Novel – 4 – Harry Hareston

 

For the forthcoming novel “Church of Women”    3-29-23

 

 

          Harry Hareston led an interesting life. He will be featured strongly in a chapter that describes the ordeal little Stevie went through with three men. These men were supposed to teach him ‘masculine traits’, as described by a fake Member of the Community who would later be ousted – a female named Cassandra Cunningham. Two of the men that were to be his ‘examples’ were tycoons. Harry was the third man, rich but no tycoon, & not ‘to the manor born,’ – the other guys viewed him as a servant although he had good qualities to recommend him, an impressive background & was their body guard.

          Harry’s parents were sort of opposites. His Mom Maude had started out as a beautiful girl, but as the years rolled on she gained weight, her eyes got bad from being a book worm so thick glasses did not add to her appeal. She was happy with her married life & two children, Harry & Helen & her religious life was basic to her, she practiced it assiduously, going to Church & praying the rosary EVERY DAY. She’d speak of God a lot to the children – not to Harry Sr. as he wasn’t interested – read to them from the Children’s Bible from an early age – had them go to Catechism, Holy Communion & Mass every Sunday. She felt she was leading the perfect life & never complained.

          But Harry Sr. was a chauffer with a plan – & that was to become a respected member of the elite community. It was far fetched but his hopes were strong. He started out as a truck driver for a large company & was so good at all he did – driving, repairing, managing & reliability, that the owner of the company appointed him Chief of the truck pool & for a while he worked a lot at a desk.

          After a couple years he was awarded a different job – personal chauffer to the owner with his Rolls Royce & other cars, & this carried privileges. Here the designs of Harry Sr. looked like they could be fulfilled, as he now rubbed shoulders with elites, going to all the affairs the Boss went to, sometimes even being invited to their gatherings or shindigs not necessarily as an equal, but as another man they respected, & he got to know the ways of the ‘elites’, how they think, how they talk, act, dress & so on. This went on for many years & when he heard the guys speaking of certain stocks he put his relatively meager savings into them & made some pretty good profits.

          He also got perks like being friendly with some of the guys, – who he’d go get from bars when they were drinking to drive them home – or from their mistresses, same thing, & some of the guys gave him designer clothing like super expensive jackets they didn’t need any more or tuxedoes when they had gained weight & no longer fit. But the big perk was the cars.

          Super rich guys would buy new cars constantly & sell their old ones. This way he got to own three luxury cars instead of one – the guys would sell these cars much cheaper to him, in part to insure he’d keep his mouth shut about the drunken times, mistresses & ‘whores.’ He got a white Cadillac, a red Corvette & a frost-violet Lamborghini Diablo which the dealer called ‘purple’. Yes, they were all at least ten years old, but people didn’t know how long he’d had them.

          Harry Sr. felt his children would be tickets to the life of luxury. If he set them up with society – he had the connections – they would marry “well”, gain all the perks including money – & some of this would include him & his wife. His mind was on this constantly as he watched them grow up & they were extremely good looking – taking after him & his wife when she was young. And with their looks, he thought, & his connections, how could they fail? Time would prove him right.

          But he had to begin training the kids to prepare them for the ‘high life.’ And so he found an exclusive, very posh school for Helen, which she entered at twelve. This would change her ways forever as the girls were not religious & laughed at her devotion. This dampened her ardor for God as she was no saint, just doing what her Mom taught her, so she stopped some of the things that gave her away as ‘religious fanatic.’ She adopted the ways of the other girls – which is what Dad wanted – affecting a sort of aloof, disdainful attitude of privilege, not taking anything seriously, not giving away her soft emotions. She learned how to sit, eat, dress, talk & gossip like the other girls – it would serve her well.

          Now Harry Jr. was an excellent sportsman from the time of childhood, well developed, tall, with dark curly hair, beautifully shaped lips, grey-green eyes with soft thick eyebrows, a perfectly even & harmonious face – a chip off the old block.

Harry Sr was never nice to Jr, he picked on him from the beginning, thinking the more he corrected the boy the quicker he’d become ‘a man.’ But he was cruel.

          Little Harry’s job was the wash the cars from the age of ten – all four of them, including the Rolls Royce which was parked at their house as the owner didn’t drive it.

          When he washed the Caddy – which was the car Mom preferred & drove – she always praised & thanked him.

          But when he washed Dad’s cars he’d keep yelling at him to hurry up & would find something wrong with each job – like the spokes on the wheels were not polished enough, the inside was not perfect, all the soap was not rinsed off. He’d say things like,

          “Can’t you do anything right? Even a moron can wash a car so you’re less than a moron.”

          One day when Harry was washing the Rolls {all the cars had to be washed every other day & spruced up inside, especially the Rolls} – Sr got a call from the boss to pick him up right now. This put Dad on edge, as he was known for his punctuality & reliability.

          He went out & seeing the boy wasn’t finished, he grabbed him & pushed him so hard he fell on the lawn, Dad calling him ‘idiot’, quickly took the power wash, finished the job & sped off.

          When Jr got less than a B on any subject He’d say,

          “Why a C here? This is easy stuff. What’s the matter with you?”

         

 

 

Harry was a terrific sportsman & chosen co-captain of the High School football team. He was now sixteen. His Dad’s response was,

“So you couldn’t even make Captain? You had to share the spotlight with another guy?”

He didn’t praise him for all the A’s & B’s he got, just picked on him for less than that. Maude did damage control, took the poor boy aside & spoke to him gently,

          “Your Dad doesn’t mean to be like that. He’s under pressure. The guys he works for are pushing him all the time, they intimidate him & he’s afraid to let them down. But he really loves you.

          I appreciate all the good that you do.”

          And she would hug her son tenderly.

 

          Junior was afraid to say the rosary with Mom any more as Dad would give them dirty looks, saying,

          “Can’t the boy do something more constructive? The rosary won’t help him get by in life – he needs to work on getting ahead….I’m going to get him a job as a golf Caddy, then he won’t have so much time to waste.”

          When he ranted like this Mom would hush the boy not to answer. She tolerated Dad as that’s all she could do, she made excuses for him with her mind as she knew he was ambitious & this need was driving him crazy. Success was his God, he’d get there any way he could & time was of the essence. He intended to be rich, set for the good life, by the time he was fifty, 60 at the absolute latest, & he was now 45.

And so he set off, that next day, to talk to the owner of the local Golf Course to give his boy a job, which he got easily, as they were friends, & on his way home he drove by a park.

          There he sees his son playing basketball with two black guys & one white. He drives toward some thick pine trees where he parks the Rolls, not wanting the guys to see it, gets out & stands where Harry can see him by a black iron gate. When Harry notices Dad standing there he’s summoned.

          Then Dad says accusingly,

          “What are you doing?”

          The boy is puzzled,

          “Playing basketball.”

          “Basketball is a nigger game! It’ll never get you anywhere. I just got you a job as a golf Caddy, you start tomorrow. And I’ll buy you tennis lessons. The class people play tennis.”

          He tells him to get in the car. But the boy protests,

          “I have to get the ball – it’s mine.”

          “Forget the ball – you won’t need it. Let it be a parting gift to them as they won’t see you any more.”

          Jr almost gets tears in his eyes – he can’t even say good bye to his friends.

          By now the other guys have made it to the gate, carrying his ball, & they spot the Rolls with astonishment.

But Father & son are already in the car & when Dad sees the other guys, he speeds off.

          They look at Jr sadly, one saying,

         

“I don’t think he’s coming back.”

          They had some idea what was going on – two worlds, the world of poverty & the world of the rich, & never the twain shall meet.