Out In The Be-Bop Night- With The Stones’ Back Street Girl In Mind

From The Pen Of Frank Jackman

James Sweeny, Esquire, Jim, had to laugh, had to laugh right out loud, as he drove home to his condo from her place. Her being Susie Downing his latest paramour, although she was not the butt of his laughter even if it did concern her. Or rather how they had become entangled. “Jesus,” he said to himself as he drove down Boston’s Commonwealth Avenue, “she chews gum and loves, really loves, bowling. How did I get myself involved with her.” Hell, he knew why he had gotten involved, had taken a step back to his growing up days. He was just going back to his roots, his Adamsville projects days that he had thought were long gone. See Susie, although almost a decade younger than him, had grown up in the Gloversville projects and so they both bore the stigmata. Both had grown up on the back streets, and so some mystical social DNA had been at work. All he knew was that the hours they spent together (even while damn bowling) were the happiest he had had in a while and so he was going to play the hand dealt out.

Jim could just imagine what his wife, uh, ex-wife Lillian would say if she knew of his latest tryst. She would, addicted to the sociology jargon that she had been trained in, spout forth that he was just seeking his natural level, was just“going home” like Telly’s theory projected. (She had studied with the well-known big man in sociology back when they met, Professor John Telly, the guy who invented Quantum Sociology, the idea that all social phenomena were subject to some world-historic laws just like nature.) That despite the fact that he had dragged himself kicking and screaming from the projects, had become a fairly successful lawyer working for a firm that gave him more work than he needed, and which provided more income, hell, more alimony and child support money, in a month than his poor half –literate father had been able to provide his whole life practically. Yes, he could just see Lillian with that self-satisfied smirk learned from her very comfortable childhood in New York City, in Manhattan, the center of the universe according to her. And she would probably add to that smirk the comment that in “dumping” him (her word) she also had reverted to her natural level- aided by those nice monthly checks.

And maybe there was something to it, although most of Lillian’s sociological observations tended to the more mundane. Things like what some friend was wearing, what some child did, or did not do, to their son Ronald in the class room, stuff like that to while away her time. All he knew was that he was drawn to Susie ever since that first time they met a charity cocktail party where she had been given one of her boss’ tickets so she could attend (and so he did not have). All in a day’s work for the boss’ dutiful administrative assistant, although from her later description of the job she was more of a glorified secretary. He was drawn first to her smile, a smile that he thought she had thrown his way when he had stepped up to the bar and she was sitting there sipping some exotic drink. (Okay, okay he was drawn to her long legs, her nice figure, her bedroom blues eyes, her long blondish hair but right after that the smile.) Later she said that she had not thrown that smile at him personally, but rather it was her professional smile for the occasion. He, they, laughed at that one. In any case that was their beginning.

While at the bar he asked her who she was representing and other small chitchat. Nothing heavy just normal social banter until they got to growing up information. That is when she told him that she had grown up in the Gloversville projects. In response to that he had first hesitated to mention his own Adamsville project roots. He usually kind of kept that part well on the backburner (he had not told Lillian of his roots, the projects part, until they had started living together well before they were married. For some reason he decided to speak of it. She brightened a little at that. Maybe feeling a little more secure with kindred. She said maybe they could move from the bar to a table and they could talk, compare notes about what that whole experience was like. He agreed.

At the table he mainly listened, a professional habit, to her story, a story that sounded all too familiar. Her father, a welder, had abandoned the family after the local shipyard closed down and moved to southern Europe and he had followed his trade. That left her mother and three young daughters stranded, stranded in the projects. Susie related that she had not been much of a student, had like hanging around boys better as she came of age. She, when she thought about it later, was looking for a protector, or something, but she kind of blew with the wind.

Her first boyfriend was a king hell biker who took her virtue (her word) when she was thirteen. He also introduced her to drugs, lots of drugs, and eventually wound up pimping her off as nothing but trade on the streets (while he was actually married and had been when he seduced her). That lasted for a while until she couldn’t take it anymore, got herself clean after developing a fair jones, and had been sober for a few years. She went back to school, finished up high school, went to a community colleges to get her administrative assistant training and landed a job with John Hancock. Sheepishly she mentioned that she had had a child (not with the biker) and had put it up for adoption. Later, once they trusted each other a little, she told him she had also had a couple of abortions.

Her story got Jim to thinking about his own close call. His own corner boy existence and some of the stuff that he did including some midnight heists to get money, well, to get money to have money. That night, he, they, almost by osmosis decided to take a chance on each other. And so they had begun a very private affair. And that was the crux of his problem. Once he was hooked, hooked badly, he wanted to stay with her. But he wasn’t sure how her gum chewing, her addition to bowling (Jesus, bowling) and her remnant projects scars and manner would go in his world. All he knew was she made him laugh, made him feel okay around her, very okay. So, yah, he would play out that dealt hand and see where it led.