A few weeks later, Tom was sitting with his mom in the kitchen, reading the Advocate, the local Staten Island newspaper. “Wow! Remember that guy living in the Bethlehem Steel shipyard I told you about?” he asked, pointing to the community news section of the paper.
“Yes. He sounded like a crackpot, living on an old tugboat. In this day and age, some people will do anything rather than work for a living. There are no free lunches in this country,” she said cynically.
“Well, it says here Amon—that’s his name, by the way—assisted a little boy who fell from a tree. According to eyewitnesses, the boy appeared to have a broken leg. But after the stranger stroked his leg, while chanting a prayer, the child’s leg was completely healed. The kid got up and walked away, as if nothing had happened. The boy’s parents visited Amon in his tugboat residence, offering him money, which he refused. Later, they returned with a donation of food, which he accepted gratefully.”
“That Staten Island Advocate is a scandal sheet—a rag that I wouldn’t use to wipe my behind. I’ll never forget the front-page story they did about your father’s nephew, Rusty. Remember when he turned up at the house with a bag of money from robbing a liquor store?”
“How could I forget, Mom? You used to remind Cara and me about that story twice a month, as a sort of weird object lesson. I was afraid to go within fifty feet of, much less enter, any liquor store on the North Shore!” Tom replied.
“Sure. You of all people, who frequents the saloons of Elm Park more often than you go to the public library. Anyway, this kook has everybody fooled. I wonder what his real game is,” she continued.
“So what are you saying, Mom? That he’s up to some kind of scam or racket?”
“If the shoe fits, wear it, my naive son.”
“From my own observations, Amon is a charismatic person with amazing gifts that elude rational explanation. And unlike so many of our fellow citizens, Amon is not concerned with pecuniary matters.”
“Just keep an eye on your wallet. For a science teacher, you’re pretty gullible. And don’t talk about that man to your students or the teachers at Curtis High School. They’ll think you flipped your lid!” she warned her son.
“Mom, not everything in life can be explained in terms of cause-and-effect laws of science. There is a spiritual side of life too,” Tom retorted.
“Here’s a spiritual thought—cleanliness is next to godliness. So go clean up your sloppy room, and take out the garbage,” Claire Haley commanded her son.
“And don’t forget that old standby—life must be lived on the basis of reality,” Tom recited as he left the kitchen.
Yet he couldn’t blame his mother for her cynical attitude toward mavericks as a result of past experiences with shady characters, like his father. As a middle-aged person who had experienced the ups and downs of life, her unhappy yesterdays greatly exceeded her sunny tomorrows.