THE RUDOLPH VALENTINO CRUMPTON STORY Part 4

Downstairs, Tommy and Maxine were talking about what Tommy had in mind for Rudolph and how he intended to keep him here. Tommy and Maxine went back several years and Maxine, as much as she loved Tommy, knew that his fortunes could rise and fall overnight. There was even a time when she had kicked Tommy out and now he wanted to put a kid he admitted was broke into Max’s last empty room. “I need him Maxine and I promise I will keep him paid up, you know me, give the kid a break,” Tommy pleaded his case. “Tommy, I’ve got to have my money to live”, Maxine reminded Tommy, “you know I’d do anything for you but this is business”. “You’ve got my word, Max, I’ll pay in advance every Monday, just give me the monthly rate and I’ll pay every week”, Tommy seemed sincere and Maxine had never been able to say no to him anyway. “O.K., Tommy, $550.00 per month or $130.00 per week, due every Monday by noon”, Maxine agreed to Tommy’s plan like she knew she would. “Great, I promise you won’t be sorry, I will see to it”, Tommy said giving Maxine a big hug to close the deal. “Today’s Friday, so I’ll go ahead and give you $150 now for the rest of this week and next week, o.k.” Tommy pulled a roll of currency from his pocket. “I know I’m going to lose something, sometime on this but I guess it won’t be the first time or the last”, Maxine said as she took the seven twenties, a five and four ones. “Now go get the kid some decent clothes and we’ll take care of him from there, and don’t get this kid hurt or killed Tommy, you know that’s not fair”, Maxine was serious and Tommy knew it. “I’m out of all that Max, I promise, just legitimate work, that’s all I do now, scout’s honor”. Tommy and Maxine both got a smile out of that one, probably for two different reasons.

Rudolph, Agnes and Roxy came down the front stairs. Rudolph would not have been anymore impressed if he had been in the Governor’s mansion. Stairs in the front and stairs in the back of the same house, no one in Matewon would ever have believed Rudolph Crumpton would be living in a place like this. “Let’s go kid, your new angel here has already given me my instructions to get you clothed to match the manner to which your about to become accustomed”, Tommy said even though Rudolph had no idea about what in hell he was talking about. The two left the house by the same door they came in and the two old men were in the same places they had been when Tommy and Rudolph arrived. “You coming back to live Tommy”, the black man hollered as the two almost ran down the steps. “Not now”, Tommy hollered back, “but I sending a spy in to make sure you quit trying to get Agnes and Roxy pregnant”, Tommy shouted back as the both old men broke out laughing.

Tommy and Rudolph were in the car and headed somewhere to get Rudolph some clothes and basic living essentials. Rudolph had a thousand questions for this man he met just hours before, but never being much of a talker sat silent and listened to Tommy talk about the people he just met. Rudolph’s mind was racing so hard and fast he did not hear a word. He wanted to scream ‘time out’ or ‘wait a minute’ or to just stop Tommy’s chatter long enough to again think clearly. He did not say a word for fear he would wake up from this unreal dream. Finally, he mustered courage enough to simply hold up both hands and mutter “wait, Mr. Douglas, give me a minute”.
Tommy saw the confusion and distress on Rudolph’s face and for the first time realized he was overpowering the kid he just picked-up a few hours ago. Tommy, as street smart as he was, never thought about what Rudolph was going through. Tommy had grown up hustling in a big city. He had always known street life in a city like Pittsburgh. His parents lived and worked in Pittsburgh, his dad at in the mills at Bethlehem Steel and his mother as a lunchroom worker at P.S. 132. He had been hustling all his life, first for marbles and lunch money from the rich kids and then running numbers for a penny ante street punk in his hood. He had been kicked out of school after school until he finally graduated from an alternative school at the age of seventeen. Unlike Rudolph, who lost his father and mother to bad health and death, he had simply broken his parents heart with his street hustling life style. Tommy was only twenty-six years old but had a lifetime of street education. He had always made his way beating someone out of something or working outside the law. He assumed everyone else operated in the same way, beating people out of money was o.k. if you didn’t get caught. Tommy worked for a short time as a carnival barker and traveled with a group that moved from town to town setting up and operating county fairs, screwing the rednecks like Rudolph out of what little cash they could scrape together once a year. Tommy had continually moved further and further outside the law in his few short years until now where it was the only life he knew. Tommy was smart, the kind of smart savvy people like Maxine recognized. The kind of smart that causes honest people to think they can straighten someone out and get them started on a path that will lead to great success once they applied themselves in legitimate ways.

Tommy saw it was time to pull back and to give Rudolph a chance to ask his questions. Now was the time to persuade him to do whatever he needed him to do.

“What’s wrong Rudolph”, Tommy ask, “am I going a little too fast for you”? “I just don’t understand Mr. Douglas”, Rudolph said, “why are you doing all this for me, I just met you this morning and we haven’t even known each other for six hours and you are doing all this for me”. “What is it you want me to do”, ask Rudolph. “You don’t know anything about me, I lied about finishing the ninth grade, I failed a bunch and don’t know how to do much”, Rudolph was about to break down. He did not want to lose everything that appeared to be in his future. But he really did not want to get into something that would get it all taken away because he had not been something Tommy thought he was. Tommy hesitated, he had waited for this opportunity and he almost talked himself right through it, which is something he had a problem with in the past. “Rudolph, I’m sorry I got so far ahead of myself”, Tommy begins to spin his web. “I guess I just saw in you as an image of me at your age and saw a kid that I could help like no one helped me”. Tommy could have been a world-class con man, and he played Rudolph perfectly. “I was a kid on the street just like you not too long ago”, Tommy started. “Both my parents were killed in a car wreck when I was only twelve, and I had no one to turn to”, all of which was a lie, his mom and dad were still alive and living right there in Pittsburgh. “The state put me in a couple of foster homes but both places beat me and nearly starved me to death while they collected the money the state paid them to keep me”, Tommy was almost crying. “By the time I was fifteen I’d had enough so I went out the window one night and hit the streets”. “Within a week I lied about my age and got a job as a busboy in that very diner where we ate this morning”, Tommy was making this up as he went and was doing a great job of it. “I was lucky I left in the summer because I slept on the streets for the first few weeks and was able to steal enough food from the dinner to eat”. “I lived that way until I met a guy in that same neighborhood that ran a numbers book, you know what a numbers book is don’t you”? Rudolph shook his head no. “Well it’s a way to gamble that a lot of people in the city play,” Tommy explained. “Somewhere there is a number published every day that everyone can find and see,” Tommy was on a roll now. “The guy running the book collects money from everyone that wants to play and they give him the money and the number they think will show up on the play day. If their number shows up they win a percentage of all the money collected and if it doesn’t the guy running the book keeps their money.” Tommy thought Rudolph was getting it. “If no one hits the number then the book man keeps everything, understand,” Tommy did not really care if Rudolph understood or not. “My job was to collect the money all around the city from the places where the people played, beer joints, liquor stores and places like that, some days I would pick up $10,000 to $15,000 and deliver it to the book man,” Rudolph was really listening now. “I could make a couple of hundred dollars a day which was a lot better than the two bucks and hour and tips I was making at the diner.” Tommy was impressed a little himself at this line he was feeding the kid. “While I was doing that I met some people that would pay me to do little jobs for them they did not want to do,” Tommy just about had the trap set. “The reason I tell you this is I had to figure all this out myself, without help, and when I saw you and heard your story I saw an opportunity to help you like no one had done for me,” Tommy almost believed this story himself. Rudolph bought it hook, line and sinker, believed every word. “I’ll do whatever I can Mr. Douglas, I won’t let you down,” was all Rudolph could say. Rudolph knew he wasn’t as smart as Tommy Douglas but he also knew he’d do anything he could to be around the kind of money Tommy Douglas was flashing and talking about.

(to be cont'd)