For the Wages
Note and Disclaimer: Yep, that's right. Still don't own M*A*S*H. Enjoy this new story!
Some people just don't know when their ambitions should end. They keep harping on new ideas and executing schemes that would help only them. I found that some are pretty strong in their plans and utilize anything they can – people and places, for example – in order to achieve them. Others, like Luther Rizzo, are kind of lazy about themselves. He had that drive, I tell you, but for once purpose in mind.
Money. Rizzo was all about the wages. He wanted any way possible to get it without lifting so much as a finger. He always had new schemes on how to become rich. His childhood was filled with poverty and indolence. He had to scrounge in order to survive when he even tried. Sleeping was more of his favorite pastime. Food, clothing and shelter were given to him out of pity most times. But it enabled him to find any way possible to remain out of the gutter. This meant joining the Army.
It was a steady job and pay. Rizzo was pleased with the automatic wages he received every month. It wasn't much (Motor Pool wasn't an ideal position either), but he didn't care. All that mattered was that he was able to slumber in peace and not have to work so hard for it and that he no longer lived on the streets. It also meant that his new wife and son were provided for. He could not let Zola and Little Billy Bubba down!
He never paid much attention to his activities because he was sleeping so much. So, the next thing Rizzo knew, he was in Korea. He didn't even realize that he was transferred to some foreign country. He was pulled out from under a jeep by his CO, Henry Blake, and ordered to sign out a jeep. Rizzo obliged him quickly, thinking all the while how he managed to get himself planted in Korea. He didn't know where it was on a map. All he knew was that he was now a true soldier and that he was stuck until the Army sent him elsewhere.
But the wages made up for everything. Rizzo was not worried about the gore of war. He had seen enough of it on the streets. The money he made working in Korea doubled because he was in a war zone. He sent it little by little home, hoping that Zola would live more comfortably because he was away. He didn't think that it would hold him up until more and more arrived.
In many ways, the wages made life meaningful. Every month, he anxiously waited his turn in line for his pay. Every time, he counted in several times in front of the paymaster. Then, when everyone received their allotted share, he went around collecting what was owed to him or allowing someone to borrow from his pay. Oh, Rizzo lived for lending and adding interest! That was how he made more of a fortune.
It lasted that way until his days in Korea were numbered. He was a scoundrel throughout it, all right, and a pretty damned sneaky one too. But all Rizzo saw were those dollar signs. There was no stopping him from trying to cheat the system little by little when he was in Korea. Wages were the name of the game until the armistice. How much he would get was another story.
Regret was something Rizzo never faced head-on. Sure, he shed a couple of tears for the dead and was truly saddened for some that passed. It wasn't just that it was appropriate. It was one of the few times that he actually experienced more than the emotion of greed. War had a different way of effecting people and Rizzo was one of those that fell under its spell. For him, wages mattered only in life. But when one no longer had a way to maintain their financial status, it was a shame. They could not enjoy riches as he did.
After his war, Rizzo was reassigned stateside. He was closer to home. But it also meant that he could afford to bring his family to the base with him. Still wheeling and dealing, he hounded those who owed him and then lent to the rest, continuing the cycle. Eventually, it led him investing in some shady deals. He lost some money promised to others and soon made a profit from them, making excuses as to why he kept the money. He had made plenty of people angry and somebody had to trap him.
It wasn't that Rizzo was a bad person. No, he had placed wages so high up a pedestal that everybody was sickened by his gluttony. He did not care about his fellow man anymore. It was such an obsession that even Zola and the baby left him. Rizzo was so concerned about keeping the flow going that he did not realize how unhappy his family was until it was too late. But then though, it did not matter. His time was soon up.
I am Death though…and there is always a way to me. Luther Rizzo escaped me in war easily enough. He found every way he could to live because he knew it meant a separation from his wages. But money isn't everything. One of his monetary dealings was heading closer and closer to an alleyway. Then, will Rizzo see how important his family was and why he shouldn't have chosen materialism over all.