Page 48 - The Jazzsipper Novel

47

THE JAZZ SIPPER

Chapter Five-----Ease Back

It had been going on eight weeks since Regina had left and Vance noticed
that her letters was becoming less frequent as the weeks with by. Vance did
not know that much about New York. He only knew what Regina had told him
and what he had seen on TV. However, he did know that all the great Jazz
players from the past migrated there and it was the place to be back then, if
you were into Jazz in any form, as a participant or spectator. On the few
occasions he had called Regina on the phone at her cousin Dee Dee‘s, Vance
got a sense that Dee Dee, really didn’t like him that well. Vance even
confronted Regina about her cousin and Regina told him it was not like that.
It was just Dee Dee way with everybody, but it still didn’t sit well with Vance.

Vance did not worry about that too much, he had to stay focus, the city had
exploded. It was getting hot and heavy and guys were dying or going to jail
like crazy. It became a major challenge for him just to finish his last year of
High School. He had to ride three different city buses to get to a school he
deemed to be safe for him to attend. He remember telling Aunt Jessie that he
wanted to attend a school out of the neighborhood district, she asked him
what sense did that make when there were schools right in walking distance
from the house. But he kept at Aunt Jessie until she gave in and signed the
necessary papers.

A week later on a Saturday morning Aunt Jessie was going through her
favorite part of newspaper, the sports section. It was the section that gave her
all the information on the racehorses, the racetracks and anything dealing with
horseracing. Aunt Jessie and Uncle Frank were avid small time bettors.