking nasty bitch!
You’re just naturally born nasty! Miss Piggy! Ugly Miss Piggy!”
They kept shouting in each other’s faces.
Claudia, usually tough as rawhide, was unable to hide how much being called
‘Miss Piggy’ hurt her. It was such an accurate description. She had tears in her eyes,
but remained in a fighting spirit. Ernie ‘Speedy’ Fleece from New York City and
Claudia Hoskins, close to being from Chicago, were both unable to hide the genuine
hatred they had developed for each other almost overnight. Jonny knew that Claudia
and Tobby were sitting up watching the action until after three on some nights. He
knew they noticed things that he himself had been unable to detect. When pointing
things out to him, they had made him feel almost blindfolded, sometimes. After all,
they were used to the American lifestyle and knew what to look for. Jonny did not.
“Please calm down, both of you.” He addressed Speedy. “I’m sure you realize
your only option is finding another place to live. Staying here will remain intolerable
to all of us. What will it take for you to leave here without more trouble for yourself
and us?”
“Will you accept that I get my security deposit refunded?”
Jonny’s first reaction was to refuse him like he had done Jake. He’d been thinking
about that incident many times. If he had agreed to let Jake have his security deposit
returned, he might have saved himself a lot of trouble, and a heap of money. These
people were mostly living by their last dollar, or beyond, so having to leave without
the security deposit usually meant living in the streets. If Jonny refunded Speedy his
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security deposit, then Speedy would have enough money to look for another place
to stay. It would cost Jonny no more than one hundred and sixty dollars. Not that it
would solve a problem, but the problem would no longer be his. Going to court
would cost him close to three hundred dollars, and he’d lose two more months’ rent.
That would solve no problem, either.
“You owe me more than one thousand dollars, Speedy. Don’t you think it’s rather
unreasonable to ask for your deposit back when you owe me that kind of money?”
“It’s the only possible solution I can think of.”
“If I give you a check of one hundred and fifty dollars, will you then be getting
out of here this very evening?”
“I need cash.”
“Ok. What if I give you cash?”
“Deal. I’ll shack up with a friend of mine. If I get cash, I’ll be out of here within
the hour.”
Jonny knew the cash would be all wasted on crack, maybe even cocaine, before
the night was over. He didn’t care. At least Speedy would no longer be his problem.
“I need the cash right away.”
“I realize that. But I will not pay you until I have checked that the apartment is
clean and in order. You will get the cash when I receive the key.”
“Fait enough. Just getting away from this miserable Miss Piggy is a reward in
itself. But I am disappointed. I thought my friendship meant more to you than this!”
“What can I say? Life’s a bitch, right?”
Claudia waited only half an hour after Speedy had left the premises until she crossed
the street to that pink building looking for her prospective new tenant.
She accompanied Glenda Olden over to the apartment for an inspection, and, although Glenda thought the apartment a little on the small side, with only one bedroom for a family of four, she was happy to get the new apartment and accepted
without much discussion. Finding a place like this with two boys that age had proved
difficult, and now, with season coming up, this almost looked too good to be true.
Freeman Olden himself came over a little later in the evening looking for Claudia
to pay the rent and security. When Jonny returned from Arby’s, Claudia was sitting
in the office looking prouder than a peacock once again.
“Here’s money for you, Jonny. Tons of money. Nine hundred and seventy dollars
to be exact!”
“Nine hundred and seventy dollars? How many weeks did he pay for?”
“Just one week and security. But he made a mistake and paid double security.”
“So we’ll have to refund him the money, then.”
“No way.”
“But that’s dishonest.”
“No way! This was his own fault. You will tell him nothing! I’ve promised to
make money for you and that’s exactly what I’m doing.”
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209
“Yeah, but he made a mistake! It’s better we tell him or he’s gonna think we try
to cheat him.”
“Don’t worry about it, Jonny. He’ll never find out!”
“But it’s not right. Remember what we talked about? The good book and the Lord
saying ‘do to others as you would have them do to you,’ and so on?”
Claudia’s hungjaw started shaking with anger.
“Don’t tell me about God, Jonny! This is business and God has nothing to do with
it! It’s business! I told you I was going to make tons of money for you, and I haven’t
even got started yet!”
“But —”
“Shut up and thank me for the cash!”
It did not take many minutes before Glenda Olden returned to the office holding
her receipt in her hand. A dark haired woman with sharp features, a pointed nose,
narrow lips, flat chest and broad hips with a winning personality, and a slight italian
accent, entered timidly. She seemed uncertain whether to address Jonny or Claudia.
“I’m sure we’ve made a mistake here. My husband says he paid first, last and
security, but on my receipt it only says one week security and one week’s rent.”
Jonny took the liberty to answer.
“Yeah, it’s a mistake. We were just talking about it. We only charge first and
security. I was planning to give you a refund.”
Claudia quickly interrupted.
“Glenda and Freeman will not be short-timers, Jonny. They plan to stay here for
a long time to come. This will be their home.”
Then she addressed Glenda in a friendlier manner than anybody else Jonny had
heard her talk to.
“Therefore we discussed whether we should skip last week’s security and just
give you a receipt for an extra week’s rent. This way you will be paid up two weeks
ahead. We figured that might be a helping hand since you’re just moving in and
everything. I’m sure you could use saving some of your hard earned cash, Glenda?”
Glenda seemed a bit confused.
“Yes. Yes, of course.”
“Jonny, give Mrs. Olden a receipt for one more week. Make sure it’s correct, this
time.”
“She brought her receipt so all I need to do is change the dates and the sum.”
Glenda handed him the receipt and watched him as he changed the figures.
“Thank you, very much.”
“It’s ok. Sorry about the mistake, but we were going to correct it for you.”
Glenda had hardly left the office when Claudia stood and reproachingly pointed
her index finger at Jonny in perfect rhythm with her shaking hungjaw.
“What are you trying to do to me, Jonny!? Here I am working like a slave for you
trying to make money, and you’re ready to give it away! Just like that! That was cold
cash! When you get your hands on cold cash, Jonny, you just grab hold of it and
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never let go no matter what. That’s the first rule of business, Jonny. You should
know that!”
Claudia left the office. Jonny watched her through the window as she crossed the
walkway and eagerly entered Glenda’s apartment. She immediately apologized on
Jonny’s behalf for his having tried to cheat them out of one week’s security.
Jonny wondered why the hell she went over to talk to Glenda so quickly, but soon
forgot about it. After all, the two women seemed to have a lot to talk about.
Soon rumors started spreading that Jonny would sometimes forge the receipts in
order to put the money in his own pocket.
An hour later Jonny was still sitting behind his desk too lazy to get his butt off the
seat. For some inexplicable reason he felt uneasy, unhappy and extremely worried.
He didn’t know why he felt so heavy of body and mind. He wondered what he’d have
to do to put the buildings back on the marked and get rid of them. Maybe he would
just have to skim the corporation for a while and disappear with whatever money he
had accrued.
‘Just grab the cash and never let go’
He had heavy-heartedly decided to take a trip down to Tom’s Alley Bar for a few
drinks of whisky. He hadn’t been there for some time now. Since that fateful night
with Cadilla, Jonny Walker had developed a bitter aftertaste that he had not noticed
before.
He checked the time. After ten. He also felt the need for taking a shower. It must
have been more than a week now since last time. All he had had were his illegal
catwashes in the swimming pool. He could feel his own sweat stench. And he was
feeling heavy out of place.
He was still sitting behind the desk feeling sorry for himself when Claudia entered the office ecstatically happy.
She had done some good work for him, but she was beginning to get on his nerves.
“I’ve got good news, Jonny. The best news of a lifetime! The guy is dying, Jonny.
Dying!”
Jonny felt too tired and depressed to return her happiness.
“Yes, that’s how it ends for all of us. Who’s dying now?”
“That nasty child molester and crack monster, Speedy Fleece. He’s dying! He’s
got aids!”
“How do you know that?”
“Glenda told me. She’s a nurse over at Holy Cross Memorial. That’s were they
get all the aids cases. Two floors full of them, would you believe that?”
“Yes, I believe that. The Devil takes care of his own! Among males between
eighteen and forty aids is killer number one here in Fort Lauderdale. Is it any wonder? There are more gays living in this city than normal people! Just across the street
eighty percent of the population are gays. It is only referred to as ‘Gaytown.’”
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211
“God is great, Jonny! He punishes all evil! Speedy is dying! He’s called me ‘Miss
Piggy’ for the very last time. The Lord be praised! Speedy’s got aids. His days are
counted.”
“Well, we’ve all got our days counted. Life is a losing battle.”
“That is something totally different. But this guy is about to die! Just before my
eyes. He only has a few weeks left. Maybe only days. God is great, Jonny. He’s punishing him for having called me ‘Miss Piggy.’ Aids has no cure, Jonny! He is a fallen
fruit about to rot! And it is God’s will that he is to burn in Hell throughout eternity!”
“Life itself has no cure, Claudia. It’s a death sentence! No annulments. No pardons. All aids will do is speed up the process a little. It’s not like he’s been shot.”
“You’re wrong! He’s like a rotten fruit about to fall. And with God’s help, Jonny,
his soul will burn in Hell throughout eternity!”
Jonny couldn’t help thinking that the old saying ‘Hell hath no fury like a woman
scorned’ had something Biblical about it. Many believed they were the words of Jesus Christ.
He was struck with bewilderment when suddenly realizing that if Speedy had
aids, he could have shot him earlier in the day without worrying too much about the
consequences. Jonny had made a miscalculation. He’d be more careful in the future.
Even Claudia was scared of guns.
He shook with discomfort as he headed for Tom’s Alley Bar.
For some reason the traffic along Holiday Park Blvd. was extremely heavy that
night, and having to wait endlessly for space to cross the street slowly started building up frustration and irritation in Jonny. When he finally reached the bar, he really
needed some shots to calm him down. His favorite waitress was no longer there, and
she who had replaced her, was one og those repulsive paint boxes with witch claws.
So Jonny was left alone to brood over his own surmounting miseries.
He felt like he needed company tonight, but just thinking about that night with
Cadilla stifled his will and initiative. Just thinking about it gave him hot flashes and
cold shivers. Uff!
After three double shots of Johnny Walker, he decided on a trip up to Solid Gold
to watch some titty shaking. He told himself he had learned his lessons and would
keep proper distance from these gold-digging, blood-sucking dancers.
The place was buzzing with lucrative business so the girls paid him no mind. He
ordered another Scotch, quickly emptied the glass and decided to walk all the way
back home. He took the ‘Jonny Walker waltz’ staggering his way back home to the
home of the lunatics. On top of everything else he now had that crazy woman to relate to, along with her huge, simpleton daughter and her little mousy looking husband
from Chicago. Life was better before. At the same time he realized that Claudia was
taking care of business in a hell of an effective way for him. And she was taking in
a lot of cash for him without adhering to her first rule of business. She handed him
the cash so proudly every single time. Without realizing her full value this woman
was about to save his business. Yes, this woman had been God-sent.
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Noticing the two patrol cars with their flashers blinking as he turned the corner
into Progresso Road, Jonny’s heart all but stopped from anxiety. What was going on
this time?
As he turned onto the walkway he noticed the office door being open with police
officers outside the door and inside the office. Jonny carefully entered the office.
Claudia was stubbornly sitting by her desk as usual, but she was, also as usual, terribly upset with a facial expression that really reminded him of Miss Piggy. He was
close to laughing every time he thought of it.
“He swore he’d kill me, Jonny! And then he actually threw me out of his apartment and onto the concrete walkway. Look at me!” She stood and pulled up her skirt
to uncover her legs. “Look! My legs are all battered and bruised! He swore he’d kill
me!”
“Who did this to you, Claudia?”
“Eric! That crackmonster! Attacking and assaulting an innocent woman!”
“Eric? In eighteen? Why?”
“He refused to leave the apartment! He attacked me! And the police refuse to put
him behind bars where he belongs. I was in real danger! I almost got killed for you,
Jonny!”
Jonny felt pissed that she blamed him every time she so indiscriminately plunged
into these awkward situations. He gave her a shot of sarcasm.
“Well, there’s only one way to avoid danger. A bit drastic, maybe, but there is a
way.”
“How?”
“Commit suicide!”
“What crap!”
“My point being this, Claudia: Life itself is risky. Nobody’s survived it yet. The
only way to insulate yourself against it’s dangers is by not being alive. Maybe you
should start thinking before you act instead of acting without thinking, and then automatically blame me.”
Jonny looked at the one police officer still remaining in the office with a question
mark upon his face. He needed not say a word. The officer volunteered the information.
“Mr. Hoskins called 9-1-1 some time ago after Mr. Jones allegedly hit Mrs. Hoskins to the ground. Mr. Jones maintains he was extremely provoked and lost his temper. By her own admission Mrs. Hoskins had forced herself into his apartment to perform an eviction. Mr. Jones admits to using strong language while under heavy stress
as a result of the provocation. He has been informed that if the police are called to
the premises one more time for any reason whatsoever, he will be booked on aggravated assault and have his ass hauled behind bars within minutes. I think he took the
message. In the meantime you’ll need to see a judge for an eviction order.”
The young officer nodded and left the office without waiting for an answer — or
another question.
I, Claudia —
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213
“This is a police state, Jonny. He called me Miss Piggy and the police refused to
put him in jail!”
“Calm down, Claudia. I can see you’re upset. I’ll rush over to Amoco for some
coffee. Then we’ll talk.”
“Right now I’d love a cup of coffee. Make it strong.”
“Yeah, it’s pretty good over at Amoco. Be back soon.”
Jonny bought two styrofoam cups for Claudia and one for himself, all of them
black.
Claudia snuffed.
“I need sugar and cream!”
“I thought you wanted it strong.”
“Yes, but I need sugar and cream!”
To Jonny Guda seemed more and more like big words without substance. So he
had to run back to the gas station to pick up eight packs of sugar, four cups of cream
and two little mixing sticks. She prepared the coffee to her liking without a word.
“Claudia, what the hell were you trying to do tonight?”
“I was trying to get rid of Eric for you! — I went to court and beat the judge,
Jonny. I got rid of that Satanist, Jake, for you. And I got rid of Speedy for you. I had
God punish him for his sins so that he will no longer live, Jonny! God’s on my side!
I had a very nice black couple, educated, looking for an apartment, and no place to
put them. Therefore I decided to get rid of Eric for you and let them move into his
apartment. It almost worked, Jonny. I walked right into his apartment and caught him
in the act sitting in his arm chair like a Buddha smoking that marihuana shit. I even
told the police, but they pretended not to hear me.”
“So, God decided to change sides, heh?”
“That’s blasphemy! He’ll never change sides. Oh, no, Jonny, I haven’t lost yet.
Tomorrow afternoon at two I have an appointment with a representative of the Hotel
and Restaurant Division, and she will issue a motel license on the spot. She’ll be here
at two. And before two thirty that mighty Buddha will be out of the apartment. And,
come fire and brimstone, I need you in the office!”
Claudia slammed her fist on the desk in unison with her staccato speech and smiled a devilish smile.
“Before the time strikes twelve midnight tomorrow I shall have Eric, his wife and
their little baby all crawling in the gutter begging forgiveness. The Lord be my witness, Jonny. God hast not forsaken me!”
“Tomorrow at two?”
“Tomorrow at two. I’ve made an appointment. A black woman, I think. Very
pleasant. Very professional. A Born Again Christian like myself. All she needs to do
before she gives me the license, is give me some information and directions. And you
need to do is write her a check of one hundred and fifty-two dollars, only sixty-two
dollars more than your present license. Mark my words, Jonny, before twelve midnight tomorrow not only will Eric be out of here, but that nice, young, black couple
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I tell them Tobby’s from Chicago
from Georgia will be living in his old apartment. The Lord is great, Jonny! Long live
the Lord!”
In ecstasy Claudia threw her face backward and stretched her arms toward the
heavens.
“Ameeen!”
Jonny felt awkward.
“Eh, where’s Tobby been all night?”
“He’s a coward! For all that I care he could be back in Chicago!”
Jonny tried to sleep on top of the futon with all his clothes on, but felt hot and feverish. Back in his chair behind his desk, and unable to relax, his stomach started getting
unsettled. Squeamish beyond ability to control himself he rushed out of the office
and puked behind the fichus bushes he had planted less than a year ago. He was
brewing on something.
Thinking back the last five, ten years he could not remember having had the flue
once. Maybe he was getting — the thought was too horrendous to finish thinking.
Even though she had not left the office until after two in the morning, Claudia knocked on the office door exactly at nine like clockwork. Jonny felt like he had just
fallen asleep, and, needing some time to properly wake up, he did not manage to get
off the floor until Claudia had opened the door with her own key and entered the
office.
She scornfully watched Jonny.
“Do you want the tenants to know you sleep in the office?”
“I don’t want the tenants to know anything! The less they know the better it is —
except that it may prevent a break-in.”
“Aah! So that’s why you spend the nights in the office? That’s smart. American
smart.”
“If you want to put an American phrase to it I’d suggest ‘miserable.’”
“Where do you actually live?”
“When I have nothing available myself, I stay at the Schubert.”
“Here in Fort Lauderdale?”
“Of course.”
“I need to warn you, Jonny: Eric told me last night he would stop by to see you
in the office this morning. As early as possible. Probably about ten. I was so upset
last night that I forgot to mention it.”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s not the first time Eric’s been in the office.”
“Promise you’ll give him no slack, Jonny. I want that nice Georgian couple to
move in here tonight.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll give him nothing.”
“I have a reason to worry. He pulled a gun on me last night. I was too scared to
mention it.”
I, Claudia —
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215
“Yeah, I know he’s got a gun. Like about fifty million other American households, not to mention two hundred million individuals.”
“You should be careful when dealing with guns, Jonny. All that stands between
you and eternity is a quarter of an inch pull on a trigger.”
“Thinking of it that way eternity is indeed too close for comfort.”
“Be careful. He knows we want him out now. He might be desperate. I hope you
don’t mind if Tobby takes me shopping for a few hours while Eric talks to you.”
“No problem.”
“Which brings me to the next matter. Tobby’s situation. So far you’ve only given
him odd jobs. Some painting. Cutting the grass. I don’t think he’s made more than
one hundred and fifty dollars.”
“Probably not. But I’ve given him every job I’ve needed done so far.”
“I know. I’ve called the pool man and asked if he needs extra help. He’ll be here
Tuesday. Tobby was thinking more in terms of you giving him some sort of a title.
Like a manager. Or assistant manager. That sounds even better. He’d love the title
of ‘assistant manager.’ It sounds so masculine. Hopefully you have no objections?”
“Not at all. It’s only a title. Facade. If that will make him happy, it’s okay with
me. I couldn’t care less if he calls himself King of Chicago.”
“Thank you, Jonny. It will make him very happy. I will tell him immediately.”
“Hm. Yeah. Wish him ‘good luck.’”
In any meaning of the word Eric was not feeling very high when he entered the office
at exactly ten that morning. Like so many times before when he was not high or too
frustrated, he tried fishing for Jonny’s sympathy. However, Claudia must have put
the fear of God into him. He looked about to make sure she was not present.
“I’ve always considered ye a close friend, Jonny. So I feel I need to warn ye. Ye’d
better get rid of that crazy woman before she destroys ye. Look how she’s turnin’ this
place upside down. I’ve been plannin’ on seeing ye for weeks now, but I ain’t properly got around to it before. Prissy’s been blamin’ me somethin’ terrible. She says
ye’ve been a hell of a good landlord. So I brought all the papers and figured we might
be able to work somethin’ out one more time. We’ve always been able to reach an
agreement, ye ‘n me.”
“What exactly did you have in mind?”
“I was thinkin’ maybe ye’d come up with something.”
“Like what?”
“Like ye done before.”
Jonny kept staring at the desktop. Then he stared Eric straight in the eye.
“Remember last time you were in my office? Sitting in the same chair you’re
sitting right now. Telling me our agreement wasn’t worth the paper it was written on.
Refusing to pay for your in-laws even though we had an agreement on paper. Remember what you said: ‘A fuckin’ piece of paper ain’t worth shit!’ Why should I believe you, this time?”
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“A man says crazy things on an empty stomach, Jonny.”
“And what guarantee can you give me that your stomach won’t be empty once
again?”
“Prissy’s a good woman, Jonny. She makes good money.”
“Yeah. And you spend it even before she brings it home. On drugs. On prostitutes. And then you tell Prissy that I’m the one seeing all the prostitutes.”
“Kirk was the one seeing the prostitutes. It was his idea.”
“That’s not what Elizabeth told me. It’s not what Joyce told me, either. Or Robin,
when she was not too busy with Ronald. No, Eric, with you it’s always gonna be
drugs for food and vice before necessities. Promises and excuses instead of rent
money. Lies and manipulations offered as friendship. Conspiring against me with
other tenants to keep me from getting the rent so that you’d all be in the same boat
trying to live here for free. And telling me straight to my face you have no intentions
of paying any rent whatsoever. And now you want another deal? How could you be
so stupid as to think you’ll get any?”
Eric shifted about in the chair and pulled himself up from his slouched position.
“I’ll prove it to ye, Jonny!”
“Yes? In the same way you did lest time? — No, Eric, it is too late. I have hired
a manager now. And it is only a matter of time until she takes over the buildings.
And after last night, she will not have room for you!”
“I need to warn ye! She’s a crazy woman! The meanest, most manipulative creature ever to serve the forces of evil. She’ll destroy ye! She’s the kind of woman who
wants to teach the Devil how to run Hell!”
“Yeah. She’s a good manager.”
“She’ll destroy ye!”
“And I’m supposed to believe you care? Or could it be that you’re afraid that she
might be successful at something you’ve tried and failed? At least she’s got the right
drawl for the police to help her!”
“I would never try to destroy ye, Jonny.”
“I guess when you organized Kirk and Jake against me in refusing to pay rent, you
did it as a friendly favor? Or Speedy. All the others. Even Robin when she was short
on cash.
And when you kept running around telling every tenant who moved into the
building that I could not kick them out if they did not pay rent because I had no hotel
license, you did it to help me, heh? And every time you called the police on me for
no reason at all, I’m supposed to think of it as just another friendly favor? When you
called this lawyer to inform him my building had lost half the tenants, and that I was
unable to pay mortgages, and this lawyer tries to foreclose on me, you think I’m
stupid enough to believe you did it in order to help me out of a difficult situation?
No, Eric, we’ve come to the end of the line.”
“I don’t know what the hell ye’re talking about! All I’m askin’ is another chance.”
“That train left last time you were sitting in that chair.”
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217
“I’ll fight you! I’ll fight you all the way! You won’t get me out of here like you’ve
done the others. I’ll be staying her until after the Holidays. We can’t live in the
streets over the Holidays with a little child. The police will never evict us. They
won’t lift a finger for you.”
“You’re right. I know that Fort Lauderdale police officers hate foreigners who
speak with and accent. But, I swear to God, Eric, they simply love little, old ladies
from cow country up North. She’s even a full-fledged citizen. Her best friend in all
of Florida is the sheriff himself. The sheriff of Broward County! Why do you think
they’ve been helping her out so willingly?”
Eric’s eyes shifted about aimlessly without the slightest sign of self-confidence
left in him. But he was stubborn.
“Ye won’t get me out. Ye ain’t got the hotel license.”
“Yeah, that’s what you’ve been telling everybody. Now — what would you do
if right this minute I showed you my motel license? Would you leave voluntarily?”
“It’s a fuckin’ lie, Jonny. It’s impossible. I’ve talked to them. They’ll never give
ye a motel license!”
“I could show it to you right now if I wanted to. But I need to make some copies
first. One copy will be for you. Believe me, it will be a pleasure handing it to you.
I’ll even let you keep it. You could frame it and hang it on the wall as a remembrance. I’ll stop by later in the afternoon. Now, if you still choose not to believe me,
ask yourself one question: When did I ever lie to you?”
With his dark, obstinate eyes staring at Jonny in bewildered disbelief Eric exited
the office deadly determined not to leave his apartment without resistance. Not only
had he spent his last dollar; he also owed more than two hundred dollars to Calvin
and Thilda. Only a few days ago he had been in a heated argument over it. Calvin
wanted his money, but Eric refused to come up with the cash based on accusations
that Calvin had not kept his promises about employing him. Calvin turned extremely
angry over the accusations.
‘Fuck you, Eric, that was more than six months ago. You know as well as I do that
I no longer have my janitorial business.’
‘A promise is a promise no matter what. I trusted ye on yer word.’
‘How can you expect me to give you a job when I no longer have a business?’
‘So tell me we’re even, then!’
‘No fuckin way! You owe me two hundred dollars. If you won’t come up with the
cash, I’ll have to tell my friends. You know what happens then.’
So, therefore Eric ho longer had credit with Calvin. He worried more than anything else about his dwindling supply of marihuana. Prissy had also been on the unfriendly side lately, and Eric somehow suspected that somebody had informed her
of his escapades while she was out struggling to keep food on the table and a roof
over their heads. He suspected Claudia for somehow having been able to make Prissy
understand what was going on behind her back.
Or maybe Jonny?
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No. If Jonny wanted to do something like that, he could have done it a long time
ago. Jonny was such a fucking sleazy bastard always letting time work for him, but
he had never to Eric’s knowledge interfered in anybody’s private lives unless involuntarily dragged into it, like Kirk had done so many times. No, damn it, it had to
be Claudia!
Eric remembered how easily Prissy had been influenced by Violet when Violet
had tried to come between them. And now this nasty religious freak! Eric new from
before that there was nothing like a woman to woman talk in turning housewives
against husbands. His only comfort right now was knowing that Prissy also enjoyed
a joint now and then.
He was in two minds about what to do if Jonny stopped by to give him a copy of
the motel licence, and told him to leave. With Claudia in the office yearning to call
the police for an eviction he knew at the bottom of his heart that this was deadline.
He was not yet determined whether to accept or not. Something in his nature told him
to go down with flying colors.
On the other hand his brain kept warning him that it was too high a price to pay!
Anyway, he wanted to be on the safe side and took out his gun for a thorough overhaul. He fumbled about in one of the drawers for some ammunition and carefully
loaded his old Magnum 44. If that nasty Hoskins bitch came rushing into his apartment without knocking like she had done the last time, he’d be ready for her.
His hatred for Claudia had grown stronger than his fear of the police.
He’d simply claim justifiable homicide based on reasonable cause for fear of his
life and blow her away within the limits of the law. Like the guy in New Orleans who
had protected himself against that Japanese intruder by shooting him in the back. In
a court of law he had won on every point.
But Eric knew it would be more difficult with a woman who was also a citizen.
At just a little after two the representative of the BPR, Business and Professional
Regulations, arrived as scheduled. Her open friendliness, her easy smile with those
gorgeous, white teeth contrasting her dark chocolate brown complexion made Jonny
immediately take a liking to her. But he felt anxious. Getting that motel licence this
very day meant a hell of a lot to him. Claudia took care of the conversation, and they
both listened as the representative explained the rules and regulations. Jonny worried
that Claudia might misrepresent herself, but she showed herself from her most authoritative and friendly side. Jonny also worried that the representative might want to
check each apartment and find the standard too low, but to his great relief she informed Claudia that they had no right checking the apartments unless there was a complaint from one of the tenants. However, minimum demand was that the landlord
supply all the linen and that it be laundered and changed at least once every week or
when new tenants moved in.
If the tenants themselves chose to handle it, there would be no objections, but the
availability had to be presented. She was all but ready so start issuing the licence
I, Claudia —
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219
when, addressing Jonny, she asked if he had paid the fee of his transient licence for
the coming year.
Jonny felt embarrassed to tell her he had not, so he just told her that to the best
of his knowledge he thought so.
“And when is your expiration date?”
“If I’m not mistaken, it’s November 1.”
“I’m terribly sorry. If you have paid your present licence, I’m refrained from issuing another licence until next year. That’s too bad. We were so close.”
Claudia’s disappointment resulted in her hungjaw almost falling off its hinges and
dropping down to her chest.
“What if we pay the difference and you just issue another?”
“That is a possibility. I will have to take that up at a board meeting. I’m sorry.”
Jonny felt that he was about to faint. He was out of words.
He started sweating. He was uncertain as to what to do. Maybe he should have
offered her some cash to take care of it? A bribe. A bunch of green Almighties. The
way this had started out in the beginning was almost to good to be true. He had heard
so much about American corruption, but he did not know how to do it. If he offered
something like that, it was his luck that he’d probably end up behind bars. Not to
mention having Claudia on his back for the whole next year. Damned! Why had he
not told her the truth instead of telling her such a stupid lie? Red faced and embarrassed he stammered:
“Eh, give me at least a chance to — eh, check my receipts. I do not clearly remember.”
He checked his checking account, all the receipts for the last month, and all the
unpaid bills. He started sweating. Damned! If he goofed now, he’d be in trouble, not
to mention having Claudia on his back scolding him for a full year to come. He checked the bills put aside for immediate payment. So great was his relief when he found
his old licence fee among those unpaid bills that he burst out in a shout of relief.
“Damned. Here it is. Ready to be mailed. Damned! That was lucky! Without that
licence it would have been impossible to run this place!”
“Don’t curse, Jonny. We are both religious ladies!”
“I’m sorry. I just got carried away.”
Jonny handed the unpaid bill over to the representative. She did not immediately
answer, and Jonny worried something else might now be an obstacle.
He knew bureaucrats. With one obstacle solved they invented another.
The representative finally spoke.
“Well, I guess that leaves me no option. You’ll have your motel licence provided
you pay me in full on the premises, cash or check.”
Jonny started writing the check while the representative filled out the licence.
Claudia kept the conversation going by telling her that she was taking over the property within the near future. She stressed that she was a born citizen of real solid
country stock, and a good American, and that Jonny had plans to leave the country
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as soon as the deal had been settled. The representative somehow seemed relieved
as she exchanged the so long awaited motel licence with his check of one hundred
and fifty-two dollars.
“I understand you’ve been having some problems with the police. We’ve received
some anonymous phone calls advising us not to issue this licence.”
“That’s correct. I’ve tried to get some help trying to keep the drug pushers at
large, but so far I’ve been unsuccessful. I still don’t understand why. It’s a major reason why I chose to leave Fort Lauderdale and let Mrs. Hoskins take over. She’s a woman. They crawl on their knees for her.”
“We get a lot of those anonymous calls. Sometimes the police try to dissuade us
from issuing the motel licences. They feel it gives the landlords too strong a tool in
evictions. They blame the landlords for all the homelessness.”
“I don’t understand. I sometimes feel the police protect the pushers instead of the
legitimate businesses. It’s beyond me. It’s crazy here. Apartment hunters always try
to give the best impression. If some of them use drugs, the police threaten to put me
in jail for renting to addicts.
When I try to clean up the mess the police refuse to let me do so, supposedly because I do not have a motel license. ‘We have enough homeless people in the streets,’
they keep telling me. It’s the worst run-around justice I’ve ever encountered. An endless vicious circle. Well, once I get out of here it will no longer be my concern. So
let me not forget to thank you for what I consider a great help. I will not hide the fact
that we’ve got a lot of trouble with tenants not paying rent, and having to go to court
every time we need to evict them almost choked us.”
“I know your problem. There’s a lot of professional rent dodgers out there. I know
for a fact that some of them are being protected by the police their reasoning being
that the street people cause extra problems for them. It’s a pity, but you do realize it’s
a problem of proportions? We have about three thousand homeless in the streets of
Fort Lauderdale alone, and the numbers are rapidly increasing with each passing
day.”
“I think it’s a disgrace. Neither the police nor the politicians are doing their jobs
right. They don’t seem to realize that they could save billions of dollars, on top of
creating a safer society, if they would give people a decent life. A welfare check
costs less a year than a prison cell. Not to mention all the crime. I don’t know if you
realize it, but among so called civilized nations the United States has the highest
prison rate in the western world. The longest sentences and the roughest crimes.”
The representative of the BPR looked at Jonny and flashed her pearly smile.
“That’s what I’ve been saying all along. Let me tell you, if you run for President,
I’ll vote for you. — How do you feel about the black situation?”
“I have more blacks living here than whites. Often they are the best tenants.”
That was too much for Claudia.
“That’s ridiculous! He’s not even a citizen!”
“We’ve got plenty of citizens in this country. But we have few sensible people!”
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221
“Did Eric come to see you?”
“Yes.”
“What did he want?”
“Strike another deal.”
“What did you tell him?”
“I told him it was okay — — —
“What!?!”
— — — provided he came up with the twelve hundred dollars he owes me, plus
start paying two hundred and fifty dollars a week in rent.”
Claudia turned pink again.
“I will not let you do that! I want that manipulating pot sucker out of these premises no later that eight this evening. I have a nice couple waiting to move in later tonight. I want Eric out!”
“Just putting you on, Claudia. I actually told him I had nothing more to offer. I
told him I had the motel licence in my pocket, but needed to make some copies before I let him see it. I’ve promised him one of the copies this very afternoon.”
Claudia looked at Jonny, in shock.
“But that’s a lie. You told him a lie, Jonny!”
“Ha, ha, ha. No. Not really. I’m on my way over to Office Depot for some copies
and then I’ll prove to him I was telling the truth. Unless you want to go over and tell
him yourself.”
“You bet I do! It’s my eviction! I’ll teach that bully a lesson he’ll long remember.
Don’t you start getting in my way, Jonny. You go get those copies and let me handle
the rest.”
Evicting Eric Lee Jones and his little family turned into one of those incredible anticlimaxes that afterward make you wonder what it was all about.
Eric had tried to see Calvin one more time for some weeds, but Calvin had stubbornly refused unless he came up with some cash — which probably prevented a
tragic outcome of the Jones’ residency at the Holiday Park Hotel. When high Eric behaved aggressively and obnoxiously.
During his withdrawals he became meek, nervous and frightened. But so terribly
unstable. You could never tell what he would do. He was right in the middle of one
of those nervous spells when Claudia knocked on his door to give him a copy of the
motel licence. Without saying a word he just took it and read it and realized that
Jonny had been telling the truth earlier in the day. He realized that Jonny now had
the necessary tool to have him removed from the premises.
On his belly, defeated and scared Eric had no objections. He just asked one favor.
“I need to talk to Jonny. Alone.”
“Jonny’s got nothing to do with it. This is my job. You have until eight o’clock.”
“Shut up, bitch. I need to talk to Jonny. Git ‘im for me, please. I need to talk to
him. Please!”
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“He’s got nothing to do with it. Start packing! I have a nice, young couple moving
in here in one hour.”
“Two hours ago I would have scattered yer brains, bitch. Now I ain’t got the guts.
But if ye refuse to get Jonny for me, I swear to God you won’t be able to crawl out’a
here. Not on your fuckin’ belly!”
Petrified from shock Claudia once again found herself staring into the barrel of
huge revolver. Prissy was sitting in the sofa holding on to her daughter, crying.
“I’ll go get him. No problem! I’ll get him.”
She quickly ducked out the door and excitedly headed for the office.
Yes, two hours ago Eric had felt better. Two hours ago his abstinenses had not
started getting the better of him. Right now Eric was sitting in his chair, sweating and
shaking. For now, and maybe for another few hours he would transform into a stage
of gutless nervousness and inferiority. Claudia, and Jonny, too, for that matter, had
no idea how lucky they were.
Two hours earlier, when he was still high, Eric would have gone for his gun to
protect his family from eviction. And a few hours from now, when his abstinanses
and anxieties really started hitting him, he might just as easily have been dangerous
out of desperation. But right now he was relatively calm and collected. The presence
of his family also had a restraining affect on him.
But he had managed to scare the crap out of Claudia.
“Call the police, Jonny. Call the police right away! He threatened me once more
with his gun. He wanted to talk to you. When I refused, he threatened to scatter my
brains. He’s dangerous! Call 9-1-1!”
“Did he want to talk to me?”
“Yes.”
“Ok, I’ll go over and try to calm him down.”
“It’s my eviction! Don’t promise him anything!”
“I’ll just talk to him, that’s all.”
“Be careful. There’s no saying what he might do!”
“I’ll just talk to him.”
The door to Eric’s apartment had been left open so Jonny knocked and slowly entered. Eric kept staring at him with his empty, drugged-out eyes.
“So, this is it, heh? I know when I’m beaten, Jonny. That motel licence sure surprised me. I knew it would come sooner or later, but ye hit me at the very worst moment of my life. No fuckin’ friends left, except maybe Bonnie. Prissy won’t get paid
until another week and I’m beyond my last dollar with the Holidays just around the
corner. Will ye at least let me have my security back?”
Jonny understood the system now. Whether this derelict little family would be
thrown directly in the street, or have a place to live for a few days, was all up to him.
He realized he was the judge as well as the executioner. Sentenced or freed. Innocent
or guilty. Guilty and sentenced.
Eric was guilty as sin, all right. Jonny had no sympathy with him. Prissy was part
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223
guilty, as well. Part perpetrator. Part victim. But innocent little Chesny, sitting there
staring at him with her tear-filled, brown eyes, what wrong had she done?
Jonny strove to keep back the tears.
“You know as well as I do that you have no security. We had an agreement once,
which you kept, except for the security that you never came up with. Apart from that
you know very well that Ted, or Andy, or was it both, let you and your Latino friend
move in without paying security. Don’t throw stones, Eric. They come back.”
“I’m down beyond my last buck, Jonny. We need some milk for Chesny. I don’t
know what the fuck to do, Jonny. We don’t even have an old carwreck to sleep in
like the newly arrivals.”
“Yes, down here in Florida they have a tendency to go up in smoke.”
“Can ye at least do something?”
“What about your so-called in-laws?”
“They decided to try their luck in California. We haven’t heard from them since.”
“When did that happen?”
“When rumors started spreadin’ that this bitch was takin’ over the buildings.”
“Ha, ha, ha. So she put the fear of God into all of you, heh?”
“She’s naturally born nasty, Jonny. She’s crazy! Watch her eyes. She loves to see
people suffer. She’ll destroy this place. Ye really don’t know what ye’re gettin’ into.
— So, what can ye do for us?”
“Nothing! I hear you’ve been telling everybody about getting a big reward from
that bank robbery. Was it eight hundred dollars?”
“That was a fuckin’ scam! Yeah, they gave me that fuckin’ fancy paper readin’
eight hundred dollars. When I went over to cash it, they told be it was not a check.
It was not a stock, either. They called it, eh, a bond or, eh, security, I think. They told
me I had to keep it until maturity in order to get the cash. Fuckin’ thirty years from
now, Jonny! A fuckin’ scam. I’ve never heard anything that stupid. I thought they
were fuckin’ with me, so I took the bus to downtown Miami to see the manager in
the main building. But she told me the same fuckin’ crap! Thirty fuckin’ years! I told
her I’d be fuckin’ dead and buried by then, and that I needed the money now. She
laughed in my face and told me to give it to my grandchildren! Thirty years from
now! How much do ya think eight hundred dollars are worth thirty years from now?
Jonny almost started laughing. So that was the big reward everybody had been
telling him about. Making it sound like millions.
“A fuckin’ scam! — Ye can do something for me, Jonny?”
“Stop by in the office when you’re ready. If I give you fifty, you’ll have enough
for a room and some food for a day.”
“We’re all packed. Five plastic bags. That’s all we have. The apartment is clean.
The key’s on the table and we’re ready to leave.”
“Ok. I’ll give you the fifty. — Eh, I’ll give you one hundred, but I’ll let Prissy
handle the cash.”
“Thanks. Thanks a lot, Jonny. — Eh, one more fuckin’ thing: I never told no fuck-
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I, Claudia —
I tell them Tobby’s from Chicago
in’ lawyer about ye, Jonny. Ye got me fuckin’ confused on that one, but then I fuckin’ remembered. Ted paid Ross fifty bucks a week to keep an eye on ye. To keep
him informed. Everything happenin’ in this buildin’ Ted ‘n Andy knew before ye
did. Sometimes even before it fuckin’ happened. I ain’t no fuckin’ saint, Jonny, but
I ain’t never been that fuckin’ low.”
Jonny said nothing. He never suspected Ross.
“Ye fuckin don’t believe me, he?”
“Yes, I do. I have no problem with that.”
Jonny picked up the key, waited for Eric to get out of the chair, watched Prissy
take little Chesny by the hand and exit the apartment that had been their home for
almost a two years. Only after they had all left the apartment, and he had locked the
door, did he discretely slip Prissy the hundred dollar bill.
He also crouched down and gave a twenty dollar bill to little Chesney.
He stood watching them as they walked down the concrete broadwalk toward
Progresso Road without once looking back.
Jonny wondered how they would survive. Their only friends left were not friends,
but drug suppliers threatening their lives over a two hundred dollars debt. They had
no relatives in Florida, and, for reasons known only to Eric and Prissy, they could not
return home. They had no place to go for help, either. To be eligible for welfare support they would have to take a blood test and show no traces of drugs. If they tried
that solution, they would automatically lose the only thing in life that had value to
them — little Chesny. Without her they would be totally wasted.
Then again, the welfare of the child should come first, and maybe she would be
better off in a foster home — if she was not exposed to too much abuse. One thing’s
for certain; no matter where that little child was put, she would never experience the
love and care given to her by her two addicted parents. No wonder society was falling apart at the seams with official programs spending more money trying to break
families apart than trying to keep them together. Home ‘Recking Services, indeed!
Jonny kept watching them as they left the property and turned left on Progresso
Road. Eric with two large, black plastic bags, Prissy with two smaller ones and
innocent little Chesny hugging her little teddy bear in her left arm while holding on
to the last bag in her right hand. Their brown and white spotted sheepdog looked as
lost and homeless as the rest of the family.
Moved to tears Jonny entered the office.
“Did you let them go, Jonny? Just like that! Those were my evictions. You stole
my evictions, Jonny. You broke your word!”
“That was nobody’s evictions, Claudia. That was a family in agony and despair.
Three human beings, one of them an innocent little child, heading for destruction.
‘What you have done to one of my little children, you have done to me.’ I guess that
holds true wether you do good or bad.”
Claudia’s eyes were burning with excitement, igniting like two bonfires in a sudden burst of wind. Jonny remembered an old joke and started laughing.
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225
Claudia was pissed: ”I’ve told you before and I’m telling you again! Leave God
out of this! This is business and he’s got nothing to do with it!”
“I don’t know much about this God-crap of yours, but I do know one thing — it
stinks!”
Later that evening somebody broke into Bonnie’s apartment stealing all her change
and all her weeds. Since Eric was the only one who knew where she kept her marihuana, she declined to call the police or press charges.
When Jonny returned from Tom’s Alley bar a little after midnight, he was drunk.
He noticed a white on white Cadillac parked in one of the parking spaces, but was
too drunk to pay special attention to it. So many times tenants living across the street
parked their cars in the Holiday Park Hotel’s parking spaces. The easiest way out,
as usual.
He caught himself sneaking into his own office in order not to be detected by
Claudia. She had been God-sent when it came to getting rid of the rent dodgers, and
also for having got him the hotel-licence, but she had become a constant irritation.
He carefully locked the door behind him and rolled out the futon. But he was
unable to sleep. Claudia had been helping him out free of charge on a full time basis.
Hm, full time? Triple time. From early in the morning until after midnight. Day in
and day out. She had been to court and got rid of Jake, the satanist. And she had got
rid of Speedy no matter how much he kept screaming ‘Miss Piggy, Miss Piggy!’ And
the worst tenant of them all, well, maybe except for Kirk, Eric, had left without executing any of his many threats.
On top of everything else he had a motel licence now, a necessary tool to keep the
property clean of unwanted tenants. She had even managed to turn negative police
attitudes to positive ones. And she had rented the apartments at double the prices he
would have asked if he had taken care of it himself — even before the season had
actually started. That creature that everybody in the building had started referring to
as ‘the crazy woman’ had indeed done him a lot of good. Jonny wondered if she
really planned to take the place over, or if that was just empty talk. Well, there was
not much empty talk with Claudia. A lot of crazy talk, yes, but always followed by
some sort of crazy action.
Tomorrow Jonny would tell her how much he appreciated what she had done for
him and tell her he would no longer charge rent. And come January 1. she would officially be hired as manager. He would also tell her that he had plans to see his old
father, and of course the kids, as soon as possible. He would suggest that they put it
all down on paper. He suspected, however, that reaching an official agreement with
Claudia, and Tobby, might be easier said than done. Jonny wondered what were actually Claudia’s plans. At times he considered Claudia an angel from above sent down
in disguise to help him. At other times, however, Jonny wondered if suddenly she
might materialize as the Devil himself.
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Jonny woke up in the middle of the night feeling feverish and squeamish. Damned.
Having no toilet in the room he should have known better than to take in too much
liquid before calling it a day. Taking a leak under the big mango tree he also experienced the need to throw up.
On his way back to the office he could no longer hold his puke and let it all gush
out behind the fichus bushes. Back on his futon he noticed his feet swelling around
the ankles above the socks. Damned! He would have to stop sleeping with his socks
on so that his blood circulation would not be hampered.
Damned! If he was coming down with the flu, he’d better rent a room over at the
Windsor until it was over. Luckily, he had a manager now.
Next morning the fever was gone and his stomach settled. Strange. All the frustrations and pressures were beginning to take their toll. No doubt, these last two years
had taken away his youthfulness and turned him into an old man — at least mentally.
The sooner he got out of here the better.
He decided to confront Claudia for a decision. If she wouldn’t give him a straight
answer, he’d have no choice but to put the property back on the marked. He knew it
would be difficult. Finding someone with enough cash to pay off the second mortgage, and still leave something for himself, seemed next to impossible.
“Here’s money for you, Jonny. Tons of money. That nice couple from Georgia
moved in just after you had left last night. I tried to get two eighty a week, but they
were reluctant to pay that kind of money. They wanted it for one thirty-five. The
same Eric was paying. They maintained the prices must have gone up, lately. I told
them it was season and finally got them up to two twenty. So here’s four forty for
you, plus the key. Somehow they seemed to know the rates. They asked for a tall guy
who spoke with an accent. Maybe they meant you?”
“A very nice couple? In their mid-twenties? Black? From Georgia? In a white
Cadillac? Both commanding a rather articulate, educated language? Friendly.”
“Yes.”
Jonny grabbed the registration card to check their names. Alexander and Latasha
Ivy. He did not recall their names, but still felt certain. He had recognized the Cadillac last night, but had been too drunk to react to it.
“Damned, Claudia! That couple was here maybe about half a year ago looking for
a place, but did not take it. Instead they moved in across the street. That black woman
always hanging out outside that pink building squealed on them, and had them arrested for dealing drugs. Marihuana, I think. If they’re out already, they must have got
off with possession instead of dealing. I almost got arrested with them. A misunderstanding. Thilda, the pusher, got me off the hook.”
“I doubt it. Not this couple! They both seem decent, polite and highly educated.
You’re wrong!”
“Why would a highly educated couple settle in this neighborhood if not for drugs?
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227
So we’re openly renting to drug pushers, now? I thought you said you were going to
check on everybody before they moved in. This couple is right out of prison!”
“Hogwash! But don’t worry about it. I have a motel licence now. I don’t have to
check on people. If I don’t want them living here, they’ll be gone within three hours.”
“Not if they come sticking a gun up your nostrils! Then you’ll be gone within
three seconds.”
“Don’t worry. I know people! Just let me handle it.”
“Ok, ok. But if they start pushing, you’d better get rid of them immediately or
we’ll be in real trouble. I don’t want the drug squad back on the premises!”
“The drug squad has nothing to do with it! This is business! Just trust me, Jonny.
Trust me. I’m making money for you. Tons of money.”
“How could you do that to me? How could you rent to that couple, knowing what
they did and everything! They’re back for revenge now! You know they’re dealing
drugs. They’re big time pushers for one of the most powerful cartels!! You know
how I hate pushers and being around drugs. And I have the responsibility of raising
two teenage daughters! How could you do this to me?”
Thilda approached Jonny as he was cleaning the parking spaces with his huge
push broom.
“I have a manager now. She had no way of knowing.”
“What do you plan to do about it?”
“The slightest sign of pushing and they’ll be out of here.”
“You don’t understand! I’m in danger. So is Calvin. My whole family. Calvin’s
life’s been threatened! For the first time in his life he is walking around with a pistol
for self protection.
There’s no saying what they might do to us. I was the one that put them behind
bars, remember?”
“Yeah, and for the second time, I hear. Maybe you’re ready for a hat trick?”
“You know I simply hate pushers, Jonny!”
‘Yeah, especially if they interfere with business.’ Jonny had the words on the tip
of his tongue, but let it be. He saw no need to challenge destiny. Instead he asked
very carefully: “Why don’t you ask the police for protection?”
“The police don’t give protection! They only pick you up after you’re dead. If you
don’t get rid of that couple, Jonny, we have only one option — we’ll have to move!”
Jonny wanted to tell her that was sweet music in his ears, but instead pretended
to be somewhat confused.
“Well, you’re right I don’t understand. Why would you have to move out just because they moved in? You know what to look for. Why not perform a real hat trick
and have the police take them in like before? I’d love to see that happen. If they’re
pushing, I mean.”
“You don’t understand at all! I doubt if they’ll start pushing. They’re here for
revenge!”
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“Why would they do that? That sounds like a wild guess at the very best. Besides,
what do you expect me to do? — knock on their door and tell them to leave because
the couple across the street is afraid that they might have it in for them?”
“Just get rid of them. No explanation necessary. You owe me one, remember?”
“Can’t do that. But I assure you, at the very first indication of anything irregular
I promise they will be out of here. I hate drug pushers as much as you do. If not
more.”
“You’re so naive! The way you behave now you might lose some very nice neighbors, Jonny.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. But I don’t think it will happen. I’ll still see you around.”
Jonny only met Thilda once after that conversation. Her fear had been warranted.
Only three days later Thilda reproached him for being partly to blame for Calvin’s
death. He had been shot through his back last night about five in the morning on his
way back home from 7-Eleven.
Before sunset that very same evening Thilda, with her two teenage daughters, had
disappeared from that pink building extremely scared that she might be next in line.
That nice Georgian couple, Alexander and Latasha Ivy, were not implicated in the
murder, but, to Claudia’s great despair, they left the same day without giving notice
to move or asking to have their security deposit refunded.
Jonny doubted that the police did much to solve the crime. At least neither him
nor Claudia were ever approached for information.
In the Miami Herald there was no mention of the incident, but the Sun Sentinel
carried a small article. These routinely drug killings seldom hit the headlines any
more. They did not sell. The public wanted news, not daily trivia.
Jonny rejoiced. His worst plague was now over! Things were shaping up and
money was coming in above expectations. Even when making a mistake, Claudia
seemed to come out on top. If Jonny had been present that night instead of getting
drunk over at Tom’s Alley Bar, he would have refused to rent to them. His luck had
definitely turned with Claudia. All the unwanted tenants were gone.
With a motel licence he did not have to worry about getting people evicted if they
caused problems or dodged rent, so the cashflow improved dramatically. Even the
drug pushers from across the street were gone like a shot. Yes, a shot. That was all
it took. Calvin was shot in the back and Thilda and her two teenage daughters were
over the hills. Yes, things were shaping up. Maybe now he could start living his life
in a normal manner?
But Jonny knew from experience that the tropical paradise was sometimes hell,
but Hell never a tropical paradise.
The flu hit Jonny hard that next day. At first he started feeling weak and squeamish,
then he started puking while trying hard to hold back on his diarrhea. Hoping for
immediate improvement Jonny ran over to the Amoco station a couple of times, but
realized he could not continue using that place as his private restroom. Having the
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229
runs without as much as a pot to shit in impressed upon him his homelessness. He
informed Claudia he did not feel too good and told her she could find him at the
Windsor in case of an emergency. Her reaction relieved Jonny because she seemed
more than happy to see him leave.
Jonny spent all of that week in and out of bed all alone fighting the flu. Heavy
diarrhea until he was too empty to perform any more. He just sat on top of the commode for hours, empty. The same happened to his womiting. He did not start feeling
better until ha had nothing left to puke on. Even his fluids seemed to dave disappeared. In between hurried trips to the bathroom all he could do was stay in bed,
sweating and getting constantly weaker.
During that week he only twice managed to stagger up to Arby’s for his roast beef
sandwich with fries and coke, but back in his room ha almost immediately started
womiting again. He managed to stop by at the Hotel informing Claudia of his situation. “Don’t worry. It’s all in good hands. I’m making money for you — tons of
money! — When will you be back?”
“I don’t know exactly, but the worst seem to be over. I’ll spent the weekend trying
to regain some strength, but I hope to be back in business by Sunday morning. Or
Monday. See you then.”
He did nothing but sleep and watch TV that entire weekend. And regaining
strength. That crazy flu had indeed sucked a lot of sap out of him. Sunday morning
he still felt weak and decided to remain at the Windsor until Monday morning.
He also started feeling depressed. What a fucking existence! If he died from
dehydration or exhaustion, nobody would even know about it until they would clean
the room. Like that incident he had read about in the newspaper where a decaying
body under a hotel bed had started making such odor that the German couple who
stayed there almost got infected from the rotting body stench. Imagine their reaction
when they noticed that decaying, skeletonizing body under the bed!
Well, Jonny’s own fate could turn out the same way without a single soul noticing.
What a fucking influenza! He could hardly remember being hit this hard by a flu
before, but recalled being told that the flu would often hit harder in a tropical climate. He thanked God he was back on his feet again.
The Holiday Park Hotel was in total uproar when Jonny returned that Monday
morning. Claudia had decided to go seasonal and had doubled the rents for all the old
tenants in the building. Jonny was in total shock that she could have made such a
decision without first taking it up with him.
“I’m making money for you! Tons of money! You sit down and I will explain to
you what has happened. I’ve been busy night and day taking care of business for you.
We need to come to a new understanding. I’m making tons of money for you and all
I’m getting is free lodging. This cannot go on. We need to talk! And I want it in writing!”
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I tell them Tobby’s from Chicago
“Yeah, you’ve got that right. I’ll have my lawyer set up a deal for you. In the
meantime I’ll be taking care of business. You went way too far when changing the
rents without me knowing it. How many vacancies do we have?”
“None! But there’s a lot of changes. Craig and Ross in number twenty-four left
last Friday. They refused to come up with the new rent. They wanted to get in touch
with you, but I told them I was the landlady now. They left mad as hell and called
Ted and Andy to complain about it. I still think they own the buildings, but I’ve been
too busy to find out about it. Craig and Ross were about to leave with all the
furniture when I detected them. I managed to stop them. But only temporarily. They
called the police on me and proved that the furniture and that huge 45 inch projection
television belonged to them. You never told me they supplied their own furniture!”
“I’m sure there are many little details you don’t know about yet. You’ve gone
way beyond your authority.”
“You should’ve told me!”
“In other words you’re telling me twenty-one is empty. No furniture, no tenants?”
“No. I let Glenda and her family move in there. It’s a much bigger place for them.
They’re a big family and her youngest daughter, Jillian, is supposed to be moving in
with them. So I’ll be getting an extra seventy-five dollars without having to supply
furniture. They don’t mind sleeping on the floor.”
“What about twenty-four?”
“That limping, stammering nigger in twenty-five for some obscure reason wanted
to move to twenty-four, so I let him. I actually doubled his rent to get rid of him. He’s
such a sloppy nigger! He kept bitching about it, but accepted if he could move into
twenty-four. That’s directly facing the office so I figured we could better keep an eye
on him that way. He has so many strange women coming and going. He’s the next
one to get evicted.”
“You cannot evict people just because you don’t like their lifestyle. This is Fort
Lauderdale. We’ll have an empty building, then.”
“A little by little, Jonny, I will clean up this area. And then, the whole city!”
“Hardee stays, Claudia. As long as he gets his proper mixture of gin and pussy
he’s harmless.”
“What!! What are you saying? I knew he was a whoremonger! I knew!”
“Forget it. What about twenty-five?”
“A new couple moved in there. Guiseppe Quintana and Gladys Goodrich with
two cute, little daughters still in elementary. He’s in construction and making tons
of money. He came up with the full amount and security without blinking.
I’ve rented number eighteen to another mixed couple. Jackson Clay, a black Vietnam veteran and a young Jewish-Italian girl that he’s taking care of, Ruby Metzbauer. Eight months pregnant with twins. She’s only going to stay with him until the
babies are born. The twins have been put up for adoption. I think she’s receiving
money from a lawyer or something. Anyway, they came up with full amount and
security without grumbling.”
I, Claudia —
I tell them Tobby’s from Chicago
231
“What about the couple in nineteen?”
“Shelly came up with the cash without protests. I can’t see her holding on to that
little niggerbutt, though. I think they’ll be breaking up soon. She’s stable. Been with
the same outfit for twelve years.
Can you imagine her breaking up her marriage to a nice, white doctor for this
little drugged-out nigger?”
“I don’t know, Claudia. I’m sure you’ve heard the saying that ‘love will hit a sinner harder than a saint.’ Mother always used to say that ‘love falls as easily on a turd
as on a lily.’ — Is that all?”
“No, it’s not all! Those two girlfriends of yours refused to abide by my decisions
until they had talked to you personally. I called the police on them, but, after talking
to them, the police refused to take action. Even though we have a hotel licence, they
could not be evicted over a minor dispute since they’d been living here more than six
months and always paid their rent.”
“You mean Bonnie and Connie?”
“You bet. And they’re together on this. I warn you, Jonny: Don’t make any special arrangements with either one of them!”
“I’ll think about it. What else?”
“That couple in sixteen. Tabby and her husband. They could not come up with the
cash. He’s got a heart condition and is unable to work. Tabby’s been looking for a
job, but so far she’s been unsuccessful. I want them out, Jonny. We need the cash.
Besides, she’s living in sin.”
“What do you mean, living in sin?”
“She’s married to a black man!”
“Are you out of your mind! Since when did that become a sin? At least you won’t
find it in the Bible.”
“Has it never occurred to you, Jonny, that even God might have made a mistake?
He couldn’t put everything down in that book! Besides, he didn’t know much about
niggers.”
“And now you’ll be the one to teach him, heh?”
Although he realized Claudia had been good for business, something about her
aggravated Jonny to the extent that he felt like putting her straight. Claudia saw it
differently.
“According to my pastor back in Kalamazoo that’s correct. He thinks it’s a sin for
a white woman to marry a black man!”
“You should start heading what the Bible says about it instead of listening to
pompous, self indulging preachers spreading their hypocrisies and prejudices from
pulpits all over the country. Do you know what the Bible says about it? Do you believe that adultery is a sin?”
“Don’t ask stupid questions. We all know adultery is a sin!”
“Then listen to what the Bible says about it, in Paul’s letter to the Romans. And
I quote: ’So then, if a woman marries another man while her husband is still alive,
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she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from this law and
is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man.’ Tabby’s first husband
perished in a plane crash.”
“But that’s unfair! What about the men?”
“That’s exactly the same. Luke, in chapter 16, verse 18 addresses the man, and
again I quote: ‘Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits
adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.’ In clear
text, Claudia, the Bible states that even if a man is an innocent virgin, he will start
living in sin if he marries a divorced woman. And never, not once, does the Bible
distinguish between the color of a man’s skin!”
Claudia remained silent. Then her hungjaw started increasingly shaking before
she exclaimed in defiance: “Are you trying to tell me that I and my husband Tobby
are living in sin!”
“I’m simply quoting the Bible! You interpret it any way you want.”
“That’s a disgrace! God never said anything like that! If he did, it’s beyond doubt
a misunderstanding. He must have made another mistake!”
During the pressing silence that followed neither spoke. Jonny sat listening to
Claudia breathing heavily behind her desk while he himself sat there feeling
miserable for having allowed himself to get carried away. So many times had he
promised himself not to discuss religious matters with Claudia noticing how it sometimes upset her. Like most individuals she was not so much preoccupied with adjusting her life to the teachings of the Bible as she was in trying to adjust the Bible to fit
her own lifestyle. — Yeah, God must have made a mistake!
“Is there anything else?”
“Yes, I would like to get rid of that black Haitian in twenty-two. The one they call
Tony, but I cannot pronounce his real name. He always comes into the office talking
about Jesus Christ and how good the Lord is, but he never pays his rent in full. And
he smokes marihuana.”
“What about that black guy in twenty? Jeremiah eh, Tibbitt, I think.”
“He was the first one I kicked out.”
“But why? He was a good tenant. A nice guy. You hardly knew he was here.”
“He could not afford to come up with the increased rent. I told him to pack up,
and the very next day he was out of there. I rented it to a very nice, white guy working as a cook over at Bushwacker’s Down Under.”
“Jesus Christ, Claudia. I was sick for less than a week and you’ve started a revolution.”
“I’m making money for you, Jonny. Tons of money!”
“I appreciate that, but it isn’t wise to rock the boat too hard in deep waters. Which
brings us to our cash situation. How much have you taken in?”
“I have made a list. But before anything else we need to reach an agreement. On
paper! I’ve been working hard for you, Jonny. I need to get paid. And I need the cash
now!”
I, Claudia —
I tell them Tobby’s from Chicago
233
“That’s not part of our agreement! This is not the time, nor the place, to start executing your first rule of business, Claudia. I will not let you hold on to a whole
week’s turnover, no matter what. I hardly believe you’re being serious about this.”
“I’m serious, Jonny. Have you ever seen me not being serious? You owe me!”
“Yes, I owe you! I’m not disputing that. But if you think you can grab a whole
week’s turnover and never let go of it, just like that, you’ve got it all wrong! I will
discuss nothing until you come up with the cash.”
“I’ll sit down and figure out how much you owe me and I’ll pay you the balance.”
“The fuck you will! You’ll come up with that cash right now or face the consequences! I’ll give you ten minutes to come up with that list and the cash or I promise
you I will call the police! And I don’t care if you have a police friend from Kalamazoo or if I speak with an accent. I don’t even care if you sleep with the sheriff! The
very next minute after I call the police, I will call my lawyer and I can promise you
one more fucking thing: He is a citizen and he speaks with no accent. As a matter of
fact he is one of the most prominent citizens in all of Florida. One of the few natives
born and raised here. A rare breed, indeed. Now, I give you promise number three:
I’ll press charges and have him haul your ass behind bars on an embezzlement charge
so quickly you won’t know what hit you!” Jonny grabbed the receiver. “If you don’t
believe me, just watch this!”
“Jonny, how can you do this to me! I’ve been making money for you. Tons of
money. — Tons of money!”
“If cash were made out of lead, you’ve probably taken in a few pounds.”
Jonny started dialing the number of the police precinct.
“Jonny, how can you do this to me? I’m your manager! I’m your friend!”
“Stop this nonsense, Claudia! I’d rather deal with the Devil than a true American
friend! I’ve had too many of those lately!” He continued dialing.
“Stop it, Jonny. Stop it! Stop it, this minute! I’ll have Tobby give you the cash if
you promise we’ll sit down this very minute and settle our differences.”
“That’s not a major problem. However, let me give you another promise: If you
refuse to come up with every single dime, every penny, you have taken in on my
behalf, by eleven tomorrow morning you’ll be walking down that walkway without
ever being able to return. If you don’t believe me, just try me out!”
“I never thought of you as being this nasty, Jonny.”
“This is about your future, Claudia. It’s now or never!”
“I’ll go get Tobby, Jonny.”
“I don’t care about Tobby! You go get the cash! You have five! Not zero like the
judge, but five, five, five!” Jonny held his right hand in the air spreading his fingers.
“Fiiive!”
Claudia left the office and returned immediately with little Tobby behind her
carrying a thick envelope in his left hand. Jonny suspected he had been listening at
the door.
“Ifp I may say so, Jonny, I fink you are being unfair.”
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I tell them Tobby’s from Chicago
“Tell him you’re from Chicago, Tobby!”
“I don’t care if he comes straight out of Hell! — Have you got the money, Tobby!”
“Yef, here it issf.”
“Is that all?”
“Yef, I fink so.”
“Does it also include the list of payees? The new tenants?”
“Yef, I fink so.”
Jonny was now barking with American effectiveness. Like some of the bank tellers he had met.
“Then I want both of you out of this office immediately. And I want you to give
me the key to my office! I’m too sick and too tired for this. I’ll check the list, maybe
talk to some of the tenants and I’ll see you both tomorrow at eleven. No sooner, no
later! The key, please!”
Claudia was timidly fumbling for her key.
“But, Jonny, you promised we’d reach an agreement.”
“Yes, we will try. You put your demands down on a piece of paper and we’ll discuss it tomorrow. Right now I will go over the figures; maybe talk to some of the
tenants and then go for something to eat. I don’t know if I’ll be in the office or over
at my place. It’s of no concern to you. I will be in the office tomorrow at eleven.”
Claudia and Tobby left the office like two shamed basset hounds. Jonny felt
thoroughly exhausted. He had used all of whatever strength he had left in his body.
What a fucking way to start a new week after hardly having survived the previous
one. He locked the door and concentrated on the figures. Jesus Christ! Claudia had
taken in more than nine thousand dollars in one week alone! Including securities, that
is, but still, this was the best week ever. No wonder she felt entitled to hold on to
some of it! However, she had gone about it in such a totally wrong manner. The
figures on the list corresponded with the copies from the rent receipt book, but to
Jonny’s surprise and disappointment a little over seven hundred dollars were still
missing. He pulled out a primitive piece of paper signed by Tobby Hoskins: Paint,
148 dollars. Painting, 565 dollars. Total, 713 dollars.
Jonny could not help but smile too himself. Presenting themselves as sacredly
sanctified individuals mundane temptations had still been too great for the godly
Hoskinses. Jonny would have liked to get rid of them, but accepted his dependency
upon abdominable Claudia, no matter what. If her demands were not too unreasonable, he’d go a long way to keep her. But from now on he would treat her like a dog
in a leach. And even if she had totally disappointed him, Jonny also realized that
among all the people he had met this last couple of years, he had not yet met one single person whom he could fully trust and rely on.
He put the money in the night drop, walked over to Ruth Chris’s for another fifty
dollar steak almost out of this world to perfection with a full bottle of wine, and
brandy for dessert.
I, Claudia —
I tell them Tobby’s from Chicago
235
Then he crossed the street for a couple of Johnny Walkers at River Rock Cafe
before he headed for Solid Gold to get a couple of more Jonhnny Walkers and to
watch some titty shaking in the background.
Weakened from a full week of influenza he got pretty tipsy rather quickly. He was
feeling rather elated as he entered the titty bar. Mondays were always on the slow
side so the dancers eagerly approached the few suckers that entered to try to suck
them for whatever they could. For whatever cash they had brought along. And for
whatever balances they might have available on their credit cards. Jesus Christ, how
could anybody buy pussy on credit? Well, it was not a whorehouse, but some of the
girls just loved turning tricks.
He let five of the girls dance for him that evening, but none of them more than a
couple of frictions even if they did their best to turn him on. None of them were
naturally attractive, but full of make-up. All were too well equipped with war paint
and witch claws. Yet he spent almost three hundred dollars that night and was left
with some terrible regrets.
As he returned he was unable to get a room at the Schubert. They were booked
to the hilt. A group of French Canadians had just arrived. He sneaked back into the
office and slept on the futon. He felt lonely. He would have liked the company of a
good woman tonight, and almost called one of the escort agencies, but let it be. He
couldn’t. Not with Claudia around. Besides, his experience with Cadilla kept lingering on his mind until he fell into a restless sleep.
‘Tetchie, Tetchie! Where the hell are you?’
‘I’m here darling. Hiding in the desert.’
‘I can’t find you, Tetchie. I can’t find you! Why are you hiding from me?’
‘I not do that. I hide from my husband. But my mother forced me that I marry that
ugly, old abominable Arabiano. He took me to Arabia. I’m married now, darling.’
‘I know. I’ve come all the way searching for you.’
‘How did you find out, darling?’
‘Your mother triumphantly told me that you were rich now. Told me never to look
for you again. Told me you were living in Arabia. In a sultan’s castle.’
‘She sold my happiness for one million pesos to an ugly Arabiano. Also very
nasty. Please, darling, help me out of here! But, please, be careful, darling. My husband remembers your face. If he sees you, he will kill you. You’ll find me in the
desert, darling. I’m waiting for you in the desert! I miss you, darling. I no longer have
the true love. Only the plastic.’
‘Don’t worry, darling. I’ll find you.’
Jonny had been searching the deserts indefinitely when one day he saw a large
tent at the edge of an oasis. He checked inside, but it was empty. As he scanned the
horizon he noticed three riders on camelback rapidly approaching. Obviously the first
rider was desperately trying to escape the two others in pursuit. Jonny froze in
desperation. Tatchie? Tatchie! Why the hell was she trying to escape the pursuers in
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the middle of the desert heading for that big tent in the oasis? Ahh, she had noticed
him. She was headed for him. She tried to reach him. To his pleasant surprise he
noticed her being way ahead of her pursuers. Then she was right next to him. She
jumped off the camel and rushed toward him.
‘Hurry, darling. In the tent. Make love to me!’
‘But —”
‘Hurry! We have very little time!’
They were naked making love in the desert sand when the two califs caught up
with them, rifles in hand.
‘Come, Jonny. Let’s run. They’ll try to kill us.’
‘Where can we run to? I see endless desert only.’
‘We’ll run across the desert, Jonny. To safety. For the true love. Hurry, darling!’
Tetchie ran faster than Jonny could follow. When looking behind he saw nobody.
What the hell had happened to their pursuers? Had they given up? Yes!
Tetchie urged him on. Seldom in his life had he been running faster. Before he
knew, they were heading for the edge of the desert. Almost in safety they were
blocked by a huge camel upon which sat the big, ugly Arab, Tetchie’s husband,
pointing at them with his automatic rifle.
‘Glory to Allah! Death to the infidels! Death to the whore. Death to the barbarians!’
And then the shots. He noticed Tetchie fall in front of him. He grabbed her to
prevent her from hitting ground.
For a moment Jonny recognized the horrified expression of Hooker’s face right
there in front of him.
Then Jody!
Kimberly and Deena!
Then he realized he had been mistaken.
This was Tetchie!
Blood slowly started spreading on her white dress, the white cloth of innocence.
For those no longer virgins, but still pure at heart. He managed to grab her and lifted
her up into his arms and kept running, running, running. He ran through the desert
heat and into the sunset, passed the sunset and entered into the darkness. He conquered the darkness of night and saw the morning dawn beckoning in the distance.
He was almost there. He had conquered death and darkness. Love had prevailed!
‘Darling, please let me down on the cool sands of the desert. My soul is ready to
leave my body.’
‘No! No, Tetchie! Don’t die!’
‘Please, lay me down on the cool desert sands before the sun gets too hot. Please,
let me die in your arms. Do not despair, darling. Although by soul leaves my body,
I will surely never die, because I have seen the courage and known the true love. My
only true love. Darling, do not despair for I shall never leave you. For your courage
and true love you shall forever be rewarded the presence of my love. In death,
I, Claudia —
I tell them Tobby’s from Chicago
237
darling, I shall give you my true shadow of love. For the rest of your life, darling,
when during sunsets you see your shadow following you, you will know that it is my
soul walking beside you to comfort and protect you — my true shadow of love.
Darling, when lonely for lack of true love just sigh your breath of loneliness and
I shall be there to comfort you with my silent love. When your body burns from the
heat and the hardships of living, just softly whisper my name and my breath shall
pleasantly sooth your face and chill the heat. When tired with no place to rest your
weary body, just search for me in silence and I shall be there for your comfort with
by bosom to rest your troubled mind and saddened heart. No matter when in life you
need my company, all you need is think of my love and I shall be walking beside you.
Yes, darling, in death I shall give you more than I could give you in life. Yes darling,
every time you see your own shadow, you shall know that I am walking beside you.’
In despair Jonny noticed her breath weakening, then her clear voice whispering:
‘In death I surrender my true shadow of love.
Forever strong. Forever true.
Always there for only you.
To lighten your heart when sad’n blue.
For you, I surrender my true shadow of love.
— — — — — — — — Darling, good bye.’
And she was gone.
Jonny slowly noticed the sun appear in the horizon and a large shadow cowering
the two of them — the dead Filipino princess and the tormented Norwegian loner,
his soul lost in the desert. — an evil shadow of death covering them.
Jonny slowly lifted his head and stared into the hateful countenance of the ugly
Arab. He had no chance of escaping as the frenzied Arab started emptying his rifle
into Jonny’s chest.
He woke up screaming. Soaking wet and screaming. And trembling. Addled and
distraught he sat up on the futon with his clothes soaking wet from perspiration. He
looked about as he studied the shadowed walls of his office, shadows of evil. Engulfed in darkness. Tropical darkness.
His mind started drifting back to Tetchie and the time they had spent together. He
recalled that wonderful night at the Holiday Inn with a view over all of Manila Bay
Even more vividly he recalled the next night at Green Gardens. Even more vividly
he recalled the following night at the Green Garden.
He lifted his hand in front of his eyes and squinted into the darkness to study the
ring on his finger. And that was not his wedding ring, but Tetchie’s engagement ring.
For some reason unknown to Jonny Tetchie had insisted that he come and pick
her up at Bangkok Inn the next evening at six. Tetchie also insisted upon leaving
early that morning. She had some errands and also wanted to talk to her two roommates. Besides, as much as she hated it, she also had to see her mother around noon
like so many times before. She came all the way from Angeles City to pick up the
proceeds of a hard week’s work. But it was not Sunday.
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Before heading for Bangkok Inn Jonny stopped by at a couple of other joints just
to enjoy the view and to experience the trill of being approached by all these beauties, most of them looking for nice husbands. Their innocent friendliness exceeded
anything he had experienced before. So often he felt sad that he was only one man.
The bars were slow tonight. Few girls were dancing, and no mamasans approached him to make any arrangements for nice company during the long, lonely night.
He was told that the rules were about to change. The mamasans would no longer be
the ones to pick the customers for the girls, and they would now have a right to
refuse if they did not want to go with anybody. Besides, no more bar fines. Instead
of paying three hundred and fifty in bar fine the customer now had to buy the girl
five non-alcoholic drinks at one hundred peso each. Jonny thought of the new rules
as rather silly, and, judging from the slow traffic, he was not the only one to think so.
One of the little cuties, probably the best looking among them, seemed to concentrate on Jonny as she eagerly danced on the stage in front of him. Short, dark hair,
dimples, a cute, lively face with a constant smile teasing him — and an enticing
body. She pulled some poster from a shelf above her head and changed them as she
kept dancing. ‘Hi. I’m Lilith.’ After a few minutes she changed her poster as she concentrated on Jonny. ‘I’m very young.’ The girls all swayed to the beat of the disco
music. ‘I’m very friendly.’ Again she smiled to Jonny. Brazen in such a shy, blissful
manner. Brave little princess! “I look for nice friend.’ She only concentrated on
Jonny now. Jesus Christ, what a gorgeous smile! Friendly, indeed. How could he
refuse a woman like this? ‘I need your love tonight.’ Jonny swallowed dry as she pulled up the poster and discretely stretched out her hand toward him. ‘I want you to
make love to me.’ Their eyes met. ‘And I will love it!’
Jonny checked the time. Ten to six. If he had come in a little earlier, he might
have given in to temptations, but now Tetchie was waiting at Bangkok Inn. The
music stopped and the girl quickly rushed to beat any of the other girls and sat down
next to him. She smiled.
‘I dance for you. You like?’
‘Simply loved it, sweetheart. You look like a princess on that stage.’
‘I like that you pay bar fine. But not like before. You buy five drinks and we talk.
Then I go with you. I look for nice husband. If not husband, only nice play in the
night.’
‘I’d love to, but I can’t. I have girlfriend waiting for me.’
Lilith was unable to hide her genuine disappointment, but she remained equally
friendly — only a bit more reserved now. She had gambled and lost. Like so many
times before. Well, that was life.
‘Will you let me buy you a drink before I leave?’
‘Crazy now. Every drink one hundred peso.’
‘How much do you get?’
‘If bar fine, nothing. If only we drink, I get fifty. I like very much a drink, but only
juice now. No alcohol. Very silly. I like better we go your place.’
I, Claudia —
I tell them Tobby’s from Chicago
239
‘Me, too. But impossible. I buy two drinks for you before I leave. For your wonderful dance.’
She was thankful, but disappointed.
‘Every time I meet nice man for maybe husband he go away. Why?’
‘I’m sure you exaggerate. You can pick any man to come with you, I bet.’
‘Yes, many men pick me because they like me, but every time I take courage and
pick one I like, he already busy. Like dog in the street.’
‘You know something? Right now I wish I were alone, but I am not. I promised
to meet at six. I like to keep my word.’
‘I like the man who is not liar.’
Jonny bent over and kissed her lightly on her forehead.
‘I’m very sorry to leave. But I must keep promise at six. If it does not work out,
I’ll come back and look for you.’
‘I wait. I wait until midnight.’
‘If we meet, we have pleasant surprise, but do not wait for me, sweetheart.
’Jonny felt her eyes on him as he exited the front door. He turned around and
quickly waved. Wonderful Lilith was already busy waving at him.
In Bangkok Inn, situated just a few houses down the street on the same side of the
road, Tetchie was busy as Jonny entered. Thoroughly surrounded by many of her
friends she seemed to be the center of attraction tonight. Jonny wondered why. As
he sat down at one of the tables, all the girls came rushing over to his table for his
attention. Now Jonny had no problem understanding what the conversation had been
all about. Tetchie beamed with happiness.
‘Jonny, I like that you meet my friends. Everybody very happy for me tonight.
Except the girl from Palawan she leave very mad.’
They all laughed. Tonight was Tetchie’s night, all right. One of the girls could
no longer contain her curiosity.
‘You love Tetchie?’
‘Yes, I think she is very wonderful.’
‘She always popular. Have many customers.’
The girls all laughed at this attempt to spoil some of Tetchie’s happiness in such
a positive way that she could do nothing about it. The jealousy came shining through.
It definitely did not happen every day, but once in a while some of these dancing
girls did find their prince, and thus kept the dream alive for the rest of them.
‘You will marry?’
‘I hope so. If she wants to.’
Tetchie sat down next to him to claim her possession to everybody else’s envy.
‘Will you take her in the abroad?’
‘I hope so. If she wants to. Hm, hm.’
He nodded.
‘I like also. If not Tetchie, you come look for me?’
All the girls laughed at this brave attempt to make sure she’d be next in line. Just
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in case. Jonny took her hand and looked into her big, brown eyes discovering an
endless ocean of innocent expectations. He sighed. He hoped life would be good to
her. Tetchie pulled his hand and stood.
‘We must go now.’
Tetchie knew from previous experiences that having a girl by his side would not
stop all these eager women from trying to grab him. Most of them were looking for
a good husband — one with a long nose and thick wallet. She suggested that they go
bar hopping.
‘It’s no use going bar hopping if you won’t let me have a drink.’
‘Darling, you drink, but not get drunk. I take good care of you now.’
After a quick bar round, during which Tetchie talked to many of her friends, they
stopped at Exotic Garden for chicken and rice. Even before the food was served
Tetchie disappeared through the back room and returned with an elderly woman,
about the same age as himself.
‘Jonny, this is my mother. Please, mother, this is Jonny. We are going to get married soon.’
She gave the impression of being shy and timid as she sat down next to her
daughter. She studied Jonny without smiling and remained stern and sinister. Timid
or not, she was the one to break the strained silence that followed.
‘Why you cause problems for Tetchie?’
Jonny felt a surge of surprise and disappointment. He had been told that most
mothers were proud to marry off their daughters to foreigners.
‘I don’t understand. What do you mean — problems?’
Jonny’s eyes shifted from mother to daughter. He saw desperation in Tetchie’s
eyes. Jonny’s eyes shifted back to the mother.
‘What problems?’
‘Tetchie she tell me she will no longer work in the bar. She tell me she also go
with you in the abroad. No good, unless you wait many years. If Tetchie apply for
abroad now, we have no money and we starve. I now the only one to understand my
daughter. I know she like the many customers. My daughter she like that she have
many lovers. Not just one man. One man, no good for Tetchie. She need very much
the love from many men. And what you know about Tetchie? Only I understand my
daughter. When she like that she have the many lovers, no good to marry.’
Jonny was sitting there waiting for Tetchie to butt in with a contradiction or a
rebuttal, but the young woman whose sexual needs were so openly discussed by her
mother remained silent, her eyes downcast, her face red. Out of loyalty and obedience she did not dare contradict her strict, dominant mother.
‘I already have nice husband for Tetchie, but she refuse that she marry him. Very
rich husband for Tetchie. Now you come and put ideas in her young head. No good.
Tetchie she too young to marry. She go with rich Hapon tonight.’
‘I stay with Jonny tonight. He already pay bar fine.’
Tetchie did not speak in defiance. Just as a matter of fact. If a man paid bar fine,
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I tell them Tobby’s from Chicago
241
the situation for that night had been settled. But tomorrow was a different story —
and night. Tetchie took Jonny by the hand and led him out the door.
‘We talk tomorrow, mother.’
They walked hand in hand over to an extremely slow Australian Club compared
to what it used to be on Friday nights. Maybe it was no longer season? Jonny and
Tetchie were now sitting in their own world thinking about their lives and worrying
about their future. Jonny was on the verge of telling her he had no desire to fight her
mother when Tetchie suddenly grasped his arm.
‘I know my mother she try to talk you into a coward because she like that I still
work in the bar. She need money for nice house.’
She sat there silent for some time, then she stood and eagerly looked straight into
his eyes.
‘Jonny, if you still have the true love, let’s buy rings tonight. My mother she like
that I marry someone rich. The Arabiano he tell my mother he give one million peso
if I marry him. But I prefer that I die. He already buy my cherry. He pay fifty thousand pesos. — Jonny, let us buy the rings tonight.’
‘It’s too late tonight. It’s almost eight.’
She eagerly grabbed hin hand and pulled him toward the exit. He reluluctantly
followed her. This was leading to the altar. Too soon! He felt trapped. He would
have problems sharing pussy with this arabiano and all the hapons for the rest of his
life. He should have stayed away. He was also worried when he had to come up with
to pay for two golden rings.
‘Come, Jonny. I will not that my mother talk you into coward.’
Outside the door she headed for the first taxi. Jonny really felt uncertain about
what to do, but Tetchie’s eagerness prevented him from telling her his doubts.
A quick taxi ride, a group of friendly jewelers short of time before closing, and
almost in half daze Jonny came out of the store with a golden band on his finger.
Fourteen thousand pesos! Much more than he had planned to spend.
Watching the radiant happiness in Tetchie’s eyes made him forget the price. He
felt happy, after all. He had found his dream woman! A pure ten! To hell with all the
hard-ons! He had made his decision. He would not let a money hungry vulture willing to sacrifice her only daughter’s happiness get in his way. At the same time he
was scared when realizing his future responsibility.
Tetchie’s family would now be looking toward him for support!
Uff, what kind og mess had he got himself into?
Jonny suggested they again visited Steak Town for a small celebration, and Tetchie was happy to oblige. She kept staring at her ringfinger smiling quietly all the
time. It was worth it. Her radiant face was proof enough it had been worth it.
Tetchie was once more eager to return to Bangkok Inn. This time it did not take
Jonny long to understand the purpose and importance of the visit. With a face
gleaming with happiness Tetchie showed her engagement ring to all her friends.
That night she became the envy of all the dancing girl in Ermita, and rumors
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quickly spread that one of the foreigners were going to marry one of the dancing
girls. Maybe next time it would be their turn? Their morale and spirits had been
boosted. Tetchie was living proof that it was possible. But then again, Tetchie was
a special girl always popular with the foreigners. But there was still hope for the rest
of them. Jonny was thinking of the sweet girl who always stood guard outside of Yellow Butterfly. Each time he passed, she came running after him: ‘I look for nice husband!’
Jonny threw glances at the girl from Palawan. She was sitting there with tears in
her eyes. Tetchie had guarded herself against her. She had told him that she was always eager to have sex with the Hapons and the Chinese. And she never used protection, so she had become pregnant twice. And even if abortions were illegal in the
Philippines, she had visited a so-called abortion woman who had fixed her up. But
the last time had almost killed her. She had suffered heavy bleedings for two weeks
before she was finally safe.
Jonny had felt pretty sad and heavy when Tetchie told him the sad story about the
beautiful, friendly young girl from Palawan.
But Tetchie had also told him a similar story about Anna from Aparri, a city in
the northern part of Luzon. She had gone through three abortions, but she had been
very lucky because her boyfriend was supporting her, and he had the courage of genuine love.
Both were beautiful flowers with many butterflies!
Tetchie wanted to make another bar round, while Jonny, on his part, could not
understand why she wanted to linger around these premises longer than necessary.
He wanted out and away so that he would not constantly be reminded that he had
done something that only weeks ago he would have sworn to be impossible:
He had decided to marry a whore!
He realized he was not unique. Millions upon millions of men married prostitutes,
these days. Soon there would be one in every household.
At two in the morning Tetchie was finally ready to call it a day. She wanted to
grab a taxi to return to Holiday Inn.
‘I stay at a different hotel tonight. Very close to Steak Town. It is not as nice as
Holiday Inn, but conveniently situated within walking distance to Steak Town. I take
my steak there every evening.’
Tetchie took his hand and with eyes shining big and bright she whispered in satisfaction.
‘Thank you, darling. I will never change. I will always love you. Tonight is the
happiest day of my life and I feel that I am the luckiest girl in the whole wide world.
Thank you, darling, I will always love you! Thank you for having the love and the
courage. I want to go in the bed now, because from tonight, when we make love, we
will forever belong only to each other for the rest of our lives. I give lifelong pledge,
my darling. Never worry about me. I will never change. If you can forget about my
cherry, I will forever belong to only you.’
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243
She squeezed his hand in order to emphasize the sincerity of her statement.
They now crossed Mabini Street and turned right on Adriatico. When approaching the white and green facade of the Green Gardens on the other side of the street,
Jonny prepared to cross over, but Tetchie held him back.
‘Why you go in that place?’
‘That’s where I rented the room.’
Jonny knew it was a far cry from the standard of the Holiday Inn, but, like so
many times before, he had let an impressive foyer combined with low rates lure him
into acceptance. She pulled back and let go of his hand. The heavy traffic forced
Jonny to jump back on the sidewalk. Tetchie stared at him in horror.
‘Why you go in that place? No foreigners go there. That place for Arabianos
only.’
‘Arabs? Yes, I noticed a lot of Arabs there.’
‘The place no good, Jonny! No foreigners. Arabianos only. Why you stay there?
You cannot smell the stench in the hallways?’
‘Yes. But I smell so many different stenches here in Manila. The polluted air.
Exhaust fumes. The rotten garbage. The open sewerage. The sometimes strong and
exotic aromas of Philippine cooking. I thought the stench came from Filipinos cooking their strong garlic food in oil and vinegar.’
‘Bula, bula! Filipinos only use the mild garlic. Never bad smell like Arabianos.
This place no good. This place apartment hotel. The Arabianos always cook own
food with very bad smell. We find different hotel, Jonny.’
‘But Tetchie, I’m paid up front for three nights.’
‘This place no good, Jonny. I not go!’
She sounded more decided and stubborn than a disappointed child. Jonny was
starting to become irritated.
‘Tetchie, I’ve paid for this. And it is far from bad. I stay here the next three
nights. After that we look for better place.’
He took her hand and pulled her across the street. Jonny’s irritation increased as
she pulled back and only reluctantly followed him across the street. Tetchie seemed
like a moody woman, all right. Maybe from getting her will and being spoiled by too
many different men. Like most whores.
‘I know it’s not like Holiday Inn, but it’s not that bad, either.’
‘When I go with the Hapon, they take me to the Philippine Plaza. I even meet
Imelda Marcos. I will not —’
She quickly realized she had been talking out of terms, and in shock took her
hands to cover her mouth. The disapproval and hurt in Jonny’s eyes sent a surge of
fear raging through her fragile body.
Her eyes filled with tears.
‘I sorry, Jonny. I not mean. I sorry. I come with you. Always. Anywhere. I very
sorry.’
He pulled her through the front doors, got the key from reception and headed for
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the two elevators at the far end of the impressive foyer. Only halfway there, one of
the elevators opened and out stepped one of the many Arabs residing in the building.
More aware now than before Jonny found himself studying the large elderly gentleman in the white garment with the immensely protruding belly, beard-studded chin
and long, half-assed hair held up in a ponytail.
On bare legs and in open sandals he strode straight toward them.
Jonny observed Tetchie’s stifled outburst and felt her body stiffen before she collapsed on the marble floor in front of him.
She quickly squeezed his hand before she let go.
The Arab stopped, stared at both of them intensely for a short moment and
quickly exited the foyer before he jumped into a waiting taxi.
Perplexed Jonny knelt down beside her and took her in his arms. Somehow she
managed to get into the elevator on her own two feet, but Jonny remembered that he
carried her into the hotel room and placed her on the bed on top of the comforter.
The stench hit his nostrils stronger than he could remember. Strange how awareness
accentuates a situation.
‘Tetchie. Tetchie! Are you ok?’
She did not answer. Face down Jonny saw her body shaking and heard her softly
crying as he sat down right next to her.
‘What happened? Are you okay, darling?’
Totally irresolute he listened to his fiancé as she kept crying without answering
him. All he could do was sit there and let her cry. Then he started walking the floor.
He finally decided to call room service for a double Scotch to calm down and to
settle his nerves. Eventually Tetchie stopped crying, but remained silent until she
suddenly sat up straight on the bed.
‘What room this?’
‘Just a regular room.’
‘What number this room?’
‘Four forty-four, I think.’
She started crying again, more bitterly and more intensely than before. Jonny felt
awkward for not knowing what to do, but realized that in many incidences the only
remedy for a fragile woman’s heartaches is time. Sometimes plenty of time. He
called room service for two more double whiskies.
With a heavy heart he rested on the balcony watching the heavy traffic in the busy
street below. If Tetchie would remain this moody, their relationship did not stand
much of a chance of long term survival. Eventually the sliding door opened behind
him and Tetchie tucked in next to him. She stood there holding her arms around him
for a long time before she spoke.
‘I very sorry. I have bad memories. Come in the bed and we talk.’
She sat down on top of the comforter with all her clothes on, and more or less
directed him to sit down beside her. She looked vulnerable as she bravely tried to
smile through her tears.
I, Claudia —
I tell them Tobby’s from Chicago
245
‘Daring, I feel very sad. This place no good. Bad omen for our love, but I tell the
truth. This place I stay before. Same hotel. Same room. Same bed. But different man.
When I meet the Arabiano downstairs, I became shocked and scared. The same
Arabiano that pay 50,000.00 pesos for my cherry. He very rich and live in the Jeddah
near in the desert. I think I never see him again, but he come back. He look for me
in the Bangkok Inn, but I never go. I run away.
Oh, the owner very mad. Also the mamasan, because the Arabiano he pay much
extra to the owner. Also mamasan. The owner call my mother and she go in Manila
to meet ugly Arabiano. The Arabiano he tell my mother he like to buy me for his
place in the desert. He tell my mother he have big palace with many servants, and
that he give one million peso if I come with him. My mother she want that I go. But
I run away. I tell her I hate the Arabiano. Very fat. Very ugly. Very dirty. Very bad
smell. And not much friendly.
My mother she tell that I have big obligation for family. She tell that she sign
paper with the Arabiano and that I must go. My mother she have very little love for
her daughter, but she have very strong love for the nice house and the peso of the
Arabiano. I love her, but for me she has only the plastic love. The paper roses. She
also go in the bank and say I no longer work there.’
‘Jesus Christ, Tetchie, are you telling me you’ve used me to get away from the
Arab?’
‘For the Arabiano I only feel the strong hatred. For you I feel the strong love. The
true love. Not the plastic. So I believe if I tell my mother I have met nice foreigner,
she become happy, but instead she very mad. Oohh! She shout with anger. She
scream. She curse. That is also one reason I ask if you have the courage.’
‘But, Tetchie, how the hell could you? I had no way of knowing. I thought you
meant — I thought —.’
‘I know. But I very much afraid that I lose the big dream. If I must go with the
Arabiano, I wish that I die!’
‘Jesus Christ, Tetchie, what have we got ourselves into? What can we do? I cannot pay your mother one million pesos for your love. That’s more than forty thousand
dollars!’
‘You also have money in the bank.’
‘Not that kind of money.’
‘Why my true love for you worth less than my hatred for the Arabiano?’
‘Tetchie, you cannot measure love and hatred in Philippine pesos. Even so, I
don’t have that kind of cash. How come this Arabioso will pay so much to bring you
with him? Will he sell you to the other men?’
‘No, he want that I become the favorite wife. He is the sultan of the desert. He say
that he pump the money from beneath the sands.’
‘Oil! — Yeah, that figures!’
Jonny turned silent.
‘My true love, Jonny.’ She sighed. ‘Maybe tomorrow we know. Then I pray to the
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blessed Virgin Mary. And I talk to my mother who is also Mary, but not blessed! But
tonight I like that we make strong love together all night.’
Jonny remained silent. He did not feel much like making love. Accepting the fact
that her mother had sold her virginity for fifty thousand pesos was one thing. Confronting that huge, ugly Arab, who had bought it, face to face, was something totally
different. To Jonny sexual desires were more the result of spiritual togetherness than
just raw physical attraction. He did not feel much spirited right now. On the contrary,
he felt as if he were crushed under Ayers Rock. He was unable to feel any excitement
as he watched Tetchie professionally undress preparing for him.
Instead his mind concentrated on the wealthy Arab with ‘no shave, but no beard,
as Tatchie had phrased it. In the same room. In the same bed. With the same woman.
No, he cold not get that damned Arab out of his mind.
As he watched Tetchie’s naked body beautiful to perfection, he wondered how
she must have felt that night. And the Arab. Roughly two thousand dollars for a
young woman’s innocence seemed rather stiff for Manila. Some pimps had offered
Jonny maidenheads for three hundred dollars a piece. Well, those were probably
second-handy ones. And the girls were part of the deception. They were bringing
small plastic bags with blood which they emptied during the intercourse as proof that
a maidenhead had been broken.
But a loving mother certainly knew best how to appreciate the value of her young
daughter’s loss of innocence when her beautiful flower was visited by the abominable Arabiano butterfly at fifty thousand pesos.
Then came that day that Jonny would forever try hard to forget. But the harder he
tried the more vivid the memory.
He had felt devastatingly disappointed when Tetchie had decided to leave him
early in the morning, maybe before four o’clock. He wasn’t quite sure about the time.
However, he felt pretty damned sure that she had left him out of anger and disappointment that he had been unable to perform. She had made no appointment to see
him later in the day, but Jonny figured she had been upset enough to forget. They had
a routine of meeting at the Bangkok Inn around six, so Jonny knew he’d see her
there. Then he would ask her straight forward why she had left in such a hurry without saying good-bye.
At ten Ermita and Malati were hit by one of those inevitable Manila brownouts.
The Green Gardens did have enough power to generate electricity for emergency
lighting, but with no chance of running the air conditioning. Jonny knew Manila
could sometimes be hot, but had no idea it could be this close to hell. The rotting garbage in the stifling heat, the sewerage stench, the traffic noises, the people roaming
the streets as a result of the heat and the incessant honking of horns in a traffic hardly
moving, mixed with his agonies over Tetchie, almost drove him crazy. He opened the
door to the balcony in an attempt to attract some fresh breezes, but to no avail. Feeling uncomfortable from still sharing the love bed of Tetchie and the Arab, he left the
I, Claudia —
I tell them Tobby’s from Chicago
247
room and headed for the foyer. People had taken to the streets which was probably
the only wise thing to do. Damned! No elevators. He had to run all the flights down
to the first floor. He was stopped in a doorway by a guard he had not noticed before.
‘Sorry. All guests must remain in the hotel until the electricity has been put back
on. Sorry, sir. Maybe I can help?”
Yeah, Jonny understood the hint and gave him a hundred. That would be enough
to secure access all day long.
The traffic had come to a complete standstill by now. An American, probably a
reporter, was sitting dejectedly on the sidewalk talking into a recorder. The street
vendors were all busy, the kings of the streets right now.
‘Very nice watches, sir. Rolex. For you very special price. Only ten dollars, sir.
Very good Rolex.’ ‘Shoeshine, sir. Shoeshine?’ ‘You want to buy cock, sir? Very
good for cockfighting. Well trained, sir. If no good for the cockfight, very good for
the stomach, sir. Only three thousand peso.’ ‘Sunglasses, sir? Cigarettes? Very
special price for you, sir.’ ‘Change money, sir. One dollar, sir, we give twenty-eight
peso. Very good rate, sir.’
‘No. No! No!! I don’t need.’
Jonny kept fighting the gauntlet with no other purpose in mind than to get some
fresh air, but the still breezes and the soggy humidity offered little relief. One of the
many taxi drivers stuck in traffic shouted at him.
‘Taxi, sir, taxi. I give very good price, sir.’
‘Stop bugging me, damned it!’
Jonny was soaking wet and found no breezes. He wondered what Tetchie was
doing right now. The thought of that fucking Arab kept bugging him. Still, he
couldn’t get Tetchie out of his mind. How could a fucking woman affect him like this
after having known her for only a couple of days? Well, how could he stop himself
when all of a sudden the woman of his more than thirty year long dreams suddenly
materialized in front of him, only sweeter and more beautiful than he could conjure
up in his most pleasant, wildest dreams? So beautiful that in the beginning he had
considered her beyond his reach. But that fucking Arab kept bugging him. Well, that
Norwegian, too. Jonny wondered if she had been with American Negroes. He had
forgot to ask her. Or maybe been too cowardly to. That would definitely be more
than he could accept! That was why he had stayed away from American women.
Most of them had been fucking blacks. He would ask her later tonight.
Uff, her whole damned lifestyle bothered him. All the customers with hard-ons.
The many Hapons she had served had given her the reputation of being a Yapayoki,
an eager Japanese lover. The dancing girls were easily divided into different groups.
The roughest ones were serving the Arabs. They were referred to as Arabianas.
Those preferring the Japanese were called Yapayokies. Those with no respect for
themselves served the negroes and were called Negrianas. The most beautiful and
self conscious preferred the regular white foreigners. And they were called Americanos whether they served Americans, Australians or Eoropeans.
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Tetchie had told him that she often went with the Japanese because they stayed
in nicer hotels, were more cultivated, less demanding, and had smaller penises. But
she preferred the blond Norwegians.
Why the fuck had she run away, then? One more time. What would be her excuse
this time? Her mother?
‘Damn that fucking pimp! Money hungry vulture! Boa Constrictor! Scorpion!
Bitch! Pimp! Pimp! — And mother.’
Jonny was waving his arms and talking to himself. He noticed one of the taxi
drivers watching him and jolted back to normal. Uff, he probably looked like a mad
man. No sleep, no food. Just heartaches and hangovers.
‘Goddamn every fucking little cheap creep with a pussy!’
Finding himself just outside of Steak Town he was struck by the bright idea that
he could spend his time enjoying a good steak in an air-conditioned environment. He
was disappointed. This place was as hot as the rest of this fucking city. Fucking Manila, the city with that beautiful name derived from the beautiful white maynilad
flowers so abundantly covering the banks of the pacific Pasig River since times long
gone. Damned! He had used to think of all the beautiful women in Manila as white,
beautiful maynilad flowers, but, no, damn it, not any more! But then again Tetchie
was not from Manila. She was from Angelos City.
He realized only too clearly: He had put a ring on Tetchie’s finger to make a
thirty year old dream come true, not to marry a moody Manila prostitute. He also
realized that he would be willing to go a long way to keep that dream alive. After all,
it accounted for more than thirty years of his life. He couldn’t let go now!
He entered the liquor store diagonally across the street from the Las Palmas hotel.
But it was strange. There were no customers today. A practicing homosexual told
him that the store was closed because there was an election of a new president after
the dictator Ferdinand Marcos dan been deposed. Jonny was disappointed. Everything went straight to Hell! But then one og the clerks asked Jonny where he came
from and where he lived. If he was a tourist, he could not vote, and then he was exempt from the law. He would be allowed to buy liquor after all. He bought a bottle
of cheap, locally produced gin, quickly returned to the hotel and drank himself out
of his wits.
Jonny rolled out of bed, staggered to his feet and tiptoed across the carpeted floor to
alleviate the pounding hangovers as he headed for the bathroom. He checked the
time. He still had a couple of hours before Tetchie would start waiting for him. He
jumped in the shower and got himself thoroughly warmed up before switching to
cold water in order to refresh himself. Then he changed his clothes into a white,
short-sleeved shirt and black jeans. He wanted to look his best for Tetchie tonight.
Maybe he’d even have to get into a deep, serious discussion with her mother about
the true meaning of motherly love. He walked straight down to Bangkok Inn to meet
Tetchie, but she was not in yet. Then he walked all the way up the street heading for
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Lovebirds, the bar most to his liking. He enjoyed his Scotch all alone, but noticed the
depressed atmosphere. Something was going on tonight.
Everything was so quiet, and that was definitely usual in the noisy Metro Manila.
Most of the girls were hardly dancing. At the same time they were more aggressive
than he could remember. He had another Scotch at the rough and raunchy Roadhouse
trying to catch a glimpse of his favorite little dancer, the girl with the posters, but she
was not dancing tonight. She had probably left with a customer. The best looking
ones were taken pretty early.
He decided to cross the street to look for Anna from Aparri, a tall dancer with an
incredulously attractive smile who always came running to his table when he entered.
The music kept playing, but the stage was empty. Where the hell had all the flowers
gone? He looked about. Yeah, he knew he was early. He was the only one in there.
He did not have to wait long for Anna to arrive from behind the stage.
‘Hello, Jonny boy, you finally came for me tonight?’
‘I just came to say ‘hello’ and buy you a drink. It’s so strange tonight. Every place
seem so depressed. Like they’re attending a funeral procession.’
‘Maybe true. You have not heard yet? Maybe all the bars close tonight.’
‘Close? All of them?’
‘Yes, new ordinance from a new mayor. His name Alfredo Lim. He no good man.
Chinese. Maybe he like to bring all the tourists in Chinatown. No good the Chinese.
He bring much trouble to Filipinos. He never understand the need of the tourists for
nice company in the middle of the night. And he make very difficult for the dancing
girls. No more job. No more fun. No more looking for nice husband. Maybe starve
now. Many very afraid. If no more customers, what I do? I have no money for food,
for sleeping, for clothes. Maybe you marry me, Jonny boy?’
‘Hm, hm. You would really want to marry me?’
‘Of course. Every time I see you. Very much. But I already have boyfriend in
Aparri.’
‘Then what the hell do you want with me?’
She remained silent for a while. Then she spoke her honest truth.
‘If you promise not to be too much a butterfly, I want to marry you. And not always leave me alone. If I have nice husband to support me, I no longer need to dance
in the bar. Sometimes I dance twelve hours and no customer. I hate the dance. I only
like when I can go with nice customer. And I like very much when I can feel strong
man inside of me. But I am many times afraid, because I not like abortion.”
“But you already have a boyfriend.”
‘Yes, but he not support me. He is lazy, so I support him. He many times take my
money. But I stay with him, because before I start dancing, I gave him my cherry.’
Another maynilad flower kept watching them from behind the backroom door.
Anna from Aparri waved at her.
‘She my friend. Jane from Olongapo. Very nice, Jonny. Look, she very big here,
the boobs.’ Anna put her hands to her bosom. ‘The foreigner like very big here.’
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With charming modesty Jane remained in the background until Jonny motioned
for her to come and sit. He offered a drink and she happily accepted.
A bit shorter than Anna, but with a better, more rounded figure she simply looked
gorgeous. And Anna did not exaggerate. Her boobs were about the most attractive
ones he had seen in all of the Philippines.
‘My friend, Jane. Very nice. Very big here.’ Again she covered her breast with
both her hands. ‘Very nice with the foreigners, but not the Filipinos.’
‘What do you mean by that?’
Jane herself answered. ‘In the Philippines the woman with the big breasts often
get neglected. The Philipinos like their women small, the foreigner big. Like me.’
She smiled and started slowly shaking her boobs to show Jonny what she was
talking about.
Jonny sighed. Again he felt sorry that he was only one man.
‘Looks perfect to me. The men in this country don’t know what they’re missing.’
Jane smiled. ‘The Pinoys say they look for woman, not milkcow. Maybe they
think after ten children, my boobs hang on my stomach. Not very nice then. But very
good now. Firm. Very strong. I like.’ She looked at Jonny, invitingly, as she started
shaking her tits very slowly. ‘I like. Maybe you like that I come with you? Also my
friend. She tell she like you very much. She look for nice husband. Also me. Maybe
we go together? In your place.’
Jonny had a hard time getting his eyes off those boobs almost popping out of her
tiny dancing outfit. Jesus Christ, just imagine rolling on top of those for a night or
two! He swallowed dry.
‘I’d simply love to. Both of you. But right now that’s impossible. I can only stay
for short time. I come back tomorrow for another drink. We talk again.’
Jane spoke eagerly. ‘Maybe tomorrow no more. Maybe tonight everything close.
I think eight o’clock. No more electricity. No more lights.’
‘That sounds too crazy. I don’t think so. I’ll stop by later. Good bye, both of you.’
They both hugged him and kissed him before they let him go. He felt proud that
they found him attractive. He knew that Filipinas had the decency and graciousness
never to hug and kiss in public. But, oh boy, did they hug and kiss when so sincerely
playing games in the middle of the night!
Jonny headed straight across the street to look for Tetchie. Bangkok Inn was
almost empty and none of the mamasans had seen Tetchie tonight. One told him she
was with her mother, which he believed, until another one told him she had left with
a rich Hapon. Jonny knew better. Tetchie was not with any of the Japanese tonight,
so therefor he did not believe that she had been with her mother, either.
These Filipinos always told you something, true or not. They would lose too
much face if they had to admit they did not know, no matter what you asked them.
Well, sooner or later she’d be coming in, so Jonny decided to wait it out. But a
little before eight, and after three Johnny Walkers and two San Miguels, he decided
to go back to his room and rather return a couple of hours later.
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251
Jonny worried about Tetchie. Why hadn’t she showed? He couldn’t get Jane and
her tits out of his mind, either. Jesus Christ, he was missing out on something tonight! Jane might even make a better wife than Tetchie, but no woman had ever
touched his heartstrings in such a stirring way as Tetchie, although, compared to
Jane, she was terribly flat-chested.
When Jonny turned the corner into del Pilar Street one hour later he experienced
Philippine history:
The entire section of the so called Ermita tourist belt had been closed down!
Every single bar and dance hall in Ermita had been blacked out and the streets swarmed with tourists and locals alike who were refused entry. All of del Pilar Street was
now a dark dungeon from one end to the other!
People, mostly dancing girls without a job or a place to stay, were swarming the
street in confusion and simply refused to disperse. This was simply too much! How
could that evil Chinese do that to them? How were they going to make a living from
now on?
Jonny heard so many different comments as he fought his way through the street
crowds on his way to Bangkok Inn searching for Tetchie. Damned! Of all things this
had to happen tonight!
When reaching the entrance to Bangkok Inn Jonny started asking about Tetchie,
but nobody had the most remote idea whom he was talking about. An hour ago everybody knew about everybody, but now nobody knew anything about anybody. The
dancers from Hawaii were gathering in front of the Roadhouse and the dancers from
the Roadhouse in front of Bloomers. It was total chaos. But where the hell was
Tetchie?
He searched the street from one end to the other, then he searched again, and then
again. He realized he stood no chance of finding her in the almost total darkness. He
hardly noticed all the women propositioning him to spend the night. They were more
aggressive now than before. Jonny shivered. What would happen now?
He had been told that the district had been fairly safe from hard crime and deceases as long as you stuck to the dancing girls. They had medical check ups every other
day, and the standard was high. Unless you took a chance and picked one of those
girls sitting by the bar not dancing. They were the ones who had failed their medicals, but kept working through bribing the mamasans with a hundred peso bill, so
they could catch a customer or two during the night. From now on everything would
probably go wild. No, he would not take a chance of picking up one from the street.
Some of the prostitutes mingled with the dancing girls and more aggressively than
ever took advantage of the situation. Jonny must have had at least twenty aggressive
approaches each time he transversed the street looking for Tetchie.
But — where the hell was Tetchie? What could she be doing?
Jonny could not believe this was happening. Just like that the major tourist attraction of a whole city had been shut down, and the beautiful maynilad flowers of Manila would blossom no more. This was just his kind of luck! It had to happen on the
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very same night when he did not know where to get hold of his fiancé of no more
than one day! Once again he had been so close — and lost.
As he started to approach the end of the tourist section on his way home he was
almost attacked by eager hookers walking the street. The rougher elements of the city
were taking advantage tonight. He could tell from their tight body stockings, the way
they approached him, and by their rough language, that the night-bugs had taken
courage to crawl out of the woodwork more brazenly now. He refused to talk to
them. — Where the hell was Tetchie?
He walked down the street a few blocks further than usually that night. Suddenly
two young girls in tight dresses blocked his way and eagerly started to hug him and
pull him down a couple of steps into a rather dark little restaurant.
‘Come. We like company. We like foreigner. Only five hundred peso. Double
company, same price.’
‘No, I’m not interested!’
‘We very nice. We give free beer. Cold beer. Come in, sir, we give free beer.
Only five hundred peso, sir. Both of us, same price, sir.’
‘No, I’m not interested! I’ll pay for a cold beer and then I have to leave.
The girls started competing about pulling him down the steps.
‘Maybe we make love? Only five hundred. Single price, double pleasure, sir.’
‘Nah, I have no money.’
‘No problem. We give free sample, sir. Very good sample. Free.’
They talked eagerly as they pulled him down into a small and dirty underground
restaurant lighted only by a few burning candles
‘Why the hell would you give free sample?’
‘We like. We give very good sample. If you like, maybe you come back? Then
pay full price. One thousand.’
Jonny sat down by one of the tables waiting for his beer. He disliked the fact that
he did not receive the bottle. Instead it was served to him in an open glass. For hygienic reasons. He hated that, but all the liquor had dulled his brains and sapped his
willpower so he accepted without making a scene. The two cuties were all over him,
and one grabbed his crotch searching for a hard-on, but Jonny told her in no uncertain terms to stay away. All he wanted right now was a cold beer, a San Miguel Pale
Pilsen, his favourite beer in this world. He ordered another beer. One of the girls, the
cutest of them, took him by the hand and wanted him to stand up.
‘Come, I have nice surprise. I show you nice room. Right over there.’
She pointed toward the rear of the restaurant. She kept pulling at Jonny’s right
arm. As he reluctantly stood, he noticed he had a hard time keeping from losing
balance, but both girls steadied him. He seemed to be in good hands. He tried to
concentrate on the rear door, but his vision blurred so he followed her without seeing
where they headed. He felt uncomfortable, but had no fear. Although more often than
not deviously devilish he new that Filipinos were not a violent people. They opened
the back door and started pulling him up a flight of stairs.
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‘Very nice room, sir.’
They pulled him up another flight of stairs.
‘Our room, sir. We keep company. Five hundred, sir.’
Jonny was partly pushed and partly pulled into a sparsely furnished, cardboard
covered attic. At one end a large sofa. In front of something that looked like a
window was placed a small table with two chairs. At the other end of the room a
huge mattress serving as a double or triple bed. And from the ceiling a single lightbulb barely flickering.
Imitating them Jonny tried to head for the door.
‘Sir, sir, sir. No more sir. What do you want?’
‘Only have nice company, sir.’
He was steered toward the sofa and more or less dropped into it. He strove to get
back up, but his legs refused to carry him. He tried to keep his eyes focused as the
two girls excitingly started to strip for him. Too damned flat-chested to his taste, both
of them, but otherwise very cute, especially one of them. Well, except maybe for
their make-up, a little bit too vulgar. Filipinas were seldom vulgar in their makeup.
They kept dancing until they turned away from him and pulled down their body
stockings. In unison they turned toward him again. Too drowsy to respond he remembered feeling dismay and discomfort as they faced him.
The two little cuties were not at all women, they were men! — one of them with
a little dick only about an inch long, when hard. The other, the cutest of them, had
even less. Jonny felt the fear engulf him as he strove to get off the sofa. He had to get
away from these perverts. Damned, he had to get out of here and search for Tetchie!
He wanted to puke, but then he downright blacked out.
Jonny awoke on top of the mattress, stark naked. Anew he felt that surge of fear and
despair rampaging through his body and mind as he stumbled to get off the mattress.
What the hell had happened? Why all naked? Jesus Christ! Stripped clean! No
clothes, nothing! He had more than six hundred dollars in that wallet! And now
nothing. How the hell could he manage to get back to the hotel with no clothes? And
how would he manage without his wallet and some cask?
He tried to stabilize his balance and focus his eyes in the dim lamplight. He staggered to his feet and managed to keep his balance. There, on top of the little table,
neatly packed, he noticed his white shirt and black jeans next to a pair of socks and
his briefs. His brain almost refused to function as he noticed his walled and watch
placed next to the rest of his belongings. With hands that were trembling he opened
the walled. He expected it empty, but was hit by another surprise when he counted
five hundred dollar bills. Jesus Christ, only one note was missing. Nothing at all was
missing except for that one hundred dollar bill! Why hadn’t they robbed him clean?
Had they raped him? He checked to see if he could find any semen somewhere on his
body, but couldn’t find any. The thought agonized him, but remembering the size of
that little dick he figured rape would be physically impossible.
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Still, why had they stripped him naked? No matter how hard he tried, he was unable to figure this one out. He figured he had been exposed to some sort of perversity, but had no prior experience in this field. He felt convinced that he had been
drugged and rendered unconscious, but for what reason had they gone to all that
trouble? For the money only? Well, one hundred dollars equaled about four thousand
five hundred pesos!
Again he felt a surge of desperation. Tetchie! Where was Tetchie? What the hell
time was it? Damned! Three-thirty in the morning!
He strove to get his clothes on as best he could, left the room and headed down
the stairs before rushing into the little club or restaurant, or what the hell it was. The
place was empty and he headed for the exit. He worried that the door might be
locked, but to his great relief and excitement it opened up into the stairwell by the
sidewalk. He rushed up the steps and headed for the Green Gardens.
There, as dawn was breaking, half asleep in one of the foyer sofas sat Tetchie
waiting for him!
‘Jonny, Jonny, I have waited for you all night. Where have you been?’
She rushed up and hugged him. She pulled away when he tried to kiss her. She
did not like to kiss in public.
‘I’ve been out looking for you, too. All over. Like a madman. I’ve been running
around searching for you. What happened tonight, Tetchie? Have they shut down all
the bars and dance halls for good?’
‘Yes. I very happy. No more Bangkok Inn. No more dancers and mamasans. No
more Exotic Garden. No more business for nasty German owner!’ She spoke triumphantly. ‘He go back in Germany now. Maybe all the Arabianos also stay in the Arabia after this! And no more hungry mothers sell the innocence of their daughters!’
‘Tell me what happened, Tetchie. Why did you stay away?’
She looked about as if she were afraid of some unknown danger.
‘Come, we go in the room.’ She headed for the elevator and Jonny followed. Just
inside the room she started crying.
‘Why you not make love to me?’
‘I’m very tense and upset right now, darling. About everything. Also last night.
I keep thinking about that ugly Arab.’
‘Why this? I cannot change what happen before.’
‘Still bugs me. I sometimes feel incapable of dealing with life itself. The shortcomings. All the compromises. The corruption of the powerful. The collapse of
decency to victorious evil. The evils of society. Not only in the Philippines. It’s the
same all over. Here. In America. In Norway. Everybody thinking that they are the
righteous ones. From lack of understanding condemning what they consider the evils
of others, while praising their own. Like the missionaries. — Yes, that Arab bugs
me! Maybe I’m jealous.’
‘Maybe you lose the courage?’
‘Maybe I never had the courage. Maybe I only had the big dream like yourself?’
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I tell them Tobby’s from Chicago
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She suddenly burst out crying again, bitterly. Jonny let her cry. Then she abruptly
sat up in bed, determined.
‘Ok, maybe better this way. You and I the same. We search for the big dream in
our hearts, but not use the brain in our heads.’
‘What kind of crap is that?’
‘The truth!’
She stared at Jonny with her big, brown eyes wide open. He felt she wanted to tell
him something, but to Jonny’s dismay instead she started crying again.
‘Uff, what a moody bitch!’
‘Darling, very difficult this, but I must tell. I fight my mother all day and all night.
But no use. She not only a little bit mad, she very, very mad. Scream. Shout. Curse.
Then she show me paper that I must go with the Arabiano in his place, in the Jeddah.
She tell me I have obligation to support my family like Philippine tradition. She say
you good, but only in the heart, not in the wallet. She say love cannot feed hungry
stomach and if I stay with you, I betray family honor. She has much power now because the Arabiano he already pay the money. The police help her now because she
can afford. She say she arrest you if I not go with Arabiano. I scream that I see you
one more time and she agree. — — Darling, she wait downstairs.’
Tetchie stared sobbing again, shivering.
‘What! You mean your mother is waiting for you downstairs? Why?’
‘Also the Arabiano. To make sure I do not run away.’
‘What! You mean this mean monster has more or less bought you for his wife and
he lets you spend the night with me? That’s crazy!’
‘He already get my cherry. The rest he don’t care. Only that I go with him in the
Jeddah.’
‘So, you — are — actually telling me — that — that you and I — can — never
be?’
‘My mother she say I must go with the Arabiano. If I go with you, I go in the jailhouse because I break contract. And all my family will starve. No more family honor.
Even squatters sometimes have big family honor, Jonny.’
‘But, Tetchie, you must have known this?’
‘Yes, but I fight for the big dream. And I lose. After I do my duty for family
honor, maybe I die. Now I must go with him in the Camp John Hay in Baguio for two
weeks. No longer bar fine, but my mother she receive already ten thousand peso. I
never will stay with the Arabiano. Not very long. Better that I die. But, darling, I
always remember you. I always keep ring. Darling, before I go to meet mother, I like
that we make love. Big love. For the last time. I like that I never forget. After tonight
we only strangers in the crowd. No more see.’
At a time like this how could she think of making love? Maybe to her making love
was nothing but a sign of appreciation? A way of thanking him? He put his arms
around her and held her tight for a long time. Then he let go.
‘Tetchie, I think it is better we keep in our heart and mind the memories we have.’
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As he opened the door and headed for the elevator, Tetchie started crying again.
When they entered the foyer, they were eagerly greeted by Maria, the mother, and
the Arab, the owner. They took Tetchie between themselves and quickly walked her
toward the exit as if Jonny were not present. The last Jonny saw of her was her being
pulled into the rear seat of the waiting van by her mother. He tried to run after her
but was stopped at the exit by two police officers, or maybe armed security guards.
Only after the van had disappeared, did they smile apologetically and let him go.
Yeah, money talks. Bullshit walks! Corruption rules! Love and courage meant nothing!
After having carried his dream for more than thirty years Jonny had a hard time
accepting defeat. He had lost his big dream of love the same way Tetchie had lost
hers. But the consequences for her would be far more tragic. Well, life would go on.
He had another dream equally strong. If not stronger. His last and everlasting dream.
His dream of returning to his beloved New Jersey. His American dream!
He heard three hard knocks on the office door and was brought back to reality.
“Who is it?”
“I! Claudia!”
After he got rid of unwanted tenants like Kirk Coleman, Eric Jones, Jake Bronx and
Speedy Fleece, Jonny had hoped he’d be able to steer the Holiday Park Hotel on to
a path of routinely stability. After all he had a motel licence now.
Calvin, and his girlfriend, Thilda, with her two teenage daughters, were all gone,
too. Some stability should be within reach. He had to relinquish that possibility
rather immediately. Claudia had started the snowball rolling until it reached almost
uncontrollable proportions with too many evictions and too many changes taking
place at the same time. And now she wanted to start redecorating the apartments so
that she could start a new round of rent increases.
When Jonny told her in the office one evening that he wanted her to slow down,
she more or less exploded in anger. He also kept a much stricter control than before
in order to prevent Claudia from executing her first rule of business, just in case.
Claudia saw no limitations to her own superiority and seldom evaluated the consequences of her action, except for the cold cash part of it.
‘Miss Personality Plus’, indeed!
After the incident when so reluctantly letting go of the cash, Jonny did not fully
trust her. Nor Tobby, for that matter.
“I’m making money for, am I not?”
“Yes you are, but you’re rocking the boat too hard in deep waters. You just can’t
kick out a good tenant every time someone is willing to pay ten dollars more. You
also have to consider stability. And the fact that to some of the tenants this is home.
Connie’s been living here for more than six years now and paid her rent on time
every single week. I will not let you kick her out. Bonnie neither. They want to talk
to me later in the evening.”
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“I will not allow you to make any special deals with them! That’s like giving
money away for free.”
“I see your point, Claudia, and I will take it into consideration. But I will also listen to what they have to say about it. After all, they’ve been paying their rent like
clockwork for years.”
“I’m warning you, Jonny, do as I say. No special deals!”
Although Claudia had charged two hundred and eighty for the single rooms,
Jonny let Connie and Bonnie stay for one hundred and fifty instead of one ten and
one fifteen, respectively.
After little over an hour of haggling him, Connie accepted to continue paying for
four weeks in advance, but Bonnie stubbornly declined to accept as much as a single
dollar extra. He had just recently increased her rent by five dollars a week. When
would it end? She decided to leave the very next week.
“You won’t see another red penny from me, fuckin’ asshole. The way you let that
crazy woman ruin this place, come summer you’ll get stuck with nothing but black
crack monsters! Mark my words; come summer you won’t have a single apartment
rented!” Bonnie left thoroughly pissed.
Connie was equally displeased, but still thanked him for helping her out. She
chose her words more wisely than Bonnie, but warned him in no uncertain terms to
keep his eyes on Claudia. Since they had no way of knowing what great job she had
done for him, Jonny saw it as a natural reaction that they tried to talk her down.
Or, did they know something he didn’t?
Then came that agonizing period when Claudia started pushing for her contract.
Jonny talked to lawyer Collins about it, and was waiting for him to come up with a
recommendation. He needed two weeks, which Jonny accepted. That would be just
in time for the new year. Claudia became very upset when he told her he had engaged
a lawyer to handle the contract. But when he told her he had no prior experience in
that field, she seemed to relax somewhat, but was still displeased about it.
“I see it as blatant distrust, Jonny. We can work this out together.”
She was right about the distrust. Her first rule of business bothered him, and,
more and more often, the tenants warned him about her. In the building she was now
openly referred to as ‘the crazy woman.’ When it really boiled down to it, Jonny had
no way of figuring her out. Why did she make such an effort trying to help him out?
Jonny had learned to know her well enough to realize it was not out of the pureness
of her born again heart. Yet, he would feel better after they had everything down on
paper.
Then he told her he was planning a trip up to New Jersey over the Holidays. He
had been thinking about it since the first day he arrived, but hadn’t got around to it
yet. Claudia had no objections. On the contrary, she seemed relieved to have him off
the property. Jonny felt that for the first time in almost a year and a half he could take
that trip up to New Jersey. If only the battleship would not let him down.
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Jonny exited the New Jersey Turnpike, or I-95, connecting Route 3 in Paramus, New
Jersey, drove west until he hit route 46, made a left and headed for Montclair via
Route 23. He crossed Bloomfield Ave. on to Valley Road, made a left on Eagle Rock
Ave. and drove down the curved hill until he hit Main Street in West Orange. He
passed the Thomas Alva Edison museum and eagerly studied the Black Maria, the
very first movie house ever to be built. He felt proud to have been one of the visitors.
Back then. Such a long time ago! In a different life, but at the same place.
Then he passed Rt.10 where he so humiliatingly had got his first ticket for reckless driving. He was not the first one to be fooled by the steep hill and the sharp curves. Many an experienced truck driver had lost control coming down that hill. And
more than one truck had crushed into the cafeteria at the end of the route, totally out
of control. During one such accident three patrons had been tragically injured and
one had died.
The cafe had been closed, and the building was demolished after that incident.
He knew Main Street in West Orange would take him through to Main Street in
Orange as well as all the way to City Hall and North Arlington Avenue in East
Orange.
Hit with hundreds of flashbacks as he traveled the familiar roads of home of more
than twenty-five years ago, Jonny could hardly control his emotions. He could see
himself along with his father in his dark and light green, semi-automatic -58 DeSoto
sedan, the most reliable workhorse ever produced in the United States.
He remembered his now deceased mother always shopping at Korvette’s until one
day she had been stopped for shoplifting. She had placed a dress on her arm, but
decided not to take it. She’d been doing a lot of shopping that day, but instead of
returning it to the shelf, or just leaving it with the cashier as she paid, she had got too
exited to remember. When she exited the store, she still had the dress on her left arm.
She was taken in for questioning and kept in the office for almost an hour before they
finally believed her and decided not to press charges. She felt too humiliated to
return to Korvette’s for a long time after that incident, and had started shopping at
Essex Green Plaza or sometimes all the way up in Wayne at Two Guys from Harrison.
When Jonny had turned into Eagle Rock Ave., he had noticed that Korvette’s was
no more. Now it was Bamberger’s, or something. Approaching Orange he searched
for the Dairy Queen store, where he had taken so many a cold milk shake together
with his father after a long, hot day’s construction work, before they drove home for
a late evening dinner. To his disappointment it had been closed down.
Mother always had dinner ready when they returned from work, and often scolded
them for eating ice cream first. Jonny remembered so vividly, as he entered the City
of Orange. His bank, Orange Savings and Loan, was no longer there. Not Essex
County Savings and Loan, either. Well, things would definitely have changed over
a period of more than twenty-five years.
As he entered the Orange section of Main Street, he was appalled by the sight in
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259
front of him, and hit with an indescribable mix of anxiety and futility. This was
home? This dirty street was home? Had he been longing to return to this rundown,
dirty street for more than a quarter of a century?
Oh, God, most of the stores were empty, half of them boarded up with plywood!
The ones not shut down seemed run down and derelict almost beyond recognition,
with rusty iron grits covering the storefronts and windows. Woolworth’s was gone!
The drugstore where mother had bought her medicine had shut down, too, and now
looked like slum. Jesus Christ, Shop Rite no longer existed either! How many a Sunday had he taken mother to shop at Shop Rite off Main Street in Orange? He envisioned her there struggling with her huge, brown shopping bags.
The photo shop where he had developed so many of his snapshots and pictures
no longer existed, either. That nice corner shop had been boarded up with plywood,
with dirt piling up in front of the entrance.
He stopped the car and exited to better feel the thrill of being back home. Instead
of glee and happiness, he was left with a feeling of utmost despair.
What in the world had happened to his beloved Main Street?
Discouraged he entered the car and slowly continued toward East Orange.
He always remembered East Orange as sloppy and shabby, but this was beyond
recognition. Jesus Christ! That nice Catholic Church that had always impressed
father, but which he had always mocked for being caller God’s Mother’s Church, had
been burnt down! The stone walls were still standing, but everything else was burnt
to cinders! And also the impressive Catholic church on the hill to the left on Main
Street had suffered the same fate. All that was left were some stone walls!
One section on the right hand side of the street had been demolished and Mallon
of East Orange where he had bought his first Pontiac was no more; gone along with
Wilson Ford and Allen Chevrolet.
His knees felt weakened now, and he wondered where had all the beauty gone.
Or was it all part of his teenage infatuation? Had it always been like this? No, no
way! Always a bit on the shabby side, like most American towns and cities, but never
like this. He remembered all the places he had been to around the world. Places usually improved! How come here in America places always seemed to deteriorate and
eventually turn into slums and ghost towns?
He drove all the way to the end and made a left on North Arlington. There on the
right were still standing the two buildings where mother had worked so hard as a
superintendent for so many years of her stay here in America. While father and himself were busy working in construction, laying hardwood floors.
He parked the car along the curb and exited. When finally here, he could at least
stop and say ‘hello’ to his former landlord and his mother’s employer. Although far
from living a life in luxury, these years had at least given him hope and belief in a
better future. And wasn’t that what America was all about? — Believing in a better
future. At least that had been his experience! And compared to Norway it had been
like living in heaven!
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But now he was unable to get access to the property. Where before had been open
access to the parking space at the rear, had been constructed a tall, locked iron gate.
He talked to one of the many blacks hanging out in front of the buildings. They reluctantly told him the previous owner had moved away many years ago, and strangers no longer had access to the property. The forty-two family building next door,
that he had been offered to buy with only ten thousand dollars down, had been
condemned. He noticed all the blacks study him, with suspicion. What the fuck kind
of business did this white dude have on this property? He was told in no uncertain
terms that he might be exposed to an accident if he chose to hang out in the neighborhood. Unknown strangers were usually not welcome. Especially not whites.
Hm, the first years when Jonny had been living on North Arlington, there had not
been one single black person living in the sixty-five unit complex.
When approached by a group of threatening youngsters, Jonny jumped into the
car and headed elsewhere. The teenagers started running after him and hitting the lid
of the trunk with fists and sticks as he drove off toward Park Ave.
Jesus Christ! Home? This? He closed his eyes and let the memories of the good
years overwhelm him. As a young man he had found happiness here! Way back then
in the early sixties. — But this was America in the early nineties — an America in
decline!
He decided to visit Central Avenue, and the other apartment building that had also
been his home when living here. But in the darkness, and, after twenty-five years of
absence, he had lost his sense of direction and headed in the opposite direction. Central Avenue was not this far away from Main Street. This much he remembered. But
he could not sort out in his mind how to get there. All these negative impressions and
great disappointments had left him somewhat perplexed.
He drove around until he once more hit Main Street in Orange. He was hoping to
see a police officer for direction and waited on the sidewalk for someone to pass by.
He noticed a black woman approach, and was first struck by the possibility she might
be a prostitute, but as she got closer he decided she was not even if she did look a bit
shabby.
“Excuse me, please. I’ve lost my way. You couldn’t show me the right direction
to Central Avenue, could you?”
She studied him for some time before she answered in blurred American.
“If y’ain’t too much in a hurry, just follow me. I’m headed in the same direction.”
“To Central Avenue? That’s a long walk. I’m looking for the fire station. If I hit
Central Avenue, I’ll find my way. I used to live there years ago, but now I seem to
have lost my sense of direction. I don’t remember a highway running all along Main
Street.”
“Why not offer a ride and I’ll take you there?”
“Where to?”
“I’ll get you to Central Avenue. No problem. Can I come inside?”
“Sure. — Thanks.”
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Jonny opened the door and let her jump inside.
“Looking for a date, hon. I’m available.”
“No. I told you I was looking for Central Avenue!”
“Ok. Make a U-turn and turn right by that burnt down church. Head straight ahead
and, before you know, we’ll hit Central Ave. If you go left, you will end up in Broad
Street, the main street in Newark. But if you go right, you will hit Lincoln Avenue
and the fire station. I live one block off the same street. — Can I ask you a favor? I
need to pick up some stuff. Will you just stop and wait for me? It’ll only take a
couple of minutes.”
“I’ll drop you off and head straight ahead for Central Ave.”
“I need to get there to see my friend. Just wait a couple of minutes, please.”
Jonny felt uncomfortable. Too many blacks were hanging out for him to feel comfortable. But he gave in.
“Ok. But only a couple of minutes. Please be quick.”
“Deal.”
She directed him one block to the right, told him to make a U-turn and park in
front of the second building from the corner, a dilapidated, old, three-story wood
structure probably dating back to the early twenties.
“Only a couple of minutes!”
He felt uneasy about this.
“Yeah.”
Jonny waited for her to return, but she must have forgot all about him. Instead a
different woman accompanied by two guys wanted him to open the car door for
them, but he declined. Looking about him he noticed different guys approach the car
from the side as well as from behind. Having left the motor running he quickly put
it into gear, hit the road and turned left the same way he had come. In his rear view
mirror he saw the youngsters running to catch up, but he speeded up to get away and
into safety.
He had barely hit the road heading back to Main Street when he heard the sirens
behind him and noticed two police vehicles following him. The officers made signs
for him to stop, which he only reluctantly did. One of the vehicles pulled up in front
of him, the other parked behind him. Two of the officers held their hands on their
holsters while one of the others addressed him through the side window.
“Licence and registration, please!” He spoke brusquely.
Jonny showed him his driver’s licence out of his wallet, but as he reached for his
registration card in the glove compartment, he was ordered to freeze.
“Any concealed weapons?”
“No. I haven’t had a gun in my hands since the day I was born.”
“Slowly, now. No sudden moves!”
Jonny opened the glove compartment real slowly and pulled out the Florida registration card, or rather sheet, in a protective plastic jacket. He slowly handed the officer both.
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The officer studied it for a length of time. Jonny was getting the feeling it was all
right, when one of the other officers approached the vehicle and started arguing with
the first officer. One of them ran back into the police car, and, after what to Jonny
seemed like an eternity, but which had only taken five to ten minutes, he returned.
“Any weapons?”
“No! I have not!”
“Drugs?”
“No.”
“So what’s your business in this area? Are you trying to buy drugs?”
“No.”
“So what were you doing? Picking up hookers?”
“No. I was looking for Central Avenue.”
“Don’t give me that crap! Tell me what the fuck you were doing!”
“I tell you the truth. I was looking for Central Avenue. I used to live there twentyfive years ago. It was home. Just across from the fire station on the corner of Lincoln
Avenue. After being away for more than twenty-five years, I got somewhat confused
and asked for direction. It’s like the roads are different. There’s a whole new highway running through.”
“Why did you pick up that prostitute?”
“I didn’t! She’s the one I asked for help. I was looking for a police officer to ask
directions, but then she walked by and I asked her. She wasn’t trying to pick me up.”
“What the fuck was she doing in your car.”
“She offered to take me there. Said she was looking for a friend. — Eh, not me.
Somebody she knew, who was living in the vicinity where I was going.”
“That’s fuckin’ baloney! What were you looking for? Drugs or pussy? Or both?
Give me the facts or I’ll have your ass hauled behind bars like you were hit by lightning.”
“I tell you the truth. Can’t you tell I’m just a tourist here?”
“What the fuck were you doing outside that crack den?”
“She said she was going to pick up something for her friend, but she never returned. Some guys were approaching me from behind and I figured it wise to scoot.
Since I still wasn’t sure about Central Avenue, I headed for Main Street.”
“What’s the name of that fuckin’ prostituted drug pussy?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never met her before. How the hell could I know she’s a drug
pussy?”
“Listen carefully now. And you’d better think twice before you answer. Do you
have any concealed weapons or drugs in your vehicle or on your person?”
“I don’t have to think twice. I’ve already answered — twice. The answer is still
no!”
“Get your fuckin’ ass out of that car, walk slowly over to the patrol car and place
your hands on the hardtop where I can see them. Any sudden moves and you’re dead!
Move! Now!!”
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263
Jonny slowly opened the door and exited the car. The officer quickly checked for
weapons and pointed toward the car.
“Both hands on that top!”
Jonny obeyed. The officer roughly kicked Jonny’s legs apart and thoroughly searched his body. All his pockets. His shoes. The crotch. Then the officer who had his
driver’s licence, approached from the vehicle.
“Is this your name and present address?”
“Yes, it is.”
“What’s your occupation?
“I own a hotel in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.”
“Have you ever been arrested?”
“No.”
“Never?”
“No. Never!”
“When was the last time you had a ticket?”
“Twenty-five years ago in August nineteen sixty-eight. Coming down Route 10
not far from here. My first and only. It still pisses me off!”
“Turn around.”
The two officers were mockingly smiling at him.
“So we’ve got ourselves a model citizen, heh.”
Jonny did not answer. It was not a question.
The two officers searching his car for drugs suddenly decided this was it. One
called to the other.
“Clean as a fuckin’ whistle, man.”
But the more aggressive among them did not seem pleased.
“So when you hit Central Avenue, what were your plans then?”
“Just to drive by where I used to live with my parents and check out the neighborhood. Then I planned a trip up to the El Toro Steak House for a good meal and
to find a place near Willowbrook to spend the night. I was planning to do some shopping over at Two Guys tomorrow morning. If I liked what I saw, I was planning to
make some investments.”
“How long have you been living in this country?” Jonny froze. Jesus Christ, if
this guy asked him for his Green Card, he would be in deep shit.
“Since July 1, nineteen sixty-one.”
Jonny said it with authority. None of them answered, but remained silent for such
a painfully long period of time before they answered.
“Good! I’ll give you an offer you won’t refuse unless you’re fuckin’ stupid! Jump
in your car and head straight for Route 10. But make sure you won’t get another fine!
If I see you in this fuckin’ neighborhood one more time, I promise you’ll spend the
whole fuckin’ Holidays behind bars. And I ain’t kiddin!’ Just to prove how serious
I am, I’ll have you escorted out of the city. Understand? We don’t want to see your
fuckin’ face in this city ever again! Understood? Never again!”
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“I’d prefer to head straight for Eagle Rock Avenue and get myself a steak.”
“You’ll do exactly as I fuckin’ tell you! If you don’t turn left when you hit Route
10 and head up that fuckin’ hill, you’ll be in trouble. Now, beat it! Get the fuck out
of my sight! Keep the fuck out of the Oranges!”
Escorted by the two patrol units Jonny slowly hit Main Street, left the City of
Orange, entered West Orange, and made a left at the bottom of the hill when he hit
Route 10. He headed up the steep slope where he so unjustly had got his ticket for
reckless driving more than a quarter of a century ago.
It still pissed him off!
But that was then. This is now!
Jonny gave up his plans of returning to New Jersey after this incident. His bitterness
against the United States grew. If his parents had left him to find this out for himself
years ago, he would not have wasted most of his life on an empty dream!
So, what does a man do when, in middle age, he wakes up and finds that all the
dreams of his youth are dead? After all his dreams have turned into defeats? Start all
over again? Hardly. How can a man succeed with such great odds against him when
unable to succeed without them? Seek justice? We all need justice for the mare act
of functioning. Even if he had to look above and beyond the law for justice, achieving it was now his only task left even if it would be the end of him. Too often the law
ignores the need for justice for the common man, and becomes the tool of the power
structure. Then, indeed, you’ll have to look high above and far beyond the law of you
want to taste it’s sweet fruits. He was willing to pay the ultimate price in achieving
justice.
The need for vengeance materialized in Jonny’s awareness. He slowly let it poison his mind and conquer his soul. As soon as possible he’d return home and start
implementing his revenge on all those who had opposed him in his achievements.
No, not all. Only those who had so sleazily worked behind his back with pettiness
and envy to take that which was his away from him, and make it their own. Including
his mother, although she was no longer among the living. He remembered his sister’s
allegations that he was to blame for his mother’s death. Just like his sister. Anything
bad, and the fault was his. Anything good, and the praise be hers. Well, if her allegations were true, this time it was nothing but justice well served!
On his long ride back to Fort Lauderdale he had ample time to think, and made
a solemn pact with the Devil. If ever hit by an incurable decease such as cancer, heart
problems, or maybe aids, none of those fighting him for their own gains through
sleazy backstabbings and envious manipulations would live to survive him! He
decided on a small semi-automatic pistol for the purpose. All his life he had worked
alone, and liked it, because early in life he had learned that there were few people
that could be trusted.
Since he himself did not possess the knowledge and experience to sort out the
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265
ones who could, but without realizing that as a loner you also became extremely vulnerable, he had chosen to work alone. But, on your own, if opponents decide to
group against you, you could so easily be pushed aside and crushed. In his case even
his own family had worked against him in favor of his sister.
Yes, vengeance! An eye for an eye! Or a life for fraud and deceit?
He knew from the Bible that even God supported those seeking justice through
revenge!
Claudia just kept staring at him, dumbfounded.
“I thought you were going to spend the Holidays?”
“I somehow didn’t feel welcome. So I changed my mind. The Holiday spirit had
not yet taken root up in Jersey. Not that I feel much spirited myself, but still.”
Jonny felt no Holiday spirit this season. Whether in Fort Lauderdale or New Jersey did not make much difference.
“What happened?”
“Not much. Just didn’t feel welcome. I couldn’t find what I was looking for. For
better or worse, I guess a quarter of a century is a long time.”
“Good! Then it’s time we start talking business. Is Carmine W. Collins the name
of your lawyer?”
“Yaah!”
“He’s sent you a letter. Our business contract.”
“Good. I’ll check it out, and we’ll talk then.”
“Tonight, Jonny! Tonight!”
“But tonight’s Christmas Eve. I’ve been driving for almost two days. I’m dead
tired, Claudia.”
“I’ll be in my office tomorrow at nine. I’ll bring Tobby. We won’t leave the room
until we have everything settled.”
“But, Claudia, tomorrow is Christmas Day! I need to sleep. What if you and
Tobby take the proposal and read it through tonight or tomorrow. Then, when I
return the next morning, we’ll sign it right away. There’s no fire, Claudia. I have
every intention of signing that deal with you.”
“All right! But give me that envelope.”
“You know where it is, I don’t. Take it and read it. — Season’s Greetings,
Claudia, to all of you. I need to sleep.”
Jonny staggered into his room over at the Windsor and immediately fell into a heavy
sleep with all his clothes on. He woke up hours later feeling sweat and uncomfortable. He undressed and crawled under the comforter. His swelling feet bothered him,
but he paid little attention before he went back to sleep. He woke up sweating a
couple of times, unable to tell whether he’d been experiencing some unpleasant
flashbacks, having a nightmare or getting a fever, but he quickly fell back asleep.
Christmas Day he started feeling queasy again and had to puke. He started feeling
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some strange numbness to his stomach, but suppressed his thoughts and went back
to sleep.
He hadn’t eaten much the last few days and the next morning he headed for the
Pancake House, which not longer was called the Pancake House, but Ihop, to have
a better breakfast. It was a strange name, but he was explained that it an abbreviation
of the International House of Pancakes, Ihop.
On his way back home he stopped by at Amoco for a newspaper and a cup of coffee before entering the office of the Holiday Park Hotel. He had got his batteries
charged and was feeling much better. And he had much to attend to, especially bills
Entering the office Claudia was sitting behind her desk as usual with Tobby in the
chair up front, both staring at him with a grim and sinister expression upon their
faces. Claudia’s hungjaw started slowly moving up and down as she set her eyes on
him.
“How could you do this to me, Jonny, after all I’ve done for you? It’s an insult!
How can you do this to me!?”
Tobby backed her up in a delayed, twisted echo: “Yeef, how could you do fiss to
me?” Both were staring at him with sinister anger. Tobby was trying extra hard to
look like a deadly Al Capone, which gave Jonny a hell of a hard time keeping serious, but looking at Claudia he realized the graveness of the situation.
“Are you being serious, Jonny? That so-called management agreement you gave
me is nothing but an insult! I wont go for it! It’s an insult.”
“Calm down and tell me what the hell you’re talking about!”
“That contract, Jonny, is no contract! It’s only an agreement! On top of that, it’s
an insult!”
“Please, give me a chance to read it, then. I haven’t even seen the damned thing.”
“Don’t curse! — Yes, you have! You’re the one who told him how to set it up!”
“He has a general frame of contracts that he is using for apartment managers. All
I asked him was to make it a generous offer. Nothing out of this world, of course, but
above average.”
“If so, Jonny, how come I end up with this insult?”
She stood now, waving the paper in his face.
“Sit down and explain what’s wrong. I’m no mind-reader.”
“You promised me a contract, Jonny, but this is only an agreement! It’s an insult!”
“Is that what this is all about?”
“No, it isn’t! You also want me to pay rent! It’s an insult.”
“Give me that piece of paper, Claudia, and give me a chance to read it.”
Claudia handed him the paper, her whole body shaking in anger and excitement.
“Read it? It’s an insult!”
Jonny started reading. It was one of those typical legal documents with three full
pages written in small print. True, the heading did say ‘Management Agreement.’
Jonny tried hard to concentrate on the intricate descriptions of daily management
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267
routines, of duties and rewards. When he read the chapter pertaining to wages and
rents Claudia again interrupted him.
“You know what’s in there, Jonny! It’s an insult.”
Jonny tried to concentrate without losing his temper. He started all over again, but
once more he was interrupted.
“It’s an insult, Jonny! It’s an insult!”
“Shut up and let me read, dammit!”
Tobby jumped to his feet.
“Nobody tells my fife to shuff up!”
“Ok. So you tell her, then!”
Jonny barked better than a bank teller.
“Shuff up, Claudia!”
“Tobby, sit down and shut up! Let me handle this!”
Claudia was on her feet, too. Jonny tried to concentrate on the contents of the
contract while the two of them were having a heated argument.
“Ok, both of you, shut up and sit down. You behave like children! My coffee’s
cold now, and I am leaving to get myself another cup. I’ll bring one for the two of
you, as well.
Then, when I return, I want you to sit quietly and listen while I take the time to
explain everything in detail. Is that a deal, or should I go for lunch?”
Jonny did not wait for an answer, but left the office for Amoco and three cups of
coffee. They had both quieted down when he returned. He faced Claudia.
“Why does it make such a big difference to you whether it’s called an Agreement
or a Contract?”
“That’s obvious! An agreement is nothing but an agreement, but a contract is a
contract! Anybody can make an agreement, but a contract you put down on paper.
Everybody knows that! Especially in a court of law!”
“Ok, if that’s what’s bothering you, we’ll make it a contract than. All we have to
do is change the heading from Management Agreement to Management Contract. It’s
the same thing.”
“You just try it out in a court of law and you’ll soon find out it’s not the same
thing!”
“Ok, but it makes no difference to me. Is there anything else?”
“I will not pay rent, Jonny. That’s an insult! I’m not even paying rent now.”
“You’re not getting a salary either. Just proving your worth based on your own
suggestion. But ok, let’s keep the question of rent separate. I asked how much he
would consider a generous offer, and he suggested $255,00 a week. I increased it by
one hundred dollars — a week. That’s a total of $18.450,00 a year, which is close to
an average yearly income on a full time basis.
On top of that, I’m willing to let you have the apartment for $200,00 a week on
a year-round basis. I’m sure you remember telling me only a couple of weeks ago
that you could easily rent that apartment for $500,00 a week, during season. I have
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two reasons for wanting to do it this way: First of all I want none of us to get into
trouble with the IRA, then secondly —”
”The IRS, Jonny. IRA is something totally different.”
Tobby was unable to keep quiet.
“It iss the fame sshit!”
Jonny continued. “ — — ok, the IR eh S, then. The second reason being that I
want all income on paper to show full turnover in case of a future sale. It increases
property value and gives a correct picture. Have you got the picture?”
“I will not budge, Jonny! Not one penny. I will not pay rent. And I will not pay
taxes! That apartment is there anyway. If you put the rent at one dollar a week, all
I’m asking is a total of fifty-two dollars for the whole year. That’s nothing, Jonny!”
“Claudia, you know better than that.”
“I won’t budge! Not a penny!”
“Claudia, including full value of the apartment, that’s $40.900,00 a year! That’s
close to half of total turnover. Before expenses. Nobody can pay that kind of money!”
“Crap, Jonny. I’m making money for you, ain’t I? Every day. Lots of money. Tons
of money! I’ll handle it.”
“It’s impossible.”
“I won’t budge! Not a penny! But I’m not finished yet. It says nothing in the contract about Tobby! In two months now he’s only made eleven hundred dollars. He
needs work for at least eight thousand a year, and I want that on paper.”
“That’s close to a total of fifty thousand a year. It’s out of the question. It’s so
ridiculous it’s a joke.”
“You have promised, Jonny. You told him he could call himself ‘Assistant Manager!’ Assistant managers get paid!”
“I told you it made no difference to me if he called himself King of Chicago.”
Tobby could no longer keep quiet. His constant lisp irritated Jonny.
“Chi-Chicago already hass a king.”
“I thought Al Capone was dead!”
“No, not him. Mayor Daly!”
“I don’t know that much about Chicago politics, Tobby, but I didn’t think you had
kings here in America. Except for Elvis and King Kamehameha the Great, and they
are both as dead as Al Capone.”
“Only in Chicago.”
Jonny tried hard to remain serious. Tobby was always spreading smiles around
him. If he hadn’t been so totally stupid, he should have been on stage. Claudia too,
for that matter, but for a different reason.
Poor little Tobby, the tough guy from Chicago.
“I won’t budge! Not one penny. I told you Tobby needed a job.”
“Yeah, and you told me he was going to work for the pool man. What happened
to that deal?”
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“That was a scam! He wanted to start him out as an apprentice. My Tobby! The
next thing I’m gonna do is fire that pool contractor and have Tobby do it for you at
half price.”
“That’s out of the question! Chemicals alone cost me more than what he charges
for everything. Don’t ever try to do that or you will be walking out of here. That guy
is a very stable Englishman. Like clockwork. Don’t you even think about it!”
A pressing silence followed with nobody saying a single word. Jonny listened to
the two Hoskinses breathing heavily.
“I suggest we start drinking our coffees. Nobody’s even tasted it yet. Then, this
very evening, I will take all your wishes into consideration and make you a simple
contract. It’s gonna be a take it or leave it offer based on what this property can realistically sustain as to expenditures.
There is one more question, however, that I need to have clarified: What are your
concrete plans as to taking over the property?”
“Oh, I’m working on it real hard. I want to take it over as soon as possible.”
“I need a timeframe.”
“As soon as possible.”
“Well, if you can’t give me any specifics, I’ll have to put it back on the market.
If I get any offers before you are ready, I’ll bring it to your attention. However, I can
not hold it for you unless you come up with something tangible.”
Claudia again turned pink. “You can’t do that to me, Jonny. That’s a breach of
loyalty. I’m working real hard to take it over, but I need some time. You’ll be the
first to know, I promise.”
When Claudia left for dinner that evening, Jonny engaged the deadbolt to keep
her from reentering. Then he sat down and wrote a simple contract that Claudia
would have a hard time refusing. She was going to get her contract, all right
Management CONTRACT.
1. This contract between Holiday Park Hotel as ‘Company’ and Claudia Hoskins
as ‘Manager’ is made effective from January 1, 1994. It is to remain in effect
until April 30th 1994 at which date it automatically expires. However, each party
has the right to terminate the contract upon a seven day notice without cause.
2. Manager shall interview and accept tenants for the Company; prepare and
execute all agreements with tenants plus register all guests, collect rent, handle
evictions and at all time keep empty rooms / apartments in a clean and rentable
condition.
Manager’s office hours are to be as follows:
Monday through Thursday 9 - 5
Friday
9 - 8.
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Manager shall not attend to the office on Saturdays and Sundays except to collect
rent and/or rent empty apartments or register new guests. During office hours it
is also manager’s responsibility to attend to public officials / inspectors etc.
visiting the property.
3. The company shall pay to the manager as a management service fee the sum of
$345,00 a week. The weekly service fee shall be credited against Manager’s rent
for Apt. 24. The company shall issue receipt for weekly occupancy, and Manager
shall sign for occupancy as receipt for work done. In addition Manager shall
receive the sum of $ 75,00 per week for management services to be paid weekly
during the contract period for back pay. Manager is acting solely as independent
contractor of the Company and is not considered as employees of the above
mentioned Company.
4. This contract shall be governed under the laws of the state of Florida. This
contract also contains the entire understanding of the parties in respect of its
subject matter and supersedes all prior agreements and understandings between
the parties with respect to such subject matter.
Jonny Jakobsen Hell
Signature
Signature
Then Jonny rolled out his futon, took off his socks and fell soundly asleep. Tomorrow he’d tell Claudia that her wish had been his command. With a contract like this
there was no need for any agreement.
Jonny woke up in the middle of the night, sweat and uncomfortable. What a fucking
nightmare! He had dreamed he was back in Norway carrying a gun and killing everybody crossing his path. He had taken one man at a time and felt good in doing so. It
was not really a nightmare. It had all felt so good. Actually it had been a good dream
providing him with vengeance and justice.
Had he peaked into the future? Was this a taste of what was to come?
Then he was hit with anxiety. An all engulfing anxiety. He had forgot to call his
family back home for the Holidays. He had forgot to call them on Christmas Eve!
Although his mother was dead and father too heavy at the hearing to answer the
phone, his sister would at least expect him to call. At least she could tell her father
how he was doing. And the kids! They were definitely hoping to hear from him on
Christmas Eve!
He had promised himself last Christmas to send some letters and pictures, but his
New Year’s resolutions had more or less blown away with the wind. Uff, he hadn’t
sent them any presents or greetings this year, either! He kept thinking of his mother
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and realized her death had been more a relief than a grief. He would not miss her.
Ever! However, tears came to his eyes as he started thinking how things might have
been. There had been some good moments, but they had been few and far between.
And now he was letting his bitterness and hatred come between himself and his two
children. More than ever they were his only reason for staying alive. Still, he knew
they were drifting apart. He tried to control himself, but was unable to keep the tears
from falling; not for his own situation as such, but for the way things might have
been, but never were. And for his lack of future.
That growing numbness in his stomach kept bothering him. He was probably developing an ulcer, or something. Or maybe he was getting — —? No, impossible!
But that night with Cadilla bothered him.
Out of the darkness he suddenly heard a shotgun blast in front of the building and
people shouting and screaming. And then nothing but continued loud talk as if
someone were shouting at someone. He pulled on his stockings and shoes and went
outside.
In the middle of the road right in front of the buildings he noticed a stocky individual walking back and forth shouting curses and obscenities into a cordless telephone while waving a heavy shotgun in his right hand above his head. Again he fired
a blast. Jonny quickly recognized that single guy from India living alone across the
street.
“Fuckin’ asshole! I’ll kill you, bitch! Bitch! Bitch!! ”
He spoke a rather broken language with a strong accent. Then he switched language, and for more than five minutes he kept shouting into the cordless in a language
of which Jonny understood nothing.
Again he fired into the air.
“Booooom!”
Then new shouts of agony and a new shotgun blast. Jonny quickly headed back
to the office and called 9-1-1. Only minutes later the police came and picked him up.
Jonny was surprised that so few people had witnessed the incident. A couple of
hookers were watching, and probably a few pushers, but none of the tenants.
George, the owner from across the street, stood gazing in the distance, but, apart
from him and a young kid living in the same building, Jonny saw nobody. George
nodded friendly to Jonny. He liked George. Although frequently having one of these
marihuana parties around a patio grill in front of his apartment, he was friendly and
smiling.
“Went fuckin’ bananas, man. Fuckin’ bananas. All that crack’s fuckin’ getting to
him.”
“That Indian guy? The guy working over at the Amoco station? I thought he was
the kind of guy who kept working night and day, come rain or shine.”
“Yeah, my best tenant. Driving a cab at night and selling gasoline during the day.
Clean and quiet and paying his rent on time. Still does. He’s got some cash saved.
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But, a few months back, his entire life started getting cross on him. First he received
message his favorite sister had died from an infection back in India without him being able to do anything to help her. Only two weeks later he received his own death
sentence: HIV. He couldn’t take it. Started smokin’ crack. I’ve been trying to help
him get out of it, but no use. He’s beyond rescue now.”
Jonny felt empty.
“I’m sorry to hear that. He was kind of nice. A couple of times he asked if I’d
come with him over to Jiggles to watch some titty shakin’, and I accepted. He sure
had a way with the ladies.”
“That’s all it takes to kill you, these days. I’ve never seen a man that hungry for
pussy.”
“There’s a lot of that going on. All the way into the White House.”
“Well, there’s no doubt he got it from his girlfriend. That cute little blond with
the fangs. Well, she was not exactly his girl friend, but they were kind of steady. He
was paying for pussy, though. Spreadin’ a lot of shit, that one. If I’m not mistaken,
she used to see Eric over in your buildin’ for a period of time. She was really getting
around, that one. Always on the prowl.”
George stopped his monolog and started laughing.
“D’je wanna hear a good one? The best I’ve heard in a long time. She wanted to
become a nun and took a trip down to Port of Prince to have a new maidenhead implanted at one of the clinics down there. It’s a fuckin’ crazy world, isn’t it? Well,
she’s dead now. She could have saved the expense.”
“What?”
“Aids. About a month ago. — Nice talking to you.”
George headed back home leaving Jonny behind, speechless. He felt uncomfortable.
He remembered how eagerly Elizabeth had planned her last night in sin before
becoming a virgin, — how she so sweetly had offered to skip the condom just for
him. He felt the goose bumps and started shivering in the cool winter’s breeze.
Uff! He saw the irony and realized there was hardly a better protection against
aids than a maidenhead. The original one.
Then he remembered Cadilla: ‘I ain’t sellin’ pussy no more!’
He really felt sorry for that forlorn Indian guy leaving his rooted family traditions
behind for such a wasted life here in America!
Claudia entered the office at nine sharp with Tobby sneaking in behind her.
“Have you prepared that contract, Jonny?”
“Good morning! Yes, I have. That’s what we agreed on, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, but we worried that maybe you wanted to postpone it.”
“No way, Claudia. Your wish has become my command. So, instead of an agreement I have given you a full-fledged contract. You’ll have to accept that Tobby is not
part of the contract, but my prior agreement with Tobby still stands. This way he’ll
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also be free to get himself a full time job should he so chose. I have increased your
weekly pay by one hundred dollars, but you will have to pay rent at two hundred a
week. On top of that I have included in the contract a sum of twelve hundred dollars
to be paid at seventy-five dollars a week for the next sixteen weeks to show my appreciation of what you have already done for me.
Now, since this amounts to less than your original demands, I have made this
contract good for four months only, just to make sure you would not get stuck with
a contract not to your liking. We could both consider it a trial period. If, by the end
of that period, you prove that you take in enough cash for it, when we renew the contract, I will also consider profit sharing based on the net profits you take in. But,
hopefully by then you have taken over the whole property. Here is your contract and
to prove good will I have signed it. Now it’s your turn.”
Jonny handed her both copies to sign.
“Are you actually willing to consider profit sharing?”
“If the money’s there, no problem. I’m not willing, however, to make so many
commitments up front that I’m unable to keep them. For a corporation that’s a sure
way to bankruptcy. I’m sure you don’t want that.”
Claudia, and Tobby, just sat there staring at him.
“Thank you, Jonny. — Are you sure this is a contract now?”
“All you have to do is check the heading where it says Management Contract. I’ve
even underlined it.”
Tobby was helping her check it out.
“Yef, it iss a contract.”
To Jonny’s disbelief Claudia just quickly scanned the paper, signed both copies,
handed one of them to Tobby who quickly gave it to Jonny.
“Fank you. Fank you very mutss!”
Claudia seemed pleased as well.
“Thank you. I’m sure you realize by now that you’re dealing with true professionals. I told you I wouldn’t budge! This profit sharing deal is the same as being a
partner. — We’re partners now! I have become a co-owner! I am sure you realize by
now that you are dealing with true professionals!”
From that day on Claudia stopped presenting herself as ‘the manager.’ She left
that to Tobby. From now on she started presenting herself as one of the owners of the
Holiday Park Hotel!
The Hoskinses no longer had an agreement, but they sure as hell had a contract!
Jonny felt pleased that in reality the contract was good for only seven days at a time.
Just in case he needed to get rid of them. But his true professional management team
was too damned dumb to understand that part of the agreement, eh, contract because
he had added a few positive that they Concentrated on instead.
That evening, on the second day of Christmas, Jonny was invited over to the Hoskinses for dinner. He tried to excuse himself, but Claudia wouldn’t listen. She served
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baked potato and roast beef. He reluctantly accepted. Tobby entertained both as cook
and waiter, while Claudette had no chores. She was placed next to Jonny at the top
end of the dining room and sat staring at him with an expression of lifeless adoration.
Claudia was in one of her special story-telling moods and Jonny was a good listener.
She had partnership on her mind. Besides, she more than hinted to Jonny a couple
of times that it was not natural for a man like himself to live alone. Everybody
needed a partner of the opposite sex.
She started hinting that it wasn’t quite natural for her beautiful daughter, no older
than thirty years of age, to continue living by her self together with her mother and
a stepfather, either. She needed a stable relationship with someone of the opposite
sex, as well.
Jonny just answered in general. He had no intention of getting stuck with a woman in this country. And definitely not that ugly monster! As soon as he had sold the
property, he’d be on his way back home. Well, he would not stay long in Norway,
but probably try his luck in Denmark or Great Britain. Or maybe he’d return to one
of these wonderful maynilad flowers?
He could see that his evasive answers displeased Claudia, but he didn’t care.
It turned out to be the first and the last time Jonny had dinner over at the Hoskinses.
Next morning Claudia told him that sexy Kimberly Zimmermann in number fifteen,
and her hot, old marketing stud, Fred Ward, had split up after only a few weeks.
Kimberly had been unable to pay the rent on her own and Claudia suspected drugs
and prostitution. She had told Kimberly, or Kim, as she was usually called, in no
uncertain terms that she would have to come up with the cash by Friday night or face
eviction.
Jonny was sitting behind his desk when Kim came looking for Claudia to pay the
rent. She made no secret about how she had earned the cash.
“What a fucking slow season! I’ve been out there since early this morning and I’m
still short on rent. All I have for you is two hundred.”
“That’s not enough! I need the whole rent.”
Claudia barked with such unfriendliness that Jonny quickly realized they had been
at each other’s throats before. Kim was not easily intimidated.
“Look, lady, I’ve been out there all fuckin’ morning literally workin’ my ass sore
for you. The season’s too damned slow. All I had were tree twenty-dollar blow jobs
and four fifty-dollar intercourses. And a few deals for later if they work out. Lady,
don’t it make you feel like a fucking pimp?”
Claudia’s face turned sharp pink, close to red, with her hungjaw trembling, as she
kept sucking for air.
Kim left it at that and turned to Jonny.
“I was hoping I could ask you a favor. I have some stuff over at my friend’s house
that I need to pick up. And I’ve got no transportation. — Deal?”
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“How far away is it?”
“About twenty minutes.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s okay. When?”
“Anytime. Why don’t you knock on my door when you’re ready?”
“Ok.”
“Thanks.”
She left.
Claudia still sat sucking for air until she regained her power of speech.
“Jonny!! That’s the worst insult I’ve heard in my life. That, that, that, eh-eh-eh,
slut!! I want her out of this building this very minute! I want her out!”
“Take it easy. Calm down, Claudia.”
“Calm down! That’s easy for you to say! I’m shaking from head to toes. Nobody’s ever called me a pimp before! I want that slut in the street this very minute!”
“Ha, ha, ha.” Jonny couldn’t keep from laughing. “Ha, ha, ha. Claudia, according
to her own admission that’s where she’s been all day.”
“I want her out of the building! And I want you to stay away from her. She’ll destroy you!”
“Claudia, I’m old enough to take care of myself.”
“She’ll destroy you! You don’t know her. She’s a stranger! Stay away from her!”
“She’s done me no harm, Claudia. My father always used to say that when you
meet a stranger, you allow that person one hundred percent. Only after they discredit
themselves, do you start deducting. And you know what? I did the same to you.”
“That’s a bunch of Norwegian crap! Sounds just like my mother. Well, this is
what my father told me: Strangers mean danger! Every time you meet a stranger, you
give him zero, zero, zero! From zero they’ll have to start earning their credits. Your
way makes you too vulnerable. You’ve got to learn to cover your own ass! That’s the
American way! Anything else is naive! Naive, Jonny! And my father was no stupid
Norwegian, but an intelligent German!”
“Yeah. Good is stupid! Evil is smart.”
“Don’t patronize me, Jonny. I want no whores and no whoremongers on my property! If I so much as see you with that eh, eh, slut, I will not let you stay in the apartment. I will kick you out! — I’ll want you off the property! Both of you!”
This was more than Jonny could take. For the first time in his entire life did he
lose his temper. Oh, he’d been raving mad on a number of occasions, but without
completely losing his temper and control of his words and actions.
Claudia had a strange way of getting under his skin.
“Grab hold, Claudia! Grab hold! Who the hell do you think you are telling me
what to do and what not to do! My mother! My tyrant! My keeper! I’ve got news for
you. You’re not even able to keep your own daughter from her whoring ways, so
don’t come here telling me what to do and what not to do with my life! Whether I
want to see that woman or not is none of your damn business! Finally, damn it, I
decide who gets kicked off this property, not you! You’d better keep that in mind or
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you’ll be the one walking out of here and into the streets. On this property you do as
I say! Got that?”
Jonny had so much more he wanted to say, but could not find the words.
Claudia just sat there staring at him with gleaming eyes saying nothing. Short of
breath he calmed down.
“Take care of business, Claudia. I’ll see you Monday next year. Happy New
Year.”
She didn’t answer. Just sat there.
As he walked Kim toward the car twenty minutes later, he threw a quick glance
through the office window.
Claudia sat there all alone, crying.
That quick trip to pick up some stuff at a friend’s turned totally different from what
Jonny had expected. The first thing Kim did after entering the car was to ask for fifty
dollars. Then she wanted him to take her into Niggertown. She needed to shop. Jonny
agreed, but only after he had checked to confirm that his room at the Windsor was
still available. Then he headed west across the railroad tracks.
“Are you scared?”
“No. Just feeling uncomfortable.”
“Your first time?”
“First time what?”
“First time to smoke.”
“I have no intention of smoking.”
“Come on, Jonny, it is New Year’s Eve. We could spend some good times together.”
“I’m really not in the mood. I’m just doing this as a favor.”
“Slow now. We’re almost there. After we turn right all the blacks will come running toward us. Remember, they’re only pushing. It’s competition. Drive slow, but
do not stop. I’ll hand them the cash and they’ll drop me the stones. It’ll only take a
few seconds. Then you speed up and get the fuck out of there.”
“Drugs?”
“What the fuck do you think? Turn right here on seven.”
So this was the street Cadilla had told him about. Where they openly pushed
drugs for half a million dollars every weekend. Like an open supermarket. This
weekend probably grossing double. With most of the cash being drained out of the
United States and into Colombia. This was a society in decline.
As he slowly turned the corner off Holiday and into 7th Street, they were kept
under close observation. Then one of the street vendors called “it’s Kim,” and pushers started swarming toward them. One of the more aggressive kept holding on to the
doorsill through the open window.
“Stones?”
“Five.”
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She gave him the cash. He flashed her a gold-toothed grin as he discretely slipped
her a little plastic bag. Another crack deal had been consummated! What a setup!
Twenty for a fast fuck. Then twenty for a good stone. A stone for a hit. The vicious
circle all added up and evened out. Some pushers were still heading toward them
when Jonny hit the pedal and headed straight forward before he turned left and left
on the next blocks and again hit Holiday Park Blvd.
“This was not what I had in mind when I promised to take you to a friend.”
“Don’t be such a pussy, Jonny. You knew I am one of those terrible crack monsters having guys for breakfast, lunch, dinner and night snacks every fuckin’ day of
my life. Just to survive. If you weren’t interested, you should have fuckin’ told me.”
“It’s not a problem. I gave you the money. You’ve got the stones. Now, where do
you want me to take you?”
“I’m gonna spend the whole fuckin’ night with you feeling good.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Don’t be such a fuckin’ asshole. At least give me a place to stay while I’m fixing
a hit.”
“What’s wrong with your own place?”
“Nothing. I just promised a couple of friends I’d leave them alone tonight. Come
on. I know you’ve got a place.”
“How long will it take?”
“Come on, Jonny, don’t be such a fuckin’ pussy.”
Jonny did not answer, just let her follow him into his room. Right away she pulled
a genuine crack pipe made of glass from her purse and headed toward the little
kitchen nook to melt the stones on the gas burning stove. Then she threw herself on
top of the bed and started smoking. She wanted Jonny to lay down next to her. But
he refused. She tried to make herself attractive. Her vulgar attempts had exactly the
opposite affect upon Jonny. In the light she looked too drawn and too rough with too
much makeup. To make her lips look fuller she had lipstick smeared on almost up to
her nose. But what really turned him off were those extremely long, slovenly glued
on repulsive fingernails — varnished pitch black with small, golden stars painted on
them. Besides, thinking of Elizabeth scared him. Cadilla, too, for that matter. And
Kim used such a foul language.
Jonny just crawled under the comforter of the other bed and tried to sleep.
But he did not.
At three he noticed her making a couple of phone calls, and quickly thereafter she
left the room.
He heard someone knock on his door just before dawn, but he did not open up.
Being bombarded with flashbacks from the last year he did not manage to fall
asleep. Last year’s New Year’s Eve had been such a crazy night. The quiet loneliness
this year was such a pleasant contrast. Well, except for Claudia and Kimberly. Again
somebody knocked on the door. Jonny just turned over and pretended to sleep.
But he did not.
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As Jonny turned into the walkway of the Holiday Park Hotel at about ten the next
morning, on the first day of the New Year, he was surprised to see Ted and Andy
leave the property. Andy grinned as usual, but Ted was rather curt and stiff.
“Sorry we can’t talk right now, Jonny. We have an appointment. We’ll talk later.”
As he entered the office Claudia was behind her desk as usual.
“Ted and Andy have been trying to get in touch with you all weekend. They said
it was urgent. I will also inform you that Kim in fifteen has taken in a couple to share
the rent. I told her we’d have to increase the rent and we’re now getting four-eighty
a week. Pretty good, if I may say so myself.”
Claudia seemed so friendly today. Jonny could not help wondering what had happened to her — from a hurricane to sunshine in a few hours. Well, like so many
times before he failed to understand the American pattern of reaction. If you were
nice to people, they they took it as a sign of weakness and were putting you down as
a result. But after a blowout like the one he had had with Claudia the other day, they
became so friendly and subservient. When treating people nicely, they took him for
granted and stupid. When being extremely nasty or rude, they were more or less
ready to kiss his ass. He ought to try and take advantage of this, but it was not in his
nature.
Yaah, amen. Claudia was so friendly today. But why did she lie to him? If Ted
and Andy had come over to see him, why then did they not want to talk to him?
Something was not right.
“Claudia, you’ve been making so many changes lately that I hardly know who’s
living in the buildings any more. I want you to set up a rent roll for me.”
“I’ll be happy to. It looks very good. I’m making money for you — tons of
money. But I’m busy right now. All you need to do is take it out of the rent receipts
and set up your own rent roll.”
Her answer irritated him, but he knew she was right. Unless she was not giving
receipts and instead was practicing her first rule of business.
Shelly, with her little daughter, Shelby, and Dennis, her little, black boyfriend,
were still living in number nineteen, paying $220 a week. Jackson, that black, oneeyed, Vietnam veteran, was still living in eighteen with Ruby, that eight months pregnant Jewish-Italian girl just waiting to deliver, and to have her twins adopted so that
she could start escorting again. That single black nurse was still living in seventeen.
Claudia had evicted Tabby who was living in sin with her black husband, and her
teenage son from a previous marriage, from number sixteen for refusing, or being
unable to, come up with the increased rent. Before they got kicked out, Tabby had
been lucky enough to get a job with Southern Bell, but was now fired for being without a permanent address. They were all living out of their van now.
Claudia had rented the apartment to a black Yul Brunner look alike and his tall
and skinny white girlfriend with her seven year old daughter from a previous relationship. And now a new couple had moved into number fifteen, Melanie and Harley,
another mixed couple of Hawaiian and black blood. And Kim still living there with
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different liveins every night. The income from those five apartments alone had
increased from $700.00 to $1360.00 a week, an increase only forty dollars short of
double. And, although Claudia was fully convinced that whites living with blacks
were living in sin, she still rented to them on the basis that it was only business so
therefore she wanted to keep God out of it. Except for Kim the entire Dump was now
either rented to blacks or mixed couples. Yeah, Claudia was one tough bitch, all
right!
Connie in twelve, and Frank MacFadden in number fourteen, were only paying
one fifty, while the black couple in twenty-three and the black Haitian in number
twenty-two paid top dollars.
The Oldens in twenty-one were paying through their noses, sleeping on the floor
on thin mattresses and without as much as a dining table. Jonny had a hard time understanding how they could accept that, but Claudia kept telling him they were more
than happy and advised him not to buy any furniture for them. A little by little they
would be able to fill it up with more or less half decent junk.
The waiter in number twenty and the middle aged woman in Bonnie’s old place
he saw very little of, but they paid their rent on time.
Claudia in eleven, of course, paid no direct rent, but had it deducted from her
managerial fee.
Hardee Hancock in number twenty-four started causing trouble the very first day
after his rent increased. First he sent for his wife to live with him, then two of his
daughters, a granddaughter and a grandson. So now they were six people living in
that little apartment. But he paid top dollars. Jo and Gladys in twenty-five also paid
top dollars, although he was sometimes late on rent.
Then, finally, the landlord himself was still sleeping on the floor in his office in
an attempt to make ends meet. So, all in all things were shaping up, and, including
the two hundred dollars for number eleven, he was now taking in roughly twice the
amount every week compared to a few weeks ago, before Claudia became manager.
With Claudia eagerly listening to him from her desk, Jonny called the Business
Investment Corporation in Hollywood {BIC}. He had a fifteen unit apartment building that he wanted to put on the market. He was referred to a Benjamin Melchior,
PA, who set up a meeting with him two days later. He specialized in handling hotels,
motels and apartment buildings in the Fort Lauderdale area.
As he hung up, he noticed Claudia staring at him with a strange expression upon
her face. Was it confusion, pure hatred, or —?
Jonny worried that something unpleasant might happen.
Life at the Holiday Park Hotel, however, now turned into a pleasant, secure daily
routine for Jonny. Yes, Claudia created commotion at certain intervals, but Jonny let
her handle it herself.
The representative from the real estate agency arrived as scheduled, and Jonny
took him out for something to eat at the Pancake House where they settled the con-
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tract away from Claudia’s supervision. Every time someone mentioned the sale,
Claudia set her eyes on Jonny, but although feeling uncomfortable about it, he just
let it slide. She’d come around sooner or later. Jonny did not discuss the problem
about the second mortgage with Benjamin, but he just said he’d attend to it at the
proper time. Solving problems like that was part of his job.
Glenda Olden stopped by in the office to talk ever so often, and Jonny enjoyed
it. She was an interesting woman, talkative and street wise from having raised five
children in a drug neighborhood. She kept informing Jonny and Claudia about Italian
life in South Florida in a stand-up comedian manner. They had many a good laugh
in the office as she told them anecdotes of her brothers’ and uncles’ engagement in
organized crime. She informed them with authority that the young Italian shot dead
in a hold-up over at the Texaco station had been revenged. Although the killing was
never solved by the police, the case was still closed. One of her uncles had solved the
problem, and the perpetrator was now dead. Well, it was only a haphazard drug killing, anyway. The guy needed some cash for crack, but had now paid with his life.
He was picked up from the Intracoastal. There had been a notice in the paper about
the killing, but it had not been connected to the gas station robbery.
Glenda’s experience with drug addicts and aids patients over at Holy Cross came
in handy as she informed Jonny and Claudia what to look for in judging whether
someone was an addict or not.
“Just check the eyes, check the eyes and watch out for nervous behavior. And
listen to them talk. In this neighborhood you cannot give anybody the benefit of the
doubt. At the slightest suspicion of addiction, don’t rent to them.”
The only problem being that then they’d be running an empty motel.
The black girl in seventeen gave notice to move when Claudia refused to let her
sister and her sister’s little child move in with her unless she paid double rent, but
already the next morning Jeannie and John Anderson from New Bedford moved in.
Jonny felt comfortable with the couple. There was something familiar about them.
Like they were family.
Claudia and Hardee were fighting it out every day over all the relatives living in
the apartment. A little by little Claudia found out that Hardee was not married to
Mattie Pollard, but they were having a long term relationship. The two daughters
were Mattie’s from another relationship, but a few days later Claudia could inform
Jonny they were only half sisters. Claudia demanded they leave the apartment right
away, and studdering and stammering Hardee finally gave in under curses and demands that he speak with the owner.
“I, Claudia, am the owner now.”
Three days later Mattie was the only one among the new tenants left in the apartment. Hardee was seeing fewer prostitutes during this period, but even though Mattie
was living there, he had a few of them over from time to time.
“Hrrrr. Hrr. A man gotta have pussy, boss! Hrrrr. Hrr.”
Jonny was unable to accept the American lifestyle with all these easy relation-
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ships all around him. Even picking up prostitutes from the street and sharing apartment with them, seemed to be accepted. Parents were kicking out their daughters at
eighteen telling them to make it on their own: ‘If you can’t find a job, find someone
half decent to shack up with.’ Like Jeannie always used to say about her daughters’
many pregnancies: ‘It doesn’t matter who fathers them, as long as you mother them.’
At the same time she kept complaining in the office to Jonny and Claudia that her
daughters thought they were nothing but baby machines. In Jonny’s mind the whole
neighborhood was nothing but a drugged out whorehouse. Still, among tenants and
neighbors the only one considered abnormal was Jonny for not being available to all
these willing women needing crack and accommodation. Even living in a sexual
relationship with another man was considered normal compared to living alone.
So, Jonny was being looked down upon by many of his tenants. But soon rumors
started spreading that he was having an affair with Claudia. Americans were unable
to imagine a normal man choosing to live alone rather than with any kind of cheap
woman.
One afternoon about three Jonny was surprised to receive a call from Bonnie crying
on the phone and asking for help. She’d made a mistake. She should have kept the
apartment, but she simply hated that crazy woman, that Kalamazoo-bitch. She had
rented a small house on a monthly basis, but her nerves had started bothering her
again. She was now in the process of being evicted and wanted to move in with
Jonny. Her speech was rather blurred.
“You are drinking again?”
“Y’are fuckin’ right I am! Can ya shack me up?”
“No way!”
“Y’ain’t fuckin’ normal, man, living there all alone. Don’t ya need a woman?”
“Not any kind of woman.”
“I’m really having a hard time, Jonny. I’m afraid. I lost my car, too. With only
two payments left one morning it was being towed away. Repossessed. Fuckin’ assholes. That’s how they fuckin’ make their day! By repossessin’ cars almost paid for
and fuckin’ sellin’ them again.” Bonnie was crying now and Jonny could not help but
feel sympathy for her. “Oh, I lost my Pussy, Jonny. She got run over by a huge truck
two days ago.”
“Ha, ha, ha. Hrrm. Hm. — I’m sorry to hear that. Hrrm.”
“Y’ain’t no fuckin’ sorry. Ya always hated that dog! — Will ya let me come
over? I’ve been workin’ all night. I need to rest.”
“Have you been evicted already?”
“No fuckin’ way! They ain’t gettin’ rid of me that easy.”
“Why don’t you rest, then?”
“I need a fuckin’ man! But I should’ve known better than to call ya. ‘Cause ya
ain’t never been a man! Ha, hrrraaa.”
She hung up, but half an hour later she came staggering up the walkway like så
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many times before. Jonny hated it. Bonnie was so nasty when drunk, so quarrelsome
and looking so repulsive. Just like a worn out whore.
Jonny refused to let her into the office, but placed her at one of the patio tables.
He left her there while he went over to Arby’s for en roast beef sandwich.
When he returned, she was still sitting at the table, now having a brawl with
Frank MacFadden. Frank also kept drinking every day, and sometimes mixing his
Bud and liquor with various pills. Just a few minutes later they disappeared into his
room.
Bonnie had found what she was looking for.
That Friday Frank came staggering into the office telling Jonny he was unable to pay
rent. He refused to talk to Claudia, whom he openly despised. Glenda happened to
be present, and for some reason Frank and Glenda were rather close. Many a time
had Jonny seen them sit at one of the patio tables talking. Today Frank was drunk,
drugged and grouchy. “I’m behind on rent this week. I need one week’s credit. That
fuckin’ bitch took all my money last week.”
“I need to tell you this, Frank: If you can afford to spend your money on booze
and drugs and a hooker like Bonnie, you’re simply gonna have to come up with the
rent money. If not, find another place to stay.”
Claudia kept her eyes on him to make sure he gave no slack.
“It ain’t my fuckin’ fault. That fuckin’ bitch come knockin’ on my door every fuckin’ night looking for booze and a hard-on. She won’t take ‘no’ for an answer. She
won’t leave unless I fuck her brains out.”
“I know you can handle the rent if you want to. And I expect you to.”
“What kind of fuckin’ friend are you, anyway?”
“I’ve got a business to run. It’s not based on friendship.”
“Fuck you, asshole!”
Frank left the office and headed across the street.
Claudia always kept silent with Frank around. Jonny did not know how it happened, but Frank had managed to put the fear of God into her.
Glenda shook her head.
“That’s what illiteracy will do to you. The guy is hardly able to write his own
name. Ha, ha, ha. Got a girlfriend up in Pennsylvania. I have to read her love letters
for him. He’s ashamed to tell her he’s illiterate, so every week I sit out on the patio
helping him write love letters to his sweetheart up north. Ha, ha, ha.”
Glenda kept gesticulating and making facial expressions just like a stand-up
comedian. She had a way about her when telling a story that caught everybody’s
attention.
“Did he tell you about his ex wife? A German. He’s still in love with her, but she
left him because of too much drinking and whoring. He really gets excited when
talking about her. But he’ll warn you not to marry a German woman. Says all she
ever called him at the end of their marriage was ‘schweinhund, schweinhund und
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schweinhund!’ Ha, ha, ha. He’s got a lovely daughter in her early twenties, but she
refuses to have anything to do with him.”
Glenda was still entertaining when Frank arrived slamming two bills in front of
Jonny.
“Here’s your fuckin’ rent, asshole! But let me warn you: Keep that fuckin’ bitch
away from my apartment! You’re the landlord. D’ja hear me?”
“Loud and clear, Frank. But I’ve got news for you: If you’re not man enough to
keep that hooker at large, it’s your problem, not mine.”
Frank stopped, addressing Glenda as he exited the office. He spoke through gritted teeth.
“I fuckin’ feel like breakin’ his fuckin’ neck!”
Glenda could inform Jonny and Claudia that Frank was easily drinking about one
full case of beer every single day now. When grouchy like today, he had probably
mixed it with a liberal amount of uppers or tranquilizers. Jonny felt sorry for him.
Under normal circumstances Frank would have been a stately looking gentleman. A
stately Scotchman. Tall, blondish and athletic. But now shabby, red-faced and alcoholized. And illiterate. Just one among more than fifty million American equals.
Jonny kept wondering to himself how people like this could become world
leaders. He realized it had little to do with the standard of the population, but was
more a result of the sheer size of the country. In reality the United States was not a
country, but a continent. Texas alone was bigger than the largest country in Europe,
and, in comparison, Alaska was roughly two and a half times as big as Texas. Still,
when looking at the map it had always irritated Jonny that Canada, Greenland and
Mexico were not part of the United States.
In the afternoon on Friday 14 of January 1994 Jonny heard a familiar voice outside
the office window talking to Claudia. Freddy! Jesus Christ, Freddy was out of jail
already! To Jonny’s surprise Claudia told Freddy that he was not in the office right
now, but that he would be back later in the evening. Freddy would not take ‘no’ for
an answer.
“I can see his shadow in the office window. I need to talk to him. It’s important.”
Freddy’s accent was an indistinguishable mix between his original Dutch, and
French-Canadian. He heard Claudia strongly deny the fact that he was available.
Jonny felt a sting of guilty conscience for not having been in touch, not even a phone
call, but this was part of his nature. He saw no need to keep a close relationship with
someone incarcerated for having tried to kill his girlfriend. Still, he owed Freddy that
he at least talked to him and decided to open up.
“Hello, Freddy, I’m here.”
“Ah, Jonny, how are you? Nice to see you again.”
“Same.”
They shook hands. Freddy sat down at the patio table and Jonny asked if he felt
like a beer. He needn’t wait for an answer and went over to Amoco for a sixpack of
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Busch and some peanuts. To Jonny’s dismay Claudia and Tobby were stupid enough
to join them, so therefore Jonny invited him for something to eat over at Arby’s,
which Freddy eagerly accepted
“Thanks, Jonny, I haven’t had a decent meal in three fucking months.”
“How was prison?”
“Whatshamme say? I survived. I tried to get in touch with you through a collect
call, but was informed that you had a restricted number. I was hoping maybe to hear
from you. I’ve been so worried about my papers. Did you get them?”
“No. I looked all over, but there were no papers. I checked the mattress, everywhere, but there was nothing.”
“That idiot must have taken all my papers! Damn, Jonny, I’m in trouble! I don’t
know what to do.”
“Can’t you get in touch with her?”
“She came to visit me only once. Wanting to borrow money. I had ninety-five
dollars in my prison account and I gave her seventy. She was supposed to pick me
up when I was released, but never showed. I walked all the way from prison and
down here. More than four hours. She’s been staying with an ‘uncle’ or something.
I’m over at Lauderdale Manor now. Got a small room paying twenty-five daily. Got
my job back. I’ll start working at the Swap Shop again tomorrow.”
“So how are you doing on cash?”
“When I was released, twenty-nine dollars, a shirt, a pair of shorts and a pair of
sandals were my only worldly possessions. I got in touch with that fucking Marcos
and he advanced me two hundred dollars. I’m set for now.”
“Good!”
Jonny felt relieved. He remembered how reluctant Freddy sometimes was to repay
his debt. Without fully trusting him he was going to offer him hundred dollars. But
now he didn’t have to. This guy Marcos, having stolen from him for years, had at
least come up with some cash when he needed it — probably so that he could continue his rotten scam. Freddy was charming, and he did indeed have a way with the
ladies, but he was a far cry from what you could call smart.
Jonny invited Freddy for a good steak over at Ruth’s Chris and he was very happy
to accept. Yes, indeed, Freddy was hungry for a good steak and some good vine. And
Jonny had relieved his guilty conscience. Freddy stopped by ever so often after this,
and many an evening did they sit reminiscing about the old country and their childhood days. Growing up in Holland had so much in common with growing up in
Norway. A little by little they grew closer, but Jonny had never known how to keep
a good friend, so he kept a certain distance. Freddy did no longer have his one hundred percent intact. He had fallen low.
After two weeks Jonny felt comfortable enough to tell Freddy he was sleeping in
the office, and from then on he started taking his showers over at Freddy’s place.
One day, as Jonny came over for one of his showers, he was stunned to find Holly
having moved back in with Freddy. Freddy told Jonny that one evening she had
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knocked on his door and wanted to spend some time, and that he had been too hungry
to refuse. She was good pussy. But they were once more in the process of splitting
up. He was now looking for a place where she would be unable to find him. A few
days later, as Freddy came over to the Hotel, he eagerly told Jonny about his fantastic
discovery — an old Canadian woman renting one bedroom apartments for as little
as one twenty-five a week.
“A nice place, Jonny. Nice and clean.”
“So what does it take to move in?”
“One week’s rent and one week’s security. Two fifty. I’d take it right away, but
I’m broke. Still owe Marcos. I could ask for some more in advance, but then he’ll
own me. It would be really nice, Jonny, if we could move in together.”
Thus, for the first time in his life, Jonny moved in to share an apartment with an
acquaintance. He had to come up with the cash, but Freddy promised to pay him
every day until caught up.
To Jonny’s surprise the relationship between Freddy and Holly was still not over.
She came over to see him, and sometimes spent the nights. Laying awake listening
to them making love all night bothered Jonny, but Freddy did not seem to take that
into account. Some mornings after Freddy had left for work, Jonny could smell the
scent of burnt incense. Some sticks had been left in the holder only half burned.
Jonny wondered if this was a way of making the apartment smell fresh after a night
of lovemaking, or if it was a way of trying to hide the smell of drugs. Probably both.
Freddy also slowed down repaying his debts, and, when having paid the rent, he
totally forgot about the security. When Jonny mentioned it to him he promised to
take care of it, but did not keep his promise.
Christina from Switzerland lived in one of the apartments across the front yard
and Freddy tried to date her, but she politely refused. Then Freddy got hooked up
with Maria from Brazil for a while and told Holly to keep the distance, but she still
kept hanging around. Freddy met Maria through one of the tenants, Geraldo, also
from Brazil and one of Maria’s many former boyfriends.
They all attended these Amway meetings to which also Jonny was invited. He
checked out a couple of meetings, but when Maria invited him to spend the night, he
declined. Jonny knew she was seeing Geraldo of only twenty-two. Maria was getting
close to fifty. Freddy didn’t mind her former relationships or her age. He always used
the expression that ‘old pots make the better stew.’
Jonny was now kept awake by Maria and Freddy going at it all night long. Maria
wanted to drag him into the Amway cult, but he stubbornly declined. His wife back
in Canada had been an Amway secretary and Freddy had no desire to renew the
Amway relationship, so he told Maria to chose one or the other, him or Amway. She
chose Amway. Already the next day she came looking for Jonny to take her over to
a meeting. Again he declined, and never saw Maria after that. Freddy didn’t either.
He always referred to her as ‘the religious Amway bitch’ because of her religious
belief in Amway.
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‘With Maria everything was Amway. Even the condoms had to be Amway or
she’d refuse to fuck. She bought them herself, bulk and wholesale. She gave free
pussy, but she charged me double for the condoms to increase her Amway turnover.’
Geraldo invited him over to a Brazilian restaurant and the same night he spent
with another Brazilian girl, Carla, the total opposite from Maria. Maria had all those
features you expect to find in a Latino woman, while Carla, on the other hand, looked
negroid and bony. Although her features were not too vulgar, she had very little
Latino about her. Again he was being kept awake by moans and groans all night long.
Christina from Switzerland showed some interest in Jonny, and every time Freddy
tried to make a pass at her, she sought refuge with Jonny.
They went out for dinner a couple of times, and, to Jonny’s surprise, this Swiss
girl had ample knowledge of all the hottest pick-up places in the vicinity. Although
she tried to give him the opposite impression, Jonny suspected she’d been around.
Freddy envied Jonny for going out with Christina, because ‘she’s a good looking
bitch and no easy pussy’ as he phrased himself. Jonny wasn’t so sure. Why would
a gorgeous looking young woman from Switzerland come to Florida all alone if not
to run away from some past experiences? For the same reason everybody else ended
up in Florida. Including himself. Maybe she was in the process of becoming a nun?
Ha, ha, ha. So Jonny remained friendly, but showed no special interest.
One evening as Jonny sat eating at Arby’s, now situated just across the street
from their apartment, he noticed Freddy talk to a couple of those black monkeys on
bicycles. It struck Jonny that he might be into marihuana or crack. But Jonny could
not tell for sure. Except for constantly puffing his cigars, Jonny felt confident Freddy
was more a drinker than a smoker.
Then one evening Freddy made a lot of commotion about a black guy stopping
by at the apartment knocking on their door trying to push crack. This time Jonny
figured it was nothing but a playact to mislead him, but he did not know for certain,
this time either. If Freddy was heavily addicted, he sure did a great job hiding it. But
Jonny’s suspicion grew when he later noticed him hanging out by one of the payphones, and also started neglecting his appearance.
That night Jonny told Freddy he was moving back to the Hotel. That fantastic deal
had proved not so fantastic, after all. They were paying weekly extra for electricity,
and, if they wanted to run the air conditioning, they had to punch in quarters like a
fucking payphone. Cable cost another twenty, every week.
In addition, whether he slept on a mattress in the office or had to crouch on a sofa
all nigh, amounted to the same.
He wanted his security back. The landlady reluctantly accepted to refund him.
That was the end of Jonny’s experience with a roommate. However, Freddy still
kept hanging around, and more and more often came to see him at the hotel. Jonny
did not mind, but kept his eyes open, with a suspicious mind.
One evening when Jonny returned from a trip to the store, he saw Freddy and
Claudia in an eager argument at one of the tables.
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287
As Jonny approached, their discussion quieted down. Jonny figured they did not
want to be interrupted, so he went down to Tom’s Alley Bar for a couple of quick
shots. When he returned, Freddy was sitting all alone waiting for him.
“I want to invite you over to that Brazilian place for a good steak. It’s on me this
time. You’ll love those steaks. One single steak is enough for two, three full meals.
I need to seriously talk to you.”
Jonny simply hated it every time somebody seriously needed to talk to him. They
would always be looking for something.
But not Freddy. No, not this time, anyway.
“You should seriously consider getting rid of that crazy woman you’ve hired as
a manager. She seriously tried to convince me that you were not paying your bills
because you spent all your money on hookers and crack. And she told me that one
weekend you spent all your money on a cheap prostitute smoking crack and returning
home stoned crazy. She sounded so convincing and credible that if I didn’t know better, I would have believed her. She’ll destroy you. Stab you in the back and enjoy it.
That’s how she sounded.”
Jonny laughed heartily. “Yes. She sometimes distorts reality to fit her own twisted
ways. But, apart from that, she’s harmless. She’s actually been doing a good job for
me. Getting rid of unwanted tenants. Going to court for me. Getting a motel licence.
Increasing the rents. Going seasonal. Trying to take the place over. I’m just trying to
kick her ass a little by putting the place back on the marked. I truly want to get out
of here, Freddy.”
“Keep your eyes open, Jonny. With a woman like that you don’t know what’s
going on behind your back.”
“Thanks for warning me, but I’ve got it all under control.”
“There’s one more thing: What about that eh, old battleship, is it still running?”
“Same as ever. Except for a trip to — eh, up north, I haven’t used it much. It’s
still running.”
“What about that deal? Is it still on?”
“Of course. But since you’re no longer staying at the Hotel, there’s a practical
problem. As soon as you come up with the balance, it’s all yours.”
“Then there’s one more thing: I’ve met this Brazilian girl. Not Maria. Her name
is Carla. Carla Allejandro from Nuevo Fribourg up in northern Brazil. Came over
here for one year as an au pair with a Brazilian / German family. You won’t believe
her story, Jonny. — Oh, here’s the waitress. Let’s order.”
They were approached by a cute, petite Brazilian with dark hair and a flashing
smile.
“Are you ready to order?” She addressed Jonny, but Freddy answered.
“We came in for that big steak. Number one on the menu. I want mine bleu. How
do you want yours, Jonny?”
“Very well done. No pink, please.”
And the waiter was gone.
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“Her name is Solange, Jonny. Solange Valdez. You won’t believe her story, either.” Freddy ordered another beer while waiting for the vine.
“Look around you, Jonny. Solange and Carla came over here at about the same
time. There’s close to half a million Brazilians living in this area, at least half of
them illegals. None of the girls working here have legal papers. They’re more or less
kept here as slaves working for next to nothing. I don’t think they get paid at all.
Except for tips, of course.
Solange came over here about four years ago together with an elderly guy pretending to be her father. In reality she came over here as his sex slave and was kept
in a penthouse apartment for three years before she finally managed to break away,
scared stiff that she might go to jail and be deported. Carla actually helped her get
this job. The owners are also native Brazilians, but are now American citizens. They
only hire illegals for next to nothing. Not even board and lodging. But they do get
food while they are working here.
When this old guy found out where Solange was working, he started hanging
around trying to get her back, but she refused. Then he started selling videos of her
performances in that penthouse in an attempt to discredit her and have her fired. It
backfired. He’s barred from the property now. It was a devastating blow to poor
Solange, though, knowing that the customers she serves in the restaurant may also
have nude videos of her while performing her acts.
Well, she married a Brazilian guy only two weeks ago. Mostly to become legal.
They’re both sidelining, so I think it’s only a practical set up. Right now she’s having
an affair with the Cuban cook. Look at her, Jonny! Look at her. Gorgeous, right?
Sexy. Damn it, I wouldn’t mind fucking that one for a night or two!”
“Isn’t she Carla’s best friend?”
“So what? I wouldn’t tell her, anyway. Besides, Carla is no angel herself. She’s
got three kids from three different men. She’s got an eighteen year old boy working
as a baker’s apprentice in Rio de Janeiro living in a kitchen nook after closing hours.
A nine year old girl is staying with her mother back home. Little Carita is now two.
Carla is a good girl, though. Just had a few accidents, that’s all.”
“Accidents? My ass. Maybe the first time, but then it becomes a lifestyle.”
“We’re planning to move in together, but I don’t know. I feel too old to become
a father again. Carita’s an adorable child, though. If we shack up, we need a place.
What do you say?”
“I have no problem with that, but we’re seasonal now.”
“What are the rates?”
“Four eighty during season. One sixty off season.”
“That’s a rip off. I’ll have to wait until after season, then.”
“When do you plan to shack up?”
“We haven’t decided. I’ll let you know. Right now I’ve recently moved into the
big two bedroom apartment to the rear. I’m sharing it with one of my jailhouse
friends, Ralph Hendricks. Why don’t you stop by to say ‘hello’ one evening?”
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Then Solange brought them the two huge steaks with rice and french fries plus
black beans and onions and a few Brazilian vegetables that Jonny did not know the
name of. The steak, covering all of his plate, was cooked to perfection and Jonny
concentrated on the meat, the rice and the fries only. Plus five full glasses of red
vine. They both loved their steaks and devoured their meal in full concentration
without talk or interruption. Jonny ate all of his while Freddy only managed half of
his. He asked for a doggie bag and wanted to bring the other half back home. Freddy
preferred beer while Jonny enjoyed his Brazilian red vine.
“What do you think, Jonny? Do you think I should shack up with this girl?”
“I haven’t even met her, but since your asking, I think it’s better to have someone
steady than to always run around chasing strange pussy.”
“I am not trying to kid myself, Jonny. I would still be chasing pussy.”
“Then I think it’s better you stay single. For both of you.”
Jonny’s attitude agitated Freddy.
“If you can’t find perfection, fuck it all! The slightest indecency and you’ve
caused a scandal! I used to be that way myself. That’s how I was brought up back in
Europe. No compromises. All or nothing.
It’s not like that here in America. Here you can walk into any bar and pick up a
cheap woman any time you need one. Without getting a guilty conscience over it.
That’s what I like about this country. My parents thought me how to hide my skeletons in the closet. Over here everybody’s flaunting theirs. I used to have it all once.
The good life. A good woman. A family. A nice home. My restaurants. I was Freddy
Niehuus! A man well known and respected. But look at me now. I have nothing. Not
even a country. Not even a passport! I’m living here in Florida as an illegal immigrant without papers to go anywhere else. Look at me! I’ve got nothing! I’m an international fugitive!”
“Well, you’ve got to make the best out of what you have.”
“You can’t make much good out of less than nothing! Look at me, Jonny! I’ve
falling into deep shit! I don’t even have my papers any more. I had it all, Jonny, and
now I have nothing. I started drinking and whoring my life away. And regretting
every fucking minute of it. Life’s turned into a quagmire and a nightmare. Sometimes
I really hate myself!”
“Yeah, hunger for strong booze and strange pussy has broken many a good man,
Freddy. You’re no exception.”
“Well, look at you! You have nothing, either! I still think it’s better to have something rather than nothing. I still think it’s better to have a woman like Carla to come
home to instead of nothing! — even if I have been out chasing strange pussy. If only
I wouldn’t have this fucking guilty conscience! Look at the Americans! They have
no guilty conscience over it. It makes them feel proud!”
“It just goes to prove conscience is no God-gift. It just reflects the way you’re
brought up. Do you think the cannibals on Fiji got a guilty conscience from eating
missionaries? No they did not even get a bad digestion! But, as for me having no-
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thing, I think it is based on envy. I still have my hopes while you have lost yours. I’ve
made my mistakes and I’ve known my regrets. I know life is not perfect, but I still
hope that one day I will find a good woman to love who will not make me wonder
whether I am number five hundred or number five thousand and one in an endless
line of chance lovers and one-night stands — one who will not constantly make me
wonder how many sleazy animals she’s been fucking since last time I turned my back
on her. Or how many unborn babies she’s killed before I met her! I will not find one
like that in this environment, so therefore I’m not looking.”
“I have been trying, Jonny, but I have failed. Right now I feel like I am climbing
a mountain! A fucking mountain! And getting nowhere.”
“It may — or may not — be a consolation to you, but it still remains a fact: It’s
only uphill you’re moving upwards!”
“That’s stupid! It’s better to die young. While at the top. Then you won’t feel the
pain of tumbleweeding down the mountainside!”
Two days later Gladys Goodrich entered the office ignoring Claudia.
“I’m the manager here. And part owner. If you’ve got anything on your mind, I’ll
listen to you.”
“I actually came to see the landlord.”
“I am the landlord! I, Claudia!”
Gladys seemed a little bit bewildered as she addressed Jonny.
“Is it possible that we can talk?”
“No problem. I was just going to get some coffee. I’ll get one for you as well.
Cream and sugar?”
“Yes, please. I’ll be waiting at the patio table.”
“Sure.”
When Jonny returned, Gladys was sitting at the table in an eager conversation
with Glenda. None of them seemed happy as Jonny approached. He gave the one cup
of coffee to Gladys, the other to Glenda.
“Jonny, we both have complaints to make. We’ve talked to Claudia, but she says
you are unwilling to do anything about it. Has Claudia ever mentioned it to you?”
Glenda looked at Jonny.
“Nnnoo, I don’t think so. What are you referring to?”
“You know, we moved into twenty-one with practically no furniture. We don’t
even have as much as a dining table for our meals. Or a couch to sit on when my
husband comes home tired from work. I’ve asked Claudia over and over again, but
she keeps telling me that you do not have a budget for new furniture. When she
showed it to us, it was fully furnished. Water bed, leather coach, wall unit. Big
screen TV, microwave, you name it, it was there. She promised it would all be
included. When we moved in, it was empty! My husband wanted to file a complaint
with the Hotel and Restaurant Division, but I wanted to talk to you about it first. Do
you really expect us to be staying here without furniture?”
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Jonny stared at her, dumbfounded.
“Did Claudia tell you that? — I’m sorry, I had no idea. Every time I’ve asked her
if you don’t need furniture, she said you didn’t want any. I couldn’t understand why.
I wondered how you could live there with no furniture. I thought you had your own.
Haven’t you furnished it yourself? I figured you preferred to have your own. Many
tenants prefer their own if they plan to stay for a while.”
Glenda laughed sarcastically.
“I’ve picked up some junk here and there, but you can hardly call it furniture.”
“I’m really sorry, Glenda. I’ve been wondering about it, but I really did not know.
I’ll see you in your apartment very shortly, and we’ll go over what you need. I’ll go
pick it up immediately. If you want to, you can come with me over to Faith Farm and
pick it out.”
Glenda and Gladys exchanged glances.
“There’s one more thing, Jonny. I want my daughter to stay with me for some
time. I told Claudia about it two weeks ago. Has she mentioned it to you?”
“Nnnoo. No, not at all. — Eh, well, wait — she has mentioned it. I thought she
was living here already.”
“She told me that she had talked to you about it and that you wanted one hundred
and fifty dollars extra, a week. We couldn’t afford it so she’s still staying with her
sister over in Hollywood. Is it all right that she moves in with me for some time?”
“Why not? Being your daughter, she’s part of the family. Of course I have no objections to that.”
Again Glenda and Gladys exchanged glances.
“There’s one more thing: There’s a lot of gossiping going on in the building right
now. All coming from Claudia. Gladys and myself were talking about our husbands.
I told Gladys that Freeman gets drunk every single night. She told me Jo smokes shit
eh, marihuana that is, but nothing serious. I was dumb enough to let Claudia in on
it, and now it’s all over the building. Both Gladys and myself have seriously considered moving out of here. If she keeps this up, we will be moving.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, but I have no problem taking it up with her. If she keeps
this up, she might be the one to move.”
“Eh, she keeps telling everybody she’s part owner and will soon take over the
whole property as sole owner. Is there any truth to that?”
“None whatsoever. She pretends to be in a position to take it over, but whenever
I bring it up with her, she shies away. I don’t think she’s got the resources. On the
other hand I make no secrets about wanting to get out of here, so the property is on
the market.”
Glenda presented one of her stand-up jokes.
“Eehh — — — if you have a better place to move to, I don’t blame you one bit.
Tell me when you leave, and we’ll all leave together. Go find your Eldorado and tell
us when to follow. — When do you plan to leave?”
“Oh, it might take years yet. It’s a very slow market.”
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Gladys finally spoke.
“I take great offence that she’s spreading those rumors about my family. She’s
making us all out to be a bunch of drunkards and drug addicts. I want it stopped.”
Jonny liked Gladys. Of all the women he had living on the property, Gladys was
the only one taking care of her family. Walking the girls to school every morning
come rain or shine. Picking them up in the afternoon to protect them from being kidnapped. Making sure the girls did not leave the apartment after dark. Protecting them
from exposure to the pushers and the prostitutes. Keeping her house in order and
having dinner on the table every single day when Jo came home tired form work.
Yes, Jonny liked Gladys. He would hate to see her leave.
He promised to take it up with Claudia. He also promised to stop by to find out
what kind of furniture Glenda would need. And they were pleased when they left.
Claudia was eagerly watching them through the open office door. She probably
suspected what the conversation was all about. He headed for the office to talk to
her, but she beat him to it.
“Jonny, I will not allow you to talk to the tenants like that! I am the manager. You
should have referred them to me!”
Jonny sat down behind his desk without answering.
Claudia’s face had turned red. “You’re being illoyal. You should have referred
them to me!”
“As long as I am the owner here, the welfare of the tenants is my responsibility.
Why have you not told me Glenda has been asking for furniture?”
“I’ve been saving money for you. Lots of money!”
“You’re going about it the wrong way. You cannot expect them to keep paying
top rent without supplying the furniture. You’ve misled me, Claudia. You told me
they did not want furniture.”
“I’ve been saving money for you — tons of money!”
“You’ve been doing them wrong as well as me. Telling them I would charge them
one hundred and fifty dollars extra for Jillian to move in with them was nothing but
a blatant lie! What’s happened to your neighborly love among all this?”
“That girl is no good. I don’t want her on the property. She’s a slut and an addict
always running around with different men. Every time she’s over here she tries to
talk Claudette into going out with her. Her present boyfriend is nothing but an habitual jail bird.”
“Sounds pretty much like living in America to me. I will not tolerate your telling
lies on my behalf. I just told Glenda she can have her daughter move in this minute
at no extra charge. As compensation for having lived here without furniture. I am
going over to see her right now to find out what she needs and I’ll refurbish the entire
apartment for her.”
She started shaking her clenched fists in front of Jonny’s face.
“I will not let you do that! They don’t need furniture. It’s a waste of money!”
“How would you like to sit down on the living room floor when you come home
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from work tired and exhausted? How would you like to be eating your dinner standing up in front of the kitchen counter without a chair to sit on? How would you like
to sleep on a hard floor on top of some thin foam mattresses every night?”
She kept shaking her fists. “That is different! I am the manager!”
“Yes, you are. — Do you remember what we agreed to be the manager’s very first
obligation? Do you remember when I told you that I expected that what went on in
this office, would remain within the walls of this office? Remember! In other words,
no gossiping about the tenants. Remember! Now I have tenants threatening to leave
the building because you’ve been spreading dirty information about them. None of
this is according to agreements.”
“I don’t tell lies! Everything I’ve told about them is the truth. They’ve told me so
themselves! If they can’t handle that, let them move somewhere else!”
“Claudia, I will not let you spread gossip all over the building about Gladys and
Glenda. It’s unethical.”
“Don’t you come here telling me what I can do and what I cannot do! I’m the
manager here! If I want to talk about Gladys, I will. If I want to gossip about Gladys
and Glenda, I will! That’s a woman’s right!”
“What if somebody wants to gossip about Claudia?”
“Then they’d better watch their tongues or they’ll be crawling out of here on their
bellies!”
“And right now it’s your turn to watch your tongue or you’ll be crawling out of
here on your belly! And let me tell you, you’ve got quite a belly to crawl on!”
Even before he noticed Claudia’s reaction, he regretted those last words. But
Claudia had an incredible way of getting under his skin.
Later that day he again lost his temper. He’d been running around like a fire extinguisher taking care of business all day long much because of Claudia. First he had to
talk to Glenda to find out what she needed. He offered her to cone along and pick out
what she wanted, but she did not want that. Then he had to drive from place to place
looking for something that would not cost him an arm and a leg. He checked the Salvation Army, the Faith Farm and Hotel Liquidators, but ended up finding most of
what he needed over at Good as New. They would deliver in two days for fifty
dollars extra. He stopped by at Wallgreen’s to pick up a bottle of red vine and some
peanuts before having a late afternoon roast beef sandwich over at Arby’s.
He told Glenda that all the furniture was supposed to be delivered in two days and
asked that she be in to place everything where she wanted it.
Then he hurried back to the office to calm down with some vine and peanuts
while reading the paper.
Claudia was sitting behind her desk with Tobby waiting up front.
“Did you buy furniture for them?”
“Yes. Just as much for myself as for them. You cannot rent it furnished with no
furniture.”
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“How much money did you spend?”
“As little as possible. It was all second-handy, but still pretty good.”
“How much did you pay for it?”
“Why is that so important to you?”
“I’m the manager. I have a right to know!”
“It’s not a big secret, Claudia. I paid roughly one thousand dollars for it. A very
good bedroom set, a dining set, a wall unit and a coach plus two lamps. At least now
they have some basic furniture to make them feel comfortable. The bedroom set is
gorgeous! It was a steal!”
Claudia’s face had turned dark pink again.
“You mean you’ve wasted one thousand dollars on that veteran drunk and his
cozy nostra woman! When I could have rented it to somebody else at double the rent!
Tobby, I told you this. I told you he was out of his senses. You were right, Tobby,
we should bill him for all the linen we’ve been letting him use free of charge.”
“What linen, Claudia?”
“You should be ashamed of yourself, Jonny, wasting my hard earned cash like
that. I’ll stop making money for you, Jonny! But you sure as —. You’re darned right
gonna pay me for my linen!”
“What linen?”
“Jonny, I —”
“Instead of sitting there shouting at me, why don’t you explain about that linen?”
“It’s my linen, Jonny, and you’re gonna pay me for it!”
In rhythm with her hungjaw Claudia sat shaking both her fists at him.
“Calm down. Calm down. Take your time and explain to me about this linen.”
“You owe me five hundred dollars worth of linen! I’ve been using my own for
you. All that good linen that I brought down here from Kalamazoo. I’ve been saving
money for you, Jonny, and this is how you thank me. But you’re gonna have to pay
me. You owe me five hundred dollars!”
“That’s ridiculous! What about all that new linen that I bought after we got the
motel licence?”
“I was trying to save money for you.”
“No, you weren’t! You’ve been trying to get rid of all your old junk. What kind
of linen are you using for yourself?”
“I am the manager. Of course I use that new linen. But you owe me five hundred
for mine! And I won’t budge! Now, give me the money!”
“Only if Hell freezes over. And real quick, too!”
“I got the list right here. You owe me five hundred! Tobby, give it to him.”
Jonny read it with an expression of disbelief: 6 pillows, 60 dollars. 2 comforters,
200 dollars. Sheets, 100 dollars. Misc., 140 dollars. Total, 500 dollars.
“Are you serious about this, Claudia?”
“You owe me! I won’t budge!”
Jonny felt the anger seething in him.
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“Are you out of your fucking brains, woman! Hundred dollars a piece for two old
comforters! I paid $19,99 for new ones over at Linen Supermarket. Plus tax. And
they charge me $2,99 each for pillows. As many as I can carry. Brand new. And you
want me to pay ten dollars a piece for old, dirty ones that you want to get rid of! Yes,
over my dead body I will!”
“That’s a lie. I know you paid eight dollars a piece for them. It says so on the pillows. Sown in. And mine are bigger and better!”
“That’s another lie! All I pay for a new pillow is $2,99, plus tax!”
“Give me one of those pillows and I’ll prove it to you!”
Jonny got up from his chair, walked the few steps to the linen closed, grabbed a
pillow and pulled it out of its plastic cover.
“Here it is. Check it out.” He threw the pillow toward her rather abruptly. Claudia
did not manage to catch it and the pillow hit her straight across the face. Her glasses
fell to the floor. She stood, screaming.
“He’s attacking me, Tobby! He’s attacking me! He’s trying to knock me down!
Do something, Tobby! Protect me! I’m your wife! Show him you’re from Chicago!”
She shouted hysterically.
Tobby jumped off his seat.
“Sstay afay fom my fwife.”
“Don’t worry about it! I wouldn’t touch her with a ten foot pole!”
Claudia kept screaming.
“He attacked me! He hit me! He hit me! Call the police! Do something!”
“But, it’ss only a pillof.”
“I don’t care what it is! He attacked me! I can’t see, Tobby! And I’m getting a
terrible headache! I’m losing my eyesight, Tobby. Do something!”
“You mussst put on your glasssess, Claudia.”
“Whose side are you on, Tobby? There’s nothing wrong with my eyesight. I can
see a mosquito yawn from across the street!”
She stood and slammed her fist on Jonny’s desk.
“I’m going to sue you for this. You’re gonna wish you never laid hands on me!
It’s no longer five hundred dollars, Jonny. It’s five hundred thousand now! I am going to sue the shirt off your back, and then I will take the buildings over. You’ll be
out of business before you know what hit you. I’m gonna sue you, Jonny! — Tobby,
we need witnesses for this. We need witnesses! I’m gonna sue him clean! You’ll be
my witness, Tobby. My witness! From now on I want you in that chair twenty-four
hours a day, seven days a week! As my witness! Do you hear me, Tobby? We’ll sue
the sh —, eh, shirt off his back!”
This was getting to be too much for Jonny. He stood up, screaming.
“Witness! Twenty-four hours a day! Only if Hell freezes over! I want you both
out of my office this fucking minute! Out!”
Jonny started making movements with the palms of his hands as if he were sweeping both of them out through the door.
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“Geeet out!”
They both disappeared out the door rather quickly.
Jonny grabbed the pillow to put it back in the closet. It did have a tag sown in that
said eight dollars.
Jonny needed to get away from the madhouse. Get some fresh air. He locked the
office and headed down Holiday Park. Feeling restless and shaken he just wandered
about aimlessly trying to stay away from Tom’s Alley Bar. He walked all the way
down to the Galleria for a couple of beers at Spats, but felt uncomfortable and
undetermined. And restless. Freddy was right. When you have nobody, you have
nothing. Loneliness was sometimes such a heavy burden.
Well, Jonny had known his share of loneliness. Ever since his childhood days. His
mother had deliberately kept him away from comrades and friends, especially during
his early teenage years. Mingling with different people could so easily lead him into
all kinds of miseries. Drinking. Chasing cheap women. Making one of them pregnant. Maybe even turn gay. Destroying his future. Jonny was her only son and she
would never let him out of her sight, except for very short intervals. For fear that he
might be drowned, she had denied him the possibility to learn how to swim. Jonny
compensated by playing a lot of soccer. Alone. When he wanted to join the local soccer team, she had refused. It was too dangerous. And too far away. Only reluctantly,
because she saw no way around it, had she let him attend elementary school.
During his days in New Jersey he had no friends. Not one. Just a good job and a
steady income. Working like a slave. From six in the morning to ten at night. Once,
for seven full months during summer, he had not even had one single Sunday off. He
had just watched the American way of life at a distance hoping that one day he would
become part of it. Before that could happen, they had forced him to leave and go
back to Norway with them. — Well, that’s a different story. And now, finally, after
so many years, his wish had come true. He had returned to America. And look what
it had got him into! Thinking about it all brought out bitterness in him.
Why hadn’t he taken full control of his life earlier? Before it was too late. While
life in America was still good.
Jonny finally decided to stop by and say ‘hello’ to Freddy and his jailbird friend,
his new roommate. Maybe he’d even visit Christina for a few minutes.
Heavy at heart he knocked on Freddy’s door. He heard eager talk and loud laughter from inside. He heard Freddy’s friendly voice answer from inside.
“Come in, darling, come in.”
Jonny slowly opened the door and stepped inside. Freddy was doing dishes in the
kitchen nook in shorts only. As he noticed Jonny in the doorway, he turned his back
to him and started laughing. He also heard laughter from one of the bedrooms.
Freddy turned around staring at him, speechless. Then he tried to say something, but
instead broke into an uncontrollable laughter. Again he heard laughter from the bedroom.
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Jonny said nothing, but was about to turn around and leave when Freddy regained
his power of speech.
“Jonny? What a fucking surprise!”
Freddy’s jailbird friend came to the bedroom doorway with a bath-towel around
his waist, staring at Jonny, and then bursts out laughing inhibitiously. Jonny heard
a woman laugh from inside the bedroom. Freddy had turned his back to them in an
attempt at suppressing his giggling, but when he turned around again he was bursting
with laughter, as well. Jonny felt uncomfortable. He didn’t know what it was about
him that was so funny.
Freddy made no attempt to introduce his friend, who just stood staring at Jonny
with a stupendous grin upon his ugly face, with two of his front teeth rotted down to
half. Jonny looked at Freddy who had stopped doing the dishes and was now eagerly
trying to light one of his huge cigars. He did not face Jonny. A naked woman in her
forties with some sagging tits and a drawn face came to the doorway, sharing it with
Freddy’s jailbird friend. She looked confused, then burst out laughing with her boyfriend. They were all obviously having a great time at Jonny’s expense and without
paying much attention to him. He figured he had been the topic of their conversation.
“Sorry. I’ll stop by later when it’s more appropriate.”
Jonny quickly exited the apartment and angrily headed for the street. Three doors
down he caught a glimpse of Christina sitting in her apartment all alone as usual enjoying her vine. Jonny turned around and knocked on her door.
“Who is it?”
Christina’s English was almost without accent.
“It’s me. Jonny. I just stopped by to say ‘hello.’”
She sounded pleasantly surprised.
“Come in. Come in.”
She got up and greeted him with a quick hug. He hugged her back.
“So, how are you doing, Christna?”
“I’d given up hope that you’d ever stop by to see me. What happened?”
“Nothing. I stopped by to see Freddy, but it turned out to be inconvenient. When
I saw you through the window, I remembered I promised to stop by.”
“That was more than three weeks ago. How long do you expect a woman to wait
for you?” She smiled to make him know it was just a joke.
“When you’re waiting for something good, it’s worth waiting forever, you know.”
She laughed and offered a glass of vine.
“Red or white?”
“Red, please.”
Jonny felt a bit embarrassed that he hadn’t brought a bottle with him. He knew
she liked vine. Well, he had taken her out for dinners often enough.
“What brings you over, Jonny?”
“I was sitting over there ready to lose my mind. That crazy woman, my manager,
really has a way of getting under my skin. I just needed a change of venue.”
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“Why are you living alone, Jonny? We could have spent a lot of good times together.”
“I watch all the shit going on in this neighborhood every day. I’ve decided not to
become part of it.”
“Is all the loneliness worth it?”
“No.”
“So?”
“It’s hard to change one’s own nature.”
“I know. I’ve tried your recipe, but given it up. I got so lonely I was losing my
mind. I was sitting waiting for you every night until a week ago. I’m seeing somebody now. A couple of guys, as a matter of fact.”
“Good for you if it makes you happy.”
“It’s better than nothing, Jonny. Much better. The knights in shining armor died
with the dinosaurs and the middle ages. My life is now.”
“And all the virgin princesses have found their princes! Well, to each his own, I
guess. But maybe you’re right.”
“You’ve got to start living your life, Jonny. You only have one to live.”
Jonny felt disappointed. Not for himself, but for Christina. She had been on the
right track and lost.
Or maybe she had decided not to perform a maidenhead implant?
Somebody knocked on her door, and, without waiting for an answer, Freddy
entered. He looked a bit confused when noticing Jonny. Then he burst out laughing
again.
“Ha, ha, ha. Jonny Landlord’s looking for a woman. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.”
“Behave, or get out of here.” Christina sounded irritated.
Freddy looked drunk. With bloodshot eyes. His speech blurred.
“Oh, darling, I simply love it when you get mad.” Then he turned serious. “What
the fuck took you so long? I’ve waited almost an hour.”
Jonny realized his presence was unwanted. He stood, staring at Christina with a
question mark upon his face. She nodded as she walked him to the door.
“Yes. It’s much better than loneliness, Jonny. Even if it’s just a one-night stand.
True love travels on a gravel road, you now.”
Jonny had been invited over to see Freddy. As a friend. He did not fit in and had
not been made welcome. He should have known. It wasn’t gonna happen again.
Some weeks ago he had also been invited over to see Christina. As a lover.
But he had let it be. Until tonight. It would not happen again. Not even as a friend.
Again rumors started spreading at the Holiday Park Hotel. The landlord had knocked
his manager cold in the office with a pillow, but had been beaten up by the manager’s husband from Chicago. It was only a matter of time before the landlord would
be filing for bankruptcy and the managers would take the buildings over. Instead of
paying his bills he had been spending the rent money on hookers and crack.
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For the first time since they moved to the Holiday Park Hotel did Claudia not
show up in the office at nine. Their station wagon was not parked in it’s regular parking space, either, and rumors had it that they were out searching for a good lawyer.
Claudia did not show that day, or the next.
Again rumors had it that she had been admitted to the hospital with a serious
concussion. The rumors hit Glenda. “What? In the hospital? With a concussion!
From a pillow? Ha, ha, ha. If Claudia’s in the hospital, it could only be to have her
head examined! In a nuthouse! Ha, ha, ha.”
Most of the tenants did not like her answer although they knew it made sense. But
rumors are sometimes so stubbornly persistent when sprucing up the tedious routines
of everyday living. They wake people up from a dreadful daily dullness to suddenly
introduce enough excitement to make life worth living. True or false? Well, that was
of minor importance. What mattered most seemed to be the entertainment value.
Maybe there was something to it? No smoke without fire.
On the third day rumors had it that Claudia had been released from the hospital.
The landlord had problems now. Big problems. He was being hit with a million dollar lawsuit. Then, on the forth morning, as Jonny was reading the morning paper and
enjoying his coffee, Claudia entered the office as if nothing had happened.
“Good morning, Jonny.”
“Good morning.”
“I’ve been in the hospital.”
“So I hear.”
And that was all that was ever said about the incident. But Claudia seemed busier
now then before. Every time Jonny entered the office unexpectedly she was sitting
on the phone, but quickly excused herself and hung up as he entered. She was always
quick to answer incoming calls.
Jonny felt something was going on behind his back, but couldn’t tell what.
Then, in the afternoon, Tobby wanted to talk to him when Claudia was not in the
office. He stood there stammering for a while, when suddenly it burst out of him:
“Jonny, I fink we should buy some furniture?”
“What! Furniture? You want to buy furniture?”
“Yeef. One of the Great Western hotels are — refurbishing the entire building —
and they are now selling complete bedroom sets — at only one hundred dollars each.
Headboards. Nightstands. Chests and credenzas. Mattresses. Beds. Evvyfing. I fink
it iss a good idea to buy new furniture for the effficssienssies. They are run down and
hard to rent.”
“They’re always full.”
“Yeef. But at very low rates.”
The Hoskinses would never cease to surprise him, one way or the other. He new
Tobby made sense.
“Ifp you fant to, I can fake you over and have a look at it right afay.”
“Ok. Let’s do that, Tobby.”
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The Great Western was situated about half an hour ride up north. The solid oak
bedroom sets all looked like new and expressed authority. Jonny was quick to order
four complete sets. They had to be picked up immediately. Jonny wanted to hire a
small truck, but Tobby offered to bring it over in the station wagon.
“I’ll bring Claudia. We’ll handle it for you. We sshould alsso buy s-some used
carpiss and get rid of those worn out, dirty pieces that we have there. And while we
do this, it’s a very good idea to paint all the rooms, Jonny. All four of them.”
“Can you do all the work?”
“Yeef. Wifh Claudia.”
Jonny didn’t know whether to accept or not. Tobby’s suggestions were totally in
line with his own way of thinking. So many times before had he wanted to do this.
But the though of all these city officials threatening him with violations if he kept up
his property, had stubbornly kept him from doing it. And based on prior experiences
he knew it would only take one single night of partying to totally trash a refurbished
apartment. To these people a clean carpet or nice furniture meant nothing compared
to getting high on shit every night. And good furniture was so easy to sell to all these
thrift shop outlets in the vicinity. He had lost a brand new television that way. In
twenty-four. When ‘Speedy’ stayed there. The apartment had been broken into and
the TV walked away with in broad daylight on a Sunday afternoon.
“How much do you want?”
“I fwill take care of evvyfing f-for one hundred dollars a unit.”
“Sounds good. Consider it a deal.”
The two Hoskinses did not waste much time getting started. What they lacked in
dexterity, they thoroughly compensated for through enthusiasm. After all, there was
some system to their madness, although Jonny had a hard time understanding their
‘Queen and I’ relationship. Jonny enjoyed watching them work, but what he enjoyed
more than anything else was having the office all to himself again.
He was reading the paper when the phone rang.
“Jonny, it’s me, Ted. I need to talk to you right away. It is rather urgent. Can you
meet us over at that Thai place at Towngate? At twelve sharp.”
Jonny had developed a deep skepticism toward Ted.
“What is this all about?”
“I am unable to tell you over the phone, but believe me, it is in your interest. I
know you’re not much into all these spicy foods, but they’ll serve it to you any way
you want. It’s a good restaurant. And it’ll do you a lot of good just to get away from
that Arby’s junk food for a change. At twelve sharp, please. It’s on me.”
Jonny wondered what Ted was up to this time as he entered the Sukothai Restaurant, named for the old capital of Siam, now officially known as Thailand. The darkened interior, the soothing atmosphere and the beautiful hostesses relaxed Jonny as
he was taken into the rear of the restaurant. He was seated at the table across from
the married couple Ted and Andy.
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“How are you doing, Jonny? It’s been a long time.”
“Yaah. Well, I’m ok.”
“How is business?”
“It’s the same shit every day. You know that.”
“How’s your manager doing?”
“Unpredictably, but she’s sucking in a lot of cash for me. Apart from that I hardly
know where I’ve got her from one day to the next.”
“That’s why I wanted to talk to you. I wonder if you know what’s going on behind your back?”
“I hardly know what’s going on right under my nose. How the hell could I know
what’s going on behind my back? But it is basically all right as long as the economy
shapes up.”
An oriental looking guy came to take the orders. Both Ted and Andy picked one
of those spicy dishes, chicken in hot curry sauce, while Jonny ordered a mild shrimp
stew with plain rice. They served Thai beer.
Ted and Andy started small talking, but Jonny remained mostly mute. Somehow
he felt uneasy. He knew Ted seldom talked business during meals, so, after lunch
was served, they ate in silence. They both seemed to enjoy their hot spices while
Jonny had to admit to himself that the shrimp stew and the rice tasted excellent. And
the beer.
When Ted finally asked if he would prefer Larsen or Hennessy, Jonny figured he
was ready for whatever he had on his mind.
“You know me, Jonny. You know I always prefer to come straight to the point.
Do you realize that this Hoskins woman is trying to take over the Holiday Park
Hotel?”
“Well, I’ve told her it’s on the market, but I had no idea she was actively working
on it.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about. She’s actively trying to take the hotel over behind your back. She must have called me a hundred of times asking for information.
About you. About the property. Whether Andy still owns it or not. Every single little
detail that went on in that building, Jonny, she called to inform me about. In the beginning I decided to keep it that way. What the heck, she kept feeding me detailed
information.”
“Yeah, and it was free, too. You did not have to pay her fifty bucks a week like
you did Ross.”
Ted’s mouth popped half open and his bald head, face and neck started slowly
getting red like so many times before when Jonny had confronted him.
“Eh, eh — I didn’t know you were aware of that. Nothing personal, Jonny, but I
make it my business to protect my interests. I have experienced the fact that there are
a lot of con artists and manipulators out there. I would hate to be caught off guard.
After this, you’ll thank me for it.
Now, back to that Hoskins woman. She’s been spreading some compromising
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information about you. In the beginning I took her word for it. Like that Monday
morning when we met in the walkway she’d been calling me all weekend for information while telling me you were so far behind on your bills because you spent all
of her hard earned money, as she put it, on hookers and crack. She called me to prove
you were spending the weekend with a prostitute smoking crack. Well, you were
away all weekend so I had no reason not to believe her. Her concern seemed so genuine, sobbing and crying as she told me her story. What’s your explanation, Jonny?”
Jonny sat there listening while seething with anger.
“I think it speaks for itself. I spend the weeks in the office to help ends meet.
Then sometimes I spend the weekends over at the Shubert taking showers and resting
up. Charging my batteries for the next week, so to speak.”
“Well, needless to say, the information shocked me. Mind you, my partner over
at Big Daddy’s got into that same routine and I nearly lost my investment. Knowing
your unsuccessful attempt at selling I figured you found yourself in a desperate situation and had succumbed to pressures.”
“No, but Pearly Jo dropped me so I kept it off the market for a while. You may
be interested to learn that I’ve now got it listed with the Business Investment Corporation in Hollywood specializing in commercial property. When the time comes, he’ll
get in touch with you about the second mortgage. But I guess you already know
that?”
“Yes. But thanks for telling me. I’m sure we’ll manage to work out something.
— Well, back to that Hoskins woman. Do you realize she’s been all over the state of
Florida seeking information about you? She’s been getting transcripts of your
electrical bills, the water bills, she even tried to fire Frank Autry, the pool man. He’s
a friend of mine, you know. She’s been able to acquire copies of all your mortgages.
She’s been feeding everybody information that you were heading into bankruptcy
and that they were in danger of losing their money. Therefore they all put some extra
pressure on you to pay your bills on time. Does that information ring a bell?”
Jonny nodded. So that’s why FPL had started sending someone to pick up the
cash at the office instead of waiting for him to send the money. That’s why the city
administration so quickly had threatened to shut off his water. At the same time it did
not make sense. Claudia herself had taken in the extra cash to catch up on the bills.
“You told me yourself after I bought it that you were slacking off toward the end
of the summer season and then you managed to catch up during winter season. It’s
been the same with me.”
“I know that. But I did not have a manager calling the first mortgage holder telling
him not to expect his mortgage payments on time because I was drugged out on
cocaine. Do you remember all these letters Andy used to get from American Express
telling him that as a result of proper business practices he had been pre-approved for
the AmEx corporate card? You must have gotten a few of those yourself? Well, she
actually wrote and accepted the card on your behalf.”
“On my behalf? But I’ve never had a credit card in my life.”
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“That’s probably why you were rejected. I can only imagine your problems if that
application had gone through.”
Jonny sat there dumbfounded and feeling shamed. Ted had once before called him
naive, and that’s exactly how he felt right now. Things like that were not supposed
to happen.
“You seem to be well informed about this. It must have been going on for quite
some time?”
“Ever since the day when you tried to explain to her the difference between a
company and a corporation.”
“And you’ve decided to tell me now?”
“Well, in the beginning it looked too good to be true. I got information right out
of the horse’s mouth, so to speak.”
“So what made you change your tactics?”
“As long as she kept checking on you, I could relate to her. Maybe some information could come in handy one day. But then she started checking on me! She started calling my bank for information about my accounts. You may not believe this,
Jonny, but I swear to God it’s true. When my bank declined to give the information,
she called back later presenting herself as an FBI-agent investigating a money laundering scheme supposedly involving a group of Brits. She actually got to speak to the
manager! He personally called me just minutes later asking me if I was in some sort
of trouble.”
Jonny couldn’t prevent a sarcastic laugh.
“That’s Claudia, all right. She does not have the ability to make a distinction between you or me or anybody else. All she’s ever got on her mind is ‘I, Claudia!’ She
sometimes totally disconnects from reality. With unlimited amounts of self-assertiveness. She hates the new president, for instance, and if the idea pops into her head,
she will not stop short of trying to kick him out of the White House. In my case, what
I don’t understand is why she would go to all that trouble.”
“That’s obvious. She’s living with the delusion that the first mortgage holder will
call in the mortgage and you will go bankrupt. She believes that all she has to do then
is move in and take it over. Provided the second mortgage holder, myself, is not interested. That’s why she’s been checking on me. To find out if I have enough bloody
cash to squeeze her out. — She’s actually quite devious.”
“I’m not surprised. Just disappointed. Again. — So, I take it you’re telling me all
this because you want me to eh, do something about it?”
“Get rid of her! The sooner the better. She has become an economic hazard to you
as well as me. I know what’s going on right now. They’re fixing up the four efficiencies of the Dump — furniture, carpets and painting. She thinks she is going to take
the buildings over in a matter of days. So now she’s spending your money renovating
so that she will not have to spend her own money after she takes it over.”
“I read you loud and clear. But you don’t expect me to just walk over to her and
tell her what Ted just told me, and then ask her to leave, do you?”
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“I don’t give a bloody damn how you do it as long as you get rid of her!”
“Where does she keep all the information?”
“Oh, yes, that’s right. She keeps everything in her desk. Top drawer. She keeps
it locked, but you’ll find the key in one of the compartments in the top drawer to the
left.”
Ted had spoken his mind. It was now up to Jonny. Ted kept mumbling something
about taking care of the check, but when it really boiled down to it, he proved too
cheap to do so. Jonny paid the fifteen dollars and left.
How could anybody expect a grown man to satisfy his hunger on five shrimps,
some rice and a cup of soup?
Jonny entered Viva Brazil next door and ordered a huge steak, fries and a full bottle of Brazilian red vine.
On his way back to the motel all Jonny could think of was Claudia, Claudia, Claudia. ‘I, Claudia!’ His extreme dislike for her grew and turned into pure, unadulterated hatred. His first impulse was to walk over to nineteen, where she was helping
Tobby paint, and really knock her cold. Not with a pillow, this time, but with a solid
sledgehammer.
He did not think too highly of that faggot asshole Ted either, and his fake gentleman ways. How on earth could he have known all the details?
After two bottles of Thai beer, one shot of French brandy and a full bottle of Brazilian vine Jonny was looking forward to get back to the hotel and confront that bitch
head on.
‘Just make sure you get rid of her!’ Ted had sounded anything but merciful.
As he entered number twelve, it was in a total mess. Claudia was busy cutting in
while Tobby had his full concentration on rolling the ceiling. They were both puffing
and sweating.
Jonny took control of himself and left for the office. He couldn’t let them go right
in the middle of such a mess.
Yes! Yes, indeed! He wouldn’t tell them anything until after they had finished the
apartments! Then he would execute his prerogative to terminate the agree-, eh, contract, upon a seven day notice without fault.
He would simply love looking Claudia in the face then!
He also felt anxious to get his hands on those papers with information she had
gathered about him, but decided not to do anything until later in the night after he
had closed the blinds and engaged the deadbolt. Then he would have ample time. He
would have liked to do it immediately, but figured Claudia was too busy renovating
to suspect anything extraordinary taking place.
That evening both Hoskinses were dead tired and stooped right in bed. Tobby just
put his head into the office telling Jonny that they expected to have everything finished by tomorrow evening.
“Good. Very good!”
I, Claudia —
I tell them Tobby’s from Chicago
305
What Jonny experienced that night he later referred to as his ultimate nightmare.
After having carefully closed the blinds and bolted the door from the inside, he sat
down at Claudia’s desk and unlocked the drawer to her secret files.
Everything had been neatly packed in three large, brown envelopes upon which
she had written with a heavy, black marker:
‘Holiday Park Hotel’ on the first, ‘Jonny Jakobsen Hell’ on the second and ‘Edward Bartholomeus Littlefield’ on the third.
She had sorted everything rather meticulously. In the Hotel’s envelope she kept
transcripts of all his electrical bills with outstanding balances as of last month, including credit history.
The City of Fort Lauderdale had sent her identical information about the water
bills. The cable company had gone even further: In a letter they strongly suggested
that their accounts be terminated and that the Hotel tried to establish a working
relationship with a leasing company taking responsibility of monthly cable payments.
Now he also learned why Southern Sanitation so suddenly had canceled the contract!
He had been damned lucky that Claudia at the same time had taken in enough
cash so that he had managed to catch up on all his outstanding bills.
Well, except for the property taxes, and they were heavy. Somehow she had managed to get a copy of those as well. She had complete information about the first and
second mortgages. Then it dawned upon Jonny that she also knew that he had no insurance! And she had been smart enough not to mention it to him.
What surprised him more than anything else was the fact that she had complete
copies of last year’s final accounts and tax returns. To Jonny it seemed unreal. What
on earth was she actually planning to do?
He reluctantly opened his own envelope. She had kept copies of all her letters, the
first addressed to Attorney Robert J. Welsh:
Dear Mr. Welsh.
I will inform you that the present owner of the Holiday Park Hotel, Mr. Jonny
Hell, is having a hard time meeting his business obligations. Regretfully he is
under the strong influence of narcotics, mostly crack and cocaine, and therefore I
expect that future mortgage payments may be irregular. I will keep you abreast
with the situation. Let me assure you that I am doing everything possible to
handle the situation correctly as I see great future possibilities in running the
corporation and I will inform you that I may be interested in taking it over
sometime in the nearest future.
Y ours truly
Claudia Hoskins
Claudia Hoskins, Manager.
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I tell them Tobby’s from Chicago
Jonny breathed heavily. Jesus Christ, she had sent an identical letter addressed to
Mr. Edward Bartholomeus Littlefield! That fucking sleazy snake had conveniently
forgot to mention that!
She had also kept a small diary with detailed and sometimes twisted information
about Jonny’s whereabouts and actions since the first day she moved in here, her last
entry describing the incident with the pillow. Jonny filled with anger as he read her
rendition. The pillow was barely mentioned, but, after reading it, one would be left
with the impression that he had knocked her to the floor with his bare fists.
In the next letter she had written to the Internal Revenue Service in Atlanta seeking information about his tax returns, but it was reading her last letter that left Jonny
shivering for the rest of that night. It was a letter addressed to the Immigration and
Naturalization Service on Biscaine Boulevard in Miami. She maintained in her letter
that she had reason to believe that Mr. Jonny Hell was an illegal immigrant, and was
eagerly looking forward to hearing from them. He found no replies neither from the
IRS nor Immigration.
Maybe at this very moment they were both keeping him under surveillance?
Jonny shook with anger as he put the papers back in the envelope. He would have
loved to kill that bitch! He thought about Freddy when he had almost stifled Holly.
Yaah, watching that bitch die would have been nothing less than justice fulfilled. The
saying American saying that you must look above and beyond the law for justice,
would seem fully warranted in situations like this.
He was left brooding. Claudia could never have managed to do this on her own.
Somebody must have helped her.
He opened the third envelope wondering what she had found out about Ted. It
was empty!
Jonny placed all the envelopes in his own bottom drawer on top of that book that
Kirk had once given him. While Claudia was busy helping Tobby spending Jonny’s
money before she took the property over, Jonny would be busy walking over to Office Depot making copies of her sleazy conspiracy.
Jonny decided on a few shots of Scotch and checked the time. Damned, whereto
had all the time disappeared? It was almost closing time over at Tom’s Alley Bar.
The only place he knew that kept open until four in the morning was that tittybar,
Jiggles, down in Niggertown.
Late in the evening the next day, after the Hoskinses had finished refurbishing the
efficiency, Claudia once more caused commotion at the Holiday Park Hotel. Claudia
had no knowledge of this, but Dennis had been fired from his construction job by his
own brother, and Shelly had been laid off for two weeks while the bakery where she
had worked for so many years was renovating. Both being so inconveniently out of
work they worried about making ends meet. As Dennis and Shelly expressed their
satisfaction and gratitude over a job well done, Claudia instinctively took advantage
of the situation to inform them that as of next week their rent would be doubled.
I, Claudia —
I tell them Tobby’s from Chicago
307
Both Dennis and Shelly went into uncontrollable fits and demanded that they be
allowed to see Jonny. In the beginning Claudia refused, but could not prevent their
persistence when they headed for the office.
“This is ridiculous! You just cannot double the rent like that. Just out of the blue!
We cannot afford to pay that kind of money.”
Claudia interrupted before Jonny could answer. “It’s a totally different apartment
now. Fully refurbished! It’s worth twice the money we’re asking.”
Jonny tried to calm them down. “I have no idea what this is all about. Shelly,
please sit down and give me the whole story.”
“I was so pleased to have my apartment renovated. It was definitely long overdue.
And now Claudia tells me that the rent will double from next week.”
Again Claudia was unable to keep her mouth shut.
“It’s a totally different apartment now! And it’s season!”
“Claudia, I do not recall our having discussed any rent increases.”
“If they cannot afford to pay the rent, I’ll have somebody else move in here no
later than tomorrow morning! I’m making money for you, Jonny. Tons of money!”
“The rent stays the same, Claudia. No more rent increases whatsoever this season. Just because the tourists can afford to be exploited for a few weeks, does not
mean that the locals can afford the same exploitation over a period of many months.
That’s why tourism is sometimes a hidden curse to the local population. I can assure
you, Shelly, that your rent will stay the same all season long. As a matter of fact,
when the season is over, it will decrease. Please, don’t worry about it. There will be
no rent increases.”
“Thank you, Jonny. We’re gonna love you for this.”
Jonny smiled. “The pleasure is mine.”
Claudia watched Jonny with hatred in her eyes. She simply hated being contradicted like that. Not even Tobby would dare! Well, it was only a matter of days now
before she would rub Jonny’s nose in his own dirt.
But more troubles developed. The other three tenants refused to have their apartments refurbished. They had heard the rumors that the Hoskinses were about to take
over the property, and then it would only be a matter of time before the rents would
double anyway. Claudia had no problems with that. Seeing the opportunity of having
the apartments empty as they worked in them, she decided to evict them one by one.
Thus she also had the advantage of renting them at double the rate to new tenants as
soon as they were finished. Again Jonny refused to accommodate her and promised
Jackson and Ruby that the rates would stay the same all season. They were skeptical.
If he left in a few days, eh, went bankrupt, then the rent would go up anyway. He
finally had to give it to them in writing on behalf of the corporation. But they still
remained skeptical.
In the beginning John and Jeannie flatly refused to discuss it, and, only after
Jonny had given Claudia the go-ahead to evict them, were they ready to come to an
agreement. Again Jonny had to give it to them in writing, but they only reluctantly
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I tell them Tobby’s from Chicago
went along after Jonny had promised them free rent the two days while they were
inconvenienced. Lee Woods and his timid white girlfriend had no objections as long
as Jonny would give them the same deal, in writing.
“Jonny, you’ll lose thousands of dollars that way. You should have let me throw
them out!”
“That may be correct, but we are dealing with people. If you had been sensible
enough to wait with that rent increase until all the apartments had been renovated,
we would not have had this problem!”
Then came that day when Tobby and Claudia had finally finished all four apartments.
They had worked all weekend and did not finish until Sunday afternoon. Jonny was
surprised that they had not tried to get paid as each apartment was finished, but their
enthusiasm was such that they forgot all about it until everything was done.
They entered the office a little before nine both of them freshly showered and
well groomed for the occasion. Jonny had just returned from an excellent steak and
a full bottle of vine over at Ruth Chris’ and was feeling relaxed and excited at the
same time. He had been over to Burdine’s down at the Galleria and bought himself
a new pair of jeans and a fancy, short sleeved shirt.
Come what may, he was well prepared!
Tobby entered the office smiling friendly and looking prouder than a peacock
with all his feathers spread. Claudia entered looking grim and sinister like so many
times before.
“I will never forgive you for this, Jonny! Never! How could you do this to me?!
How could you humiliate me like that in front of all those tenants when all I tried to
do was make money for you? Tons of money! We’ve been working like slaves for
you! I’ll never forgive you for this! — Why? Why did you do this to me? — after all
I’ve done for you!”
“It’s time to steady the boat a little. It’s been rocking too hard lately.”
“I’m making money for you — tons of money. And we’ve been working like slaves for you!”
“I appreciate that. So therefore I have prepared the check for you according to the
agreement I made with Tobby.”
Then he directed his speech toward Tobby.
“Here’s the check, Tobby. I need you to sign right here.”
Tobby quickly took the check and signed the invoice. Jonny gave him the other
copy.
“This is for you, Tobby. You can sign it if you want to. Just for the heck of it I
did.”
Claudia swiftly grabbed the invoice from between Tobby’s fingers.
“Let me look at this, Tobby!”
She studied it. She sucked for breath, as if to prepare herself, and then she started
shouting.
I, Claudia —
I tell them Tobby’s from Chicago
309
“Four hundred dollars! For nine long days of hard labor! Two grown professionals! It’s a disgrace! A total rip off! It’s less than two dollars an hour, Jonny. It’s not
enough! We need triple! Quadruple! That’s only for one apartment! We’ll make you
a separate bill for each apartment!”
“This is the amount that we agreed upon. I didn’t even argue. I simply accepted
his offer.”
Tobby looked confused.
“But, Claudia, that’ss what we agreed on. You ssaid four hundred.”
“That’s for each apartment! I will give him three more bills.”
“Read the receipt! It says ‘paid in full.’ All apartments included. All that remains
now is for me to thank you for a job well done.”
“I will not accept a check! I want cash!”
“This check is foolproof receipt that I’ve paid you for the job. All you need to do
tomorrow morning is to cross the street to the Bank Atlantic and you will have the
cash. Simple as that. It’s a certified check.”
“I will not cash it!”
“Ha, ha, ha. Well, that’s entirely up to you. As far as I’m concerned I consider the
matter closed. — — — However, I have another matter that has been brought to my
attention. I talked to Ted the other day. Edward Bartholomeus Littlefield. He gave
me some startling information which inevitably resulted in this.”
Jonny handed her a letter. “Read it!”
If he lived to become older that Methuselah, close to a thousand years, that is,
Jonny would never forget the expression upon her face. She turned sharp pink, she
sucked for air, then her face turned grey. She made some gurgling sounds as if she
were in the process of suffocating.
Again Tobby looked confused.
“Iss anyfing fwrong, Claudia?”
She just handed him the letter, speechless. He just sat there looking stupid while
Claudia regained her power of speech.
“We are being fired! He is kicking us out of our own building! We are being
fired! You can’t do this to us, Jonny! We have a contract! Remember?”
She stood, shaking her fists at him again.
“We have a contract! It’s good until May! We’ll never leave from here, Jonny.
Never! That contract is good until May 1! And it is automatically renewable!”
“A copy of the MANAGEMENT CONTRACT is included with your NOTICE
OF TERMINATION. Read paragraph one where it says that each party has the right
to terminate the contract upon a seven day written notice without cause. I am now
executing that right.
According to the contract you have seven days to quit the job and vacate the
premises. As of tonight I no longer want you in the office, but you will get paid. I
want you out of here by Tuesday night at twelve midnight.”
“Why are you doing this to us!”
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I tell them Tobby’s from Chicago
“You know why! Better than anybody else. Based on what Ted told me there is
no longer room for you on this property.”
“I don’t know what Ted has told you, but it is a lie!”
“I know you’ve been calling him night and day spying on me and trying to take
over the buildings.”
“That’s a lie! I told you it was a lie! I’ve never talked to Ted about you. I’ve never
called him! He’s the one that’s been calling me all the time. All I did was return his
calls a few times. That’s all!”
“What about the letter you sent to him informing him I was a drug addict unable
to pay my bills?”
“I would never do that, Jonny. It’s a lie!”
“Yeah, we all know it is a lie! But you still did it.”
“I would never do anything like that to you, Jonny. I’ve cared for you too much!
I’ve considered you a eh, — brother! I swear!”
“On your soul’s eternal condemnation?”
“Yeees, I swear to God!”
Jonny silenced. He slowly pulled two papers from one of his drawers and handed
one to Claudia.
“Then, explain this? — Here’s one for you, Tobby.”
It didn’t take long for Claudia to recognize her own letter. She sucked for breath.
“Where — where did you get this?”
“Would you believe me if I told you that Mr. Welsh called me for an explanation
and gave me a copy? With your signature.”
“I’ve never sent him this, Jonny. Never! He must have got it from Ted!”
“I didn’t know Ted signs his name as Claudia Hoskins.”
“He must have used an aliases, Jonny. Many men do that!”
“Ha, ha, ha. Grab hold, Claudia, grab hold. You’re so fucking full of shit, Lady,
you’re running over with it. But I have news for you: That’s not all he told me.”
“What did he tell you? Another lie! When did you talk to him?”
“A little over a week ago. We had lunch.”
That’s when Tobby seemed to wake up. He suddenly jumped to the floor and started screaming into Jonny’s face.
“Over a feek ago! Before fwe started working on the apartments! You’ve been
plannin’ thiss! You knew you were going to fire us beffore fwe started on the apartments. It’s fraud. We’ve been taken advantage of! You knew even before we bought
the furniture! You knew!”
The ramifications of Tobby’s intelligent discovery suddenly hit home with Claudia as well. She stood and started screaming at Jonny in unison with Tobby. “You
knew! You planned it! I’ll sue you for this. I’ll sue the shirt off your body!”
They had entered the office a little before nine. At eleven they were still standing
in front of Jonny’s desk constantly screaming their accusations at him. A little after
eleven they seemed to decrease in volume and sat down on their chairs.
I, Claudia —
I tell them Tobby’s from Chicago
311
Then Tobby mentioned something about suing the living daylight out of him, and
suddenly they started screaming at him again. Letting him know what kind of an asshole he was. Telling him how much they had done for him. How they had got the
motel licence for him. Gone to court for him. Saved him from bankruptcy. And saved
his life and prayed for his soul. Claudia had shown him the path to God and made
sure his soul would be saved from eternal condemnation. They had given him everything. They had considered him a friend!
Jonny wanted them to leave the office so that he could settle his nerves with a few
shots of Jonny Walker, but they just kept going at it. At midnight they were still
going at it, incessantly. For more than three hours they kept screaming at him.
They had now come to the point where they kept begging him not to go through
with the eviction and instead tear up that nasty paper, the Notice of Termination.
Jonny just sat there keeping silent. For more than three hours he kept silent. He
figured the best he could do was give them time to blow it all out. He realized it had
been a shock to them. First being so proud that they had finished the apartments and
expecting praise, and now being hit with this. Being fired so unjustly just out of the
blue. At about twelve thirty most of the air had gone out of them.
“Jonny, tear that paper into shreds and let’s be friends!”
“If you swear to God that all you’ve been telling me is the truth, the whole truth
and nothing but the truth.”
“I swear. I swear to God! I have nothing to hide. It’s the honest truth! I know
nothing about this, Jonny. You’re barking up the wrong tree.”
Finally, although he had pledged not to lose control, Jonny no longer managed to
contain himself.
“Barking? You’re the ones doing the barking, damn it! For hours you’ve been
going at it! Like bitches in the street. Do I need to tell you I smell dogshit?”
Claudia heaved for air. Jonny pulled two brown envelopes from one of the drawers and handed them to Claudia.
“Then explain this, please.”
He handed two equivalents to Tobby.
“For you, in case you haven’t read them before.”
Again Claudia sucked for breath.
“Where have you got these!!?”
“I’ve made copies of the ones you have in your drawer.”
She turned pale. “That’s theft, Jonny. Theft! Those were my personal and private
papers. I could have you jailed for this!”
“You’re welcome to try. Just imagine what a credit application forging my signature will do to you. And those papers on how to collect a judgement that Judge Skolnic gave you when you went to court for me, were they yours as well? You knew that
it was information pertaining to the corporation, but you chose to keep everything
to yourself. For possible future needs. Maybe you’re the one who should be reported
for theft? Instead of screaming and shouting at me for hours and then threatening me
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with the police, I think you should let this be a lesson to remember. ‘Don’t dig graves
for others, you might so easily fall in yourself.’ Or will you try that God-nonsense
of yours? ‘Do to others as you would have them do to you.’ — Remember?”
Claudia was crying as she defeatedly left the office. Not from humiliation or remorse, but from anger. She had known her share of defeats in life, but none more
humiliating than this. Her inbred malice had been too painfully exposed. But more
than anything else she felt anger that her scheme had failed. She had felt so confident
that it was only a matter of days before she could stop calling herself ‘Manager’ and
start calling herself ‘Owner’ and ‘Landlady!’
Tobby followed behind her more puzzled and bewildered than ever.
The Hoskinses became almost invisible after this incident. Claudia was too ashamed
to meet the tenants and stayed in the apartment. She gave Jonny the keys to the office
once more, but, just to show he was serious, he had the lock changed.
Thursday evening she timidly entered the office.
“Is there any chance you may reconsider?”
“None whatsoever. I want you out by midnight Tuesday.”
“Will you not give me a second chance? After all I was making money for you —
tons of money.”
“If money were made out of lead you’ve probably taken in a few pounds.”
“Mercy? Forgiveness? Friendship?”
“I am safer having a snake for a friend than you. So I want you out of here. I told
you once that when I meet someone I give that person one hundred percent. I did the
same to you. Well, you proved unworthy of it. You’re below zero now. Below zero!
Now, there’s one thing I didn’t tell you: I don’t believe in giving a man a second
chance. Or a woman, for that matter. If I cannot trust somebody once, why should I
trust that person twice?”
“You’re a hard man to deal with, Jonny. That’s the Norwegian in you! You’re
cold as ice with a heart of stone just like my mother.”
Few of the tenants met Claudia during her last days at the Hotel. She had more or
less voluntarily retired into a self-destructive seclusion. Not being able to present
herself as the manager, one of the owners or the future landlady was too painful for
her, knowing that everybody talked about her behind her back and enjoying her defeat. ‘Throw no stones. They come back.’
Tuesday evening at eight, before they started packing, Claudia came to the office
once more. She was back to her old self again.
“Still no chance you might reconsider?”
“We’ve talked about that.”
“Why not let me rip that piece of paper into shreds and start all over again? I’ll
keep making money for you — tons of money.”
“That ship is beyond the sunset.”
I, Claudia —
I tell them Tobby’s from Chicago
313
“Well, I’ve got news for you: We won’t leave until you pay us what you owe us.”
“And how much do I owe you?”
“Twelve hundred dollars. It’s in the contract.”
“You just can’t be trusted, can you? That was six weeks ago. The balance now
is seven fifty. I’ve got the check ready for you.”
“I won’t take a check. I will not pay taxes! I want cash.”
“Like I said: I’ve already made out the check. I’ve filed the invoice with the check
number. That’s the best receipt I can get. Whether you want to cash it or not, is up
to you.”
“And you will not reconsider?”
“This is it. Start packing.”
At twelve the Hoskinses were busy packing. They still had a lot left. Jonny decided
he would not go to bed until after they had left the property for the last time and went
over to Tom’s Alley Bar for some drinks. He returned at two, but the Hoskinses were
still busy packing. When Jonny checked on them at three, they had only one more
trip left. Jonny sat down behind Claudia’s desk to wait for them, and, when they were
ready to leave at four, they found Jonny sound asleep, his face resting in his arms on
the desktop. Claudia contemplated revenge as she stood there in front of him watching him sleep, but Tobby pulled her out of it.
“Fwe mussst leave now.”
When Jonny jerked awake it was after five in the morning. Jesus Christ, he had
fallen asleep!
He grabbed the keys placed on the desk in front of him. He checked his wallet.
He checked the entire office, but nothing seemed to be missing.
Then he checked the back room and the closet. Damned! Six pillows, three comforters and five sheets were missing from the linen closet!
She had got her little revenge at the end.
Sometimes tenants would tell Jonny that they had come across Claudia and Tobby
when out shopping. They were living somewhere in the neighborhood, but he never
met any of the Hoskinses after that night.
Jonny felt engulfed by some strange, indescribably blue, empty feelings. He was
all alone again. For better or worse these people were the closest he had come to having friends, with the exception of Freddy, maybe, since he came to this country.
At six in the morning he rolled out his futon and crawled under one of his new
comforters.
It was empty around him — and deadly quiet.
314
07
Deceit, Sabotage and Foreclosure
With Claudia gone a period of relative tenant stability followed. Running the Hotel
during season compared to off season was a night and day contrast that Jonny did not
fully comprehend. Even the same tenants seemed to behave better during season than
off. They seemed to be governed by some intangible, but carefully obeyed power; the
heartbeat of the city. For the first time since he took the place over, with exception
of the initial period, did he mange to pay all his bills on time. Well, except for the
property taxes. Property taxes were heavy in Fort Lauderdale.
Gladys Goodrich was interested in taking over Claudia’s job, not as a manager,
but as a maid and helper. The day after the Hoskinses left, Jonny rented the apartment to another black couple that seemed a bit dubious, but he rented to them anyway. More than half of his tenants were blacks now.
One night Freddy stopped over to see Jonny. He had something on his mind that
he wanted to talk about, but perceiving Jonny’s unfriendly mood he let it be. He more
or less stumbled across that new guy in eleven, and, to Jonny’s dismay, they knew
each other. Freddy told Jonny the guy was no good. He, Jonathan White, was on his
last leg of a three year jail sentence for drug distribution when Freddy arrived at the
Pompano Penitentiary. He took it pretty nicely when Jonny evicted him.
When Gladys asked if she could move into the apartment, Jonny was more than
happy to give it to her. He liked Gladys a lot better than her little, sleazy Mexican
live-in of more than twelve years. Their two attractive daughters, Trisha and Rose,
were cute and charming, especially the youngest one with her shy ways and broad
grin and dimples. Jonny had finally managed to stabilize the tenant situation at the
Holiday Park Hotel.
Deceit, Sabotage and Foreclosure
315
Well, after the volcanic eruption caused by Claudia anything would seem stable.
Jonny did not realize, however, how much commotion he caused among the landlords in the neighborhood by more indiscriminately renting to blacks. George Churchill from across the street one morning came over to talk to him about it. He wanted
to know if it was a deliberate change in policy or more a coincidence that the Hotel
seemed to be filling up with blacks.
‘The way it looks right now, Jonny, you’re well on your way to becoming a slumlord. The blacks will trash this place for you in a few weeks.’
Jonny contradicted him by telling that he had experienced problems with only a
couple of the blacks he had rented to. That was more than he could say about the
whites that had been living on the property. George told him he was real sorry to hear
that, but could not believe him.
‘Blacks cause trouble and create slum, Jonny. Mark my words. If you keep this
up, something terrible might happen to you.’
Jonny told him renting to blacks was no goal in itself and promised him to bring
matters back to normal. He remembered the slum his beloved East Orange up in Jersey had turned into after the blacks had moved in. And the negative development was
only increased because all the whites started moving out. He realized he could not
come in a situation like that.
George told him they had now formed a civic association in an attempt to reclaim
the area from the pushers and the prostitutes. They were trying to turn the neighborhood into a place where law abiding citizens could raise their children without
having them exposed to all that crime and vice. He wanted Jonny to join, but Jonny
declined. Hundred dollars a unit would cost him fifteen hundred a year and that was
too much to pay unless he managed to turn the place around and accumulating a nice
profit. Before anything else he needed to take care of the property taxes.
Two nights later much of the Hotel was kept awake by some car sirens going full
blast for the major part of the early pre-dawn morning. Jonny did not know who that
huge, sixties model, green Cadillac belonged to, but most of the tenants were aware
that it was the car recently bought by that young black couple in twenty-three.
Just after nine, while Jonny was busy talking to a black woman and her teenage
daughter about renting number twenty-five, an elderly woman that he had never seen
before, was waiting for him outside the door. She interrupted his conversation with
the mother looking for a place to live, so Jonny excused himself and said he would
attend to her as soon as he had finished talking to the lady he had in the office.
She obnoxiously started screaming and shouting obscenities at him, before she
burst into the office waving a gun.
“This is a warning! That black guy has kept me awake all night. You have too
damned many noisy niggers living on the premises. Let me tell you: Nothing good
will come of it. I’m warning you! Get all those niggers off the property! You’re
destroying this neighborhood the way you fill this place up with blacks. Make sure
it will not be necessary for me to stop by to tell you this one more time, or I will blow
your head off!”
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She was threateningly waving her gun in front of Jonny’s face.
The woman and her daughter disappeared rather quickly. Jonny, too, really felt
scared this time. A strange woman he had never seen before bursting into his office
waving a gun in his face and telling him to remove all niggers from the property,
speaking a fluent English with a heavy accent that he had no difficulties understanding, scared him, all right. You never knew when one of those living on the edge
in this neighborhood suddenly fell over on the wrong side. They were shooting people east and west around him.
“This is my one and only warning! If you make it necessary for me to come over
here one more time, be advised that I’ll blow you head off!”
She quickly turned around and disappeared before Jonny had managed to say a
word. It all seemed so unreal.
Gladys had been watching the incident from a distance while cleaning the patio
of leaves. She came rushing toward him to ask what that was all about. Jonny told
her it was some crazy woman warning him not to rent to blacks.
“I have wondered when something like this would happen. She’s the wife of the
manager next door. A polish couple. We do have a lot of blacks living here now. Jo
hates them, too. Says it makes him feel like living in the ghetto again. To be honest
with you I don’t like it much myself, either. Especially for the kids. There’s a lot of
talk, Jonny. They call you ‘a niggerlover.’”
“You mean, because of the blacks living here?”
“Yes, you could get into a lot of trouble that way.”
“I cannot see any reason why.”
“Jonny, listen: The whites want to blow your brains out for renting to blacks. The
blacks will try to get you for being white. It’s no good. You can’t have your cake and
eat it. You’ve got to choose sides.”
“Sides?”
Jonny had a hard time understanding the American attitude toward Negroes. They
would never be accepted as just Americans, but would forever remain stigmatized
as ‘black’ Americans. Preferably not even Americans, but just ‘blacks.’ If one of
them moved in next door, the neighbors became hysterical, but they still hired blacks
in their own households to cook and wash for them, and to take care of their children.
If Jonny didn’t like somebody, he’d rather have that person as a neighbor than living
among his own family preparing his food and cleaning his house. He knew from the
civil rights movement back in the sixties that the issue could cause a lot of tension.
He felt cowardly about it, but wisely decided to take it into consideration when renting to new tenants.
After all, one could not legislate love and liking.
Concurrent with this situation somebody started sabotaging the pool, and one
morning he found it chock full of garbage. Paper, half rotten food, used inlays and
tampons, cans, pieces of styrofoam all scattered about in the water. Jonny spent
hours cleaning up most of it, but left some for the pool man to handle. The biggest
problem he had, was sucking up all those little ungalvanized nails from the pool
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bottom. In just a couple of days they started rusting, thus leaving brown spots
scattered around the bottom even after the nails had been removed.
Then the water started turning green. The pool man told Jonny that in all probability somebody kept urinating into the water thus causing chemical imbalance, and
allowing the algae to start flourishing. During periods like this the pool inspector had
a strange way of appearing, and once she closed down the pool for four days costing
Jonny another five hundred dollars in fines. Jonny knew from previous experiences
that ‘live and let live’ was not a popular attitude with most of these city inspectors.
Luckily the pool was not used very much during winter season, so it caused only
minor problems with the tenants. Frank the pool man felt convinced that the Hoskinses were behind it all. When he had refused to hire Tobby at top wages before he
had learned his job, Claudia had sworn revenge and told him they would give the
contract to somebody else. He had wanted to talk to Jonny about it, but, as things got
back to normal, had more or less decided to let dead dogs be buried.
One night somebody broke into the pump room and filled the water pump with
gravel stones so that Jonny once more had to replace it. In only one month vandalism
cost him more than one thousand five hundred dollars in repairs. He started walking
his night rounds again, but was never able to catch the guilty. Probably some white
racists trying to send him a message. Or maybe an ex tenant seeking revenge? Or a
couple of ex managers?
He hated living in Fort Lauderdale even more passionately than before, and he
despised most Americans as a bunch of petty, revengeful and spiteful individuals. He
felt he could sum them all up in one single sentence: ‘I’ll sue your fuckin’ ass clean!’
They were that hungry for shit.
In a strange way he missed the Hoskinses. Claudia’s unpredictable lunacies had
led to many interesting discussions and incidents. Too bad she had proved such a
venomous snake. Most individuals he had dealt with this last year would so easily
put their friendliest face forward and offer friendship while they simultaneously
planned stabbing you in the back. ‘I’m good people, Jonny.’ Jonny could not remember Americans being like this. Had he been too blind to notice during his years
of youthful enthusiasm and emerging love for his new country? Or had it all changed
this drastically for the worse as a result of the drug culture and the decreased standard of living?
He could hear Claudia’s voice: ‘The country’s taken a dip. It’s gonna become a
lot worse before it gets any better!’
Or was it just that he was now living in a bad neighborhood? Maybe he himself
had turned into a grouchy, disillusioned individual accentuating the negative instead
of the positive? He couldn’t clearly sort out a reason, but figured that most likely it
was a combination of all of the above. Well, all he had left for all of this was a broken family, a wasted life and a dead dream.
Where had all his future gone? Again he could hear his father’s clear voice:
‘When you no longer have anything to look forward to, but start living in the past,
then your life is actually over.’
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And that had been Jonny’s situation for more than a quarter of a century. While
living in Norway he had had little of nothing to look forward to. All his live had been
a flashback of that day when he went down the gangway of ‘Oslofjord’ to Pier 42 in
New York City on July 1, 1961.
During this difficult period for Jonny Benjamin offered a ray of sunshine; some hope
of getting out of here. He informed Jonny that a Texas Corporation was about to give
an offer on the property.
“Good.”
Jonny showed little enthusiasm. All he felt was some sort of restrained relief. He
knew that selling real estate in America was a rather complicated affair.
“What are the chances?”
“There are no guarantees, but, when I get them this far, nine times out of ten it’s
a deal. I know my job. And I love it. This is a young woman making investments here
in Florida on behalf of her Texas parents. Don’t get me wrong: She’ll take care of
business first, but let me tell you, we’ve spent some crazy nights together. I’ll settle
the deal, all right. The rest is up to you. When it really boils down to it, the decision
to sell is entirely yours.”
“I’ve already decided to sell. If not, you would not have been here. How long
before the closing?”
“Two to three months depending how we can settle that second mortgage. If my
client wants the place, she’ll have no problems paying off the second mortgage
providing Ted doesn’t get too difficult.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“He’ll have to sell it at a discount, of course. Don’t worry about it, I’ll handle
that.”
“If you’re looking for any form of cooperation from Ted, I wouldn’t count on it.
He’s happy with status quo. He’s basically been getting his mortgages on time and
feels confident that I’m taking care of business. Besides, he hates Realtors.”
“Don’t worry about it. I can play rough if I have to.”
Jonny liked Benjamin. Contrary to Jonny he was open and friendly, at least on the
surface. He sometimes eagerly talked about his own private life and his many love
affairs.
He took Jonny out for a couple of meals in a nice restaurant and behaved more
like an old time acquaintance than a recent business associate. He portrayed the
typical slick American business man that Jonny did not always put too much trust in.
But at the same time there was something basically homely about him that disarmed
Jonny’s initial skepticism. Dark, average-featured with an open, friendly face. Stocky
without looking too heavy. Vividly smiling, and intelligent during conversations.
Benjamin knew how to use his charms, all right. He told Jonny about his first marriage that had only lasted about two months.
“Have you ever owned a Corvette, Jonny?”
“No. I was very close once. Back in my younger days up in New Jersey. But I was
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too tall for it. I couldn’t sit up straight so I gave it up. I ended up with a used Buick
Riviera. It was great in those days.”
“Shame on you! I simply loved my red Corvette convertible. It picked up more
pussy than I could handle. Like moths drawn to the flame. I was rolling in pussy
during those days! That’s how I met my first wife, Wanda. The most gorgeous bitch
on the beach! All she had on her mind was sex. Let me tell you, she was available
around the clock. On the beach, she didn’t care. If a MacDonald’s wasn’t too busy,
she’d go for it right there. She sometimes crawled over and let me fuck her while we
were cruising down the highway. I hardly know how we did it, but we did. Let me
tell you, those were the days! We were birds of a feather, so we decided to flock together. We got married. Stupid me. She was not marriage material, but I got what I
bargained for. I was pretty pussy whipped myself in those day. Young and crazy and
enjoying every minute of it! After we got married that was basically it. When I came
home tired and hungry after a hard day’s work, all she served for nourishment was
pussy. Lots of pussy! If I was hungry for food instead of pussy, she became infuriated. But after we had finished fucking, the marriage was also more or less finished.
After only a couple of weeks she ended up sidelining and we sort of split up a few
weeks later.
But we still kept the relationship alive. When she was all alone, she would call
me, and whenever I felt like it, I knew she had pussy for me. She finally shacked up
with her boss and sued for a divorce which I was only too happy to give her. — —
— Well, her I am giving you my life’s story. Now it’s your turn.”
“There’s not much to tell. I am divorced. One boy and a girl. They all live overseas.”
“What about your wife?”
“I haven’t got a wife. If I am divorced, I am divorced. I haven’t spoken to her
since.”
“It was that bitter, heh?”
“No. We agreed to remain friends. She was basically a good woman and a good
mother to my children, but after living as husband and wife for close to twenty years,
friendship felt rather unnatural, so we left it at that. You could say we have a very
neutral friendship as well as a very neutral hostility. We have no feelings for each
other.
“What about the kids?”
“I do not see much of them. They keep to their mother.”
“Any girlfriends?”
“No.”
“So, what the heck! You’re probably rolling in pussy right here, anyway, being
the landlord and everything. There’s a lot of prestige in fucking the landlord if you
know how to handle it right. I know what I’m talking about. I used to manage an
apartment building myself. I enjoyed a lot of strange and easily available pussy
during that period. I remember that Zola from up in New Jersey. A palm reader. A
psychic. Crazy! Every time she gave me a free reading her cards told her I was horny,
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so we usually ended up in bed. She got so demanding she refused to pay her rent
unless I fucked her as a bonus. Yeah, you’ve probably got more pussy than you can
handle.”
“I make it my business not to get too close to the tenants, especially the women.
Some of them are eager enough, but most of them want to do it for free rent. I’m not
getting into that.”
“Oh, come on! Don’t give me that crap. You’re a man, aren’t you? And they’re
all ripe for the picking. Especially those with their boyfriends or husbands out working. All you have to do is show them who’s boss. We have a good saying in the
industry: ‘First you get paid. Then you get laid.’ Dollars before numbers! But you
grab it all. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.”
“Well, I don’t feel too tempted to get into that. I meet few American women that
I’d feel attracted to. They’re mostly makeup and fingernails. Putty, paint ‘n powder.
Besides, I’d probably be one of those out working.”
Benjamin stared at Jonny, grinning.
“Ted was right, all right. You are something else.”
In Jonny’s world Benjamin was something else. A whoremonger of dimensions!
And sitting there flaunting it expecting admiration? Jonny’s mind worked differently.
He just sat there wondering if a man so totally void of sexual morality, could at all
be in possession of something remotely close to a business morale.
He was soon to find out.
Two weeks later Benjamin entered the office all smiles. He slammed a paper on
Jonny’s desk right in front of him.
“I did it! It’s time for a celebration. I did it! Edward Littlefield has finally accepted to sell his mortgage at a forty percent discount. We’re ready to sign the papers,
Jonny.”
“Oh? I didn’t even know we had an offer.”
“We sure do. We sure do! A full price offer at four hundred and forty-eight thousand dollars.”
“Oh? Well, I haven’t seen it. If it is such a magnanimous offer, how come you
keep it a secret?”
“Didn’t I give you a copy last time I was over here? — Oh, I must’ve forgot.
Sorry. Well, anyway, I needed Ted’s verification before I could call it an offer. I’ll
take you right over to my office and we’ll settle it.”
Benjamin behaved extraordinarily friendly that afternoon. He took Jonny over to
Sizzler’s for a half decent steak, then he drove him around showing him some of the
properties he had sold, they stopped by at the Brewery in downtown Fort Lauderdale
to taste different kinds of locally brewed beer. While enjoying their beer Benji, as
his friends called him, told him about Evil Eva, one of his Realtor associates who
sued him for having screwed up a deal when in reality it was her own fault. That
woman would simply use every trick in the book.
Then Benjamin took him up north on Federal to watch some dancers at a nude
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place called Pure Platinum, and Jonny had to admit that most of the dancers were
simply gorgeous.
“The best in the business, Jonny.”
Jonny remembered Jody. ‘I’m Jody. The best there is.’ She’d been a dancer, too,
with US Prime. Since the day he learned that Jody had been killed, he had never been
back to that place. Well, it was a ways off, anyway. And he had recently read in the
Sun-Sentinel that the place was in the process of being closed down because of underworld connections. Then he remembered Lothar and shivered.
Benjamin checked his watch.
“Time simply flies in good company. I didn’t realize it was this late. We’d better
hurry back to my office before they close. We’ll go over those papers, and, after
we’ve signed them, I’ll take you right back to the office.”
The ride from Fort Lauderdale down to Hollywood took about thirty minutes. Benjamin was talkative and friendly, maybe a bit too friendly, as he started telling Jonny
about his many trips over to Ted’s before he had finally accepted. Ted had left no
doubt in Benjamin’s mind that he hated Realtors and had been playing hard-to-get
just to aggravate him, but Ted had finally succumbed to reason. That Texas corporation would buy his mortgage for seventy-nine thousand dollars, a discount of
roughly forty-six thousand. The deal with Ted was good for this transaction only.
The negotiations had been real tough. He felt glad he wouldn’t have to do it over
again.
Benjamin also told him that, after he had married his second wife, Tanya, an immigrant from Israel, he had decided to give her a new home. If everything worked out
according to plans, they would be moving in in a few weeks.
“So you’re a Jew, then, since you married someone from Israel?”
“I’m not a Jew! I am an Israeli, and that’s quite a difference. Most people don’t
understand that. Do you know the difference between a Jew and an Israeli, Jonny?”
“I’ve never thought about it, but if you allow me to make a guess, it’s natural that
an Israeli must be someone from Israel while being a Jew has more to do with religion, like Judaism.”
“Correct. I love my countrymen, Jonny, but I don’t care much for the Jews. I walked into one of their synagogues once in search of something to believe in. Would
you believe me if I told you I had to pay to worship? Not to get in, but to sit down!
After I sat somebody came and charged me twenty dollars. For the seat. I came in
there because I had problems and was searching for something. I don’t know what.
I didn’t even have twenty to give them, so, thoroughly ashamed of myself, I had to
leave. I’ve never been back since. I don’t think I ever will. It gave me such a negative
attitude toward religion. Nobody calls me a Jew and remains my friend.”
“They’re not so much like religions any more. They function more like tax-free
business enterprises. I’ve often wondered where the money goes.”
“That’s exactly what I’ve been saying! They split it between themselves. They are
religious blood-suckers!”
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“You have to be blind not to see that. Like this Swaggart-guy running a business
and a whorehouse disguised as a congregation. On national TV! I have a hard time
understanding how all these businesses can legally exist without paying taxes. It pays
to hire God as chairman of the board, I guess. On top of everything else he does, he
does it for free. No fee, no shares. But they don’t give to the Emperor what is rightfully his.”
Benjamin laughed. “I take it you don’t believe much in God, heh?”
“I don’t know. If you can tell me what God is, I will let you know if I believe in
him.”
“God is, eh — he is almighty?”
“Supposedly one of his qualities. It tells me nothing.”
Benjamin sat silently thinking for a while before he spoke. He slowly nodded his
head.
“You’re right. I thought I knew. But I don’t. It’s really strange that I took it for
granted that I knew. I’ll talk to Tanya about this. You would love Tanya. She’s a very
good girl. I think you’d love to meet her. I’ll have her bring a friend over and we’ll
invite you for dinner. I’ve got to think of some way to drag you out of that dreadful
office. I can’t see how you can stand it day in and day out, month after month.”
“The thought of getting out of here keeps me going, I guess. I’d hate to lose my
investments.”
Jonny did not notice Benjamin’s sly smile, but he disliked the excessive friendliness in his voice.
“This is the day, my friend. This is the day you’ve been waiting for. Just sign your
name and you’re a free man.”
Jonny was placed at a huge, round table in the middle of the conference room and
left alone for more than twenty minutes before Benjamin reappeared.
“I’m sorry about this. I’m really sorry. My secretary seem to have misplaced the
papers.” He checked the time before he continued.
“It’s after closing hours, but they are getting in touch with her right now. Stupid
bitch. My friends are all eager to leave, but I’ve told them to wait. We need them for
witnesses. We need this settled today. The buyers are sitting over there in Houston
waiting to hear from their daughter. They need to know tonight or the deal may not
be accepted. They’re behind deadline on another offer and it can only be one or the
other. A nice motel with beach access up in Lauderdale Lakes. A gem, Jonny. A
gem.”
“So why don’t they settle for that deal, then, if it’s such a fantastic place?”
“They are true professionals. They deal with their brains, not their hearts. They
feel that your place has a better potential. Besides, I’ve used all my influence to get
this deal closed. That other property is with another Realtor.”
“I see. That makes sense.”
Then an overly painted powder box of a secretary rushed into the room bringing
a bundle of papers which she placed on the table.
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“I’m sorry about this, but we had to check every detail to make sure everything
was in order before he signs.”
“Very good.” Benjamin quickly sorted through the papers before he pulled out
four sheets and placed them in front of Jonny. “Here they are.” He handed Jonny a
pen. “You sign right here at the bottom of the page where it says ‘seller.’”
Jonny took the pen and placed it on top of the sheets.
“You don’t expect me to sign the papers just like that, do you? You haven’t even
given me a selling price yet.”
“Didn’t I? Didn’t I give it to you in the car? Didn’t I tell you it’s a full price offer?
I must have forgot. I’m sorry, Jonny, everything’s been so hectic. It’s a cash deal, you
know. After you sign, you’ll be able to put the cash right into your pocket and get
back to your loved ones. Your family.”
“Just give me the papers and I’ll read them when I get back home.”
Benjamin felt a surge of disappointment run through his body. Scheme number
one had failed. This stupid foreigner proved tougher than expected.
“Just a minute, Jonny, I’ll be right back.”
He returned with two more salespersons. He presented them as president and vice
president of the corporation. The president addressed Jonny.
“I hope we don’t give you the impression we’re rushing you, but we’ve had a hard
time pulling this deal through because of problems with Mr. Littlefield. We’re way
over deadline and buyer wants everything settled before he leaves the office tonight.
He has other options. I assure you it’s in everybody’s interest to have this settled immediately. If for any reason you’ll need additional information, I’ll send Benji over
to see you first thing tomorrow morning.”
The president again handed Jonny the pen and asked him eagerly for a signature.
“Please, you need to sign right here.”
“Maybe I’ll sign tomorrow after Benjamin and I have gone over the details. But
not until I know what I’m signing.”
Again Benjamin felt that surge of disappointment run through his body. He desperately needed to close this one. He was down to his last dollar and needed the cash
for his new house. Just the other day Tanya had spent more than forty thousand dollars on new furniture right over his head. Jonny’s signature right now meant one half
of twenty-seven thousand dollars. He couldn’t lose this one. He simply had to have
that cash. Routine number two had failed. He was losing confidence. Maybe he had
misjudged Jonny, but most of these foreigners usually succumbed when exposed to
professional business tactics. If attempt number three failed, he had probably lost.
He left the room while the president kept Jonny under pressure. The phone rang and
the secretary eagerly entered.
“Houston, Texas, on line six.”
The vice president rushed to answer the phone while the president kept persuading Jonny as to the advantages of settling as quickly as possible. It was already
after office hours. If not settled, that phone call from Texas was probably to cancel.
They had shown great patience, indeed.
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Benjamin now kept in the background. Under pressures like these six out of ten
signed, especially foreigners without prior experience with American business.
The vice president returned.
“Houston, Texas seeks confirmation of settlement. It’s urgent. We’re behind
deadline. It’s now or never.”
The president handed Jonny the pen.
“Tell them to hold on for confirmation. We’re in the process of settling.”
He placed the papers in front of Jonny. He, Jonny, took the pen and checked the
papers. Maybe it was better getting it done and over with, after all? He decided to
sign. Benjamin watched him from the distance and relaxed. They had him!
Then Jonny recalled another incident when he had signed a contract under this
kind of pressure. It had almost cost him everything he owned. His future, and also
that of his children. He no longer felt intimidated. He was angry.
“Houston awaits confirmation.”
Jonny threw the pen down on the table and stood.
“Tell them to shove it!”
Benjamin almost fainted from disappointment. He had failed.
Back at the office behind his desk Jonny finally got a chance to examine the contract.
Benjamin hadn’t spoken much on his way back to Fort Lauderdale and Jonny
wasn’t exactly singing ‘glory hallelujah,’ either. A couple of times Benjamin tried
to persuade him that signing the contract that evening would still be in his best interest, but Jonny was hardly in the mood to lend him an ear.
“Listen, Mr. Drazen, those were some real high pressure sales tactics. I am not
proud of myself for having been engaged in a similar scheme once, but that was exactly standard procedure when I used to sell timeshare on the Island of Lanzarote.”
More often then he liked to remember had he helped squeeze a guy into a corner
and refused to let him go until he had signed away large sums on worthless contracts.
Attorney Mitchell had used the same tactic at the closing when trying to annul
that agreement Ted had made with Jonny.
And, only a few weeks ago, he himself had used the same tactic on Claudia when
she signed the deal that allowed Jonny to fire her almost on the spot, after first having made that blunder of letting her read the lawyer’s proposal without first checking
its contents. But he had not pressed her. He had just been i little bit more cunning.
“Jonny, believe me, I did not try to pressure you. I did what I clearly believed to
be in your best interest.”
“Let me be the judge of that.”
They drove on in depressing silence. Benjamin wanted to make an appointment
with Jonny at their office building in Hollywood next morning, but Jonny refused.
He saw no need to repeat the seance he had just gone through.
“Ok, you win. I’ll see you in your office tomorrow at ten. Ten sharp!”
“Very well. And you’ll give me a copy of the entire contract so that I have time
to examine it before you arrive, or you’ll be wasting your time.”
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“There are a few things I need to explain, Jonny. I suggest we do it together.”
“If you’re unwilling to give me the original contract that you want me to sign in
order to make this a deal, let me tell you, don’t bother — —”
”Ok. Ok! I’ll give you a copy. But I resent this, Jonny. I feel you don’t trust me.”
“My God, aren’t we being just a little bit overly sensitive today. Ha, ha, ha. — I
will see you tomorrow.”
Almost right away the phone rang. Jonny quickly grabbed the receiver.
“Holiday Park Hotel, hello.”
“Jonny, it’s me, Ted. I’ve been calling you every ten minutes all afternoon. Did
you sell yet?”
“Hm. — Is anything bothering you? You sound awfully worried.”
“I’m too embarrassed to even think about it. He kept talking about getting the
whole mortgage paid off in one shot, and, for a while there, I must have lost my
power of evaluation. I suddenly found myself having signed away close to fifty thousand dollars! Nearly half the mortgage! Did you sell yet?”
“I’m actually studying their offer this very minute.”
“Can I ask what they’re coming up with?”
“I smell something fishy, but I don’t know yet. It seems to me they’re willing to
come up with the original asking price of $448,000.00, all cash.”
After a long silence Ted sounded discouraged. “I take it there is no chance you
will refuse an offer like that? Before you sign, can I ask that I may see you in the office?”
“When did I ever refuse to talk to you, Ted? Which is more than you can say. Ha,
ha, ha.”
“Thanks, Jonny. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”
He hung up.
Jonny continued examining the contract, but admitted to himself that he was not
experienced enough to understand its contents without checking into every detail.
The price of four hundred and forty-eight thousand dollars seemed undisputable, but
the line that said ‘unforseen second mortgage expenditures’ of seventy-nine thousand
dollars had him puzzled. The sum was neither added nor subtracted from the selling
price.
The contract did say that the offer was based on an ‘as is’ understanding, but added it was also based on the assumption that the roofs were in an ‘acceptable condition without need of repairs.’ Jonny envisioned that during due diligence of the buildings there wold be a demand that he covered the expenses to repair the roofs. The
standard there was anything but ‘satisfactory,’ except for the Cottage that he had had
so many problems with.
At the bottom line written in capital letters it said something that he did not understand. It was even underlined and circled in red: TOTAL VALUE OF DEAL —
$2,739.926.00.
The deal had been set up as an amortization that ballooned after eight year with
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an annual interest of eight percent but totally void of any cash payment. It all seemed
confusing. According to the original deal it was supposed to be an all cash transaction. And Jonny had taken it as a matter of fact that the loans would be deducted
before payment took place, but it said nothing about that in the contract.
As Jonny slowly but surely unraveled the calculations behind the projected figures, and the thinking behind them, he developed an almost uncontrollable anger.
After trying to pull a stunt like this, justice would be well served by Benjamin getting
a bullet between his eyes. He would definitely take it up with him tomorrow.
He stayed awake most of that night. He tossed and turned and tried to sleep, but
sleep would not come. The anger in him would not subside. Besides, that damned
stomach kept bothering him. He would not at all be surprised if he was getting an
ulcer, or something. Maybe aids? He remembered an HIV-positive he had watched
on television describing the symptoms: Diarrhea, sweating, vomiting, and a strange
numbness throughout his body. Jesus Christ! He was having the same symptoms,
damn it! Oh, God! Could it be Cadilla?
Jonny was sitting behind the desk reading a novel, and sweating, when Ted arrived
at ten minutes before nine the next morning. During his teenage years Jonny’s hunger
for the written word had been insatiable, but, from hard work and lack of piece of
mind, he hadn’t read a single novel in almost a quarter of a century.
During a trip to Waldenbook down at the Galleria he had picked up a paperback
called She Who Remembers by Linda Lay Schuler just by chance, and back in the
office he had started reading. Every night now, if he couldn’t sleep, he got up and
started reading, combined with some Scotch. The topic of pre-historic America had
always infatuated him, and the linguistic skills of the author thrilled him. She chose
the words in such linguistic harmony it was like following a ballet dancer across the
pages. He reluctantly put the book aside when Ted knocked on the door.
“Jonny, it’s me, Ted.”
“Come in. It’s open.”
“Did you sign that contract yet?”
“Good morning — no.”
“Eh — good morning! When will you sign?”
“It’s only a matter of minutes. I’m expecting Benjamin over here at about nine.
At least he said ‘first thing in the morning.’”
Ted kept fumbling for words. “Eh, is there any chance you might, eh, reconsider?” Without waiting for an answer he continued: “Consider this: If you sign that
contract, you sign away close to forty-five thousand dollars for me. I made a bloody
blunder.”
“Such a pity, Ted. You know I want to get out of here. You know I’ve tried to
sell. Maybe you should have accepted a good offer when you had one? If anybody
has signed money away from you, you must have done so yourself. And now you
blame me? Maybe you have been exposed to some pressure tactics?”
Ted chose not to hear his last remark.
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“I made a bloody mistake! I know I wasn’t much help last time, but, if at all possible that you might reconsider, I will make it up to you.”
“Like how?”
“I haven’t considered, but you’ve learned to know me as a reasonable person. We
could form a partnership.”
“Thanks, but no thanks. It’s sometimes hard enough to make up my own mind
without having to worry about yours as well. You know I want out, not in.”
“Are you at least willing to consider something?”
“I will not commit myself at this point in time, but I will let you know after I talk
to Benjamin. All I can promise is that I will call you before I sign.”
“You might think that I’m trying to use scare tactics, Jonny, but you do realize
that this guy, Benjamin, is a Jew, don’t you?”
“Benjamin is not a Jew, Ted. He’s an Israeli. He would take great offence if he
heard you call him a Jew. — By the way, Ted, why would that be scare tactics?”
Ted was not in the mood for contradictions.
“Through my lawyer I have also checked on the buyers. They’re a bunch of Jews
as well. Birds of a feather, Jews flock together, you know. They have some sort of
scheme going on. Every time Benjamin thinks he’s got a steal, he gets in touch with
that woman. They’re real buddy-buddies.”
“Yeah. So I hear. Every time he’s done a good job for her, she gives him a good
fuck as a bonus.”
Ted’s face turned red.
“Eh, I wouldn’t exactly put it like that. Eh, eh — how do you know that?”
“Benjamin told me so. Proud of it, too. Most Americans don’t exactly try to hide
their shit, you know. They throw it right in your face. You know that.”
Ted was left speechless. His trump card had gone down the drain.
“Well, Ted, let me just say this: I promise not to sign anything without calling you
first. But when I do call, you’d better come up with a good proposition.”
“I do not know exactly. I’ll think of something.”
“Well, here’s a suggestion for you: Make that second mortgage assumable and we
have a deal. If not, you may have lost your close to 50 000 dollars. How is that for
a proposition?”
There was a long silence at the other side of the table. Jonny watched Ted getting
red from his bald head to below his beer belly.
“You’re a hard man to deal with, Jonny. I’ll consider it and let you know tomorrow.”
“Maybe you ought to make that decision right now? Benjamin may be here any
time, and then he is bringing the contract ready to be signed.”
Ted stood. He looked at Jonny with scepticism.
“I’ll call you as soon as I get home. I need to talk to Andy.”
Jonny could have told Ted there and then that he had no intention of signing. Not
now. Not ever. If not for the unpleasant consequences, he would have loved to put
a bullet between Benjamin’s eyes. But he didn’t tell Ted. He simply loved watching
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him fry in his own fat. And now he even had a chance of getting that second mortgage settled.
To Jonny’s dismay Ted was still in the office when Benjamin approached. They
almost went at each other’s throats, and Jonny had to intervene to keep them from
starting a brawl. Ted used his intelligence and decided to leave, but Benjamin had
worked up an anger.
“That stupid faggot. He simply hates Realtors. Says he’d love to see them all out
of business. Yeah. Some Realtor must have played a real dirty trick on you. Having
made your acquaintance hasn’t exactly turned you around, either, I would think.”
Ted left without uttering a single word. He had a sinister look across his newly
shaven face.
Benjamin sat down on the chair in front of Jonny. He had a hard time getting
started, and Jonny was not in the mood to help him along. Jonny felt heavy today.
His mind worked slow and his anger still lingered. He hadn’t slept all night. The whisky was no longer doing the trick for him, and he worried about being seriously ill.
Benjamin started stammering something about the contract. Jonny wasn’t sure
what.
“I didn’t hear you.”
“Eh, eh, it’s quite eh, an offer, heh? Full asking price and — eh, what have you?
It’s a good contract. A release from purgatory, I would say.”
Jonny was not impressed.
“All depends what you need it for. If found in the bushes when needing to clean
my ass, I’d call it a revelation.”
“Jonny, that’s not fair. At least let me explain.”
“Yes, indeed. What is that sum of seventy-nine thousand dollars called ‘second
mortgage expenditures?’”
Shit faced and stammering Benjamin had a hard time finding the right words.
“Eh, it is, eh, well, it’s the balance of the second mortgage after Ted has deducted
his discount.”
“Ha, ha, ha. I figured as much. What you’re actually trying to do is deduct the
balance of the second mortgage from my equity instead of the gross selling price?”
“With an offer like that, Jonny, you’d have to come up with something. At least
we no longer have the second mortgage to worry about. That’s one hundred and
fifteen thousand dollars eradicated. You’re still left with three hundred and sixtynine thousand dollars, Jonny. It’s a coup.”
“Really? And how do you expect me to pay for commission? That’s another
twenty-seven thousand dollars not mentioned in the contract.”
“It makes no sense talking about commission at this stage. At least let’s settle the
deal first.”
“Good. If you promise to forget all about your commission, I promise never to
mention it again.”
“I cannot do that, but the commission is irrelevant. We must settle the deal first.”
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“Stop insulting whatever little intelligence I might be in possession of. It will only
do you harm. — Now, after I deduct the twenty-seven thousand dollars, I’m down
to three hundred and forty-two. Then comes the question of roofs. First you tell me
they will take it over in ‘as is’ condition, but then you take exception of the roofs
which you know are in a rather derelict condition. How do you plan to settle that?”
“That’s not a problem. We’ll get an estimate.”
“Which you have probably done already?”
“Just roughly.”
“What do you mean, roughly? Either you have an estimate or you don’t.”
“Roughly fifteen.”
“Thousand?”
“Yes.”
“So I’m down to three twenty-seven. After paying off last year’s property taxes,
plus the proration of this year’s, plus closing costs, I’m down roughly another
twenty-five. Now we’re down to three hundred and two thousand. Is there anything
else? Anything I might have forgotten to deduct?”
“Eh, yes, you’ve kept the discount of the second mortgage. The forty-six thousand
dollars discount passes to the buyer, not the seller.”
Jonny thought about this, and accepted. At least that one made sense.
“So, after I deduct the first mortgage of one hundred and eighty thousand dollars
I’m down to seventy-six thousand.?”
Benjamin, the son of happiness, or more appropriate, Benoni, the son of sorrow,
looked down into the desktop.
“Yes. I have seventy-five thousand in my book.”
“And now you’re ready to deduct the second mortgage discount, right?”
Benjamin answered cautiously.
“Well, the point is, we’re gonna have to take it from somewhere. Right?”
“Great! And since the discount comes off the total selling price, I’m left owing
you $44.000,00, which you’ll deduct from the balance. That leaves me with less than
$30.000,00 before closing costs.
And, since you want full commission, even on the discount, you deduct it from
the bottom and not the top. Now, why the fuck didn’t you give me those figures in
the first place?”
“Company policy.”
“Well, I have one more question for you. I am left with less than twenty-five thousand dollars on paper, but no cash. Then, how the devil can you claim that this deal
is worth $2,739.926.00?”
“That’s very simple. It’s the projected full value of the deal twenty years from
now. Four hundred and forty-eight thousand dollars plus twenty years of interests
and interest’s interest, and, before you know, you’re a multi millionaire.”
“But Jesus Christ, I’m left with twenty-five thousand dollars that balloon in eight
years. All I’m getting is a little over two hundred, hundred, dollars each month, and
that’s it. All that amounts to, even if you figure twenty years, is roughly fifty thou-
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sand dollars.”
“It’s nothing but a total evaluation of the deal. There is no mention in the contract
that all that money passes to you.”
“Didn’t you just tell me that in twenty years I’ll become a multi millionaire?
You’re right. A dead broke one! Thank you very much.”
Jonny was seething with controlled rage. Benjamin was too eager to notice: “It’s
not a bad deal, Jonny. The sooner you sign the better off you are. You’ll become a
free man!”
Jonny stood, his hands shaking as he took the contract between his fingers and
slowly tore it into shreds, one by one. His voice shook.
“I know you like to be called an Israeli and hate the expression Jew, but let me
tell you, you’re the worst fucking Jew I’ve ever come across as long as I’ve lived.”
He saw the hurt and disappointment in Benjamin’s eyes. Jonny didn’t tell him he
was also the only Jew he had come across in his lifetime. At least that he knew of.
Well, except for that animal he had worked with as a deck boss when king crab
fishing up in Alaska. A sleazy animal called David, and proud of being called a Jew.
But David Stein was a different story.
Jonny felt thoroughly disenchanted by the fact that Benjamin had shown such
contempt for him by trying to play that trick on him, but at the same time he understood. Company policy. You’ve got to follow company policy or you’re out. Everything for the Green Almighty. Friendship and respect were none-existent unless
measurable in dollars and cents.
Jonny called Ted to suggest that if he would make that second mortgage assumable as suggested in the first place, he would in return agree not to sign the deal.
Ted eagerly accepted, but when Jonny asked to have it in writing the very next
day, Ted reneged.
Benjamin had informed him over the phone that the deal was dead.
When Jonny pushed him for the agreement Ted acted offended and told him he
was always good for his word.
Well, Jonny had experienced otherwise.
One day Ted stopped by in the office to tell Jonny that he would stop every possible deal as long as ‘that bloody Jew, Benjamin’ as he phrased himself, remained
the realtor.
That was another blow to Jonny. He had signed a twelve month contract with the
Business Investment Corporation of Hollywood and still had eight months to go.
Jonny now definitely felt himself ‘between a rock and a hard place,’ as Claudia
so often had expressed herself. Yes, he was fully aware of that right now, and that
might be his situation far into the future!
Two days later the Holiday Park Hotel became the victim of another successful
attempt at sabotage. All the electrical wires in the pump room were cut inside the
electrical boxes causing both the pump and the automatic feeders to shut off. The
pool water turned green and filled with algae amazingly quick in the tropical climate
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when exposed to chemical imbalances.
And, to Jonny’s confusion, the pool inspector was there the very next morning!
After having given him yet another fine, she closed the pool immediately. And now
the pool would not be opened until the fines had been paid in full. And this time the
incident would be considered repetitious, and therefore the fine was increased to
$1.200,00
He had to tear down most of the wallboards in order to have everything rewired.
That did not come out too bad and only cost him another 900 dollars.
The pool man was not in doubt. He almost guaranteed that the Hoskinses were the
ones behind it. With the exception that it might also be that square guy previously
living in fifteen. But he had not had any negative experiences with anybody but
them. Jonny, on the other hand, could think of many others who were out seeking revenge. Yes, it could be anybody. In the same way as Kirk, also Eric remained in the
vicinity. And Jake was no longer living with his Jewish woman and the twins.
Damned! Could it be Ronald who was behind all this — paid by Jake?
Jonny dreaded the Easter Holidays which marked the end of the season. He was still
stuck in purgatory heading for another hot and humid summer among all these
unpredictable addicts, pushers, prostitutes and lunatic tenants. Although he now had
more authority in evictions because of the motel licence, at the same time it helped
him very little in those situations when the only thought on a tenant’s mind was
another hit before they sneaked out in the middle of the night without paying rent.
To hell with food, rent and family. ‘Fuck the landlord! I need a hit, man! Well, at
least this way he got them out of the building.’
At least he would be able to get rid of unwanted tenants. It was Rick who had
been behind all that devilry, and it had been an experience to learn from. Now that
he had the tool to get rid of them, he made sure they would not get too far behind on
rent! If anybody gave him promises without keeping them, they would be out of the
building the very next day. But the many evictions caused more threats and more
aggressiveness than ever before. Yet Jonny tried to manage as best he could without
calling the police.
He figured he had ‘seen it all’ last summer. He also figured that this summer
would become a definite improvement compared to last summer.
But, oh Lord, was he ever wrong!
It started out with many of the tenants leaving the Hotel for cheaper accommodation on the beach now that season was over. Before he knew he had #15, 25, 10,
22 and 20 empty. And he was unable to fill them up like he had done before.
He let Freddy and Carla move into #22 together with Carla’s little daughter,
Carita. With so many blacks living on the property it also proved more difficult to
rent to whites, but Jonny omitted that problem to some extent by taking in more
Latinos than before. South Florida was still suffering from all the tourist killings
causing more Europeans to stay away. And, on top of everything else, the Canadians
started switching their tourist destinations to Cuba and Mexico instead of Florida,
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causing business to slow down additionally. Jonny sometimes regretted having
turned seasonal. He remembered his uncle’s old saying: ‘It’s like pissing in your
socks because your feet are cold.’ At the same time he realized the it had probably
saved the property from foreclosure — at least for now.
Benjamin called a couple of weeks later telling him he had a prospective buyer,
but warned him not to get his hopes too high. He proved right. Ted quickly killed the
possibility of a settlement by telling Benjamin he would not accept the new owner.
Jonny asked Benjamin to release him from the contract as a result of Ted’s refusal
to work with him, but now Benjamin wanted revenge and refused to accommodate.
“Sorry. Company policy, Jonny.”
Then Jonny sent a letter to the company telling them the contract would not be
renewed. Maybe that would give them a push in the behind, but Jonny couldn’t see
how, with Ted being so reluctant and downright hostile. He felt stuck in quicksand
up to his nose. It seemed like only a matter of time before he would be pulled under.
One evening Glenda stopped by to see him in the office. They had decided to
move. Except for Jillian, who would like to stay on with her younger sister, Valery.
Freeman was working as a painter at a shipyard and had been offered free accommodation if he wanted to fix up an old houseboat belonging to the yard. They had used
the houseboat to shack up temporary contractors, but had now invested in contractors’ barracks and offered Freeman to live in the houseboat. He would be stupid not
to accept. It would take two weeks before they would be ready to move, but they
wanted to give Jonny ample time. Freeman was pleased with the deal, but Glenda
resented moving to a houseboat. And she would need longer to get to work. Besides,
Jonny has been good to them.
Then she warned Jonny not to rent to her daughters.
“I might as well tell you this: I’ve had a lot of problems with my children as
they’ve matured. My oldest son’s been in jail for the last three years on a drug-bust.
He got arrested in a police shootout. A drug-deal gone bad. He’s still got six more
years to go. Freeman refuses to have his name mentioned in his presence and swears
on the Bible he will never talk to him again. My second oldest, Claire, started out the
same way, but I think she’s over the worst of it by now. When she met her husband
she managed to pull herself out of it. They’re back to normal now and only smoke
marihuana. And that is not as unhealthy as smoking cigarettes. They also have three
children to care about.
But then there’s Jillian, my number three. She’s something else. Started hanging
out in her very early teens and developed a strong addiction. Then she started pushing. Big time. Mostly cocaine. Pure. She kept it on a small shelf under the kitchen
sink. But then she got busted. She claimed innocence and put all the blame on me.
And since she was my own daughter, I accepted.
I spent three full years in prison for her. You should have seen Freeman. He went
into one of those post Vietnam traumas and almost killed me. I swear to God, Jonny,
I didn’t have a whole bone left in by body. I spent two months in the hospital before
they put me behind bars.
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I forgave her knowing she was totally burned out on cocaine. But Freeman still
has something to look forward to. Three years I spent in prison! Do you know what
she tried to do when I was finally released? She tried to kill me. After a nasty argument over drugs, we must have been fighting for hours, I sat down in a lounger on
the front yard. Before I knew she came bursting through the picket fence in a huge
Cadillac heading straight toward me. The lounger was shattered to bits and pieces
before she headed straight for the patio and entered the living room through the wall.
Even today I feel God must have pulled me out of that chair because I managed to
roll out of it just seconds before she turned it into kindling wood.
This time I pressed charges and she went to jail. She’s been out about half a year
now. She’ll spend the night with any available man just for a single snort of cocaine,
and play any kind of dirty trick to get things her way. I’m surprised she hasn’t come
on to you yet. — Or has she?
Well, I still love her. She’s my daughter. But I do not want her to bring Valery
into this. She’s only thirteen, and the normal and stable one among my daughters.
I’m convinced Jillian’s only waiting to drag her into her own world of cocaine and
prostitution. Freeman is too dumb to see it. He’s only looking forward to the day
when all the children have moved out. Promise me, Jonny, don’t rent to them. If you
do, you will never see a dime, anyway. Jillian’s been evicted at least a dozen times
for partying and not paying rents. Don’t rent to them, Jonny, please, promise me!”
Thinking of Jillian he remembered one of his mother’s many sayings:
‘You have obedient parents, children.’
Jonny nodded. “No problem. On the contrary; thanks for telling me.”
Glenda left in tears as she turned to Jonny, exclaiming: “Being blessed with many
children may sometimes be a terrible curse!”
Two weeks later, as they were all in the process of moving, young Valery entered the
office with Jillian behind her. Valery was developing into a very attractive and sexy
young woman. Only thirteen. Still, her small breasts were firm, her waist narrow and
her hips inviting with a slender body and long legs. Jillian was fat and flabby from
living a life of decadence.
“We want to rent the apartment after our parents leave, Jonny.”
Valery smiled her most inviting smile.
“Well, don’t you think you’re a little too young to start living on your own?”
“I’m old enough to do whatever I want. If you don’t believe me, try me out.”
“I’m sure you feel on top of the world, but you’re still too young.”
“No, I’m not. Just put the apartment in Jillian’s name and nobody will know.”
“Sorry. She’s on everybody’s shit list.”
“Never mind about that. Why don’t you keep it in your name, then? — and you’ll
have a place to stay, as well, instead of sleeping in the office.”
“That’s not an option. More than anything else, Valery, I value my privacy.”
“I understand. That’s why we also want our own place.”
“Too bad I can’t do it. I’ll be straight forward and honest with you: I’ve promised
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your mother not to rent to you.” The two girls exchanged glances.
“Wait in the office, Jonny, we’ll soon be back.”
They left Jonny feeling stupid for having told them. He had overplayed his directness and honesty.
None of the girls returned. Instead, a little after five, Freeman Olden came bursting into the office slamming four hundred-dollar bills on the desk.
“This is two weeks rent money for my daughters! Give me a receipt in my name
and make sure you treat them right! If not I promise to give you the same treatment
we used to give those gooks down in Vietnam.”
Jonny felt like telling him that ‘those gooks down in Vietnam’ has shown the
world how to treat Americans, but he let it be. Something in Freeman’s eyes made
Jonny do exactly as he asked. The two girls invited Jonny to two of their pot parties,
but Jonny declined. Well, he stopped by one evening for a piece of cake, which he
ate with long teeth. They never paid a dollar rent, so four weeks later Jonny had them
evicted. They left owing more than three hundred dollars in back rent.
Benjamin stopped by at the office bringing a French Canadian couple. They showed
genuine interest, but again Ted obnoxiously refused to even consider the offer. Benjamin acted as if nothing had happened and pretended he was still a friend. Jonny did
not like people like Benjamin. He was pissed at Ted as well, but could better relate
to his reactions, especially after he told Jonny how they had tried to foreclose on him
by pulling two of the mortgages from right under his nose only weeks after he had
bought Big Daddy.
Jonny decided to give Benjamin a fact to chew on.
“You know, Mr. Drazen, the fact that we do not have an assumable mor1gage, is
now basically your falt.”
“Stop bullshitting me!”
“That’s no bullshit. Ted worried about losing so much of his mortgage through
this deal, and he more or less begged me on his knees not to sign the contract. I agreed to do so if he would make his loan assumable as it was supposed to be according
to the closing papers. And we were about to sign that deal in writing. But then you
were dumb enough to tell him the deal was dead. And he reneged. You are a good
bullshitter, and that you need to be to be a good realtor. But you should also learn to
know when to keep your mouth shut!”
Benjamin was no longer smiling. His mouth popped open and an expression of
despair crossed on his face.
“Jesus, Jonny. I deserve a bullet through my brain!”
Then, three days after an agonizing April had turned into a muggy May, Jonny was
exposed to the same kind of tactics! Again Ted was the one to tell him over the
phone. He had been informed through his lawyer that Attorney Robert J. Welsh was
preparing to foreclose on the Holiday Park Hotel.
The property taxes were now delinquent and had been auctioned off on the open
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marked through a government delinquent property taxes auction. The company still
had ample time to pay according to city regulation, but there was a clause in the first
mortgage unknown to Jonny that if delinquent, the property could be foreclosed on
by the first mortgage holder.
All of this struck Jonny like lightning out of a clear sky. When he finally felt that
the economy was more or less under control, at least for now, everything seemed to
collapse around him. Ted called and asked to see him in the office. They had a lot to
talk about.
Ted did not show that day, or the next. Jonny tried to call Mr. Welsh for some information, but Attorney Welsh’s secretary, she who lived just across the street from the
hotel, informed him that Mr. Welsh was very busy for the time being.
But could be reached for consultations if Jonny was represented by a lawyer.
Uff, so he had to hire a lawyer just to talk to this guy!
He called Ted a few times, but nobody answered the phone, except one of those
stupid answering machines.
He called Benjamin to set up an appointment, but the secretary told him Benjamin
was busy closing a major deal. He would not be available for the next two, three
days.
All Jonny could do was wait.
He was interrupted late in the afternoon by two police officers looking for a
young couple, Elizabeth May Hardy and her boyfriend, Ray Cartwright, and their
little baby girl supposedly living on the premises.
“Yes, in twenty-five.”
“Thank you. It’s the HRS.”
“Oh, God, they’re losing that little girl?”
“Sad, but true. The father got arrested on a cocaine charge last night while the
mother was out prostituting. They’re both heavily addicted with a police record. The
little girl was left home all alone most of the night.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“You play, you pay.”
The officer nonchalantly left the office. From the office window Jonny watched
some heart rendering scenes as the HRS-workers, escorted by the police, entered the
apartment and left with the little girl. The mother kept hanging on to then in an
attempt to prevent it.
The mother desperately hurried to the office, crying, anxiously asking to use the
phone.
“I thought you were arrested?”
“Yes, last night. I was released this afternoon.”
She called around for more than an hour, but left the office as desperate as when
she entered. They were three weeks behind on rent, so Jonny saw no alternative but
to evict them.
Yeah, to some life’s a bitch, all right. He was sweating himself.
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Then Ted finally did call him.
“Jonny, it’s me, Ted. It’s urgent. I need to see you right away.”
“At ten in the evening?”
“It’s urgent.”
“Ok. You know where to find me.”
“Thank you. I’ll be right over.”
They had a long talk that night. Jonny learned some intricacies about American
business unknown also to Ted until he had talked to his lawyer earlier the same day.
After six months property taxes became delinquent and were then sold by the city on
the open marked through auctions like any other commodity. Even the interest rate
were decided from auction to auction and could wary from a couple of percentage
points to as much as twenty. In Jonny’s case the Holiday Park Hotel had been sold
at four percent, which would cost him a little under one thousand dollars extra when
he finally paid his taxes.
Very often when somebody bought debts like that, they planned to eventually go
in and take the property over at a steal. Usually at one half, and sometimes as low as
one third of market value. According to the law the one being foreclosed upon had
no legal prerogative to be informed of the auction, or a possible foreclosure, until he
actually received the foreclosure papers. Then he would get nowhere except through
the efforts of a lawyer.
The mortgage holders, on the other hand, had to be informed. That’s why Ted and
been advised through his lawyer while Jonny had been kept in the dark. Ted told
Jonny that Robert J. Welsh had even been obnoxious enough to suggest that he, Ted,
came up with the close to ten thousand dollars in delinquent taxes.
Ted snuffed: “That’ll be the day.”
Jonny just shook his head. “I see no reason for this hysteria. I’ve been informed
by my accountant that I have until November to pay.”
“Normally, yes. But this property has a history. Before I took it over it had previously been in foreclosure and Mr. Welsh was blamed by the first mortgage holder for
being too lenient. That’s why this new clause has been added in the mortgage deed.
Now he’s sitting there with a stop watch to guard himself from further criticism. I
have to admit, Jonny, that I find it rather irresponsible to enter into a venture like this
without reserve capital for emergency incidents.”
“Even with a million dollars in my account, I’m not so sure it would be in my
interest to spent it. I feel it would be like throwing good money after bad, and still
keep wondering when next time I would be needed to quench the fire. I desperately
want to get away from this hellhole. Maybe this is the opportunity I’ve been waiting
for? I’ve been up against overwhelming odds since day one here. And you know that.
I realize that that milkcow you so generously handed over to me was nothing but a
bloated goat. My situation has developed into a dilemma. You will not make your
mortgage assumable, you keep refusing to even consider any of the deals Benjamin
comes up with, and Benjamin is determined to hold on to the contract to the bitter
end.
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Maybe I’m ready to just let it go. Another example, Ted, that fair fails and evil
prevails. It seems to be the American way, these days. And maybe a bit British, too.”
“But, Jonny, you’d lose your investment. Just walking away like that would be
irresponsible.”
“I’ll take it under advisement, as they say in a court of law. But I hardly know any
more. It’s hard to survive in a snake pit unless you’re a snake.”
“Jonny, don’t do anything irrational just now. Give me some time to look into it,
please. Maybe through my lawyer we’ll find a solution.”
“What exactly’s on your mind, Ted?”
“Through my lawyer we might be able to postpone the foreclosure proceedings.”
“Why would you want to do that?”
“I’d hate to see you lose your investment, Jonny.”
“So would I. However, of two evils — ”
”Don’t do anything irrational. I’ll keep in touch. Through my lawyer I will think
of something.”
It was not until three days later, when Benjamin stopped by with another prospective
buyer, that Jonny learned the full ramifications of Ted’s visit. After Jonny had told
Benjamin his dilemma, and the fact that Ted had offered to help in a difficult situation, Benjamin suddenly started laughing.
“Good, Jonny, good. It seems to me you’ve finally got that faggot by the balls.”
“Bullshit. I’m losing my whole investment, and the first thing on your mind is getting that faggot by the balls.”
“Don’t you understand, Jonny? Ted has a lot more to lose in this than you have.
His entire mortgage. All he can do is sit on his faggot ass and wait it out. At least you
have a few options.”
“Such as?”
“A foreclosure takes time, Jonny. From three to six months. If you chose to fight
them in a court of law, it could drag on for several more months, maybe a year. If
you’ve got a good lawyer, that is. In the meantime you start skimming the corporation, and, by the time the foreclosure goes through, you just disappear back to
Norway. Cut your losses to a minimum. Which will leave Ted behind with nothing
to do but suck his faggot thumb.”
“It does not make sense. With a marked value of four hundred and fifty thousand
dollars the property has a lot of equity. There’s enough equity to cover all debts.”
“Why the fuck do you think they’re trying to foreclose on you, Jonny? They’re
trying to make a killing, that’s why. If this lawyer is successful in foreclosing, he’ll
make a bundle. But let me tell you, the way you’ve paid all your bills on time there’s
no guarantee a judge will rule in their favor. On the contrary, I’ve seen motions of
foreclosure denied on weaker grounds than this. But if they win, they’ll slaughter
you. If this lawyer is at all a half ass professional real estate attorney, which I think
he is, he’s got a group of investors formed already specializing in acquiring distressed properties at roughly one third of market value. That means that after the first
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mortgage have been paid off, and the attorney has got all of his expenses covered,
and believe me, in a situation like that they will sure know how to write their bills,
there will be little left for anybody, else. Even the second mortgage holder might be
left with nothing! I’m willing to bet that the person sitting on your property taxes
right now is part of such an investment group.
You also have another option: I know an investor like that myself. He is less of
a vulture than most. He will go in and take over the property and pay off the mortgages. We could squeeze Ted down to fifty percent that way. Then I’ll sell it for you,
and let you keep some of the profit. After all expenditures paid, of course. He’ll
charge you about fifteen percent interest and three full points in finance charges, in
this case roughly nine thousand dollars. I’d like to see Mr. Welsh’s face then. Just
think about it. You will, of course, have to reconsider that cancellation. We’ll keep
in touch!”
“So, I might get to keep my two and a half millions, then, after all? Ha, ha, ha, ha,
ha. — I’ll think about it. But not now. —How’s your new home coming along?”
“Right on schedule. Luckily Tanya’s away on a business trip for the next two
weeks. Money goes too fast with her around. Right now she’s on a business convention in Chicago with her boss.”
“In Chicago? With her boss? For two weeks?”
“I know what you’re thinking. I’m thinking the same, but I don’t want to let it
come between us. I’ve been planning to ask her, but I’m afraid of the answer. Tanya
is a good, old girl and I love her. — Gotta go. I’ll keep in touch.”
Yes, now Jonny understood better why Ted was so eager to help him out. This
money gallop had proved more complicated than he had bargained for. And that’s
what it was to most of them — a money gallop.
Ted’s refusal to make the second mortgage assumable was about to backfire!
When Ted called back a few days later, Jonny received the first good news in weeks;
a ray of sunshine, some hope, so to speak. In reality it was nothing but a stay of execution. Ted’s lawyer had managed to reach an agreement with Mr. Welsh that would
allow Jonny until Nov. 1 to pay the delinquent property taxes. Actually the law was
mandatory and could not be changed by individual agreements. The setup included
Ted’s participation at Mr. Welsh’s office when they signed the deal, plus the need
for Jonny to come up with nine hundred dollars to pay for ‘services rendered’ by Mr.
Welsh. Jonny had no choice but to accept. But it was Ted who got the last word.
“Do you think you can handle it by then, Jonny?”
“You know as well as I do that summers are economic torture and this year is
exceptionally slow. The tourists keep shying away from South Florida, it seems. All
I can promise, is I’ll do my best.”
“Make sure you keep the agreement, Jonny. Nov. 1. is absolute deadline! It would
be sad if you should lose your investment.”
“Thank you for your consideration. But it would be even sadder if you should lose
yours.”
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339
During this hectic period some incidences happened that further shook Jonny’s
world. On Monday morning, while in the midst of reading the morning news and
enjoying a cup of black coffee, he noticed Lothar Vernon Mezzacapo staring at him
from the third page. Dark, eerie and evil!
Jonny’s hand shook with excitement as he started reading the article. It finally
seemed like the FBI had prevailed. Well, they usually did. Especially if you’re on top
of their list. Lothar, alias Martin Vernon White, had been arrested in the city of Las
Vegas after one of the prostitutes at the Meat Farm had been found with her throat
slit, and her silicon implants cut open and scattered about. After that incident it was
only a matter of time before the FBI had him cornered. He was arrested while wasted
on cocaine in his own luxurious penthouse apartment just off the Strip in Las Vegas.
Jonny did not understand the legal ramifications behind it, but Lothar Mezzacapo
was scheduled to stand trial in Carson City in a matter of weeks. He felt relieved,
though. With the trial being held that far away nobody would even dream of dragging
him into the witness stand all the way from Fort Lauderdale.
Was he wrong again! As he returned from his standard lunch over at Arby’s, he
noticed two well dressed gentlemen waiting for him outside the office, one being the
same guy he had met before, but with a different partner.
“How are you doing, Mr. Hell?”
“Fine — I — eh, hope.”
“I guess you’ve heard the good news — we finally caught up with our old friend.”
“Yah. I just read the paper.” Jonny sighed heavily. “I guess there’ll be no need for
me all the way in Carson City.”
“Wrong. That’s why we’re here.” The agent handed Jonny a sealed envelope.
“This is a preliminary subpoena to make sure you’ll stick around. We’ve checked on
your immigration status which seem rather, eh, let me put it, undetermined. I also
have to insist that you surrender your passport.”
“My passport?”
“Yes, please. May we go inside?”
“Sure, but I do not keep my passport in the office. I have a safe deposit box over
at my bank.”
“I must insist you make it available without undue delay.”
“Is that really necessary?”
“Just regular procedure. We’ll be keeping in touch from now on.”
“Jesus Christ! Well, I have to pick it up first. Come back tomorrow morning after
nine.”
“Good. You will hear from us.”
When Jonny went over to pick up his passport next morning he was informed by the
desk clerk that two gentlemen had already been there last evening with proper papers
to search his safe deposit box. Jonny opened to check inside, and true enough, his
passport was no longer very safely deposited. If they didn’t trust him with that
passport after he had played with open cards, he might just as well tell the worst of
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lies when hitting that witness stand. When put on the stand he decided he would tell
nothing. If ever he got that far. Although it still seemed so unreal, he admitted to
himself that he was scared. Someone had told him, eh, was it Darryl on the
Greyhound?— that you could trust nobody. Not even the police. He was hoping for
his own life’s sake that the FBI might be different, but why the hell should they give
a shit when nobody else did?
The poolman greeted Jonny as he returned from the bank.
“It seems we’ve had another break-in. Both chemical feeders have been smashed
to pieces and the new pump has been disconnected and destroyed. All the wires are
cut.”
Jonny just shook his head. A foreclosure did not seem like much of a tragedy in
this environment, but more like a release from purgatory, like Benji had said. But
what good would it do him? He was stuck now, anyway. In the land of the free he
was no longer free. In the home of the brave he had lost his bravery. In God’s own
country all he had experienced was the agony and the hopelessness. And a dead
dream! Fair fails. Evil prevails. It was the same all over. The only difference seemed
the way it was administered and executed. Yeah. Fair fails. Evil prevails.
A man without beliefs is a man without a hope.
A man without a hope is a man without a dream.
A man without a dream is a man without a future.
A man whose future has become his past will lose the spark of survival.
Only dread and death remains.
The collapse of his American dream was such a heavy blow to Jonny. He had
lived his life for this! Now he could no longer look forward, but back. Back to the
sixties. And reminisce.
His past had become his future!
He felt like puking. All the harking and coughing irritated him. That fucking ulcer, or whatever, kept getting worse. It bothered him every day now!
He was plunging toward the ground with broken wings.
Claudia’s excited voice entered into his memories: ‘That’s how eagles fall, Jonny!
With broken wings.”
Then he remembered one of his father’s sayings:
“When you no longer have anything to look forward to, but are only able to look
back, then life is over.”
And Jonny did not look forward to getting back to Norway. He was only able to
look back to that day when he so proudly walked down the gangway to Pier 42 in
New York City!