Jun
23
Reg was a good natured kid from the street that had fallen under Fat Daddy’s control and become his right hand man. Reg grew up just outside the city proper in an old farmhouse that had lost its farm. Reg was the youngest of four and doted on by his mother and father, but picked on by the kids in the neighborhood for being a little slow. Reg wasn’t mentally retarded, but he would never go to college. Even he if he applied himself higher learning was out of his reach. If his house hadn’t lost its farm, if it was an earlier time , then Reg would have been a competent field hand. He could have planted and farmed a plot large enough to sustain his family and have enough left over to take to market and put some money away for the future. If his focus was narrow his amiable nature and outstanding work ethic allowed him to accomplish more than those who were born with considerably more intelligence. But he wasn’t born into an earlier time and there was no farm. Reg had fallen in with Fat Daddy when Reg was a freshman in high school. Fat Daddy was recruiting, looking for mules and dealers, in order to build his network, to increase his power, and to insulate himself from the legal hazards of working the street. He found Reg one day sitting on the curb with streaks on his face where his tears had washed away the dust from the ball field. There had been a pick up game and Reg as usual had been picked first. Reg was athletic and had been playing ball since he was old enough to walk, but Reg’s talent wasn’t universally admired and when he had tagged out a runner at home to win the game the other team, embarrassed by being beat by the slow kid, proceeded to taunt Reg calling him retard, asking him when the short bus was going to pick him, all the cruel, contrived age old things kids say to hurt one another. Reg’s team not wanting to be seen taking up for a retard joined in the taunting until punches were thrown. Reg was more than able to handle himself and the fight didn’t last long, but when it was over all the other kids went away laughing while Reg sat on the curb and cried.
Fat Daddy found him that way and took him under his wing. He didn’t send directly out on the streets and he didn’t have him deliver drugs. He took Reg out to lunch, had him meet people and talk to them. Reg was good at this he, he was a natural conversationalist. He laughed easy and was genuinely interested in what others had to say. He would talk to the receptionist at a hotel while fat Daddy snuck in a couple of prostitutes or he would talk to the driver of a truck while Fat Daddy off loaded a shipment of drugs. Reg didn’t know what Fat Daddy did at first he just knew that he got to talk to people then Fat Daddy would take him out to eat or buy him some new clothes. Now Reg was loyal to Fat Daddy. He had given Reg a life, made him important when others had cast him off. Reg was Fat Daddy’s right hand man and no one crossed fat Daddy. Reg made sure of that.
Paul and Reg greeted each other like brothers and Reg embraced Claire warmly. Claire liked Reg, even if he always made her a little sad.
