by Mike Walsh
• • •
Michael was in his fourth day of packing, almost done except the stuff she was using, when she brought up lunch from a café across the street. They were sitting at the table when Michael spoke up.
“Maybe Mr. Mosconi can help.”
“Mosconi? Where did you hear that name? Christ, he’s part of the problem. Why would he want to help me? Christ, Mosconi.”
“Well, he owes me one, and I don’t know if this would count, him helping you for me, but I could ask.”
“Michael, Michael, don’t you see? They’re all in it together. Two points here, four points there, everyone’s got points. There’s no way to get all of them to agree. No way. Thanks, love to, but no way. I like it that you asked, anyway.”
“But he really owes me, big time. And he said anything, anytime. I think I should call him and ask. What can it hurt?” Michael looked at her and she looked at him, thinking.
“How are you going to call him? You don’t even have his number.”
“I know how, he told me how.”
And then Michael related the story to her and she looked amazed and hopeful and said, “You know, it just might work. He is a powerful man. And he only really needs to talk to one man to get them to give me a fair price. And I don’t care if I get full value, just something that’s more fair. OK, let’s get the phone and give it a try.
“I need to talk to Mr. Mosconi, please. This is Michael O’Hara.”
“Just a moment, Please, Mr. O’Hara. I will locate him for you,” the Baltimore operator said. They went to a pay phone across the street and fed enough nickels in to hang on an hour if needed.
The operator came back on. “Where are you calling from, Mr. O’Hara?”
“A pay phone in Reno, ma’am.”
“Just a moment, please.”
A rough voice answered. “Hello, whatdyawant? Who is this?”
“It’s Michael O’Hara, sir, I need to talk to Mr. Mosconi.”
“Never heard of ya, hang on.”
“Kid, what are you doing in Reno? What’s the problem? You need some dough? You know you’re not supposed to gamble.” Mosconi, chuckling.
“Hello, Mr. Mosconi. No, I don’t need any money, just a favor if you could. I don’t know if you can help my friend but I thought I would call and find out.”
“Spit it out, kid. Who’s your friend?”
“Mrs. Farnsworth, owns the hotel in Reno that some people want to buy? She needs some help getting a fair price, Mr. Mosconi, and I thought you might know some people that could help. She’s all packed and ready to go.”
A long silence, then, “Kid, kid, you don’t know what you’re asking. Why this? Why not ask for my left nut. Be much easier and safer.”
“I know, Mr. Mosconi, I’m sorry, I thought you might help, you know, you said anything, so I just thought…..”
“OK, OK kid, you’re right, I owe you a big one. You hang on, feed some nickels in the phone, I’ll be right back.”
Michael nodded to Mrs. Farnsworth and she smiled and rolled her eyes around. They waited about fifteen minutes.
“You there kid? Good. Now here’s the deal. If I do this for you, and I will, I can’t protect you from the fallout. A lot of guys are going to be pissed, not at me because I’m honoring a promise, but at you for asking. I’m not telling them who, just why. But someone’s going to find out and your life won’t be worth a plugged nickel. You sure you want to do this?”
“Well, yeah, I guess, I made a promise.”
“Yeah, well OK. Here’s what you do. You have that Farnsworth dame drive you out of town and get on the road, like right now. No one else, don’t trust no one else. You tell her that in the morning, the lawyer will come by with the check and papers to sign. That’s it. Now get your ass on the road and keep this quiet hear?”
“Yes sir, I won’t tell a soul, I promise, and neither will Mrs. Farnsworth. Thank you sir, and Mrs. Farnsworth thanks you to.”
Mrs. Farnsworth looked stunned. “You did it, you actually did it. I’m amazed. Just tickled. What did I hear I have to do? Oh, and I’ll take back that thanks for those pricks stealing my property, and give it all to you. You’re great, Michael. Thank you.”
They raced back to the hotel after Michael relayed what was told to him. She needed to get the car keys and Michael needed to get his bag. She stuffed a batch of bills in the inside pocket of his windbreaker and they went down the elevator. When they got off, Michael asked her to wait in the car, he would be right out. She looked quizzically at him but did as she was told. Michael went to the desk and got the attention of the clerk.
“Excuse me, my uncle, Mr. Johnson was in 210 a few days ago and had to leave in a hurry. He asked me to straighten out his bill when I came through town. Can you tell me how much he owes?”
“Well,” the clerk said after rooting through some filing, “the bill seems to already have been paid, by Mrs. Farnsworth herself. So there is no amount due.”
Mrs. Farnsworth drove him to Carson City and put him on a bus to Los Angeles.
Chapter 14 – Hollywood
Hollywood! L.A.! Big Town! Michael walked the streets and felt like this was his final destination. Things seemed to be happening. A hustle and bustle. People walking slow, people walking fast, cars cruising the streets, tops down.
Michael had seen just about every movie made before he left home and looked eagerly for familiar faces. But none were to be seen. Well, maybe later. It’s early afternoon and all the people on the streets were probably not working, looking for work. That’s what Michael needed to do. Find some work.
There were lots of Help Wanted signs in the windows as he walked in from the highway. But as he got closer to Hollywood, they seemed to diminish.
Michael started hitting the restaurants, looking for work, but they all seemed to have Chinese or Mexicans in the kitchens. The out front help were all tall blondes with big tits. Well, he wasn’t going to die his skin and he sure as hell was not going to grow any tits. A few guys gave him long stares, but he knew what that was and avoided getting near them. Besides, somewhere along the way he lost his blade.
He stopped at an Orange Julius stand to buy a hot dog and a drink. He never heard of an Orange Julius and watched the kid make it. He asked him if he wanted an egg, and Michael thought that was gross and said no. Apparently it was just some powder and orange juice blended up to a froth. The kid asked if he wanted more, there was some left in the blender and Michael pushed his cup forward.
“You looking for a job? We can use one more guy afternoons.”
Michael looked up blinking, taken aback. He didn’t expect to be asked if he wanted a job.
“Well, yeah, but I don’t know if I can do it. I mean, I usually wash dishes and clean tables.”
“Hell, there’s nothing to it. The hot dogs roll around on this cooker thing, the buns are in this little oven and the customer puts his own shit on them. And you saw me make your drink. It’s a piece of cake. Just mix it up and pour in a cup. Dump an egg in if they want. And keep the place clean. You want to try it?”
Michael looked at the kid. White coat with an orange on it and a funny hat with an orange stripe around it. Probably a college student.
“I guess. How do I get started?”
“Call me John. Here, fill this out and I’ll hook you up with the boss tonight. He has about a dozen of these stands up and down the boulevards and collects the money just before we close. Actually, we close after he picks up the money. He’ll be around sometime after nine or ten.”
Michael looked at the application and told John he didn’t have an address to put down.
“No sweat, here, I’ll fill that in. You can stay with us until you get better fixed up. We got a little house in the middle of that block there.” He pointed to the block across the street and over one. “The dumb shits built all around the block and left this bungalow right smack in the middle. There’s several skinny alleys you can get through to get to it. The
landlord owns some of the buildings around it and lets us rent it real cheap. If it ever gets empty, the city is gonna make him tear it down. So he keeps it full of students and I guess by now, they forgot about it. Anyway, you can throw a pad on the floor and it won’t cost you anything. But if you want a bed, you need to share in the rent. You can go over and check it out if you want. Tell anybody there you’re working with John. Won’t be any problem. Just be back here for the boss by nine, OK?”
Michael thanked John and said he’d be back for sure on time and headed for the house.
• • •
He found an alley, not really an alley, but a two foot space to walk through to the back of the buildings. It was like a big overgrown lot with a house with a roof coming down from a point on all four sides. This must be the back, he thought, because it looked like a back porch. The weeds were two feet high and there was no path broken. He walked around until he found where the weeds were broken down and it led from the front porch to a wider alley going out to a side street. He went right in the front door without knocking, hell he lived here, right?
There were three young guys lounging around the big front room on overstuffed chairs and a couch. They all looked up when he opened the door and said, “Hey, I’m Michael. John sent me over to bunk here.”
They all said something, some greeting or whatever, and went back to their reading or studying or whatever they were doing.
Michael walked half way across the room tentatively and one of the guys hooked his thumb down the hall and said there was a small storeroom end of the hall not being used. Michael went down the hall and found the small room with a cot against the wall. He used the bathroom he passed and hit the bunk, falling asleep instantly.
• • •
He was picking tomatoes on his Uncle’s farm, bent over putting the ripest in the twenty pound basket they sold at the market. Someone kept throwing tomatoes and hitting him in the shoulder.
“You better get up, bro. John sent word Bobby Bee’s gonna be by the shop early tonight. Geez, you sleep like a rock. Better get going.” Toby, one of the guys he had met coming in was poking him on the shoulder.
“Mmm, thanks. I’ll get going.”
The “shop,” the Orange Julius stand, was only about fifteen feet long and seven feet deep, a space cut out of another store. A pair of metal grill type doors when pulled shut locked the place up.
John was behind the counter with Toby, the guy from the house that woke him. They took turns showing Michael how to make the drinks and dogs. In a half hour he was doing just as good as the other two guys. John said when they were busy like this, Bobby Bee would just drive on by to another location to collect his money. That’s why he was never here at the same time. He wanted all the cash he could collect.
There was a big tip jar on the counter. John said they started out the morning with five bucks from the cash drawer, pulled it out at closing and split the rest among all the guys that worked that day. Bobby paid them a buck an hour and took nothing out for taxes. They usually made more than that on tips. They had a loose schedule of who was going to work when, depending on the classes. They needed a guy like Michael to fill in when someone couldn’t make it, which was often. Since Michael didn’t go to school, he was on permanent call. He ended up hanging around most of the time anyway, when he wasn’t prowling the stores and movie theatres. He checked out all the famous restaurants and the Chinese Theatre.
He also liked to walk the streets, one in each direction, to see what there was to see. One late afternoon, he walked down Sunset Boulevard quite a long ways. The median opened up to a wide park with covered cement seats and tables and lots of trees. A girl was sitting on a bench and Michael walked closer to see her better.
He crossed the street and walked into the park. She was looking at him, watching him as he got closer, a pleasant look on her face like she was glad to see him. She wasn’t fat, but she wasn’t skinny either. Voluptuous would be right. Black hair to her shoulders, white skin with rosy cheeks and big boobs. She was wearing a dark skirt and white blouse with a sweater in her lap. Just sitting there looking like she wanted company.
She didn’t take her eyes off him. He sat down and put his left arm on the back of the bench around her.
“Hi, I’m Michael.”
“Hi.” No name.
Michael touched her shoulder and she leaned into him a little, her lips parted a little, and he saw a hunger in her eyes. He put his lips on hers and she like to devour him. He called it a wet and sloppy kiss like girls do. He put his hand under her skirt and ran it up her thigh. He felt some rubber resistance and pulled back with “What’s this under here?”
The second time she spoke, “It’s my girdle, silly. A girl can’t work in an office and not wear a girdle. C’mon, I know where I can take it off.” She got up grabbing his hand and dragged him across the street.
A few buildings down she went up the stairs on a porch and pushed open the front door. “We’re on the second floor. C’mon.” Still holding his hand.
Michael followed her up the stairs and she unlocked a door with a key she pulled out of her purse. It was a tiny apartment with a pass-through opening from a kitchen to a living room. A couch was facing one wall with the back out to the room.
“That’s where I sleep,” she said, and pointing somewhere else said, “And my mother sleeps in that room.”
“Is your mother here?”
“No, she’ll be home later. We have time.” Time?
She pulled him around to the couch, pushed him down and started pulling off her clothes. When she was down to bra and girdle, she said “get undressed, I’ll be right back.”
He watched her go into the bathroom and started undressing. He sat on top of a sheet at the end of the couch as she came back from the bathroom, stark naked and beautiful. Michael couldn’t take his eyes off her tits. The were cone shaped, large and stuck straight out.
She pulled back the sheet, crawled in and pulled him on top of her. He reached for her tits and pulled one to his mouth. They were wonderful and he suckled on them until she pushed him away and said “Wow. Where did you learn that?”
She pulled him to her, his erection in her hand and pulled him into her. It felt soapy at first and then he was lost in the pleasure until he ejaculated.
“So this is what its like,” he thought. It was his first time. “This is great. Let’s do it again.” And they did.
They fell asleep and woke up way after midnight. She obviously wanted to talk and she did. She’s nineteen, how old is he? Yeah, I’m nineteen. “I’m a steno for a production company, but my boss is going to get me into the movies. Isn’t that great? I have to screw him sometimes and give him blowjobs, but it’s going to be worth it. What do you do?”
“Student, you know, working part time.” And on and on.
And then “I want to get married. You want to get married?” Yeah, sure, first chance I get, no kidding, yeah.
The door opened and her mother came in. Michael started to panic but she said, “Hi Mom, is it that late already?”
“Yes dear, who’s you friend?”
“Michael, this is Michael, and we’re going to get married. Isn’t that great?”
“Yeah, well I’m starving. Maybe Michael here would like something to eat. Looks like he worked up a hunger. You hungry Michael?”
“Yes, ma’am. I could eat a sandwich.”
“Yes, well go grab a shower and I’ll fix us something.”
Michael came out of the bathroom, his hair wet and pushed back.
“Look at him Mom, isn’t he a dream? He’s going to make me a good husband. And he’s going to be a lawyer or a doctor or something. He’s a student at the U. Aren’t you Michael?”
The ham sandwich was good but when he said he had to go, all hell broke loose.
“You can’t go. You can stay here, with me. It’s late. It’s after two. We can sleep and talk about our plans in the morning.”
Michael, d
ressed and ready to go, eased towards the door. The mother looked pitifully at her daughter and went into her room. There was cajoling and then shouting as Michael slipped out the door and down the steps.
On the street, he headed back to Hollywood center and his cot.
Chapter 15 – Hollywood Jail
The cop car pulled up to the curb a few feet from Michael when he was about a mile from the girl’s house. He never did get her name. He stopped and turned, thinking it was someone wanting to give him a ride, and saw the cop get out of the car. There was another behind the driver’s seat. He thought he had heard something like “That must be him.”