“Good game?” the big plug-ugly fourteen year old said to Sally, coming up, sitting beside her, and grabbing Kurt’s hand so that he couldn’t rise. I looked him over. He’d uneven eyebrows and an almost completely healed black eye. He weighed at least thirty or forty more pounds than me. Sally didn’t answer and shook with fear.
“Hey slut, my friend asked you if you had a nice game,” his companion said.
I gripped the bat extra tightly. “Fuck off!” I shouted at him. I jumped to my feet and swung the bat at his head. In these life or death altercations, as Lloyd had taught me, you have to strike first, hard and fast or you’re finished. I’d never have a better chance at beating two bullies. After all, I’d a bat. They would both have knives, but probably switchblades, and if I acted fast, they’d no chance to get them out. The bat connected solidly to the younger boy’s forehead. He fell forward, blood spewing out of his mouth. I’d have swung the bat at the second combatant’s head, but Sally was too close to him, so I used it like a spear and drove it into his stomach with all my might. I hit him clean, then he crumpled to the floor with the wind knocked out of him, covering his head as I threatened a second blow.
Several young passengers screamed. The bus screeched to a halt and I flew forward onto the back of the fourteen-year-old bully, but I managed to jump to my feet at once, with the bat still in my hands, and grabbed Sally, rushing out to the street through the back-doors. Kurt and Andy followed us. We ran down a side-street for a few minutes.
“You saved our lives,” Kurt said.
Sally kissed and hugged me. “You’re the best, Scrumps.”
We came out on a main street, and I flagged down a cab. I could see everyone was immensely impressed with this as well.
“Are you from West or East Pakistan?” I asked the driver, after I got into the front-seat, letting the others have the back. Lloyd had told me to ask this question to a cab driver so that they wouldn’t cheat you and drive you unnecessarily around the city. I was hoping Una was going to pay for this when we got home and I tried to keep the cost down.
“Where you going, kid?” the driver asked with a laugh. Sally gave him the address.
“Do you know where the Bronx is?” he asked. I nodded and rolled down the window to avoid his tobacco smoke. “That’s the part of Pakistan I’m from,” he said, “the Irish part. What about you? What part of Pakistan are you from?”
I saw he enjoyed himself and that Lloyd’s advice had again paid off. I shrugged and eyed him kindly. He was a wiry fellow who looked like a boxer. “I’m from the English part,” I said.
When we arrived, the cab driver pulled right into the driveway.
“You don’t seem like a rich kid,” he said. “What did you do? Muscle in on them?”
“I’m adopted,” I said. I could see the fare was nearly eighteen dollars, but I didn’t know whether that was a lot or a little. To my utter surprise, Sally passed him a plastic card and he looked it over, laughing again. “This is yours” he asked Sally. She nodded. “How old are you?”
“Eight,” she said.
“An eight-year-old with her own American Express,” he said softly, clearly amazed. “We don’t take it. I want cash.”
Sally gave him a twenty-dollar bill.
“Where did you get that card?” I said when the cab had left.
“From Mary. Are you going to come for a swim?” she asked Kurt and Andy. They both nodded. We swam the afternoon away. I was very happy.
“Sally and I are going to mass at eleven o’clock in Kearny tomorrow morning,” Mary said at supper. “We’d like you to come.”
“Is that where you get the plastic card Sally has?” I asked.
“That’s a different church,” Stan said.
Mary and Una laughed. “Will I still be able to go flying with Dad first?” I asked.
“Oh, I forgot,” Mary said.
“I can have you back by eleven,” Stan said, “if you’d like to go. We were going to land in Washington, but we can do that run another time.”
“Don’t you go to church?” I asked.
“I have no idea what’s out there in the world of the hocus-pocus,” he said, “and the truth is, neither does anyone else, no matter what they say.”
“You have to have faith, my full grown child,” Una said, contradicting Stan and looking at him mischievously with her big happy brown eyes. “Lots and lots of faith. The more faith, the clearer the path. Jesus gives everyone the gift of faith.”
I nodded almost imperceptibly, agreeing completely that Jesus did just that, but I didn’t want to appear to choose one path over the other. I hadn’t detected any friction in the household over it, but there was clearly disagreement. That night during my second sleep, as I held Sally, I asked her what I should do.
“We can go flying first,” she answered. “Mom won’t mind, but then we should go to church with Una and her. Una doesn’t believe in the Catholic Jesus, but she still goes to church with mom. We’re Catholics, but not Dad or Una. Dad doesn’t believe in God. Una doesn’t believe in the Pope.”
“I don’t know the Pope,” I said, “but I know Jesus. He comes to me in my dreams.”
“Why is your thing always hard when your in bed with me?” she asked.
“Because I love you.” This seemed to satisfy her and she kissed me on the mouth. “It’s supposed to go inside a girl when you love her,” I added.
“Don’t do that. It would hurt.”
The last thing I wanted was to hurt her, and besides, Lloyd had told me that splashing inside a girl makes babies, so this answer didn’t bother me at all. “I won’t,” I whispered and kissed her again.
The next morning, Stan took us flying. After lift-off, he let Sally take the stick while he found his place in the book of aviation, Power of Flight.
“The hardest part in learning to fly is judging speed,” he read aloud. “At first it seems hard to know. Knots Calibrated Airspeed for instance is speed graduated to equal knots true airspeed. Knots Indicated Airspeed shown on the KIAS speed indicator is speed expressed in knots. Maneuvering speed, maximum-flap extended speed, maximum structural cruising speed, never exceed speed, stalling speed, best rate of climb speed, all indicate different operational speeds. Although you should know how the demonstrated crosswind velocity of the plane and the nautical miles per gallon interplay, with practice, it all takes on a life of its own. You’ll acquire a sense of wind force, how it interacts with speed, fuel, and maneuverability. With practice, you’ll always know where you sit in these regards while piloting the craft.”
Stan read for a few minutes more and then Sally and I traded places. The sensation of flying a plane is exceptional. With Sally, Una, Mr. Vondt, Stan, and Mary, my life had already become a fairy tale. Added to that, the mansion, my room, organized baseball games, swimming lessons, and a promised credit card, it was a complete disconnection with my old life. Flying definitely put it over the top. It was a feeling of power and freedom, of being above the world, of being in control and of being in a dream.
Before me, there were fifty or so system indicators, markers, or lights on the instrument panel. I had memorized them all, even the unimportant ones like the cigar lighter and ashtray. I knew in my heart, Stan was enormously impressed. Sally had overheard a conversation between him and Una with respect to my progress in swimming, flying, education, and so forth.
“We’ve hit the jackpot in that boy,” Stan had said.
I didn’t know what kind of pot that was, but Sally said it was a valuable one.
We flew over Long Island to Rhode Island, then I flew over the Long Island Sound on the way back. The water was calm and quiet. A few sails were out and they appeared to be anchored and unmoving. After we arrive home, we went to mass with Una and Mary. The Catholic Church was enormous and there were paintings everywhere. One painting of Jesus with his heart outside his body circled by shining light captivated me. He looked exactly as he did in my dreams. The choir music during the mass swep
t me away in prayer. I talked to Jesus and asked him to guide my life. The tall lean robed priest at the front of the altar held up the chalice with great dramatic effect and took to the pulpit sometime afterward.
“Today, I’ll talk about Jesus’ best friend, Simon Peter,” he said, his face a mask of reverence, accented with his short grey hair and his fiery eyes, “the man who built the church, and the most important apostle. Jesus appointed Simon to be the first pope, making every pope a friend of Jesus. Simon was the rock the church was built on. He suffered a martyr’s death in Rome at the hands of Nero and was given the keys to heaven by Jesus himself.”
He spoke of Simon for some time. I was rather disappointed. I’d hoped to hear more about Jesus. When the mass was over, Mary took me to see him. I shook his hand.
“Jesus visits me in my sleep,” I said proudly to let him know we could be friends, but this seemed to make the priest unhappy and Mary embarrassed.
“Jesus attends to his whole flock through his ministers,” he said kindly. “To say he personally comes to earth to visit you is incorrect.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“The church is Christ’s institution in the world. Through it, the Word of God is spread. He’s the way and the light, but you must walk a path to him following the rules of the church. You can’t make up your own like some Protestants do.” He put his hands on top of Sally’s head. “How are you Sally?” he asked gently.
“I believe Christian,” Sally said. “Jesus comes in his first sleep and fills him with love which he passes on to me.”
“As you can see, much has changed in our household,” Mary said. “They’ll come around, Father.”
“I’m sure,” he said softly. “Hello, Una, how’s your mother?”
“Much better now.”
They chatted for a time, and I stared at Sally in wonder. I loved her so badly in that moment that I became short of breath. Later, we arrived home and swam in the pool. Already I could use the slide and kick myself to safety. We laid out in the sun afterwards and Una brought us cold Coca-Cola and Mr. Salty potato chips. Una wore a white and red dress and a white kerchief over her head. She dangled her big black feet in the water at the shallow end and smiled over us like the happiest creature on earth.
“Tell me about your mother?” I asked.
“Clara is her name,” Una said. “She’s a little tiny woman, hardly a shadow of her big Una. She’s been ornery this last year and not herself. I recently found out why. She had to go to the hospital for a heart operation, but she’s alright now. I may have to return to the island for a few weeks to look after her though.”
“What happened?”
“She’s getting old.”
“Tell us about your life in Jamaica,” I asked.
“The island is full of bad men,” she said, looking sadly into the water and then up at the sun. “They sell drugs and weapons. I returned to the island in the first month of 1960 and worked at a jerk shop, one which later, I bought. Under my guidance, following my recipes and prices, and with the former workers, it did well. I didn’t buy into the boss-racket and didn’t pay tribute-money. My first place, The Kingston Jerk Shack, became well known on the island. Within years, I’d seven of them from Montego to Santa Cruz to Spanish Town.
“During this time, I fell in love with a man who also tried to find success in the eatery business. In Kingston, it’s a singularly difficult thing to do. He was a master chef, Acomite Williams, and could cook up wondrous recipes. He was a small thin man with a moustache and a teasing smile, my catchaman, and I called him Sweet Peewee. Aco was a kind gentle man, not these la-di-da bag of vain-glorious Rastifarians, who run on the beach half-naked, and smoke Guanghua, dancing Reggie through the night.
“His specialty was cooking for large groups, weddings and such, and some of his creations were in great demand. His Pepper Crawfish from the Pit was first-rate. He did Étouffée with Seafood and Veggies. I remember a Jambalaya recipe, a spicy rice dish with dolphin fish and deep-fried plantain, pineapple, and breaded beef chunks. He had a large place, the Poppa-Box, down near Trenchtown on Lyndhurst. I loved going there. The smell of baked bread and garlic filled the air in the whole neighborhood in the evenings. He did Jumbo, Cajun, Creole, and Jerk. The people loved him, but unlike me, whose shop was small and not worth anyone’s bother, his soon became the hottest spot on the island. The tourists came in buses, even during the noon-hour. He soon had over a hundred workers making serious earnings, but the thugs started to hang around and muscle in on him. Kingston is a Rasta-infested mafia-controlled marihuana-benumbed sewer.”
She looked down at us as though suddenly realizing who she spoke too. I was a afraid she would bolt. I urged her on. “What happened, Una?” I asked.
“My little Peewee, took my advice, wouldn’t he?” This was said with some bitterness. “He fought back.” she continued. “He refused to be gouged and strong-armed.”
I knew exactly what she meant and didn’t need the words explained.
“At first, the Police came and guarded the Poppa-Box,” she added. “For sometime, it looked like we’d won. Then one late night as we left work, the police were nowhere to be seen, the lummoxes came, sober and mean, big black dregs sent by the top-dog. They threatened us and I cursed them badly. One of them struck me in the head with a rifle-butt and knocked me to my back. Aco struck him back and while I laid there on the ground, they mocked him for his small size and jeered me as an ugly fat mama. He tore into them and they beat and stabbed him several times. When they saw what they had done, that it had gone too far, they fled, the cowards that they be. When I took poor Aco into my arms, I knew he was fearfully hurt. He trembled and the blood was everywhere. I screamed for help, but before anyone reached us, I lifted him up and raced to the car. Before I made it to the hospital, he died, right there in my car, his head on my lap.”
Una’s story was horrifying. All the more so because she was sobbing softly. Were there no nice places in the world except for the Tappets?
‘“How did you meet Mom and Dad?” Sally asked also crying softly.
I realized she’d never heard the story before. “That’s another tale, another time, child,” Una said and caressed her hair, “but I was already friends with them by then. But I loved my Peewee and when they buried him, I knew I would never find another. He was a wonderful man and loved me to my soul. The world’s full of suffering and everybody gets their fair share, but enough crying for today.”
She wiped the tears from Sally’s eyes, and from the look on Una’s face, I realized the depth of their love. Una returned to the house. My inclusion into the family was now complete. Una would never have told me that story unless something had changed. Sally and I continued to play in the pool. Kurt and Andy came by. Una served us sandwiches and cold drinks. Stan and Mary came home early and we’d supper outside, a barbeque prepared by Una, with hot dogs and hamburgers. Kurt and Andy’s parents came straight from work and were dressed in business clothes. Bert was in a gray-blue suit, with a pale blue dress-shirt and a dark navy-blue tie with red stripes. His shoes shone below his cuffs. Beth wore a silky solid-blue colored suit-jacket with a matching dress. The pearl necklace around her neck was simple and elegant. Her makeup was very light, but with her blond hair, it had a bounce above the shoulders, and with her light blue eyes, she could have easily been mistaken for Sally’s mother by looks alone, a pretty woman with thin eyebrows and smooth skin.
I’d have liked to have seen her in a bathing suit. Bert himself was a tall fit man, but you could already see grey hair, more so than even Stan, who also had plenty. Mr. Vondt also joined us, and another couple, Ken and Vivian Roxton. Ken was a war buddy of Stan’s but didn’t fly planes. I didn’t quite yet understand that. They worked together now and the Roxtons lived nearby. Ken was a robust and well-built man of around Stan’s age. I’d seen him several times and took him to be Stan’s closest friend. Una had also told me he was one of Stan’s allies inside the Tap
pet structure. I didn’t get that either. After all, Stan owned it. Ken had known Stan from the beginning of Tappets and had invested in his inventions in precision machine tools. Vivian was a short petite redhead in a cherry-red and summer-green dress. It was the best meal I had so far at the Tappets and I’d double servings, as did Sally, Kurt, and Andy.
“You need to have some Champagne this evening,” Una said when she caught me alone.
“Why?” I asked.
She rubbed my head. “Be patient, my full-grown child.”
“Why am I a full-grown child, Una?”
She leaned into my ear. “You are a child in your first sleep, if not one in your second?”
I flushed and looked into her eyes. Sally must have told her about me coming into her room nightly to sleep with her, but I could tell right-off, she’d no judgment about it. I was beginning to learn a little of Una. Sleeping with Sally was an event which made me neither good nor bad in itself. That didn’t define a moral state of being no matter what your age. This contradicted everybody else who I’d heard an opinion from on the subject of sex. It would take years to learn that Una didn’t believe details should ever blind someone from the bigger picture of life, and why it’s one of the most important, and hardest lessons to learn in life. Stan lifted up a glass of Champagne. Everyone followed suit, and I did likewise, looking from face to face, settling on Mary’s, whose eyes watered.
“Here’s to the future of our son,” she said solemnly.
My eyes darted to Stan’s. “It’s official,” Dad said, returning my gaze, “and legal. We received the papers today.”
I didn’t know my adoption had ever been in doubt, but this too, takes years for a kid to learn, especially in America, a promise is not a promise until it’s legal, and then, even then it’s in doubt. “Welcome to our family,” Mary said and embraced me. She smelled like flowers. I thought of my birth mother and how happy she would be for me. I wanted to go and talk to her, but of course I couldn’t at that moment. Everyone welcomed me and hugged me or shook my hand. I felt like crying. Una brought out a chocolate cake. Ice-cream was also served with butterscotch or chocolate toppings, or both. I’d the cake with both kinds of toppings on the ice-cream. It was scrump-delicious.
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