[The Life of Rudy Chapter 14 The Gypsy and the Clown February 1964, Brooklyn New York. Rudy was home after 3 months exiled in Puerto Rico. It was a bitter- sweet return, not at all what he had expected, his girlfriend, Dora, had called to say she would be over soon to return the ring he had given her. She had hooked up with a new crowd while he was gone and she was ready to move on. On the other hand, he still had his core group of friends. The Sinners were still together and overjoyed to have him back. Ralph invited Rudy to the Friday dance at the local Catholic church. All he had to do was sit thru a youth service and then he could enjoy the dance for a couple of hours. “Who knows,” said Ralph, “maybe you will meet someone new. I can’t say for sure, since I always go with Eileen so I don’t pay any mind to other girls.” On the home front, things were not so good. Rudy’s dad and mom had separated with the women folk staying with an old family friend in Jamaica NY. Rudy had been signed out of school before his exile so he
now had the days to himself. He had fallen into the daily routine of commuting into Manhattan for work at a store. It was boring work, but it gave him pocket-money Rudy was no stranger to Catholic churches, although he had been brought up a Baptist, he thought it would be fun to piss his mother off by attending mass from time to time. However, this was the first time he had attended a Youth sermon and he found it incredibly boring. The boys and girls had been segregated to separate sides of the church making it difficult to size up the local talent. Finally, it was over and we were released to go to the recreation room and the main event we were all here for. As Ralph collected his girlfriend Eileen. who was of the Jewish persuasion and exemplified the Jewish American Princess (JAP) in her every attitude, Rudy could not help but wonder how many Catholics there actually were in attendance. As far as Rudy knew Ralph, Bobby and he were the only Latinos in the group. He wondered how the evening would]