Chapter Fifty

Another Chapter of the Memoir/Novel, Lost and Found is ready!

This Chapter is a bit longer than I would like to use in a blog post, but I couldn’t see a good way to break it into two separate postings. I hope it’s not too long.

It’s hard to believe we’re up to Chapter Fifty!

It’s kind of scary when I think of how much more we have to go. Guess I’d better post this one and get to doing some serious writing if I ever want to finish this book.

Be well — be in peace,

Ron Rink
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Morton started the car, checked over his shoulder, shifted into gear and pulled out into the left lane. He made a left turn at the next traffic light and drove alongside Palmer Park looking for a place to park. No one had said a word since we left the hangout for the Livernois gang.

We found a place to park and Morton backed the car into the spot. He leaned back and lit a cigarette. “Here’s what’s gonna happen, Van Buren,” he said quietly. “In a few minutes we’ll get out of the car and walk into the park. The statue is in the center of the park, but we’re gonna take one of the paths that’s near enough to the statue so we can see who comes with Arthur. Keep your eyes open all the time to make sure we don’t get jumped. Arthur’s one mean bastard and he might decide to try something. I don’t think he will, but there’s only the three of us.”

Billy looked over at Morton as he lit up a cigarette. “I’ll keep a little bit back from you guys so I can make sure nothing’s going on behind us.”

Morton nodded. “Let’s go,” he said as he opened his car door and stepped out into the road.

Billy and I got out on our side and we all walked across the street and into the park. Morton and I started walking down a path to our right and Billy hung back and waited near the street. After we had walked for three or four minutes, I looked back and saw Billy was following us at a distance. We continued for several more minutes. Morton nudged me with his elbow and nodded his head towards the left. I looked over to where he was indicating and saw the statue. We stopped. I looked back and saw Billy had stopped as well. He was leaning against a tree and smoking. Morton and I moved over to a park bench and sat down.

There were some younger kids playing around the statue, but there wasn’t anyone else around. It was close to the time most people would be having their dinner. I kept looking over my shoulder and off to my right but I didn’t see anything that looked threatening.

Morton and I both lit cigarettes. Coming around from the other side of the statue was Arthur and the same two guys who were with him in front of the store. I didn’t see any sign there were any more guys around. I looked back down the path and saw Billy walking towards us. Morton looked at him and Billy gave a nod. Arthur motioned towards a picnic table sitting off to our right and he and his two guys began walking toward it. We got up and followed them.

Arthur and his boys sat on one side of the picnic table and Morton, Billy and I sat on the other side. Those who weren’t smoking lit up. Everyone seemed to be studying the top of the table, rather than looking at each other. It was silent for a few seconds and then Arthur lifted his face to look first at me, then Billy, then Morton. He took so long looking at each of us that I got the feeling he was trying to memorize our faces. When his gaze was focused on me, I thought I saw just a hint of a smile creep onto his lips.

“So, what’s going on, Morton? And what’s with the little kid, here?” Arthur asked in a raspy, quiet voice as he nodded his head towards me.

“This little kid can take everybody in the Dukes except me and Billy here,” Morton replied, looking hard at Arthur with a challenge in his eyes which would have made me shiver if he was looking at me. “He’s one of my top boys.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, and it took every ounce of self-control to keep my face passive and not break out into an excited grin. At that moment, it became clear why I was being invited along to this powwow. The hierarchy of gangs was determined by the street-fighting ability of the gang members. If you were an undefeated fighter, you were the leader. From there, it moved down the line based on who could defeat whom in a fight. Billy had told me about how Crazy Jimmy and Bobby were the top two fighters in the Dukes. None of the other members had been able to take them in a fight. By winning the fight with them, I had risen to be the number three guy in the gang. Billy was number two.

Arthur looked at me again and studied my face with his piercing eyes as though he was trying to decide if I was as tough as Morton described. I’m sure he already knew the reputation of the State Fair Dukes as being one of the toughest gangs on the east side of Detroit, so I guessed he was trying to put the fact of this kid being so tough into perspective.

“So why the powwow, Morton?” Arthur asked after finally moving his eyes off me and over to Bob Morton.

“Seems like three of your boys jumped one of the Duchesses and her cousin this afternoon right here in the park. That’s not a good thing to do, Arthur, you know,” Morton said quietly as his eyes moved over to the guy with the long black hair sitting right across from me. “In fact, this guy here looks a lot like one of the guys that our girl told us about.” Morton’s eyes were boring into the black-haired guy’s eyes.

There was just a glimmer of fear that appeared on the guy’s face as he suddenly blurted out, “She was asking for it, Arthur. She and this other girl were wagging their asses right in our face.”

Morton kept his gaze on the guy and then slowly turned to Arthur and said, “Guess that clears up any doubts you might have about whether it was your guys who did this thing, right Arthur?”

I could see how the guy across from me suddenly realized what his outburst had cost him and the Livernois gang. There was no way Arthur could deny that his guys had done this. Arthur was looking at the guy like he wanted to kill him. He looked back at Morton.

Morton leaned his arms on the tabletop and bent over so his face was closer to Arthur’s. “So, Arthur, how do we want to deal with this?”

The two leaders stared into each other’s eyes for a few seconds, then Arthur leaned back and told his boys to get up and move away from the table. Morton motioned for Billy and me to do the same. We moved away but still stayed close enough to hear. Arthur’s boys did the same. Then Arthur turned around and motioned them to move further away. Morton did the same to us. When we were all out of earshot, the two leaders leaned closer to each other and began having a lengthy, whispered discussion.

Billy was leaning on one side of a tree and I was leaning on the other. We were both smoking and watching the two guys at the table as well as the two guys that were standing across the way. “Looks like all that street-fighting practice we did is paying off, Van Buren. Morton likes you. You’re number three now,” Billy said as he reached around and gave me a playful jab in my upper arm.

I looked over at Billy and saw one of those rare glimmers of a smile on his face. I nodded and concentrated on keeping myself from grinning like a kid in a candy store. We kept watching the conversation at the table as we smoked our cigarettes. My thoughts were ranging all over the place. I wondered what it meant to be “number three”. Did that mean I would constantly have to defend my place in the gang? Did that mean I would be one of the Dukes selected to fight new guys wanting to get in the gang? Did that mean other gang members would be challenging me for the number three spot? Did that mean I would always be asked to go to powwows? I didn’t know the answers to any of these questions and I didn’t want to ask anyone either, not even Billy. In the short while I had been around the gang, I had learned that figuring things out on my own was the best way to handle questions.

Morton and Arthur got up from the table and walked in their separate directions—Morton towards Billy and me—Arthur towards his two guys.

Morton motioned with his head as he approached us. We pushed off from the tree, fell in with Morton and headed back towards the car. I wanted to ask what had transpired at the table, but decided to take my lead from Billy. He didn’t ask any questions, so neither did I.

Once we were driving back towards State Fair and Woodward, Morton said, “Arthur says we’re gonna have to do a rumble. He don’t want us handling the three guys, and he’s not willing to do it, either. We set it up for next week Saturday at the school in Hazel Park.”

Billy looked over at Morton. “We better have Sally there so she can show us which other guys did this. We want to be sure they get it good.”

Morton nodded as we drove on.

It would be my first gang rumble.
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