Chapter 15

In the Community Store I met a beautiful woman one day. She wasn't beautiful in the physical sense, but rather her inner self was attractive. To look at her one would think she was a patient. She wore sloppy clothes and had a sort of wild-eyed look in her eyes. Her name was Bonnie and she was a member of the B'nai B'rith, one of the groups who visited the hospital looking for patients they could help. I didn't know who she was at first and I avoided her, but Bonnie wasn't the type of woman you could ignore or avoid.

I put a quarter in the jukebox and pressed the three buttons I had memorized; C-2, E-6 & E-9. These were for Tonight Tonight by the Mellowkings, For Sentimental Reasons by the Cleftones and He Will Break Your Heart by Jerry Butler. There were plenty of good records in that machine, but these three were my favorites at the time.

I was listening closely as Butler did his thing when Bonnie walked over to the jukebox an accidentally, ha-ha-ha, bumped into it, causing the needle to scratch over the record, automatically rejecting it. I was forming my lips into "What the fuck is wrong with you?" but before I got it out the old lady smiled at me and apologized for bumping into the jukebox. She reached into a large pocket on the side of her dress and fished out a dollar bill. She told me to get change and play my record again. I took the dollar gingerly, wondering how that ugly old dame had money without someone taking it off her. There was money to be made and Max wanted it. Anyone could see that the old lady didn't have too much upstairs and I didn't think it would be too difficult for me to get my hands on whatever she had.

When I came back with the change I carefully gave her ninety cents and placed the other dime in the jukebox. I introduced myself as Clay Masten.

She introduced herself as Bonnie and then asked why I felt I had to use a false name. She knew my real name was Max and I was a patient in K Building, that I was sixteen years old, what my mother's name was, and everything else that was on record about me.

My mind whirled with thoughts of what was going on and just who the hell the old lady was. Mainly, I wanted to know how she knew so much about me!

She replied that she was the Secretary of the B'nai B'írth organization and, although she rarely visited the hospital herself, she had studied all the folders of the Jewish children. This was possible, since there were pictures of us all in our folders, but not very likely because there were hundreds of Jewish kids in that hospital. How could anyone memorize all that stuff? It just didn't seem to fit and I got the sneaking suspicion that she was there specifically to get at me.

I knew I had to fake her out quickly or else she would think I was some kind of an idiot who believed all that junk. I signaled to a guy I knew as Monk. After sauntered over, I asked Monk if he had ever met Bonnie. He replied that he hadn't, Monk wouldn't lie to me, he almost never lied to anyone, but especially not to me because I had a reputation for getting even with people who crossed me. My pay back was a mother-fucker!

I knew that Monk was Jewish, although few others did, because he didn't ever say very much about himself. Monk was aptly nicknamed. He was as close-mouthed as a real Monk.

I asked Bonnie to give me a quick run-down on Monk and she proceeded to do so; his real name, his mother's name, where he lived, and why he came to the hospital. I didn't even have to ask Monk if what she said was true because the look on his face told me the answer. Me and Monk excused ourselves and went over to the food counter. Something was very fishy indeed and we had to talk it over. We came up with a plan.

Monk would gather up five guys and bring them to the Community Store. Only four of them would be Jewish. The fifth would be a ringer and if Bonnie came up with information on him we would all know that she was a spotter for the court or the juvenile authorities. To be extra sure, one of the Jewish guys that Monk was supposed to locate was a black guy we all called Sambowitz. I was positive this plan would get her.

Me and Bonnie chatted about her work in the hospital, the work her organization was doing on the whole, with me continually asking dumb questions, mainly stalling for the time until Monk returned.

Eventually Monk showed up with the other five guys in tow. Without our asking, Bonnie ran off all she knew about those guys, even the fact that Sambowitz wasn't really born a Jew, but that his family had converted only a few years before. She also knew his real name was Samuel Johnston. The joker in the deck, Charlie Villelli, she spotted right off. She didn't know his name or anything else about him but when we tried to pawn him off as Jewish, with the name of Charles Villberg, She laughed and called it a very weak joke.