"Tienes hambre? ? the mother said to me, and George translated it to "Are you hungry? ?

"No, ? I said, but thanks. George showed me my bed on the porch; --by the looks of things I'd have to find another place soon, it had screens and windows all around the porch, but it didn't have any heat ventilation ?I told myself, first things first.

"Do you play chess, ? George asked, and I assured him I did, but wasn't too good, but felt I could beat a ten year old. "I'll play a game as soon as I get settled, ok. ? He smiled.

It didn't' take me much to get settled. The mother showed me where the bathroom was, which amounted to me having to leave the porch area, and walk through a doorway into the kitchen and the bathroom was to the right. I had to use it at that moment, and when I shut the door to take a leak, you could hear every drop, I felt funny, as if the whole house could hear. But the place was temporary, and it only cost $5.00 a week. And I was making $70.

As I left the bathroom and met George, he introduced me to his father, his father's brother, and four kids, not sure who they belonged to, and another woman about thirty-five; --then George and I went to play a game of chess.

The game lasted about two hours, he beat me. I think he could have beaten me in about twenty-minutes, but it was I who had to do all the thinking, and he sat quietly as I moved my chessmen. I got the feeling he knew I was going to be easy pray. But I was happy I had a place to stay. People are given gifts in life, when you do not appreciate them, it becomes part of your attitude, and life can be quite hard on you. That person who was going to help could be lost in the wind. And so I tried to show as much respect as I could, and appreciation.

As the weeks went by, they had me in a few times for meals, but I didn't eat all that much; --I worked at Lilli Ann Company, and in the meantime, played chess with George, and of course he beat me all the time. At night I'd go up to the Castro district and get drunk, usually stopping at least for an hour or so at Sammie's.

One time at Lilli Ann, I met Adolph Shuman on more human bases, other than work. He had stopped in the caf up the street; it was a small Chinese place. He brought in his small white dog, I think it was a terrier, a few people by me were complaining, but I paid them no heed. The manager of Lilli Ann, spotted me, and had me come over and meet Mr. Shuman, for some odd reason I was quite scared, but played it down, and he looked at me as if I was not recognizable, but said hello, and I went back about to eat, and the manager said again, sit with us. And so did, and I just kind of froze and tried to eat, but my hands were a bit shaky; or so they seemed. The rest of the group at the table, which was a blond assistant to the manager, a pretty young lady about five foot six inches, --reserved looking always, a calm voice, and a sensitive manner; --then the manager himself, Mr. Rosenberg, who started talked. I found my head bobbing up and down to smile but I didn't know what to say, so I started thinking about the first small novel I had bought and started to read, about a relationship between two Italian lovers. And then they got up and left, all saying their good-by's, and Adolph waving his hand somewhat, as a goodbye jester to me, since he could not get to saying it directly; although he did mumble something under his breath. I suppose, I thought, power and money can do many things to a personality. He seemed a busy sort of fellow, and tried to show his human side, and/or equality side. But you could see the guarded side of him. And of course, owning a big business, people always try to take advantage of you, not really knowing who's really on your side, and his fooling around with the models at work. I suppose I'd be a little restless.

On weekends I'd walked down by the Golden Gate Bridge a few times, even across it. At night when I was down there I loved seeing the patched clouds in the evening, looking over the Golden Gate, I loved to watch the sun go down, with its bright yellows fading into its red and gray background. It was like the clouds wanted to hide it, so I couldn't see. I suppose when you're alone a lot you think the sun follows you; one takes things on a more personal level.

Sometimes along the shores out by the Cliff House by Sutro Heights you could hear the sounds of the expiring waves that seemed to sooth my hot blood. I had no complaints, matter of fact, no one back home would believe me if I told them my story, all inclusive, for the most part. To include, meeting and befriending Goesi, and working for a dress designing company for Adolph Shuman. I had not met him on a personal note yet, that but indirectly I did, he was being chased by a beautiful model throughout his dress factory, and she had a giant pearl on her finger I noticed, I guess it was a gift from the millionaire. He told me to hold a door for him so she would not be able to get to him. I did for a moment, and then let the door open again, thinking this was foolish. She was quite tall, but beautiful, with a very healthy looking body. Later on that day my boss Mr. Blair, also showed me his Rolls Royce in the garage next to the building I worked in.

The Karate Test and the Dentist

Another few weeks went by and my teeth were starting to hurt, I had two huge molars in the back, and I needed to do something soon, they seemed to be hurting more everyday; --at work my boss had told me I had a red line going down my neck and it was starting to get infected, I was scared it go to my heart. They told me to take off a week of work, and get taken care of, but really could not afford to, but I did.

Lorenzo at the dojo gave me the phone number of the San Francisco State University Dentistry, I called them and made an appointment. It was a free clinic and the students worked on you. I had to wait until Monday, it was Friday now. I was starting to get a little fever over this also. I was getting a bit restless on my free week off, and doing a lot of resting. I even bought my first novel, it was only 109-pages, but it was interesting. It was about this Italian man who found this woman, and she had breasts that fit perfectly into his palm. I got thinking, she was real thin, or he had big hands. Never read anything like that before. As I waited for the day to come at for the dentist I finished reading the book, took me all of four days.

As Saturday came, I walked up Castro Street to the dojo, it was kind of a big day, and I was a little under the weather, but ok. We had a test today, an endurance test. As I got ready putting on my white karate jacket, I stood bowed to the Master, and did some exercises to get ready for the test. Then Gosei called us all to order, and he an Buck stood at the end of a line of which thirteen karate men were standing in line; --some black belts, b