CHAPTER 9
When spring came I discovered sports at school. I had always liked playing stick ball back home but now I could play baseball and basketball for real. I might not be as big as some of the other guys on the teams but I was quick and agile which gave me the edge over the bigger players. I also discovered a competitive nature that made me strive to be the best. I still had a hard time letting anyone get too close but I did start to open up a little.
Huggy and I still spent a lot of time together but he was working for his uncle who owned a local deli so sometimes he had to cancel our plans. I was also working more hours for Al at the car lot learning how to make simple repairs and do body work. He had promised me a car when I turned sixteen as long as I stayed out of trouble. Nobody had come right out and said so but I knew I wouldn't be going back to New York any time soon.
The girls at school were starting to take notice too. All I had to do was turn on the charm and they were hooked. This sometimes led to more fights with their jealous boyfriends. I was getting quite a reputation for fighting and fighting dirty. I wasn't exactly proud of that fact but I didn't back down when I was challenged either.
I was slowly adjusting to my new life in California. In my heart I knew that I wouldn't be going back to New York anytime soon. I still felt abandoned and rejected by Ma. Rosie and Al did the best they could to make me feel at home but it just wasn't the same. With no children of their own they lavished all their attention on me. I am not ashamed to admit that I took advantage of that more than once especially if I wanted something. They were strict but not as strict as it had been at home when Pop was still alive.
Rosie made sure I was home on Friday nights to take Ma's weekly call. During her calls we would talk about everything and about nothing. Sometimes it hurt just to hear her voice on the other end of the line. I could feel the distance between us growing a little bit more every day. I knew it would probably be a long time before I saw Ma or Nicky again.
Turned out I was right about that. I didn't see them again until three years later when I graduated from high school. During that time, I had grown almost six inches and put on over thirty pounds of muscle. Nicky had grown up too. He was no longer the little kid I remembered. And Ma looked old and tired. And even though we all tried, there was a distance between us that we couldn't seem to breech.
Nicky had grown into a cocky fourteen year old with a mouth that would have gotten my mouth washed out with soap on a regular basis. I didn't like the way he seemed to push Ma around and say what he wanted. I also felt a little jealous because Ma would never have let me get away with acting like that. I found myself wondering who Nicky was hanging out with back in New York and what kind of trouble he might be getting into. I knew that Ma would never tell me not after sending me away to keep me out of trouble.
As I walked across that stage to accept my diploma I let my eyes sweep across the faces in the audience until I found Ma, Nick, Rose and Al. Nicky looked bored out of his mind but Ma and my surrogate parents all had huge, proud smiles on their faces. I grinned back and picked up the strut in my step. The future loomed ahead of me. I already knew that I wanted to be a cop just like Pop. I hadn't told anyone that yet. I knew Ma wouldn't be too happy about it and I doubted if Rosie or Al would be either. But, I was determined to be my own man and to stand on my own two feet. I guess Ma did me a favor after all by sending me out here to live.
The End? Or Just The Beginning?
