Rude Boy USA (4 page)

None of the small issues with the men’s personal lives prevented the success of Chimera, which was duly noted by the Ambrosino family. The Ambrosino family felt that Chimera was encroaching on their territory and needed to be kept at bay, as the competition for funds and customers in the city and outlying areas was cutthroat. The Ambrosino family did not like the idea of a group of people they considered mongrels (because of their multicultural makeup) outshining or outselling them in any manner and dividing the profits. Therefore, Chimera was not officially included as part of the Commission. The two groups often exchanged verbal jabs, which became heated at times. Members of the Ambrosino family would taunt Chimera and call them faux gangsters. John, as the mouthpiece of the group, would inform them that the Ambrosinos were no threat and that Chimera was the real deal. They would do the threatening. Except for when one person from either group stepped out of bounds, then it turned violent. Until then the rivalry mostly stayed verbal.

There were very few conflicts within Chimera. Bernie wanted to keep in tradition with the other five families of New York. Chimera was the unofficial sixth family. Before John, Jerome, and Ben became official members, Bernie introduced each of them in a ceremonial swearing in. John was the first, so his swearing in placed him at the top of the three under Bernie. This made John the official underboss of Chimera. Bernie pricked John’s finger and dripped his blood onto a photo of the Catholic Saint John. Bernie
then set the picture on fire while John held it. Bernie made John repeat, “I will burn like him if I betray my family.” John had to repeat this until he could not hold the paper any longer. The photo continued to burn until it turned into ash. If John betrayed anyone in the family, he would burn like the Saint Bernie had set on fire. When the fire burned out, John took the ashes and rubbed them against his skin. Bernie repeated this ceremony with Ben, with John present. Bernie used a photo of St. Benedict. For Jerome’s swearing in, with John and Ben present, Bernie used a picture of Saint Martin de Porres. Bernie made sure the Saints were particular to the men he was swearing in. When the ceremony ended each time, Bernie would tell the new member to be at ease. Bernie considered the three men his sons. He never had children of his own, so he felt the need to keep these men on the right track. They were his legacy and a reflection of all of his hard work. Swearing them in kept things in order. That meant Chimera became their number one priority. They were on call at all hours and would be busy for now on. Whatever each man earned, they earned for everyone. No one was allowed to walk away from Chimera. The only way out of the family was death.

Bookkeeping was always an issue in the company. There was a book for show and a book with real numbers, which Bernie kept to himself. They showed the first book to
customers who demanded to see the progress of their investments. John, Jerome, and Ben had copies of this book. Bernie tried his best to make sure the numbers in it made sense. Although the other three knew the majority of the company’s workings, Bernie did not divulge all the details, as he felt that some things needed to be secret. He reserved that information for the brain of the operation. Expenses from the business ran high, and often they had to dip into the contributions that clients made, especially during slow periods in the economy. When clients demanded payment, the company paid from this pot. When they ran short on occasion, Bernie went into the gambling profits. He wanted to keep from dipping into the gambling pot as much as possible. For that reason, he asked the guys to push investors not to withdraw their money early. This gave the business time to bring in new customers and new funds to keep the cycle going. This plan worked for years with very few mishaps. Then for some reason, Bernie miscalculated one customer’s payback from a gambling bet, and unfortunately, one of his guys paid the price.

Chapter 2

T
he daily routine starts. Get out the measuring tape and make sure everything is still the same as it was yesterday. Thirty-six by twenty-three by thirty-six. Yes, it is still the same despite that meal from the night before. Tail fluffed ears tidy, and glossy yellow bunny uniform sharp. There will be no demerits today
. Celia Jones was ready for another night at work in the Playboy Club Manhattan. Celia was a beautiful five-foot-three firecracker. Celia has curves in the right places that turn heads wherever she walks. Her hair always coiffed to perfection. Sometimes she wore it flipped and other times she wore it curly. It all depended on her mood for the day. Many people had described her look as a brown-skinned, brown-eyed version of young Elizabeth Taylor.

East Fifty-Ninth Street was just as jumping as the rest of the city, but the opening of the Playboy Club made it
more attractive. The club employed a variety of bunnies. You could pick your flavor. If you loved strawberries, they had a few redheads; if you liked vanilla, there were plenty of blondes and brunettes. If you were into chocolate, however, your options were limited to just two women. Celia was one of the two at the club and one of the most sought after women due to her exotic looks and great personality. Celia found working at the club brought excitement into her life. The atmosphere provided socialization and great music, which she loved because she was also an aspiring musician.

The club enforced strict rules. A bunny was there to look beautiful and serve. She could not fraternize with “keyholders” or any other employees. The keyholders were the clients who frequented the club. Only those who were connected or invited earned a key. The members were mostly men who went to the club for the environment, drinks, and eye candy. Interactions between the bunnies and keyholders are restricted to the drink and meal orders. Members could only identify bunnies by their nametags, except for Celia. They often referred to her as the “chocolate” bunny or “the black one.” Celia and the other black bunny had different shifts, so they rarely interacted. For safety reasons, the club did not permit bunnies to give their last name, home address, or phone number to keyholders. The club rewarded Celia with bonuses for her attention to the rules and willingness to work extra hours. Following the rules was not an easy feat for Celia, especially given the attention her looks alone received.

A prominent black doctor from Harlem named Dr. C. Smith, frequented the establishment. People in the city knew him as a brilliant and respected surgeon, the doctor of many well-connected people in Manhattan, despite his race. Even with his success, he did not have much luck in the dating world. His career as a doctor did not help him because he was very unattractive physically, and the women he wanted did not see him as a suitable partner despite his wealth and reputation. He had many dates, but the women could not stand more than one night with him. Much like the other patrons, Dr. Smith went to the Playboy Club mostly to drink and look at the women. He had small hopes of meeting a woman who would find him good enough to marry. He did not socialize much with the other keyholders because, despite his status, he was still considered to be an outsider during nonwork hours. He was dark brown and overweight, and he was holding on for dear life to the last two hairs left in the middle of his head. He had a protruding belly and gap in his teeth so wide that you could kick a football between them. His teeth were clean but distracting.

He had a nice disposition, and he would passively offer small talk to Celia. She knew that he was flirting with her. He thought Celia was beautiful, but she kept it professional, as the rules told her to do. Celia was not above breaking the rules, but despite the plethora of wealth and celebrity at her workplace daily, she never caved into pressure from any the keyholders. Some other bunnies took the opportunity to find themselves a husband and were promptly dismissed
for doing so once they succeeded. Dr. Smith did not tempt Celia. She was not attracted to him. She never thought of herself as being shallow, but she had her limits. If she caved into him simply because of his money, or because of his friendly personality, she knew that she would be miserable. She would never sleep with a man like this. She also felt that Dr. Smith spent too much time at the club, as doctors were supposed to be on call at all hours. How good could he be if he was always drinking? He always excused his presence in the club by saying he had his practice and could be flexible. Celia told the other bunnies about this man and asked that if he got too flirty with her, one of them would go over and make a distraction so she could walk away. The bunnies looked out for one another, as most of them had problems with unwanted advances from a few overzealous keyholders. This way the environment stayed professional and keyholders did not violate the rules except in extreme cases. Celia often tag-teamed with Rose, a fellow bunny who wore the pink uniform. Rose was also her roommate.

Rose was also an aspiring musician who worked at the Playboy Club. She parted her straight, blond hair down the middle, had blue eyes, and was of average height. She was quite ordinary looking but became more attractive once she put on makeup and the bunny suit. Rose and Celia hit it off when they met each other in the bunny dressing rooms and began discussing their plans for the future. When they met, both women were looking for their apartments. They became such close friends that they decided to live together.
They settled in an apartment on East Sixty-Second Street. The place was ideal because of its proximity to the club and location in the Midtown. They agreed to split the rent fifty-fifty, as both of them could afford it. Both Celia and Rose planned to attend Juilliard School, as they both considered themselves talented musicians. Celia was a trained pianist, taught by her mother, who was the organ player in the family church in Harlem as well as a teacher to some of the parishioners. Celia wanted to be just like her mother but on a bigger scale. She wanted to be the first black internationally known classical piano player, and when she could not do that anymore, she wanted to teach kids how to play instruments. Rose played the violin. She did not have as much training as Celia; she only began playing the violin in high school. Both of them were waiting to hear whether they would receive scholarships to Juilliard as they both submitted materials to admissions. The competition was incredibly fierce; Juilliard had applicants from all over the world.

Both Celia and Rose came from working-class families. While Rose had two active parents, Celia was raised mostly by her mother. Her father went in and out of her life because her parents divorced and he started a new family when Celia was just five years old. He went on to have four other children, with whom Celia never had much contact. The two mothers did not get along, as her father had had an affair with his new wife while still married to Celia’s mother. Her mother, Agnes, found solace in church after the divorce, and some days Celia would go straight to the
sanctuary from school. Some of her other local family also attended the same church. She spent a lot of time with church friends and cousins as a child and into her teenage years. Celia began playing the piano after watching her mother do so and seeing other people enjoy her music. Celia’s mother became injured at her day job and had to go on disability months before Celia graduated from high school. Agnes did not stay immobile, but her injury limited her work options. She took a permanent role as church staff but on a part-time basis. The pay was barely above welfare wages. Agnes told Celia, “Do not worry; life is not supposed to be easy. It will challenge you. You can meet a man who you think will be your future, and God will let you know that he has other plans for you, better plans. Don’t you worry, child, I’m gonna be fine.”

Because Agnes’s income was limited, Celia decided to put off college and get a job to help her out until things got better for the both of them. The Playboy Club was not her first choice. Celia worked as a clerk at a steel company before hearing about the openings for the new Playboy Club in Manhattan, which was paying more than she was earning at the time while answering phones. She figured that she was in shape and felt pretty enough to try out. The club hired her on the spot. Celia never told her mother about the job. The family would disapprove. Her mother and family still thought she worked as a secretary at a shipping company and was working toward her degree because that was all the information she gave them.