SERIAL-1963-When Travis and Pop-Pop Went Treasure Hunting EPISODE TWO
The Supposedly Broken Taxicab Trunk
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EPISODE TWO
The Supposedly Broken Taxicab Trunk
1963, Chestnut Point
Travis’s sixteenth birthday was on August 23rd, one month, two weeks, and three days after Mr. Hamel died of a heart attack. He must have been working on the problem in his sleep because when Travis’s eyes popped open at 7:06 a.m., the solution was fully formulated in his head. He knew exactly how to get the $1,000 to buy the 1954 Buick Skylark Roadmaster convertible for sale in Hamel’s driveway next door. That was the bargain price Dorothy Hamel was offering him exclusively for the mint-condition, special-edition sports car. He was going to cash in the savings bonds his West Reading grandparents had given him every year for Christmas since he was five.
With that plan of action in mind, Travis excitedly jumped out of bed, hurriedly dressed, and went downstairs. Before Werner left for work, he was going to request a very special sixteenth birthday present to cash in his savings bonds to buy Mr. Hamel’s Buick Skylark. Well, actually, Travis wasn’t going to ask for permission. He was going to insist on it! After all, he thought, it is my own money. Those savings bonds were given to me as a gift. They belong to me, and I should be able to spend that money however I want.
Like any typical sixteen-year-old boy with a learner’s permit, Travis was eager to have his own car. However, that particular automobile held great significance to him. In fact, Travis felt that he had a solemn obligation and responsibility to buy the Buick and take good care of it because of the promise he made to Mr. Hamel in the moments before he died. And Travis was determined to make good on that promise.
However, there was one big hitch in Travis’s plan. Werner had stipulated that those savings were reserved specifically for his only grandson to get a higher education. But Travis, struggling academically and in the automotive Vo Tech program in high school, didn’t see the point of going to college. Instead, his dream job after high school was to work on race cars at the Reading Fairgrounds Speedway.
Those familiar with Werner Tannenbaum would know that he was the straight-laced money manager for the Charitable Ministries of Berks County, with pragmatic, conservative values. He listened to Travis’s emphatic plea to cash in the savings bonds to buy the Buick and then firmly put his foot down.
“Absolutely not! That money is for college.” He then lectured Travis, “How you spend your money determines what sort of person you become.” and “Thrift is a virtue in God’s eyes.”
Travis looked to his Oma for support, knowing that she was also an unhappy victim of Werner’s stern dominance. She was sympathetic to Travis but afraid to express it in her husband’s presence, so she looked down to avoid his gaze and then fled into the other room.
At that, Travis boiled over in anger, using colorful language laced with expletives, which translated to something like this: “I hate your guts. I can’t stand living here! I am not going to college. So you can shove it.”
Werner took the brunt of the diatribe, unflinching with his arms crossed, then announced, “You’re on restriction. Go up to your room. Until you can mind your mouth and get your head on straight, you are not allowed to come downstairs. When I return home this afternoon, I expect an apology.”
As Werner was leaving for work, Travis heard his Oma downstairs in the front doorway through the open bedroom window, saying, “For heaven’s sake, Werner, it’s the boy’s sixteenth birthday.
About an hour later, after Werner had left for work, Travis snuck quietly down the stairs from his room to the telephone in the hall to call his Pop-Pop, Charlie, at Chestnut Point.
As you know, Charlie Mann lost custody of Travis and was ordered by the family court not to have any contact with him without court-approved supervision. That ruling from the judge came as a result of the train derailment at the Bowie Racetrack on February 2nd, 1961, and an incident just two weeks later at the Chestnut Point Manor House, when Travis was shot … um, accidentally, by his younger half-brother Gerald, with a gun found in Pop-Pop’s bed stand.
Then when Travis went to call Chestnut Point that morning, a truly bizarre thing happened. After lifting the telephone handset to his ear, Travis was amazed to hear his Aunt Jennie already on the line greeting him before he even dialed the number.
“Travis.”
“Yes, Aunt Jennie, this is me,” he whispered, cupping his hand around the voice end of the handset.
“Hello, Dear. I wanted to say happy birthday and tell you that we love you.”
“Thank you, Aunt Jennie. I love you too. Is Pop-Pop there?”
“Oh, you are too late, dear,” she said, “he left in the taxi a few minutes ago.”
“Taxi? Where to?” Travis asked.
“To West Reading...” she replied, puzzled that Travis wasn’t aware of something so obvious. “Where you are, dear.”
“Aunt Jennie, that’s crazy. Why is Pop-Pop taking a taxi all the way here to West Reading?”
“If you don’t already know, I can’t tell you. It’s supposed to be a surprise, dear,” Aunt Jennie told him. “But listen, I sent along a gift for you,” adding cryptically, “to keep your Pop-Pop’s memories of the time spent with you alive. Goodbye, dear, happy birthday, hanging up now.”
Travis heard the receiver click, then the dial tone. How weird, he thought. Aunt Jennie was already on the line before I even dialed. How is that possible? And what did she mean by ‘keep the memories alive,’ and what kind of gift could she mean?
Unknown to Travis, about an hour before he made that phone call to Chestnut Point, his Oma, Elsie, had beat him to the punch with the same idea. She was beyond fed up with Werner’s overbearing treatment of their grandson. And she knew that only one person in the world could put things right with Travis. So, after Werner disappeared around the corner of Pavilion Park Drive on his way to work, Elsie immediately telephoned Travis’s Maryland grandfather, Charlie Mann.
Elsie wanted to make her grandson happy, not just on the surface but deep down where it mattered. So she asked Charlie to please come to West Reading to purchase the Buick Skylark for Travis as a birthday present.
It didn’t take convincing for Charlie to drop everything and set off on an impromptu mission from Chestnut Point to West Reading, Pennsylvania, to surprise his Amigo. That was the nickname he had given Travis after Clarita, the live-in household manager at the Chestnut Point Manor House, started calling the two of them ‘Charlie and his little amigo.’
“How much do they want for the car?” Charlie asked.
Elsie responded, “Dorothy, our next-door neighbor, said a thousand dollars. She’s the one selling it. Her husband, Earnest, died last month, and it was his car. He liked Travis, and so did she, I mean, does … she likes Travis too. She told me $1,000 is way less than what it’s worth.”
Charlie had no idea what a ’54 Buick Skylark Roadmaster convertible went for, but the asking price was no problem for him. He had loads of money and plenty of time on his hands. And he would jump at any chance to do something extra special for his grandson, Travis.
Charlie also recognized that this was an unexpected opportunity to tie up some loose ends in his own life. Charlie was still full of vim and vigor at sixty-seven years old, but his younger sister, the clairvoyant, Madame Jennie Mann, had given him an ominous glimpse into his future. And it didn’t look too bright. So, Charlie figured this might be his last chance to find the lost Spanish silver, which, as family legend had it, was buried somewhere near the Patuxent River, close to the town of Benedict in southern Maryland. Plus, he could also take care of that unfinished business in Havre de Grace, which just happened to be on the way.
As for Elsie, she was afraid that, because of Werner, Travis would never come back to visit her or even stay in touch when he grew up and left home for good. And it made her cry inside. So, by arranging this birthday surprise for Travis, she could prove to him how much she loved and supported him before it was too late.
So conversely, it didn’t take much persuasion on Charlie’s part to enlist Elsie’s assistance in a deception that would allow him and Travis to spend a few precious unsupervised days having fun together like they used to do.
You see, Werner was Travis’s legal custodian. He would never allow his grandson to go on a road trip alone with ‘That Reprobate,’ as he called Charlie Mann, to God knows where, for three whole days in an expensive, albeit used, sports car that he had expressly forbidden Travis to buy.
Therefore, Elsie proposed telling her husband an outright lie. She would say that she had purchased two round-trip Greyhound tickets for Travis to visit his mother at the Daytop Village in Staten Island, where she was recovering from depression and drug addiction. She would also tell Werner that Luke Desilva, Travis’s court-approved chaperone, had accompanied him. And that they had left for New York City on the bus that afternoon. But those shenanigans had to be kept secret from ‘Das Fuhrer,’ as Charlie derisively referred to Werner.
Charlie enthusiastically responded to Elsie’s request without hesitation. “I’ll be there by noon.”
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