Rick, Conman Extraordinare -We Are Going to Mexico -The Conclusion!

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When we got back to our seats – Rick and Mom were all ears to hear how it went. So fibbed a little – I told them “It was neat to meet her and blah blah, blah “…and then I clammed up.

Rick then proudly presented us with two Race Track forms autographed by Doris Day to Matty and I.

I was more embarrassed than impressed and I asked Mom to hold on to the “the autographed” form for me until we got home 

The rest of the day was anticlimactic after that meeting. As promised we stopped at a little souvenir shop on the way back to the hotel.

There I purchased a little silver skull ring with red glass chip eyes. I had really wanted to purchase a switchblade knife but Mom put the kibosh on that idea. And besides, it was out of my price range.

The next morning we headed back to Sunnyvale, California and got home late in the evening.

During the trip back home as I played with my skull ring on my finger, I kept wondering – Did we really meet Doris Day? And if we didn’t – who was that lady with the Mona Lisa smile?

The whole incident was so outre and bizarre that for months, years I pondered this strange meeting.

Later, I got it out of Mom that the reason we had left in the middle of the night to go on our trip was that Rick was trying to avoid seeing his parole officer who was scheduled to drop by that week at the house.

Parole Officer?!

Yep. You heard me right. Parole Officer.

It seems Rick had served two sentences at two different Federal Prisons – Leavenworth and San Quinten. One sentence for Bank Robbery and the second for Embezzlement. 

A Parole Officer periodically checked up on him. Meetings he assiduously avoided.

When I heard Mom was married to an exCon who had been to prison not once but twice – you could have knocked me over with a feather.

Funny, when I heard about Rick’s convictions and chequered past I wasn’t angry or disappointed. At least not at him. The man was just too damn charming and fun.

And being in prison sounded kind of cool.

If anything I was more disillusioned by my Mom’s actions. I just couldn’t process the circus she had thrust into our lives by marrying this man. And to top it off this was following divorcing my Dad.

In the following months, I pulled the Racing Track Brochure out of my sock drawer. I compared “The Autograph” I had received from Miss Day to several Birthday and Christmas Cards I had received from Rick.

The handwriting was suspiciously similar leading me to surmise that – Rick had been the one to sign the Track Brochure to me and not “Doris Day.”

But if Rick had signed the card and if we had not met Doris Day – Who the Hell was that woman? And why had she gone along with the charade? And what had Rick been up too? Was it just some fantasy meeting he set up to impress us – and if so – Why? And was it just a big stunt to distract us from seeing how much he was blowing at the Track?

Yeah, I had a lot of questions and one big Mystery.

And that Dear Readers was a Mystery I never figured out.

The End