charles had a good thing going, one that kept him in pocket money and one that he wanted to keep going.
and one that he did not want ernestine to know about, although he did not know that it would really change anything if she did. but you never knew with ernestine.
when he had first taken the assignments from mr wade and begun his “boys nights out” he had thought ernestine might have him followed, but as time went on it became apparent that she did not.
no doubt being content with her own nights out with jeffrey and gerard and peggy and her other friends.
but now this! charles could only wait and see if and how mr wade’s departure - was it permanent? - would affect him.
it had all begun about a year ago when good old larry andrews had sent him around to mr wade.
mr wade had apparently liked what he saw in charles as being just the man he wanted because he had made his proposal and they had come to an agreement before charles had finished three drinks.
basically, charles went to the bank’s offices at regular intervals and received large packs of cash. he was never told, and never asked, if the bills were “counterfeit” or not, and charles’s understanding was that such a definition did not really mean much in the new world.
in any case, the “berkeley bank” whoever or whatever it was and whoever was behind it, wanted the bills circulated for their own purposes and gave charles a small remuneration - in separate bills - to spend them quickly and freely in places like race tracks, casinos, betting parlors, and card rooms. i e, in places where he did not have to go to much trouble of establishing any identity beyond a nickname. massage parlors, houses of ill repute, and even bars were all right too, but not as much money could be disposed of as quickly, and besides, charles preferred the various gambling establishments.
in some of them he was “c b”, in others “mr white” or “chuckie” or “the boomer”.
now, still slightly disoriented by the change at the bank from mr wade to ms folger, he decided to head for his favorite spot - zack’s card room on the lower north side.
as he passed the little dunkin donuts a couple of blocks from zack’s he saw a familiar face from zack’s - an old fashioned con man type who called himself professor - or was it doctor? - magnus.
a fellow charles found rather tiresome, but whose acquaintance he rather attempted to cultivate, out of an obscure feeling that he might someday be of use to him.
in case he, charles, might someday have to find a new identity and a new life, as was sadly so often the case in this chaotic modern world.
charles started to raise his hand to wave at magnus but just as he did magnus turned and spoke to someone out of charles’s view.
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