This is not original, I copied it from an e-mail I received from my brother-in-law in Tuscaloosa, but I think it speaks volumes about where we are in this country.
You're a 19 year old kid.
You're critically wounded and dying in
The jungle somewhere in the Central Highlands of Viet Nam .
It's November 11, 1967. LZ (landing zone) X-ray.
Your unit is outnumbered 8-1 and the enemy fire is so intense from 100
yards away, that your CO (commanding officer) has ordered the MedEvac
helicopters to stop coming in.
You're lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns and you know you're
not getting out.
Your family is half way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you'll
never see them again.
As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day.
Then - over the machine gun noise - you faintly hear that sound of a
helicopter.
You look up to see a Huey coming in. But.. It doesn't seem real because no
MedEvac markings are on it.
Captain Ed Freeman is coming in for you.
He's not MedEvac so it's not his job, but he heard the radio call and
decided he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire anyway.
Even after the MedEvacs were ordered not to come. He's coming anyway.
And he drops it in and sits there in the machine gun fire, as they load 3 of
you at a time on board.
Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire to the doctors and nurses
and safety.
And, he kept coming back!! 13 more times!!
Until all the wounded were out. No one knew until the mission was over that
the Captain had been hit 4 times in the legs and left arm.
He took 29 of you and your buddies out that day. Some would not have made it
without the Captain and his Huey.
Medal of Honor Recipient, Captain Ed Freeman, United States Air Force, died
last Wednesday at the age of 70, in Boise , Idaho
I bet you didn't hear about this hero's passing, but we've sure seen a
whole bunch about Lindsay Lohan, Tiger Woods and the bickering of congress
over Health Reform.
Medal of Honor Winner Captain Ed Freeman
Shame on the American media !!!
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
THE RUDOLPH VALENTINO CRUMPTON STORY Part 10
On the night Tommy and Rudolph chose to carry out their latest unholy contract Tommy picked his helper up at his apartment just before midnight. The two drove to a church parking lot on the northern part of Pittsburgh where Tommy had again left a small mini-van he had taken from another customer in the used car business and fully stocked it with 40 gallons of the now familiar Amoco white gas. Following their usual routine, the two gloved up and stored all their personal effects and anything that might identify them in the trunk of Tommy’s newest Cadillac and eased out of the parking lot a few minutes before 1:00 a.m. Rudolph was surprised when within :10 minutes Tommy pointed out the target property for the night. Tommy had always been careful to leave his car at least several miles away from the target. “We may need to get out of here quicker than we have before”, was his only answer when Rudolph questioned him about the change in his planning. Rudolph could not really think of any problem with the new arrangement so he let it drop and begin to think about the work ahead. Rudolph liked the looks of the building as they approached the front from the mostly empty parking lot in front of the store. They pulled around the building and past a huge dumpster and up to a loading dock attached to the backside of the store, Tommy reached over Rudolph and took from the glove compartment in front of Rudolph a snub-nosed .38 pistol and handed it to Rudolph. “Do you know how to use one of these things”, Tommy whispered as he slipped the mini-van into ‘P’ just outside of a walk through door on ground level next to the raised loading dock. “No, I’ve never shot a gun in my life,” Rudolph could barely find his voice. “What the hell are we doing,” was the best he could come up with. “They said there would probably not be any one here but just in case we might better be prepared,” replied Tommy. “We always know the place is empty,” protested Rudolph, “who told you there might be somebody here”? “The guy that owns this building”, answered Tommy. “Why don’t he know whose here, it’s his place ain’t it”, Rudolph was beginning to have a funny feeling about what was happening. “My man owns the place but he’s leasing it to the yo-yo’s who own the store and they won’t pay their rent and he’s ready to get them out. He said they were so broke they couldn’t afford guards or security systems and he didn’t think anyone would be here this late, he just wasn’t sure”, Tommy was still talking as he opened the door. “He gave me the key to this door and the floor plan so I think he knows what he’s talking about”. “You think”, Rudolph snapped, “you’re about to get us both killed or at least sent to jail and you think it’s going to be all right”, Rudolph had never had the occasion to be this pissed at Tommy before. Against his gut feeling Rudolph got out of the mini-van and walk to the door that Tommy was already trying to unlock. Tommy knew he messed up by not being more up front with Rudolph and was so scared just from the tone of Rudolph’s voice and his appearance he had trouble getting the key to work and struggled with it for what seemed like several minutes. When Tommy finally made the key work and unlocked the door the two eased into the warehouse portion of the store and allowed their eyes to adjust to the total darkness inside. Rudolph whispered they should make a quick sweep of the entire building before they began to unload the gasoline stored in the cargo portion of the mini-van. Still carrying the gun Tommy had given him in his right hand Rudolph slowly moved to the right side of the large warehouse space while Tommy eased to the left side. The two met again near a swinging double door in the middle of the wall that evidently separated the warehouse portion of the building with the showroom that faced the parking lot they had just driven across. Everything was as quite as it had been when they first entered the building and Rudolph was beginning to feel a little better as the two came together. “Let’s get the gas and get this done”, Tommy whispered as the two came within hearing distance of each other. “Not until we check out the front”, Rudolph returned the whisper, “I ain’t taking any chances, you don’t know shit about this place, they might have the National Guard out there. You got to be the dumbest son-of-a-bitch in the world to get us into something like this”. Tommy never dreamed Rudolph would be this upset and promised himself he would make it up to him by giving him more money on this one job to make up for surprising him like this. The two eased through the swinging double doors and quietly begin to move around the perimeter of the showroom area, again Tommy moving to the left and Rudolph moving toward the right side of the where mattresses and bedding were piled six to eight feet high. The side of the showroom where Tommy was slowly walking had two or three small offices built into the back of the showroom and provided a little light from a couple of desk lamps that glowed through huge windows looking out over the showroom. As Tommy approached the second office both Rudolph and Tommy heard what could have only been the sound of someone knocking a pile of papers or desk hardware onto the floor in the second little office behind Tommy. Just after the sound came from the office one row of lights running from the back of the showroom to the front came on and the two heard a shout from inside the office, “stop right there, I’ve got a gun and I’ll blow you to hell”, someone was yelling. Rudolph saw Tommy, now in the light, drop to the floor and saw a man in a security guard uniform burst through the little office where the sounds and voice first came from. Rudolph knew the guard did not see him before he ducked behind the stack of mattresses. Frozen like a statute Rudolph waited for the next sound. “Stand up you son-of-a-bitch or I’ll send you to hell this very minute”, a voice other than Tommy screamed. “Wait, Wait, I’m getting up, don’t shoot me, I don’t have a gun, don’t shoot”, Tommy was screaming; fear causing him to almost whimper Rudolph thought. Rudolph could not resist the temptation to peek from around the mattresses to see what was going on and just what he was facing in the next few minutes. Rudolph saw the guard, an older man, considerably over weight and brandishing a silver handgun that looked like a cannon. Tommy was easing up from behind a sofa where he had taken cover. Rudolph saw a handgun in Tommy’s hand hidden from the guard who was shaking badly. Rudolph was afraid the guard was about to shoot Tommy by accident because he was shaking hard. As Tommy reached full height the guard told him to “get your hands in the air”. Rudolph watched as Tommy with one motion, brought his hands from around the side the guard could not see into sight and with one quick move fired his gun into the night watchman’s face, hitting him just below his right eye, creating a huge hole into what had once been his cheek bone. Without stopping for a minute Tommy ran around the sofa and chairs that separated him and the guard and quickly fired two more shots into the now obviously dead security man’s head. “Let’s get the hell out of here Tommy screamed as both he and Rudolph started moving toward the swinging doors leading back into the warehouse. The two quickly made their way through the walk through door they had first entered. They were into the truck and moving through the parking lot without anyone saying a word. They were on the street that ran in front of the store and two blocks away before anyone said anything.
“We got to get rid of this gasoline”, was the first thing Tommy said. “Gasoline my ass”, Rudolph almost screamed, “do you know what just happened”, Rudolph was calm but obviously shaken. “Hell yes, it went bad but that don’t mean we need to get caught with forty gallons of gasoline in a stolen truck, I’m not going to jail because some fat old bastard making six bucks an hour decided to draw down on me in a two bit furniture store”, Tommy shot back. “I’m not sure now they didn’t have some kind of security camera out back and may be able to identify this truck or even us; we’ve got to get rid of this now”. “I’m going to drop you off at the car and you follow me,” Tommy said, “I’ll get this out of town and we will burn the truck, after that there is no way anyone can tie us to the store”. Tommy went straight to the parking lot where the Cadillac was parked, gave Rudolph the keys and causally drove away with Rudolph following in the car.
Rudolph was in deep thought as he followed Tommy for nearly an hour to a remote area to the southwest of Pittsburg. Tommy was headed to some old abandoned strip mines in a God forsaken part of Pennsylvania near Ruff Creek. The mines had been worked out long before there was any attempt at reclamation and were only used now for teenagers parking and swimming in the summer. During the long drive Rudolph made the decision to go his separate way from Tommy. Tommy had become sloppy, the success they enjoyed either made Tommy lazy or just plain sloppy. Rudolph was smart enough to have learned he was going to work outside the law and he needed to cover all the bases before the illegal act was committed. Tommy was becoming a liability and in this business liabilities would either get you killed or sent to jail, neither of which seemed to appealing to Rudolph. This was not the first time Tommy had almost gotten them in trouble and he was simply taking too many risks to suit Rudolph. Rudolph had put over $65,000 in a safe place over the last four years and it was time he struck out on his own. Rudolph had bought an old Chevy pickup and had some contacts that could keep him busy until he got established. He knew Maxine could help him and he just did not need Tommy any more.
Tommy led them to an isolated area, littered with old rusted equipment and a decaying shack that once was used as an on site office for the mining company. The company had raped what was once a beautiful valley at some time in the past leaving only a scar on the landscape. Tommy stopped near the old office shack and got out to stretch after the long ride. Rudolph pulled in right behind him and turned the car around before getting out to join Tommy next to the mini-van. “Let’s burn this and get out of here, I’m about the starve and I don’t want to eat until we get back to town, some hick waitress will recognize us when the find the truck and I don’t want to explain what we doing in this shit-hole”, Tommy was more interested in eating than worrying about killing the guard. Tommy suggested they only use one can of the gasoline to spread around the mini-van and to simply open the remaining cans. “It won’t take much to get it started and by the time we get back on the road this thing will blow sky high”, Tommy told Rudolph. Rudolph knew what he was going to do and he was as calm as he had ever been in putting a plan into action. “I’ll get a can out of the back while your checking the glove box and the front seat to be sure we did not leave anything”, Rudolph told Tommy. As Tommy got back into the driver’s seat of the mini-van and leaned over to check out the glove box. Rudolph walked around the front of the truck to the passenger side, and reaching through the front passenger window while Tommy was leaning across the console to open the glove box calmly pulled the gun Tommy had given him earlier and fired one shot through the top of his old partner’s head. Still wearing the rubber gloves and without hesitating he tossed the gun on top of Tommy’s body and walked to the back of the mini-van and removed two cans of Amoco white gas. He put one in the trunk of the Cadillac and sloshed the other generously throughout the interior of the little truck/car. He lit and tossed a book of matches onto the floorboard of the front seat and watched the flames quickly engulf the truck. He returned to the Cadillac he had driven to the site and slowly drove down the long gravel road to the highway that would take him back to Pittsburgh. As he turned onto the highway he heard the explosion and saw a flash that signaled the cremation of Tommy and the start of his new life. Rudolph had no feelings at all about what just happened. He actually felt worse about the security guard back in the furniture store than he did about Tommy and something inside him questioned just why that was.
Rudolph took the Cadillac to the old airfield/industrial park where Tommy taught him to drive and drove to the most deserted part of the field, far away from any of the businesses located there. He spread the second can of white gas throughout Tommy’s newest show car. With a second book of matches, he carried as a backup, set this last link with Tommy on fire and walked away just as the sun was beginning to rise over the skyline of Pittsburgh. Rudolph walked the entire five-mile trek back to his little apartment as Pittsburgh begin to stir. Little did Rudolph know on that day a kid named Donald Ray Butler in Eatonville, Alabama would celebrate his tenth birthday by taking a trip to Birmingham on a train his dad worked as a flagman. Neither certainly had any idea the role each would play in the other’s life many years down the road.
Rudolph slept most of the day after his hike home from the old airport. He awoke around 4:30 that afternoon and walked to a small diner near his apartment to eat and check out the afternoon paper to see if any mention was made of either of the events he had been a part of the night before. The story about the break-in at the furniture store took up about 1/2 of the second page in the ‘City’ section of the paper, the guard was a retired steelworker and veteran of the Korean War. He had four children and six grandchildren and lived with his wife of forty-two years. He had only taken this job a few months earlier and was working only a couple of nights a week to help pay for one of his granddaughters college education. The paper said the owners of the store were probably going to declare bankruptcy since business was already bad and now they feared no one would ever shop them again. Rudolph could not find any mention of Tommy or his car, both of which were burned to a crisp. Rudolph ate the blue plate special and walked back to his apartment and quickly fell asleep, still exhausted by the events of the night before.
The second day after the separation with Tommy there was an article in the ‘Southwest’ section about a man being found shot and burned in a stolen mini-van. The police figured it was a drug deal gone bad and the body had been sent to the crime lab for identification. The police said the forensic people would have to depend on dental records or something new call DNA since the heat had been so intense the body was burned far beyond what was normal in most burn cases.
Over the next month or so Rudolph thought seriously about what he would do now. He came close to either dying or going to jail and those thoughts had a huge effect on him. He had become convinced a man could work just outside the law and make a good living. He was savvy enough to know those things one could do and those he should not do. He now knew the circumstances dictated the extremes a person must go to in order to stay out of trouble but recognized bad situations could be avoided if a person were smart and knew what he was doing. The role of security guards seemed to be a perfect fit for someone that did not mind breaking the law but wanted to be safe in doing so. Security guards played some role in everything he and Tommy had done. Either they were gone at the right times or they were looking the wrong way when something went down. If all the people they worked for had to manipulate the guards then the guards were the key to being successful or failing. With his limited education Rudolph decided this security guard thing could be worked into a profitable position for a man with an imagination.
“We got to get rid of this gasoline”, was the first thing Tommy said. “Gasoline my ass”, Rudolph almost screamed, “do you know what just happened”, Rudolph was calm but obviously shaken. “Hell yes, it went bad but that don’t mean we need to get caught with forty gallons of gasoline in a stolen truck, I’m not going to jail because some fat old bastard making six bucks an hour decided to draw down on me in a two bit furniture store”, Tommy shot back. “I’m not sure now they didn’t have some kind of security camera out back and may be able to identify this truck or even us; we’ve got to get rid of this now”. “I’m going to drop you off at the car and you follow me,” Tommy said, “I’ll get this out of town and we will burn the truck, after that there is no way anyone can tie us to the store”. Tommy went straight to the parking lot where the Cadillac was parked, gave Rudolph the keys and causally drove away with Rudolph following in the car.
Rudolph was in deep thought as he followed Tommy for nearly an hour to a remote area to the southwest of Pittsburg. Tommy was headed to some old abandoned strip mines in a God forsaken part of Pennsylvania near Ruff Creek. The mines had been worked out long before there was any attempt at reclamation and were only used now for teenagers parking and swimming in the summer. During the long drive Rudolph made the decision to go his separate way from Tommy. Tommy had become sloppy, the success they enjoyed either made Tommy lazy or just plain sloppy. Rudolph was smart enough to have learned he was going to work outside the law and he needed to cover all the bases before the illegal act was committed. Tommy was becoming a liability and in this business liabilities would either get you killed or sent to jail, neither of which seemed to appealing to Rudolph. This was not the first time Tommy had almost gotten them in trouble and he was simply taking too many risks to suit Rudolph. Rudolph had put over $65,000 in a safe place over the last four years and it was time he struck out on his own. Rudolph had bought an old Chevy pickup and had some contacts that could keep him busy until he got established. He knew Maxine could help him and he just did not need Tommy any more.
Tommy led them to an isolated area, littered with old rusted equipment and a decaying shack that once was used as an on site office for the mining company. The company had raped what was once a beautiful valley at some time in the past leaving only a scar on the landscape. Tommy stopped near the old office shack and got out to stretch after the long ride. Rudolph pulled in right behind him and turned the car around before getting out to join Tommy next to the mini-van. “Let’s burn this and get out of here, I’m about the starve and I don’t want to eat until we get back to town, some hick waitress will recognize us when the find the truck and I don’t want to explain what we doing in this shit-hole”, Tommy was more interested in eating than worrying about killing the guard. Tommy suggested they only use one can of the gasoline to spread around the mini-van and to simply open the remaining cans. “It won’t take much to get it started and by the time we get back on the road this thing will blow sky high”, Tommy told Rudolph. Rudolph knew what he was going to do and he was as calm as he had ever been in putting a plan into action. “I’ll get a can out of the back while your checking the glove box and the front seat to be sure we did not leave anything”, Rudolph told Tommy. As Tommy got back into the driver’s seat of the mini-van and leaned over to check out the glove box. Rudolph walked around the front of the truck to the passenger side, and reaching through the front passenger window while Tommy was leaning across the console to open the glove box calmly pulled the gun Tommy had given him earlier and fired one shot through the top of his old partner’s head. Still wearing the rubber gloves and without hesitating he tossed the gun on top of Tommy’s body and walked to the back of the mini-van and removed two cans of Amoco white gas. He put one in the trunk of the Cadillac and sloshed the other generously throughout the interior of the little truck/car. He lit and tossed a book of matches onto the floorboard of the front seat and watched the flames quickly engulf the truck. He returned to the Cadillac he had driven to the site and slowly drove down the long gravel road to the highway that would take him back to Pittsburgh. As he turned onto the highway he heard the explosion and saw a flash that signaled the cremation of Tommy and the start of his new life. Rudolph had no feelings at all about what just happened. He actually felt worse about the security guard back in the furniture store than he did about Tommy and something inside him questioned just why that was.
Rudolph took the Cadillac to the old airfield/industrial park where Tommy taught him to drive and drove to the most deserted part of the field, far away from any of the businesses located there. He spread the second can of white gas throughout Tommy’s newest show car. With a second book of matches, he carried as a backup, set this last link with Tommy on fire and walked away just as the sun was beginning to rise over the skyline of Pittsburgh. Rudolph walked the entire five-mile trek back to his little apartment as Pittsburgh begin to stir. Little did Rudolph know on that day a kid named Donald Ray Butler in Eatonville, Alabama would celebrate his tenth birthday by taking a trip to Birmingham on a train his dad worked as a flagman. Neither certainly had any idea the role each would play in the other’s life many years down the road.
Rudolph slept most of the day after his hike home from the old airport. He awoke around 4:30 that afternoon and walked to a small diner near his apartment to eat and check out the afternoon paper to see if any mention was made of either of the events he had been a part of the night before. The story about the break-in at the furniture store took up about 1/2 of the second page in the ‘City’ section of the paper, the guard was a retired steelworker and veteran of the Korean War. He had four children and six grandchildren and lived with his wife of forty-two years. He had only taken this job a few months earlier and was working only a couple of nights a week to help pay for one of his granddaughters college education. The paper said the owners of the store were probably going to declare bankruptcy since business was already bad and now they feared no one would ever shop them again. Rudolph could not find any mention of Tommy or his car, both of which were burned to a crisp. Rudolph ate the blue plate special and walked back to his apartment and quickly fell asleep, still exhausted by the events of the night before.
The second day after the separation with Tommy there was an article in the ‘Southwest’ section about a man being found shot and burned in a stolen mini-van. The police figured it was a drug deal gone bad and the body had been sent to the crime lab for identification. The police said the forensic people would have to depend on dental records or something new call DNA since the heat had been so intense the body was burned far beyond what was normal in most burn cases.
Over the next month or so Rudolph thought seriously about what he would do now. He came close to either dying or going to jail and those thoughts had a huge effect on him. He had become convinced a man could work just outside the law and make a good living. He was savvy enough to know those things one could do and those he should not do. He now knew the circumstances dictated the extremes a person must go to in order to stay out of trouble but recognized bad situations could be avoided if a person were smart and knew what he was doing. The role of security guards seemed to be a perfect fit for someone that did not mind breaking the law but wanted to be safe in doing so. Security guards played some role in everything he and Tommy had done. Either they were gone at the right times or they were looking the wrong way when something went down. If all the people they worked for had to manipulate the guards then the guards were the key to being successful or failing. With his limited education Rudolph decided this security guard thing could be worked into a profitable position for a man with an imagination.
Friday, January 7, 2011
THE RUDOLPH VALENTINO CRUMPTON STORY Part 9
Although Agnes and Roxy were the only ones that saw Tommy earlier in the day the whole table was abuzz with the news of Tommy’s appearance. The two front porch guys were having a ball talking about all the possibilities of how Tommy had been burned. Rudolph was glad to hear none of the explanations had any element of truth about what really happened. Rudolph was interested to hear most of the speculation centered on women and something Tommy was probably doing to impress one of them. Rudolph had very little appetite that night. Even the apple cobbler with ice cream could not get him started eating the way everyone had grown to expect. As the supper wound down and the other boarders began to drift out to wherever they were going, Rudolph asked Miss Maxine if he could talk to her. “Move on up here son while I finish my coffee. Maybe I’ll get the real story about our boy Tommy from you. These other old goats don’t know what happened to them three days ago much less how Tommy got messed up.”
Rudolph poured himself one more glass of the ice tea and carried it to the place next to Miss Maxine that Agnes just cleared. “Now what did you need to talk to me about my young friend?” Maxine asked. “Well Miss Maxine, I’ve got that money you loaned me last week and I wanted to pay you back before you got gone,” Rudolph felt so important. He pulled the $120 out of his pocket and slid it across the table to the waiting hand of his landlady. “Thank you honey,” Maxine said, smiling as she eyed the two bills Tommy just passed her. “This is too much Rudolph”, Maxine said as she picked up both bills and slipped them into her pocket, she had no intention of giving anything back but wanted Rudolph to know she knew the difference. “I know, but Tommy and I wanted you to know how much we appreciate your helping me out while Tommy was gone”, Rudolph decided he might as well get some of the credit for the premium Miss Maxine was receiving. “I don’t guess you know how Tommy got burned do you honey?” Maxine knew Rudolph would probably not tell but she knew the story the girls were telling was not true. Maxine already figured out whatever happened, happened on that first night Tommy had taken Rudolph out. “No mam, he just told me some lighter fluid had blown up on him and it singed all his hair, that’s all I know,” Rudolph had made up the story and he was sticking to it.
Rudolph was month shy of turning 16 years old and already had determined the path he intended to follow the rest of his life. He had a room far better than he had ever dreamed of having, three of the most fantastic hot meals a day he could imagine and $770.00 cash in his pocket and secreted away in his room. Tommy Douglas, Miss Maxine, Agnes and Roxanne were the only family he would ever need and according to Tommy opportunities were around every corner. Rudolph could have lived this way for the rest of his life and never looked back, if everything could have just stayed the same as it was that Fall in 1973 when he first arrived in Pittsburgh on a train riding in the bottom of an empty coal car.
Things stayed much the same for almost four years for Rudolph Crumpton, until his life was turned upside down once again. Rudolph and Tommy continued to perform those jobs others did not want to do for themselves. They actually became well known in certain circles of the greater Pittsburgh area for their work as arsonist and other odd jobs specialist for hire. As long as there were business owners needing their services to destroy their properties and the two had everything arranged before they preformed, everything continued to go well. Along the way Rudolph learned many of the jobs they did originated from none other than Miss Maxine. Years before Maxine had been one of the top call girl madam’s in Pittsburgh and she still had a certain following that relied on her to help them with those matters just outside the law they would from time to time have need to get done quietly. She and Tommy worked together on occasion before Rudolph ever came into the picture, but even she felt better about her role as she came to know and trust Rudolph after the job at Coverall Coatings that first spring when he arrived in Pittsburgh. Rudolph’s world was due to change at some point but in 1977, at 20 years of age that change came without warning.
Rudolph life that first four years was so wonderful for him that Tommy was able to take advantage of his young protege's willingness to work for a small portion of the money paid for the work they were doing. Tommy would typically get $10,000 to $20,000 for their work on most all the jobs the two did together. Rudolph’s cut usually ranged from between 15% to in some cases 20%, with Tommy keeping the balance. After the second job Rudolph had been on his own as far as his expenses to live at Miss Maxine’s or in the old apartment he moved to after a three years and when he had discovered the benefits and pleasures women could provide. Rudolph never objected and in fact continued to believe he was luckiest man in the world, comparing his life now to the first fifteen years of his life. The two expanded their product line into collecting overdue accounts for several bookies in the Pittsburgh area and some insurance thefts from used car lots that were faced with high inventories and blessed with good insurance. Rudolph continued as the second man to Tommy who found the jobs through whatever contacts he had. The big break between the two partners came not over the split of the money the two were continuing to make on regular basis but over a matter of trust.
While Rudolph had never been a religious man by any means he brought from the coalfields of West Virginia a strong sense of right and wrong and a word that was his bond. Whether he got this streak of honor from his father, his mother or just the iron willed people of the coalfield mountains, Rudolph believed a man did what he said he was going to do and he expected those he dealt to do the same thing. It would have served Tommy Douglas well to have learned about this trait in his young partner over the four years the two worked so closely together.
Just as Rudolph turned twenty in the Spring of 1977, Tommy changed both his and Rudolph’s world forever. Tommy always assured Rudolph they would never burn anything that was not owned by the person hiring them to do the job. By limiting the mayhem to situations set up by the owners the two agreed their chances of succeeding without any serious trouble from the law were greatly enhance. In a few instances Rudolph had questions about whether Tommy was abiding by their unwritten agreement. When Rudolph would questioned Tommy about his doubts he would always been assured the proposed victim was indeed the owner and their secret employer. On the last job the two worked together Tommy felt uneasy and questioned Tommy about their employer. Tommy had once again assured Rudolph the property was owned and operated by the man who hired them and would have laid all the groundwork for their safety. The property this particular night was to be a large freestanding retail furniture store adjoining a medium size strip center in suburban Pittsburgh. Everything was supposedly set up and ready for the two to walk right into the unprotected and unguarded store through an unlocked back door as was always the case.
Rudolph poured himself one more glass of the ice tea and carried it to the place next to Miss Maxine that Agnes just cleared. “Now what did you need to talk to me about my young friend?” Maxine asked. “Well Miss Maxine, I’ve got that money you loaned me last week and I wanted to pay you back before you got gone,” Rudolph felt so important. He pulled the $120 out of his pocket and slid it across the table to the waiting hand of his landlady. “Thank you honey,” Maxine said, smiling as she eyed the two bills Tommy just passed her. “This is too much Rudolph”, Maxine said as she picked up both bills and slipped them into her pocket, she had no intention of giving anything back but wanted Rudolph to know she knew the difference. “I know, but Tommy and I wanted you to know how much we appreciate your helping me out while Tommy was gone”, Rudolph decided he might as well get some of the credit for the premium Miss Maxine was receiving. “I don’t guess you know how Tommy got burned do you honey?” Maxine knew Rudolph would probably not tell but she knew the story the girls were telling was not true. Maxine already figured out whatever happened, happened on that first night Tommy had taken Rudolph out. “No mam, he just told me some lighter fluid had blown up on him and it singed all his hair, that’s all I know,” Rudolph had made up the story and he was sticking to it.
Rudolph was month shy of turning 16 years old and already had determined the path he intended to follow the rest of his life. He had a room far better than he had ever dreamed of having, three of the most fantastic hot meals a day he could imagine and $770.00 cash in his pocket and secreted away in his room. Tommy Douglas, Miss Maxine, Agnes and Roxanne were the only family he would ever need and according to Tommy opportunities were around every corner. Rudolph could have lived this way for the rest of his life and never looked back, if everything could have just stayed the same as it was that Fall in 1973 when he first arrived in Pittsburgh on a train riding in the bottom of an empty coal car.
Things stayed much the same for almost four years for Rudolph Crumpton, until his life was turned upside down once again. Rudolph and Tommy continued to perform those jobs others did not want to do for themselves. They actually became well known in certain circles of the greater Pittsburgh area for their work as arsonist and other odd jobs specialist for hire. As long as there were business owners needing their services to destroy their properties and the two had everything arranged before they preformed, everything continued to go well. Along the way Rudolph learned many of the jobs they did originated from none other than Miss Maxine. Years before Maxine had been one of the top call girl madam’s in Pittsburgh and she still had a certain following that relied on her to help them with those matters just outside the law they would from time to time have need to get done quietly. She and Tommy worked together on occasion before Rudolph ever came into the picture, but even she felt better about her role as she came to know and trust Rudolph after the job at Coverall Coatings that first spring when he arrived in Pittsburgh. Rudolph’s world was due to change at some point but in 1977, at 20 years of age that change came without warning.
Rudolph life that first four years was so wonderful for him that Tommy was able to take advantage of his young protege's willingness to work for a small portion of the money paid for the work they were doing. Tommy would typically get $10,000 to $20,000 for their work on most all the jobs the two did together. Rudolph’s cut usually ranged from between 15% to in some cases 20%, with Tommy keeping the balance. After the second job Rudolph had been on his own as far as his expenses to live at Miss Maxine’s or in the old apartment he moved to after a three years and when he had discovered the benefits and pleasures women could provide. Rudolph never objected and in fact continued to believe he was luckiest man in the world, comparing his life now to the first fifteen years of his life. The two expanded their product line into collecting overdue accounts for several bookies in the Pittsburgh area and some insurance thefts from used car lots that were faced with high inventories and blessed with good insurance. Rudolph continued as the second man to Tommy who found the jobs through whatever contacts he had. The big break between the two partners came not over the split of the money the two were continuing to make on regular basis but over a matter of trust.
While Rudolph had never been a religious man by any means he brought from the coalfields of West Virginia a strong sense of right and wrong and a word that was his bond. Whether he got this streak of honor from his father, his mother or just the iron willed people of the coalfield mountains, Rudolph believed a man did what he said he was going to do and he expected those he dealt to do the same thing. It would have served Tommy Douglas well to have learned about this trait in his young partner over the four years the two worked so closely together.
Just as Rudolph turned twenty in the Spring of 1977, Tommy changed both his and Rudolph’s world forever. Tommy always assured Rudolph they would never burn anything that was not owned by the person hiring them to do the job. By limiting the mayhem to situations set up by the owners the two agreed their chances of succeeding without any serious trouble from the law were greatly enhance. In a few instances Rudolph had questions about whether Tommy was abiding by their unwritten agreement. When Rudolph would questioned Tommy about his doubts he would always been assured the proposed victim was indeed the owner and their secret employer. On the last job the two worked together Tommy felt uneasy and questioned Tommy about their employer. Tommy had once again assured Rudolph the property was owned and operated by the man who hired them and would have laid all the groundwork for their safety. The property this particular night was to be a large freestanding retail furniture store adjoining a medium size strip center in suburban Pittsburgh. Everything was supposedly set up and ready for the two to walk right into the unprotected and unguarded store through an unlocked back door as was always the case.
Monday, January 3, 2011
THE RUDOLPH VALENTINO CRUMPTON STORY Part 8
The only question bothering Rudolph at this particular moment was whether he would ever collect the money for his work and more important right now whether he would ever get the new clothes he had just given Tommy back in his beautiful closet. This was not the world of every fifteen year old, but to Rudolph the bar was not all that high. The same as a lot of kids looking forward to graduation of some sort and the life ahead, Rudolph now knew he could make it in his world and to a kid like Rudolph that meant a lot.
It was nearly four a.m. before Rudolph finally dozed off lying on top of the old chenille bedspread on his new bed. Shortly after falling asleep he heard one of the girls from the kitchen calling everyone to breakfast in the dining room. Exhausted and sleeping so well at this point Rudolph ignored the call and continued to sleep until almost 10:30. Finally waking from the best sleep he had enjoyed since leaving Pikeville and his uncle’s house, Rudolph quickly found the bath cloth, towel and soap Tommy used the night before and hurried to the bathroom to get himself cleaned up for ‘dinner’. Tommy had not taken a shower since leaving Pikeville so he stood under the hot water until the water actually started to cool. He brushed his teeth, applied a generous helping of Right Guard under both arms and splashed some of his new aftershave on his face. He hurried back to his room and selected a new pair of jeans, still on the original hanger from the store, and a new button up shirt still folded and pinned just as it was when they bought it the day before. He pulled the shirt from his new dresser in exactly the same spot he placed it yesterday afternoon when he and Tommy returned from the store. By the time Rudolph finished dressing he was smiling from ear to ear. He made one last pass by the mirror to admire this new person he found inside his old body before he heard the call from the kitchen announcing the ‘dinner’ meal was to be served in five minutes. As he made his way down the back stairs, he had been shown yesterday afternoon, his hunger nearly overcame him. Rudolph had only eaten one meal in this house but it was enough to hook him forever. He emerged from the stairway into the kitchen and for a moment thought he was in heaven. The stove top was covered with pots and pans, steam pouring from under the lids covering them at that moment. He spied a large pan, full of steaming biscuits, sitting next to what looked like another bowl of the banana pudding he enjoyed so much the night before. As he entered the kitchen one of the girls, Roxy he thought, looked up and motioned him on into the dining room. “Get in there child, once we set it on the table them human trash cans gonna start grapping like they ain’t ever eat before, and you gonna get hind tit”. The woman was as serious as she could be, causing Rudolph to move on through the kitchen and into the dining room quickly and to the seat he held the night before. Each place setting had a large glass of water and an equally large glass of ice tea sitting just in front of a fork that rested on a neatly folded napkin. Rudolph drained both glasses, first the ice tea and then the water as soon as he sat down and quickly refilled both from the two large pitchers resting in the middle of the table. Everyone, other than the two men Rudolph did not know the night before, was in the same seat as earlier except Miss Maxine. Just when Rudolph thought he could not wait one more minute longer Miss Maxine came through the doors that led to the front of the house and took her seat at the head of the table. As if on queue the door to the kitchen opened and the two angels from the kitchen came into the dining area carrying more food that Rudolph ever knew existed. In one hand the first angel carried a plate of bright red and neatly sliced tomatoes along with thinly sliced onions. In her other hand she carried a large bowl of slaw, covered in a bright orange colored sauce and generously sprinkled with black pepper. The second angel carried a plate of sliced ham and a large bowl of a yellow tinted potato salad filled with olives and some kind of small red vegetable pieces he did not recognize. As soon as all this was set on the table and before the folks started filling their plates, the two disappeared and almost instantly returned. This time with more bowls and trays loaded with butter beans, green beans, a Jell-O dish and the huge bowl of the cat head biscuits Rudolph had seen earlier. The food kept coming and coming until the last bite was eaten and the banana pudding bowl was once again empty. Rudolph ate until he thought he was about to burst.
Both the night before and now at ‘dinner’ there had been very little conversation between anyone at the table. The two old guys from the front porch tried to engage Rudolph by asking about his and Tommy’s foray the night before, but Rudolph had no intention of telling anyone about what had happened. The efforts to talk with Rudolph soon faded into the same two talking with each other once again about the Pirates, repeating most of everything they talked about the night before. As everyone finished and begin to wander out of the dining room and to wherever they were going, Miss Maxine caught Rudolph’s eye and motion for him to wait until the room cleared. Rudolph was scared to death at the thought of Miss Maxine telling him it was time for him to move on. Rudolph was afraid Tommy called her or talked with her in person to get her to tell him the deal was off. It would be like Tommy, Rudolph thought, that Maxine should be the one to break it to Rudolph instead of Tommy having to face him. Rudolph moved to the seat just to the right of Miss Maxine as she finished her coffee. Rudolph notice the night before Miss Maxine finished her meal with coffee, served in a silver pitcher by one of the angels, it must be something rich people do he thought to himself. “Rudolph, honey, I got a call from Tommy this morning and he wanted me to give you a message,” Miss Maxine was being so nice and it had Rudolph shaking from fear. “Yes Mam, is he all right,” Rudolph was hoping Tommy had gotten home without running into trouble. “Oh yes, he’s fine I suppose. He just wanted me to tell you that he was going to be tied up for a few days and not to worry about him,” Miss Maxine did not seem the least upset, which allowed Rudolph to breathe a little easier. “He said he did not remember to give you any cash to live on while he was busy and ask if I would tell you he’d be in touch in a few days and to give you some money to get you by while he’s gone,” Rudolph’s whole body almost shook with relief. “Yes mam, I thought he would be by here today, I’m glad you told me,” Rudolph had not even heard the part about the money. “Do you think a hundred dollars will get you by, I don’t think it will be long before he’ll be back to see you,” Miss Maxine was trying to get by with as little as she could since she had no idea whether Tommy would ever be back. Tommy had already paid for Rudolph’s room and board through next week but now with the hundred she was fronting the kid, Tommy had her upside-down again. “Yes mam, unless he’s gone a long time I can get by on that,” Rudolph could hardly stay still in his chair. With the $20 he had from yesterday this would give him $120 cash money in his pocket, more money than he ever dreamed he would have in any pocket at one time, he was rich. Maxine pulled five twenty-dollar bills from a pocket on the front of her dress and handed it to Rudolph. “Thank you Miss Maxine, and if there is anything I can do around the house let me know, I ain’t got nothing to do until Mr. Tommy comes back and I don’t mind work.” “I will tell Agnes and Roxy and I’m sure they will be calling on you for something, that’s mighty nice of you Tommy.”
Rudolph stood up and neatly folded the five bills Miss Maxine handed him on top of the lone twenty that was already in his pocket. Leaving Miss Maxine sitting at the table finishing her coffee he walked out of the dining room through the door leading to the front of the house. He walked through the foyer and onto the porch where the two older men had resumed their duties of anchoring the two chairs they seemed to always be sitting in.
Rudolph sat on a waist high brick wall that surrounded the porch. He breathed deeply from the fresh air that complimented the bright warm early fall day. What a life he thought. The pressure of working a job that required him to be some place for eight hours doing hard labor was a thing of the past. He learned early on men were expected to work under someone else’s supervision for eight to twelve hours a day, five and in some instances six days a week. Work was supposed to be for meager pay. Pay just enough to almost support a wife and a child or two. Dirty work he knew could result in hardship and sickness like the black lung that killed his father. Rudolph knew some folks had figured a way to avoid the kind of work he had always known, now he was one of those people and it felt pretty good. A kid who one day before would have been happy to find the kind of job he now knew was now beneath him.
Rudolph spent the weekend and the following Monday just hanging out around the boarding house. The meals continued as good as the first two and at breakfast Rudolph learn to like smoked sausage, Canadian bacon and pan fried potatoes, all dishes he had never experienced. Occasionally Roxy and Agnes, who by now he learned to recognize, would ask for help in moving some furniture for cleaning purposes or for help in bring in groceries from the old station wagon Miss Maxine furnished them for trips to the grocery store and K-Mart for supplies. Rudolph was beginning to get concerned about hearing from Tommy when on Tuesday morning he showed up at Maxine’s just before 10:00 o’clock. Rudolph was in the kitchen peeling potatoes for the angels when Tommy burst through the door that led from the front of the house. It was all Rudolph could do to keep from laughing out loud. Agnes and Roxy did not have as much control over their emotions as Rudolph; they both stopped dead in their tracks and broke out in uncontrollable laughter. Tommy looked like some type of freak one would pay a couple of dollars at a county fair to gawk at for a minute or two. For some reason, or maybe just out of ignorance, Tommy decided to wear a short sleeve shirt. The hair from the front part of his head, his eyebrows, eye lashes and hair from his arms was completely gone. Tommy’s skin, that hair once covered, was the whitest white Rudolph had ever seen and he literally looked like a freak of some kind. “Tommy,” Roxy screamed, “what has happened to you child.” Agnes, who was closest to Tommy was gently rubbing his head and arms and steaming tears of laughter. Agnes was speechless at the sight of this freakish human standing in her kitchen. “Thanks girls, I knew I could get a lot of sympathy from you two. Can’t you see I’m injured and need a lot of love and affection?” “What happen,” repeated Roxy, “you done burnt yo’self up honey, you look terrible.”
“Standing too close to my grill while I was lighting it Saturday night. Yea, I was grilling the biggest steaks you’ve ever seen for one of my lady friends and the damn thing blew up on me”, Tommy was using the story Rudolph had given him early last Friday morning. “Did you go to a Doctor?” Roxy asked. “Hell no, it didn’t really burn me it just singed me good, I damn sure won’t use that much lighter fluid again,” Tommy replied.
Tommy was not anxious to spend much time with the two women who were having so much fun at his expense. “I need your boy,” he said and motioned for Rudolph to follow him back through the door he just entered. Rudolph followed as directed by Tommy all the way out the front door and to his car parked on the street. The two front porch guardians were not in their usual place and the two made it to the car without Tommy catching any more ridicule for the way he looked. “Get in kid,” Tommy ordered as they reached the car. Rudolph waited for Tommy to pop the door lock on his side of the car and quickly slid in as Tommy started the Seville and put into gear to drive off. “Where are we going,” Rudolph asked as they pulled into the street. “To teach you to drive,” Tommy shot back, “we nearly got into a mess the other night because you can’t drive, why didn’t you tell me you couldn’t drive?” “You never asked,” Rudolph answered, “I’ve never even thought about it, my dad did all the driving at our house. My mom did not know how to drive until after my dad got sick and then she never got a license, she just drove to the store every now and then.” “Hell son, everybody knows how to drive, we’ve got to get you trained before we try something that important again.” Rudolph was excited he was about to learn how to drive a car but he was thinking more about how stupid Tommy was to put himself in that situation with a fifteen year old kid he did not know more about.
Tommy took Rudolph to an old airfield that was now used partially as a small industrial park. The old runway extended far beyond the metal buildings that once served as hangers but were now body shops and window tinting businesses. That afternoon, on the old runway Rudolph learned to drive. By two thirty in the afternoon Tommy was satisfied his pupil knew the fundamentals of driving and could handle a car if they were ever in a tight again like last Thursday night. With Rudolph still behind the wheel Tommy pronounced him road ready and formally matriculated him from driving school by saying, “let’s get the hell out of here and get some lunch.”
Following Tommy’s directions Rudolph drove to a McDonalds a few blocks back toward town and through the drive thru window. The two ordered the .85 cheeseburgers with fries and a drink and pulled into the parking lot of a small strip center nearby to eat their meal. Rudolph had become so accustomed to the meals back at Miss Maxine’s that this little sandwich was a real letdown. After they were parked and begun to eat Tommy casually asked Rudolph what he thought about the events of the previous Thursday night. “It was all right,” Rudolph responded, “how do you think I did”? “You were great, if it had not been for you I probably would have never pulled that truck out of the building and I would have blown myself and the truck all the way to hell,” Tommy had gotten quite serious by this time. “Can I help you again? Rudolph asked as he finished his last French fry. “Hell yes boy, you’re the man I need,” Tommy quickly replied, “I was hoping you would want to go on. There is more business out there than you and I could ever do, and I need someone like you I can depend on”. “When can we do another one?” Rudolph asked. “I’m working on a couple of things so we just sit tight until I get the go ahead. “Your o.k. with everything at Maxine’s aren’t you?” “Oh yes, Miss Maxine and the girls are great and I have never seen so much food in my life. I’ve got to make some money to pay her, how do I do that?” Rudolph wanted to know what Tommy’s real intentions were. “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of Maxine until we get you on your feet. Once the money starts coming in that will all take care of itself but for now I’ll take care of her. Do you need anything else in the meantime? Rudolph could see Tommy really wanted to keep him around and he for sure wanted to stay. He wanted to ask about the shirts Tommy had taken from his closet but thought that might seem ungrateful.
Rudolph continued to drive, following Tommy’s directions until he pulled up in front of Maxine’s at 4:30 on the nose. “I’ll be in touch kid,” Tommy said as Rudolph stopped the Seville and eased gearshift into the P position. Tommy exited from the passenger side and met Rudolph as he walked around the front of the car. “Take this kid,” Tommy handed Rudolph an envelop that was sealed. “This is for all you did the other night. There’s enough in there to pay Maxine back for what she fronted you while I was out of service, be sure she gets it and give her an extra twenty. She’ll want to know about me so just tell her I’m all right and that I’ll see her before the end of the week.” Rudolph took the envelope and thanked Tommy as he watched him get back into the car on the driver’s side and drive away. Rudolph did not want to open the envelope outside his room since the two porch guardians were back in their place. He knew Tommy promised him $100 for helping him last Thursday night and he was working the numbers in his mind. If the envelope had the $100 Tommy agreed to pay and if he repaid Miss Maxine $120 then he would have to take the money he was getting today and add $20 from his pocket stash and would only have $100 left. It was still more money than he ever held at one time in his life but he did not like the idea of paying money out of his pocket, even though Miss Maxine had been so nice to him. Tommy might be just like the old company store that plagued his family for so long. All this would have to be worked out in the future but first he needed to learn the business. Working for anyone was all the same, as long as you had to depend on anyone you were in trouble.
Rudolph went straight to his room, closed the door and opened the envelope. The envelope was stuffed with money as far as Rudolph was concerned. He counted it and re-counted it four, no five times. The bills were lying across his bed; he counted it one more time. $770.00, one more time he counted it, seven hundred $100 bills, six $20 bills and a lone $10. Had Tommy gotten this envelope mixed with another one he was carrying? Was he going to come back and exchange the one he gave Rudolph for another one with a lot less cash enclosed? He looked at the envelope again and examined the front. No name anywhere on the outside, nothing on the inside except cash money, more money than he could even dream about. What was the deal? Rudolph sat in his chair and stared at the cash spread across his bed. Agnes was calling everyone to supper and he had not moved from his chair in nearly two hours. Rudolph got up and pulled all the money together for the first time since he had opened the envelope Tommy had given him. He took one $100 bill and a twenty from the stack, folded it together and pushed it into the front pocket of his jeans on the side opposite where he was carrying the $120 he had since Friday when Miss Maxine had given him the five twenties. The rest of the money, $650 he slipped back into the envelope he had taken it from and wedged it between two pieces of frame on the back of the dresser near his bed. He stopped by the bathroom on his way to the back stairs, washed his hands and headed down the stairs and toward the dining room to eat.
It was nearly four a.m. before Rudolph finally dozed off lying on top of the old chenille bedspread on his new bed. Shortly after falling asleep he heard one of the girls from the kitchen calling everyone to breakfast in the dining room. Exhausted and sleeping so well at this point Rudolph ignored the call and continued to sleep until almost 10:30. Finally waking from the best sleep he had enjoyed since leaving Pikeville and his uncle’s house, Rudolph quickly found the bath cloth, towel and soap Tommy used the night before and hurried to the bathroom to get himself cleaned up for ‘dinner’. Tommy had not taken a shower since leaving Pikeville so he stood under the hot water until the water actually started to cool. He brushed his teeth, applied a generous helping of Right Guard under both arms and splashed some of his new aftershave on his face. He hurried back to his room and selected a new pair of jeans, still on the original hanger from the store, and a new button up shirt still folded and pinned just as it was when they bought it the day before. He pulled the shirt from his new dresser in exactly the same spot he placed it yesterday afternoon when he and Tommy returned from the store. By the time Rudolph finished dressing he was smiling from ear to ear. He made one last pass by the mirror to admire this new person he found inside his old body before he heard the call from the kitchen announcing the ‘dinner’ meal was to be served in five minutes. As he made his way down the back stairs, he had been shown yesterday afternoon, his hunger nearly overcame him. Rudolph had only eaten one meal in this house but it was enough to hook him forever. He emerged from the stairway into the kitchen and for a moment thought he was in heaven. The stove top was covered with pots and pans, steam pouring from under the lids covering them at that moment. He spied a large pan, full of steaming biscuits, sitting next to what looked like another bowl of the banana pudding he enjoyed so much the night before. As he entered the kitchen one of the girls, Roxy he thought, looked up and motioned him on into the dining room. “Get in there child, once we set it on the table them human trash cans gonna start grapping like they ain’t ever eat before, and you gonna get hind tit”. The woman was as serious as she could be, causing Rudolph to move on through the kitchen and into the dining room quickly and to the seat he held the night before. Each place setting had a large glass of water and an equally large glass of ice tea sitting just in front of a fork that rested on a neatly folded napkin. Rudolph drained both glasses, first the ice tea and then the water as soon as he sat down and quickly refilled both from the two large pitchers resting in the middle of the table. Everyone, other than the two men Rudolph did not know the night before, was in the same seat as earlier except Miss Maxine. Just when Rudolph thought he could not wait one more minute longer Miss Maxine came through the doors that led to the front of the house and took her seat at the head of the table. As if on queue the door to the kitchen opened and the two angels from the kitchen came into the dining area carrying more food that Rudolph ever knew existed. In one hand the first angel carried a plate of bright red and neatly sliced tomatoes along with thinly sliced onions. In her other hand she carried a large bowl of slaw, covered in a bright orange colored sauce and generously sprinkled with black pepper. The second angel carried a plate of sliced ham and a large bowl of a yellow tinted potato salad filled with olives and some kind of small red vegetable pieces he did not recognize. As soon as all this was set on the table and before the folks started filling their plates, the two disappeared and almost instantly returned. This time with more bowls and trays loaded with butter beans, green beans, a Jell-O dish and the huge bowl of the cat head biscuits Rudolph had seen earlier. The food kept coming and coming until the last bite was eaten and the banana pudding bowl was once again empty. Rudolph ate until he thought he was about to burst.
Both the night before and now at ‘dinner’ there had been very little conversation between anyone at the table. The two old guys from the front porch tried to engage Rudolph by asking about his and Tommy’s foray the night before, but Rudolph had no intention of telling anyone about what had happened. The efforts to talk with Rudolph soon faded into the same two talking with each other once again about the Pirates, repeating most of everything they talked about the night before. As everyone finished and begin to wander out of the dining room and to wherever they were going, Miss Maxine caught Rudolph’s eye and motion for him to wait until the room cleared. Rudolph was scared to death at the thought of Miss Maxine telling him it was time for him to move on. Rudolph was afraid Tommy called her or talked with her in person to get her to tell him the deal was off. It would be like Tommy, Rudolph thought, that Maxine should be the one to break it to Rudolph instead of Tommy having to face him. Rudolph moved to the seat just to the right of Miss Maxine as she finished her coffee. Rudolph notice the night before Miss Maxine finished her meal with coffee, served in a silver pitcher by one of the angels, it must be something rich people do he thought to himself. “Rudolph, honey, I got a call from Tommy this morning and he wanted me to give you a message,” Miss Maxine was being so nice and it had Rudolph shaking from fear. “Yes Mam, is he all right,” Rudolph was hoping Tommy had gotten home without running into trouble. “Oh yes, he’s fine I suppose. He just wanted me to tell you that he was going to be tied up for a few days and not to worry about him,” Miss Maxine did not seem the least upset, which allowed Rudolph to breathe a little easier. “He said he did not remember to give you any cash to live on while he was busy and ask if I would tell you he’d be in touch in a few days and to give you some money to get you by while he’s gone,” Rudolph’s whole body almost shook with relief. “Yes mam, I thought he would be by here today, I’m glad you told me,” Rudolph had not even heard the part about the money. “Do you think a hundred dollars will get you by, I don’t think it will be long before he’ll be back to see you,” Miss Maxine was trying to get by with as little as she could since she had no idea whether Tommy would ever be back. Tommy had already paid for Rudolph’s room and board through next week but now with the hundred she was fronting the kid, Tommy had her upside-down again. “Yes mam, unless he’s gone a long time I can get by on that,” Rudolph could hardly stay still in his chair. With the $20 he had from yesterday this would give him $120 cash money in his pocket, more money than he ever dreamed he would have in any pocket at one time, he was rich. Maxine pulled five twenty-dollar bills from a pocket on the front of her dress and handed it to Rudolph. “Thank you Miss Maxine, and if there is anything I can do around the house let me know, I ain’t got nothing to do until Mr. Tommy comes back and I don’t mind work.” “I will tell Agnes and Roxy and I’m sure they will be calling on you for something, that’s mighty nice of you Tommy.”
Rudolph stood up and neatly folded the five bills Miss Maxine handed him on top of the lone twenty that was already in his pocket. Leaving Miss Maxine sitting at the table finishing her coffee he walked out of the dining room through the door leading to the front of the house. He walked through the foyer and onto the porch where the two older men had resumed their duties of anchoring the two chairs they seemed to always be sitting in.
Rudolph sat on a waist high brick wall that surrounded the porch. He breathed deeply from the fresh air that complimented the bright warm early fall day. What a life he thought. The pressure of working a job that required him to be some place for eight hours doing hard labor was a thing of the past. He learned early on men were expected to work under someone else’s supervision for eight to twelve hours a day, five and in some instances six days a week. Work was supposed to be for meager pay. Pay just enough to almost support a wife and a child or two. Dirty work he knew could result in hardship and sickness like the black lung that killed his father. Rudolph knew some folks had figured a way to avoid the kind of work he had always known, now he was one of those people and it felt pretty good. A kid who one day before would have been happy to find the kind of job he now knew was now beneath him.
Rudolph spent the weekend and the following Monday just hanging out around the boarding house. The meals continued as good as the first two and at breakfast Rudolph learn to like smoked sausage, Canadian bacon and pan fried potatoes, all dishes he had never experienced. Occasionally Roxy and Agnes, who by now he learned to recognize, would ask for help in moving some furniture for cleaning purposes or for help in bring in groceries from the old station wagon Miss Maxine furnished them for trips to the grocery store and K-Mart for supplies. Rudolph was beginning to get concerned about hearing from Tommy when on Tuesday morning he showed up at Maxine’s just before 10:00 o’clock. Rudolph was in the kitchen peeling potatoes for the angels when Tommy burst through the door that led from the front of the house. It was all Rudolph could do to keep from laughing out loud. Agnes and Roxy did not have as much control over their emotions as Rudolph; they both stopped dead in their tracks and broke out in uncontrollable laughter. Tommy looked like some type of freak one would pay a couple of dollars at a county fair to gawk at for a minute or two. For some reason, or maybe just out of ignorance, Tommy decided to wear a short sleeve shirt. The hair from the front part of his head, his eyebrows, eye lashes and hair from his arms was completely gone. Tommy’s skin, that hair once covered, was the whitest white Rudolph had ever seen and he literally looked like a freak of some kind. “Tommy,” Roxy screamed, “what has happened to you child.” Agnes, who was closest to Tommy was gently rubbing his head and arms and steaming tears of laughter. Agnes was speechless at the sight of this freakish human standing in her kitchen. “Thanks girls, I knew I could get a lot of sympathy from you two. Can’t you see I’m injured and need a lot of love and affection?” “What happen,” repeated Roxy, “you done burnt yo’self up honey, you look terrible.”
“Standing too close to my grill while I was lighting it Saturday night. Yea, I was grilling the biggest steaks you’ve ever seen for one of my lady friends and the damn thing blew up on me”, Tommy was using the story Rudolph had given him early last Friday morning. “Did you go to a Doctor?” Roxy asked. “Hell no, it didn’t really burn me it just singed me good, I damn sure won’t use that much lighter fluid again,” Tommy replied.
Tommy was not anxious to spend much time with the two women who were having so much fun at his expense. “I need your boy,” he said and motioned for Rudolph to follow him back through the door he just entered. Rudolph followed as directed by Tommy all the way out the front door and to his car parked on the street. The two front porch guardians were not in their usual place and the two made it to the car without Tommy catching any more ridicule for the way he looked. “Get in kid,” Tommy ordered as they reached the car. Rudolph waited for Tommy to pop the door lock on his side of the car and quickly slid in as Tommy started the Seville and put into gear to drive off. “Where are we going,” Rudolph asked as they pulled into the street. “To teach you to drive,” Tommy shot back, “we nearly got into a mess the other night because you can’t drive, why didn’t you tell me you couldn’t drive?” “You never asked,” Rudolph answered, “I’ve never even thought about it, my dad did all the driving at our house. My mom did not know how to drive until after my dad got sick and then she never got a license, she just drove to the store every now and then.” “Hell son, everybody knows how to drive, we’ve got to get you trained before we try something that important again.” Rudolph was excited he was about to learn how to drive a car but he was thinking more about how stupid Tommy was to put himself in that situation with a fifteen year old kid he did not know more about.
Tommy took Rudolph to an old airfield that was now used partially as a small industrial park. The old runway extended far beyond the metal buildings that once served as hangers but were now body shops and window tinting businesses. That afternoon, on the old runway Rudolph learned to drive. By two thirty in the afternoon Tommy was satisfied his pupil knew the fundamentals of driving and could handle a car if they were ever in a tight again like last Thursday night. With Rudolph still behind the wheel Tommy pronounced him road ready and formally matriculated him from driving school by saying, “let’s get the hell out of here and get some lunch.”
Following Tommy’s directions Rudolph drove to a McDonalds a few blocks back toward town and through the drive thru window. The two ordered the .85 cheeseburgers with fries and a drink and pulled into the parking lot of a small strip center nearby to eat their meal. Rudolph had become so accustomed to the meals back at Miss Maxine’s that this little sandwich was a real letdown. After they were parked and begun to eat Tommy casually asked Rudolph what he thought about the events of the previous Thursday night. “It was all right,” Rudolph responded, “how do you think I did”? “You were great, if it had not been for you I probably would have never pulled that truck out of the building and I would have blown myself and the truck all the way to hell,” Tommy had gotten quite serious by this time. “Can I help you again? Rudolph asked as he finished his last French fry. “Hell yes boy, you’re the man I need,” Tommy quickly replied, “I was hoping you would want to go on. There is more business out there than you and I could ever do, and I need someone like you I can depend on”. “When can we do another one?” Rudolph asked. “I’m working on a couple of things so we just sit tight until I get the go ahead. “Your o.k. with everything at Maxine’s aren’t you?” “Oh yes, Miss Maxine and the girls are great and I have never seen so much food in my life. I’ve got to make some money to pay her, how do I do that?” Rudolph wanted to know what Tommy’s real intentions were. “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of Maxine until we get you on your feet. Once the money starts coming in that will all take care of itself but for now I’ll take care of her. Do you need anything else in the meantime? Rudolph could see Tommy really wanted to keep him around and he for sure wanted to stay. He wanted to ask about the shirts Tommy had taken from his closet but thought that might seem ungrateful.
Rudolph continued to drive, following Tommy’s directions until he pulled up in front of Maxine’s at 4:30 on the nose. “I’ll be in touch kid,” Tommy said as Rudolph stopped the Seville and eased gearshift into the P position. Tommy exited from the passenger side and met Rudolph as he walked around the front of the car. “Take this kid,” Tommy handed Rudolph an envelop that was sealed. “This is for all you did the other night. There’s enough in there to pay Maxine back for what she fronted you while I was out of service, be sure she gets it and give her an extra twenty. She’ll want to know about me so just tell her I’m all right and that I’ll see her before the end of the week.” Rudolph took the envelope and thanked Tommy as he watched him get back into the car on the driver’s side and drive away. Rudolph did not want to open the envelope outside his room since the two porch guardians were back in their place. He knew Tommy promised him $100 for helping him last Thursday night and he was working the numbers in his mind. If the envelope had the $100 Tommy agreed to pay and if he repaid Miss Maxine $120 then he would have to take the money he was getting today and add $20 from his pocket stash and would only have $100 left. It was still more money than he ever held at one time in his life but he did not like the idea of paying money out of his pocket, even though Miss Maxine had been so nice to him. Tommy might be just like the old company store that plagued his family for so long. All this would have to be worked out in the future but first he needed to learn the business. Working for anyone was all the same, as long as you had to depend on anyone you were in trouble.
Rudolph went straight to his room, closed the door and opened the envelope. The envelope was stuffed with money as far as Rudolph was concerned. He counted it and re-counted it four, no five times. The bills were lying across his bed; he counted it one more time. $770.00, one more time he counted it, seven hundred $100 bills, six $20 bills and a lone $10. Had Tommy gotten this envelope mixed with another one he was carrying? Was he going to come back and exchange the one he gave Rudolph for another one with a lot less cash enclosed? He looked at the envelope again and examined the front. No name anywhere on the outside, nothing on the inside except cash money, more money than he could even dream about. What was the deal? Rudolph sat in his chair and stared at the cash spread across his bed. Agnes was calling everyone to supper and he had not moved from his chair in nearly two hours. Rudolph got up and pulled all the money together for the first time since he had opened the envelope Tommy had given him. He took one $100 bill and a twenty from the stack, folded it together and pushed it into the front pocket of his jeans on the side opposite where he was carrying the $120 he had since Friday when Miss Maxine had given him the five twenties. The rest of the money, $650 he slipped back into the envelope he had taken it from and wedged it between two pieces of frame on the back of the dresser near his bed. He stopped by the bathroom on his way to the back stairs, washed his hands and headed down the stairs and toward the dining room to eat.
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