Fifty-Boy 16 Jake Finn Passes Go

Fifty-Boy

16

Jake Finn Passes Go...

I couldn't believe it. I was dead. Now I really was Jacob Finley, the boyhood friend whose identity I'd assumed. I'd paid the brother of another dude from the Mission for phony ID. The brother worked for DMV; and me and a couple of other homeless guys paid for a phony license. Now Jake Finn was all I had.

Sitting Pretty

I wanted to tell Molly. But somehow I couldn't, at least not right away. I knew she'd be okay financially. I had a lot of life insurance on me in my real name; the name on the ID in my wallet, the ID they fished out of the stolen car in the bay. The house would be paid off. She'd be okay.

I felt bad for the two guys who drowned when the car went into the bay. I kind of felt guilty. At first it wasn't easy being a ghost, but then Vivian came to Roosevelt Place and smiled at me. She didn't know I was supposed to be dead. She brought me coffee and spent the morning with me, talking, telling me her dreams. I couldn't figure out why. Then she said something strange.

She said she had a plan and I was part of her escape. She told me to lay low, no coming out in the daytime, no going to the Mission, no more calls home to Molly, she knew about Molly, not where we lived or anything, but she knew about my broken heart. She knew a little.

Weeks went by. My wiener got better, not that it mattered. Living had lost its edge. I was under the Boardwalk most of the time. Then the papers ran a small blurb with my real name after Molly was notified, and of course, Vivian didn't need to know, but Jake Finn was able to come up again for air.

I made an occasional buck or two cleaning Jitney's or doing odd jobs around the rectory for Monsignor Gill, or sweeping up for Big Bob at the We-Buy-The-Old bookstore, and I spent a considerable amount of energy avoiding this damn police Lieutenant, Wilmont Mathers.

Before I knew it, a year came and a year went. It was getting to be autumn again and the weather was cold. I wasn't sure what I was going to do, but I didn't care. I just wished I could catch a break, wished Jake Finn could pass Go... ...Or Vivian would get on with her plan, or something.

I couldn't believe how alone I was. I'd always thought homeless people didn't feel anything, got stupid to the world, didn't feel the pain because they were so out of it, just didn't know any better, just thought that was the way it was. But that's not how it was for me.

Cause here I was homeless and I was feeling it in every little spark that swam around in my veins. And there were days when I missed my Molly, bad.

 

But when I'd think of her and Dale Outlay,

her chat-room lover,

spending my death benefit,

I'd get pissed or depressed,

and it made it even worse.

Then Vivian came to see me and it all started...

www.amazon.com/Fifty-Boy-Desmond-Jones/dp/0741420171