Childhood
To remember my childhood to me means the to remember the first best period of my life.
I was raised in the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, in a different atmosphere that there's here in New York City.
My father, a veteran of Second World War, was thirty-six year old when I was born and my mother was thirty. We lived in a small tiny house since I was three years, then we moved into a Chicago bungalow. It was a custom for a family man to build his home by himself, my father didn't, but he managed pretty well to renovate my grandfather's home.
Being an only child wasn't easy, my school mates couldn't understand how it was to have some duties: my father worked as a machinist the whole day so, after my homework, I used to help my mother with the house, she had a part time-job as nurse and she was out from four o' clock to seven thirty every day, except Saturdays and Sundays.
When my father was home he used to tell me about the war, his 6th Armored Division, the combats, how our Country has fight in Europe against Germany, but he always stopped at the beginning at the liberation of the concentration camp Buchenwald. I had discovered many years later, while I was solving a case, what he did for the lives of many men and women imprisoned there.
I've got three special episodes I like remember of my childhood: my friends Jimmie and Will planned to go to an abandoned factory after school and they asked me to join them.
While my mother was getting ready to get out that afternoon she told me
"I'll be late this evening! Dinner is in the oven. Would you please warn your father as soon as he comes back home?"
"Don't worry mum! I'll do it!" I answered lifting my eyes from my English literature book.
She kissed me on the cheek "Remember to close the door before going at the park with Will and Jimmie!"
"I'll do it, don't worry! I'm old enough!"
She left me at the table and she closed the door behind her. I rose from the chair and I stepped to the window in the living room. I looked out in the street, by pushing aside the curtain, and when I saw my mother turning the corner, I rushed to garage to pick up my bike.
"Here you are!" Will exclaimed seeing me arrive "We thought that you wouldn't come!"
"Sorry for being late!" I answered "My mother believes that we're going to the park!"
"So you had to wait for her to go out before you did it…" Jimmie smiled "What a good boy! Are you sure that she won't discover the truth?"
Will patted me on the shoulder
"I think you need a new bike, Mac! How old is this? Two hundred years?"
"We're losing time, bro!" Jimmie pointed out "We don't want Mrs. Taylor to get worried for his little Mac, do we?"
"Stop that!" I yelled "I'm not an infant!"
"Whoa! Baby Mac's going to be pissed off!" Will giggled
"Like your brother said, we're losing precious time here! Let's go!"
We arrived at the abandoned factory in ten minutes. Will opened his knapsack and he drew out a football ball.
"Alright guys!" he looked at his brother and me "You two against me!"
"C'mon Will! It's not fair! You're older than us!" Jimmie snorted "Mac and I are gonna lose!"
"You look like a puppy dog and not like a man!" Will spitted on the ground "Will you two be with me for a delivery to Bobby O'Toole? There are lots of money!"
"Sure!" Jimmie exclaimed "I think we'll stop steal candies for a while, what do you think about it Mac?"
"I think it's good! At what we're going to meet up?" I asked enthusiastic for the news
"Six o'clock out of our place and bring your bike!"
At five we were back home and I wrote down on a paper that I was out for dinner with Will and Jimmie at their place and then we would have gone for a ride few blocks later and to don't worry.
"Oh, here he is!" Will laughed "How are you dressed, Mac? You'll never be a businessman!"
"What's wrong with my t-shirt?"
"It's the same you were wearing this afternoon! Did you take a shower?" Will asked me
"I haven't had the time to do it! I had to fix table for dinner!"
Will looked at Jimmie
"Go to the meeting point and tell Bobbie that we'll be in late! I will never show myself up to an appointment without him in this state!" he grabbed me for an arm "Get undress Mac and prepare yourself for a big shower in my garden!"
"What? In your garden?"
"Of course!" he smiled then he turned to a little boy "What are you doing here, Andy? That's not your place!"
"I just want to help!"
He was six years old and he couldn't do anything except depend on his older brothers
"Well, go to Jimmie's bedroom, take the green and white t-shirt, a pair of jeans that is next to it and underpants"
Andy seemed confuse "But that t-shirt and jeans doesn't size Jimmie anymore! Why do you want them?"
"They are perfect for Mac!" he looked at me "He's still be the shorter of all!"
Andy looked at me "What you want to do at him?"
"A shower!"
He took the garden hole and he stared at me
"What?" I asked
"How can I wash you if you still be dressed?"
I took off my t-shirt and my trousers
"Mac… You still wear your underpants!"
"No, I won't take them out!"
"You know who are my neighbors! Do you also that Mary Porter has a soft spot for you?"
I turned red "Is she watching us?"
"Oh yes! She's been there since you entered here! Show her what you have!"
"Can't you wash me and close the matter here?"
"Underpants out now!" he ordered
"Andy is watching!"
Will turned to him "You've finished here! Go inside!"
Andy puffed and stepped in the direction of the door
I was washed with cold water, luckily it was May. I was left naked in the middle of the garden while Will was taking a bath sheet
"Mac" a voice called me from the next garden "Is that you?"
"Argh!" I yelled hiding myself behind the tree "Yes Mary, it's me!"
"Why are you hiding yourself?" she asked
"Because…"
"Hey Mac!" Jimmie called me "It's the opportunity of your life! Go to her!"
"Have you settled everything?"
"It's alight!" he exclaimed entering the house
"Wait! Tell your brother to hurry up!"
After that, I saw Mary Porter to enter the garden. I tried to hide myself better that I could do
"So, that's why you're hiding! Am I the first girl to see you like this?"
My heart started to beat fast, I could feel it against my chest.
She was getting closer and I didn't know what to do
"Hey, Mac!" Will yelled "Take this!" he threw me a small towel
"You're kidding, aren't you?"
"C'mon! Hurry up! We gotta go!" Jimmie shouted "Oh! Kiss Mary, she has been so kind to come here!"
"But I'm…"
Mary burst out laughing "You're so shy, Mac!"
I got angry "I'm not shy!"
"So what is it?" Jimmie cracked up "Are you hiding us something?"
"He's got the size of a canary!" Will instilled that doubt and I decided to drop the towel
"Are you all satisfied now?"
Mary came before me "I am!" and she kissed me gently "My little Canary!"
"Whoa!" Will and Jimmie scoffed at me.
Mary winked at me and then she turned and left.
Jimmie smiled "Well done Mac!"
"Now let's go!" Will pressed "Toole is waiting for us!"
We reached the room 333 in a hotel. We just had to give him some money and then leave.
"Hey, Davis!" O'Toole smirked "Are this two learning something from you?"
"Not at all! I had to sell the stuff by myself!" he said handing him the envelope with the money "They'll learn one day!"
Toole started to count the money "This is not all here!" he looked threateningly Will
"It's all you gave us!" Will replied calmly.
Toole grabbed him and shook him by shouting "Where is the rest of the money, kid?!"
I became worried, I understood immediately that something was going in the wrong way
"That's what we got!" Will replied firmly.
"Let's go guys!" Jimmie said.
We turned to the door and we started to walk in line, but Toole grabbed Will again and he punched him.
"Leave him alone!" I screamed. I was terrified and scared things turned bad so fast and Jimmie and I didn't know exactly what to do.
"Get off him!" Jimmie shouted throwing himself on Toole "Get off him!" he started to punch him as he could, but he was thrown on the bed.
I leaned out the door and I began to call for someone help, but nobody did. I realized that I was watching my fried die. I froze up.
Jimmie discovered that there was a gun in the nightstand drawer and he grabbed it. He was ready to shoot, but Toole folded it down and the gun slipped cross the floor at my feet
"Take it up, Mac! Take it up!" Jimmie screamed to me "Do it!"
I bent down on his knees to pick the gun up and I pointed it to Toole
"Do it, Mac!" Jimmie screamed desperate.
I wasn't able to pull that trigger
"C'mon, Mac! Do it!" Jimmie yelled again "Hurry up! Do it!"
I was frozen, I couldn't move.
Jimmie stood up and took the gun from my hands "Gimme!" he shouted pushing me away.
As Toole tried to stood in front of him, Jimmie shot and Toole fall on the bed, dead.
I was shocked and we drag Will out of there.
"C'mon Will!" Jimmie told to his brother "Hang on! The ambulance is arriving!"
I was paralyzed and unable to say anything.
When the ambulance arrived, two cops took Jimmie and me to the next precinct and they called our parents.
I was sitting alone in front one of the officers
"Now, son, tell me what happened!"
Jimmie and I had the time to fix a false version of the facts
"We were there to give back some money to our friends, when a guy came into the room and he shoot at him!"
"Cannot you tell me why your two friends were beating severely?"
"He thought that the money weren't all there!" I answered
"Don't you remember the face of this guy who came in from nowhere?"
I felt that tension was gaining on me, just like tears, and, to hide everything, I shook my head.
Jimmie was out with his father and Andy, next to him there were my parents
"Mac, we have to announce to you that Will is gone!" my father said in a sad tone.
I leaned with my back against the wall and I slid down to the floor
"What happened, Mac?" my mother asked me "I can't believe you don't remember that guy!"
"I don't remember him, that's all!" I yelled in answer.
Jimmie sat next to me and he whispered in my ear "It's all you fault, Mac! You could have pulled that trigger and you could have saved his life!"
Andy was looking wrong at me, but I didn't understand why until 2008. He had seen everything because he had followed us down there!
He kidnapped me, he would killed me if my team and Jimmie haven't rescued me in time!
My fiancée Christine knows this story: she read it in a newspaper, but I preferred to tell her the whole fact.