After the new financing was arranged, a meeting was set up in Chinatown to pay off the Asian money lender. I was very disappointed in Lue when he refused to accompany me to the meeting. Lue was a seventh degree black belt, a master of Aikido, scared to death of facing these guys. I had to take the train into the city and manage the transaction, on my own. Now, I had no idea whether these men were part of the Tong crime family or the Yacuza, but someone had to face these guys and payoff the debt.
Unfortunately, that someone turned out to be me. After getting off the train I grabbed a taxi and met with them in a nondescript Chinese restaurant down in Chinatown. The transaction was handled over a lunch of pork lo mien and egg rolls. Much to my amazement the Asians treated me very cordially and with a measure of respect. When we were done with the meal they picked up the tab and escorted me back to the train station. The whole meeting took less than half an hour and to the best of my knowledge Lue has never heard from them again. Of course, he did hear from me on a regular basis.
I was just pulling into Lue’s parking lot, and it was about 8:45 a.m. Lue scheduled his classes in the morning at six, seven, and eight o’clock. The eight o’clock class was wrapping up as I walked through the door. Lue walked over to me and asked why I didn’t come earlier. As always, I reminded him of the Chinatown Affair. Lue being a man of honor and eternally in my debt told the instructor to hang around, there would be a nine o’clock class today.
That settled, I went into the locker room and changed into my sweat suit and white sneakers. I can assure you this mode of dress was not for cosmetic reasons, I was ready for a hard physical workout.
By the time I came out of the locker room, the place was abandoned, except for the instructor and Lue. Lue was up front, in his office pretending to do paper work. Kylene, the instructor gave me a sly smile and asked in her seductive voice, “Why don’t you ever come during the normal class hours?”
“Well Kylene, first I’m not normal, and second I wanted to make sure that you get in a little extra overtime. Now, if you’re ready lets get going.”
She gave me one last smile and then bounced over to the CD player and switched on the music.
We routinely started the class by working the major muscle groups, which consisted of side, front, and back kicks. After about fifteen minutes, we switched to the upper body part of the workout. The upper bodywork consisted of jabs, crosses, uppercuts, and hooks thrown in various combinations. This was really one tough aerobic workout and I was starting to feel the pain that comes with fatigue and exhaustion. We were into the workout for close to thirty minutes, when Kylene turned off the music. I was hoping we were done, but Kylene would have none of that. She threw me a set of wraps for my hands. “I’ve got about fifteen minutes left before I have to go, lets workout on the heavy bag till then.” Although I was exhausted I grudgingly nodded and continued.
After the fifteen minutes on the heavy bag Kylene announced she had to leave, and I went over to the water cooler to catch my breath. As soon as Kylene had slipped through the door, Lue resurfaced from his office, with a demented smile on his face.
“Fred, come up front on the red mats, and we’ll finish the class up here. I need to stay by the phone.”
“No problem, Louie Louie,” I replied. Over the years I had developed the annoying habit of giving nicknames to many of my friends. Dan La Croix was the Frenchman, Stuart Daniels was the Rabbi and although he didn’t care for it, Chen Lue had become Louie Louie. Lue in fact hated it, when I referred to him in this manner. He thought I was being disrespectful. Of course he was absolutely right, but when anyone was around I always took great pains to call him Dr. Lue.
Although he knew full well that I was exhausted, Louie Louie asked me to attack him with everything I had. Louie Louie said he needed to work on his Aikido techniques. Aikido is a simple but highly effective form of martial arts that provides the practitioners with a fresh non violent approach to self defense. Aikido teaches you to protect yourself by using the attacker’s own force, size, and strength against them. I really didn’t believe his story about needing the practice, I suspected that Louie Louie just wanted to torture me while I was in this weakened condition. My body was pleading with me to call it a day, but my mind was bound and determined not to give in.
I tried front kicks, side kicks, jabs everything I had, all to no avail. Louie Louie masterfully avoided my assaults, I rarely ever touched him.
After about ten minutes, my body continued to scream out in pain, I was just about ready to quit.
Then the phone rang and Louie Louie’s attention was diverted. It was payback time for the Chinatown Affair, I seized the moment, and threw a vicious side kick into Louie Louie’s left kidney. The little yellow man went reeling to his right and finally crumbled onto the red mats. The scene reminded me of Tuxedo with the raccoon earlier in the day. Louie Louie bounced up and bowed, and then muttered, “That would be all for today.” I returned the bow and headed for the locker room. Before I entered the locker room, I stole a quick glance over my left shoulder, and caught sight of Louie Louie hobbling back into his office.
He was bent over in obvious pain. I know it sounds perverse but to be honest, I rather enjoyed the sight.
CHAPTER FIVE
I showered and changed in about twenty minutes, as I put my wristwatch back on, I noticed that it was only 10:10 a.m. I still had plenty of time on my hands before my meeting with Pam. I exited the locker room and said good bye to Louie Louie. I couldn’t resist telling him, how much I enjoyed the session. He was still a little unsteady on his feet but had the presence of mind to conceal his true feelings.
He gave me a public relations smile and a nod as I made my way through the door.
With well over an hour before my meeting, I debated on how to spend the time. I could look for a gin mill and get a quick bourbon or two or I could take a ride around Red Bank. It was a little early for a drink so I decided to do a little sightseeing. The old town of Red Bank and I were close friends. We’d known each other for close to fifty years, but old friends can undergo dramatic changes over that length of time.
After I pulled out of Louie Louie’s parking lot I drove over to Monmouth Street and then past the Carlton Theater. The Carlton Theater was the local movie house when I was growing up and it stored a lot of precious memories from my youth. As I recall, back in those days the price of admission was twenty five cents, if you were twelve years old or younger. My mind wandered back to when I was a seven year old kid. These were my earliest and most fond memories of the Carlton. I had a vivid recollection of the thrill of the big screen while attending the matinees with my mother. Later as a teenager, I went with my friends, sitting up in the balcony, occasionally throwing over a piece of Good and Plenty candy on some poor unsuspecting moviegoer. The ushers, with their flash lights in hand were rarely a match for us, in those days. The old movie house didn’t show pictures anymore, hell they didn’t even call it the Carlton Theater anymore. The name was changed well over twenty years ago to the Count Basie Theater, to honor the local bandleader from days long since passed. Concerts and plays had replaced the movies, but somehow that didn’t really matter. I was confident in my own mind that I’d always think of the old movie house as the Carlton Theater.
I was pulling up to the intersection of Monmouth Street and Broad and it was difficult to recognize from the days of my youth. Over on the eastside of Broad, there used to be a Newberry’s Five and Dime Store, but not anymore. The Five and Dime store had long since, been replaced by a MacDonalds. The other two Five and Dime stores, one to the left and one to the right had also become