Disclaimer : You know the rules and the laws so if reading that breaks any, then hey....common sense should tell you not to read.......oh and if your sneaking and reading, then don't forget to clear your web history LOL : )
Comments, Questions or Criticisms...of the constructive sort go to Madasonaysha@aol.com (mailto:Madasonaysha@aol.com) or Madisonaysha@yahoo.com (mailto:Madisonaysha@yahoo.com) but use the AOL account first.
THE HANDSOME JEWISH YOUNG MAN
By Maddy A. Dante
Part One : Who Needs A Job?
Why did it have to rain today? On all the days that are in the week, why did it have to rain today of all days. It was bad enough that I had to get up early today on the first day of summer vacation while all my friends got to sleep in, but on top of that I had deal with getting around in the rain too. God, today was going to suck! I'm sixteen what the hell do I need a summer of job for? Wasn't it like illegal for me to be working anyway? I know New Jersey has child labor laws on that sort of thing. I need to look into that. But mom just had to pull some strings and get me a job. You would have thought that she would have got me a job working at her office, but no she didn't. I would be digging ditches. DITCHES!?! What the hell did I know about digging ditches anyway? Technically, I wouldn't actually be called a ditch digger. I would be helping out at a construction site, but that was beside the point. I would be moving around bags of cement and what ever else my Mom's friend Mr. Saldono would ask me to do. Nothing against ditch diggers and construction workers, but I wasn't cut out for that sort work. I was kind of short, but not really. I only had a few more inches before I reached my goal height of six feet. I was kind of skinny, but only little. I was just shy of one seventy, but I would be there by the end of summer, so you could see why I didn't think manual labor was for me.
I didn't understand why I had to work anyway. Mom and Dad made good money. In fact we were on the higher end of middle class, so I didn't understand why they would make me work. Mom said I was a brat and didn't appreciate what they did for me and as she put it, " Kyle you need to learn that nothing is ever just going to be given to you. In the real world you have to work for what you want." That was the biggest load of bull shit that I ever heard. She said that I was spoiled and ungrateful, but I didn't think that I was. I knew they both worked hard to give me and my little sister nice things. I was aware of that ,but they made more than enough money to give me the sneakers that I wanted. Was it too much to ask for the matching sweat suit to go with the sneakers? Then I would need the baseball cap just to complete the outfit and after that a few bucks to go out with my friends. What was fifty or sixty dollars to them anyway?
I dragged my ass out of bed into the shower. As I washed my black hair I was reminded that I needed a trim. I usually kept my hair short on the sides with a few inches on top that I spiked with gel. It was the typical hair style that most of the other white boys from Jersey wore their hair and I had perfected it. I let an ex- girlfriend talk me into growing it long and now I was stuck with these long bangs that were forever falling into my eyes. Yeah ...I know... Girls. I hated it, but she told me it looked good so I just let her run her stupid mouth. If she was talking, then she wasn't trying to kiss me. That's what made her finally break up with me. She didn't understand why I never wanted to be affectionate with her. I couldn't just come out and say,' Hey Judy, making out with you is like kissing my grandmother, it grosses me out. I'm not attracted to you, in fact I'm not attracted to any girls at all.' I thought James was cuter anyway. Yeah that would have went over well. Nobody knew that I was into guys and I would have it no other way.
Much to my relief she finally dumped me a few weeks before school ended. It couldn't have come at a better time. I would get to spend my senior year girl free. When I leave the state for college is when I will FINNALLY get the chance to be the real me. I don't know what it was that she was attracted to anyway. I wasn't very popular, but I wasn't some geek either. I only played baseball, which might I add, I was only an "okay" player at. But, Julie liked me anyway. It helped that while we dated the questions my friends would ask me as to why I didn't have a girlfriend stopped. Was it wrong to use her to cover up, sure, but I didn't lose any sleep at night. It was her or me and I chose the latter.
To add insult to injury my parents told me I had to catch the bus there. I had never ridden a bus before in my entire life and now they wanted me to take it for the first time to a place that I would rather not be going to in the first place. God! Today was just not my day! I live in one of the nicer suburbs that New Jersey has to offer. Livingston is a mix of upper middle class and the plain old just rich. My family wasn't extremely wealthy, but we were comfortable. I had never really traveled much outside of little suburban neighborhood, but today I would. The job was located in South Newark, which is one of the poorest cities in New Jersey. The city was mostly black and I' m not going to lie, that is what made me the most nervous. I wasn't a racist or anything, but I never really knew any black people. Livingston is pretty much a Gifilte fish fed, white, Jewish town. I didn't even think that I knew any one who was Catholic besides my Mom and she had long ago converted. My babushka made sure she did before she allowed my parents to get married. I could only imagine all of the "Brotha's" ganging up on my pale Jewish ass. Yeah, today was going to be GREAT!
The bus ride was extremely long and after almost an hour I was drooped of two blocks from the work site. The neighborhood was just as I knew it would be, dirty. The rain had let up to a light drizzle, but the streets were completely flooded from the late night showers. Add the fact that it was already scorching at 86 degrees outside at eight in the morning and you would see why I would rather be laying in my bed with the central air on five. The neighborhood that I was walking through was worse than anything that I had imagined. The streets were dirty and desolate. It was a hot day, but the streets just looked cold. Don't ask me how, they just did. Today was going to be WONDERFUL!
As I was walking down the street, too busy trying to follow the directions my Mom gave me and silently cursing her, I bumped into someone and sent them falling down into a puddle of mud. I felt bad because the puddle was littered with various debris's ranging from what looked like the remnants of a diaper to beer cans. UGG! It was just too GROSS! God, who could live in this type of area and not go crazy. When his eyes met mine I was speechless. He was a black guy. His skin was smooth and the color of deep honey. He stood up and was about three inches taller than me. His eyes are really what grabbed me.
They were a dark copper color, like a light tea brown. I had never seen anyone with those color eyes. Hell, I had never seem ANYONE with his color eyes. They were on the verge of being black, but not quite so dark. His hair was kind of long and curly, but he had it done in tight braids that went straight back in a zig zag pattern, stopping at the nape of his neck. I wanted to touch his hair. Partially out of curiosity to see what it felt like, but also so I could get closer to him. His eyes chinked up into the shape of little almonds. His lips were full and pink with bright white, perfect teeth hidden behind them. His once bright baggy white T- shirt was now stained with mud, but the part that was untouched made his dark honey skin glow even more. I felt bad because his clothes were all, but soaked through with mud and rain water from the fall. He was dressed like a typical thug that normally I would have walked the other way from, but with him I just wanted to be near him. Okay that was a half lie. I was kind of scared that he would try to fight me for making him fall. The look on his face only reassured me that this guy, as hot as he may have been, was about to beat my ass. He looked pissed and when I apologized he just sort of nodded his head and said it was okay. He avoided eye contact, but that didn't stop me from staring. He began to walk down the street and I watched how his legs moved in the way that only tough guys did. Kind of in a cocky swagger. His body held a lie, but his hips held the truth. His shorts hung loose and I could see the tips of his red boxes. I watched him walk down the street and out of my life. Oh well, it wouldn' t be the first time that I saw a hot guy and never did anything about it. It was for the best anyway. At least he didn't try to kick my ass. I'm not much of a fighter.
As I walked through the work site to the trailer that doubled as Mr. Saldono' s office I saw the work crew. Most were Black or Spanish, but I saw a few younger white guys most likely still in college. I was glad I wouldn't be the only white kid there. Mr. Saldono was a fat old Italian man with a thick accent. He was a nice man and my mother was his accountant. I was still in a pissed of mood, but I hid that from him. I didn't want my boss to think I was a complete prick on my first day. He would surely give me shit if he thought that. So come to find out, I would be helping to build a house for a needy family. They had loss their home to a fire and the city was building them a new house for free. That was cool and I was more than glad to help, but what sucked for me was when Mr. Saldono told me that he thought I was a fine young man to spend my summer working for free. I wanted to scream out , ` WHAT THE FUCK!' My Mom mentioned nothing about working for free, but I knew better and I kept quiet with a fake smile plastered to my face. Not only did I have to get up early every morning for the next two months, but I had to do it for free. Mom was gonna hear it from me when I got home later. For the first day he just had me file some paper in his office. He told me that we wouldn't be working too much at the site that day because of all the rain fall and as it turned out, I wouldn't have to work at the site at all because I was too young to be down there. At least I didn't have to do manual labor. I was in the back room of the work trailer when I heard a deep voice apologizing to Mr. Saldono for being late.
"I'm sorry Mr. Saldono I had to run back home and change, my clothes were covered in mud." The deep voice said.
"That's okay Victor, today we no work outside. You go help Kyle in back."
Mr. Saldono said in his heavy Italian accent. I wanted to have a quiet day to myself to wallow in my bad mood, but now I would have to work with somebody who, no doubt, would probably try to engage me in a conversation. ` Yeah, this day was going wonderful!', I thought to myself.
"Who's Kyle?" The deep voice asked.
"He volunteer, like you. He go to high school, same year as you. You both work in office." Mr.Saldono responded. I had my back to the door when the mystery voice spoke to me.
"Hey, I'm Victor, what's your name?" He asked me. His voice sounded rough and I could just tell that he was black. I don't mean to sound racist or anything, but he sounded like a rapper or something with the tough tone in his voice. I'm not going to lie I was a little intimidated, but I wasn't about to let him know.
"Hey, I'm Kyle." I said. I turned around to shake his hand and I stopped in my tracks. My pale blue eyes met the tea colored eyes of the same guy that I knocked in the mud. This was going to be a long summer....
To Be Continued....
**Unlike my other two stories, this one is completed. Join my yahoo group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MaddyA_Stories (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MaddyA_Stories)
~Other stories by me:
"Around My Way" last updated March 1st (High school / Interracial)
"I Hate Anthony" last updated February 10 (High school / Interracial)