Jack replied to that last zinger very curtly. “Just another cheap shot, this time no pun intended. Todd, give me a break, will you?”
Todd changed his demeanor and said, “I suggest that we stop playing now, hold onto our scores thus far and talk about the shootings elsewhere.”
Still sitting on a razor’s edge of stress, they all agreed and left the course, driving to a café just outside of town where they’d be able to talk freely.
Todd advised,“Keep your eyes on your rearview mirror to make sure you’re not being followed by anyone other than one of us. If you think you are, call me on my cell phone and I’ll relay it to the others and drive directly to the police station. That should frighten off whoever is following you.”
Later, while driving home, Jack decided to call Andre, the Rabbi’s custodian, whose phone number he had received from Detective Pratt.
“Hello?” Andre answered.
“Andre, this is Jack Green. I just wanted to thank you so very much for saving my life. I want to come over to your home one day and discuss what I can do to convey my gratitude to you.”
“Okay, give me a call whenever you’d like to come over.”
◆◆◆
Carol and Jules had gone out shopping at their local supermarket that afternoon. As they got to the register, Jules leaned over to Carol and gave her a big hug and kissed her cheek. “What was that for?” she asked.
“Because I love you and believe you when you told me why the detective called you down to speak with him,” he replied.
“All right, but you embarrassed me by doing that in front of all of these shoppers.”
“That’s ridiculous! A man can’t hug and kiss his wife?” he asked her.
“Yes, but not in public. Now, tell me what you really had in mind,” she asked, as there were four people still in front and behind of the couple waiting to get to the cashier.
“Well, I didn’t mean to do anything that would upset you; I just wanted to show you how much you mean to me.”
“What brought this on?” she asked.
“The Rabbi’s sermon, in which he preached that we should not believe in rumors unless you know something for sure. The rumor that was going around about one of the congregant’s wives having an affair with the Rabbi just got to me and this was my way of showing you that I don’t believe the rumors being told about anyone, especially any of them hinting that it may be you.”
The customers near the couple overheard their conversation and some looked at each other whispering, “What a strange conversation those two were having here of all places.”
Jules and Carol left the supermarket and got into their car. Jules drove and Carol remained silent but took peeks at him from her peripheral vision and gave him a wry smile.
Fifteen
Tony Pilaris a Black forty-six-year-old single father of four, is the son of a Greek father and a Black mother from Turkey. His father was there for a short vacation and his mother was only nineteen years old. They fell in love, she agreed to marry him, and together they immigrated to America.
Tony’s wife, Estelle, was also Black. She would have been forty-two years old had she not died three years before of uterine cancer. His children Janet, Junie, Jerrine, and Jerrell were all named with the letter J because Estelle father’s name was Jorey, and she loved her father “more than life itself.” She had decided long ago that when she had children, she would name them each with the letter J in honor of her father. She married Tony, who became the love of her life, with similar traits as her father. Tony was six-foot four-inches tall and Jorey was six-foot-two.
Tony grew up on the streets of south Chicago. From his late teens until he was twenty, things were pretty cool for him because he was accepted as Black, although he was more-light skinned than other Blacks in th neighborhood. Local gang members left him alone if they believed he wasn’t a member of a rival gang.
On the other hand, the police often rousted him by trying to provoke him into losing his cool and throw a punch or break a store window or anything else they could hang their hats on. Tony wasn’t stupid. A few times they tagged him with cuffs under some concocted story, like telling their captain that he was a member of the Black Hawks street gang. The Black Hawks were considered the most vicious and feared gang in all of Chicago. The police were unable to provide the DA with any proof to formerly charge Tony with a crime that would stick with a jury.
At the age of seventeen, Tony was accepted to Harry S Truman Community College in Chicago, thanks to having committed to his mother his intention to get out of the ghetto and make something of himself. After two years, he received his associate degree in accounting; but that wasn’t good enough for him. He wanted a four-year bachelor’s degree and nothing less.
He mailed applications to Howard University, The University of Michigan, and Morehouse College. With his straight A average at Truman Community College, he was accepted by the University of Michigan, which happened to be a three-and-a-half-hour drive each way from his home. However, he knew he couldn’t afford the cost of living in their dorms.
Why would he put himself through this? Because in his words, “I will be a success in life, so help me God.” The school was so expensive it required getting a student loan, in addition to working sixteen-hour days at a lumberyard on weekends. He commuted on I-94, but it took almost eight hours of his day, so he found a cheap room in Ann Arbor’s student ghetto. To his delight, the University of Michigan transferred all his
