The V-Crew

By Mike Checansky

Mike Checansky was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1939. The family moved to Los Angeles, where the author attended school. He struggled in elementary school, but had an easy time in high school. He received his BS and High School Teaching Credential from Cal State University, Northridge. Later, he earned a Special Education Teaching Credential from San Jose State. He got married during his college years and has been married for over 50 years. He is very proud of his three children and three grandchildren. Having taught for over 32 years, the author is now retired.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 20, 2012
• ISBN: 9781477121276

Mike Checansky

Mike Checansky was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1939. The family moved to Los Angeles, where the author attended school. He struggled in elementary school, but had an easy time in high school. He received his BS and High School Teaching Credential from Cal State University, Northridge. Later, he earned a Special Education Teaching Credential from San Jose State. He got married during his college years and has been married for over 50 years. He is very proud of his three children and three grandchildren. Having taught for over 32 years, the author is now retired.

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Copyright © 2012 by Mike Checansky.

ISBN:          Softcover                                 978-1-4771-2126-9

                   Ebook                                      978-1-4771-2127-6

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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Contents

Chapter One  On The Phone

Chapter Two  Let’s Do Lunch

Chapter Three  The Gentlemen Val-id and Wolfe

Chapter Four  We Meet Grace and the Kids

Chapter Five  Surveillance Man

Chapter Six  The Secret of the V. Crew

Chapter Seven  The Pay Off

Chapter Eight  All’s Well That Ends Well

Chapter Nine  Morris Meets The In-Laws

Chapter Ten  Morris and Gracie’s Wedding

Epilogue

Yiddish Glossary

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CHAPTER ONE

On The Phone

I AM NOT a slum lord! I am not a slum lord! said Morris Golden over and over again while holding his bald head. No! No! I am not a slum lord! He said again. I can get this building back to code. My tenants will not be on the streets! Not in my life time, he thought. He thought about how the building is old; 200 years old, but it is a good sound building. In Europe, people live in buildings thousands of years old.

He looked around his tiny office which was located one building away from his building in Harlam’s Westside; not too far from midtown. The office only housed his desk, a small antique cabinet and two folding chairs. His desk held many papers, but there was an order among them. Most of his papers were in a small filing cabinet that was built in to the wall which was across from the desk. There was a window that let in some light looking out on to a small clean alley and the brick wall of the building across the alley. There was a framed photo on the desk of a light complected Afro American woman with two small boys. The boys had smiles that would melt an iceberg and big wonderful eyes like their mother.

The phone rang! It startled him. It shouldn’t have. He was waiting for the calls, but it scared him anyway. He was more fearful of what news the call was going to bring and not the shattering of the silence in his tidy, tiny office.

He scrambled for the receiver, dropping it once, but got it to his face.

Hello, said Morris, almost shaking.

Is this Morris Golden? The pleasant voice on the other end boomed.

Yes, whimpered Morris.

This is John DeAdams of Achme Pest Control. How are you today? The voice boomed again.

I will tell you after I hear your estimate, muttered Morris.

Here is the whole report. John began taking a deep breath.

The building is 200 years old and a lot of repairs are needed, which is some of the reason for your past problems. Also, the building is very big. I mean, huge. The basement has three levels and spreads across the whole block. There are passageways that go all over and many of them had ceilings and floors that have collapsed, but it is all repairable. In the main part of the building, there are hidden rooms and passageways. Your tenants, all 300 of them, are very clean, but their furniture is not and pests can hide in them. This is what we found when we were crawling around the building for three days. Let’s start with the lowest part of the food chain. There are 15 types of algae, mold and fungus growing. We found mushrooms six inches across. Not good to eat. In fact, they will kill you in two minutes. The only thing that can eat them and survive is a certain breed of rat which you have, but I will address that when I get to the section on rats in my report. You have three different types of termites and there are at least ten colonies. You have black ants, red ants, black and red ants and fire ants. There are 25 types of beetles and lots of lady bugs. There are at least 25 types of spiders. There are also black and white scorpions. Your big problem is the cockroaches; seven species of them and they are everywhere. There are praying mantis and hives of honey bees, killer bees, wasps and hornets. Lots of moths; at least ten types. Now, you have lots of standing water due to outside leaks when it rains and from pipes in the building. In the water, we found all sorts of mosquitoes, frogs, toads, salamanders and water snakes. One of my men found a family of newts and he has taken them as pets. I hope that is ok with you.

Is it one less pest I have to worry about? Questioned Morris.

Yes, it is. No charge for their removal, John stated. He went on. Now we will get to the animals. You’re overrun with mice throughout the building. Ten varieties; all sorts of colors. You have a very bad rat problem, worst than the mice. Upstair we found Norigian Root Rats living side by side with a colony of bats. The bats would be a help if they would come down into the building and eat the insects, but they don’t. They just nest in your attic. There is also lots of birds nesting on the roof. As we go down the twenty floors of your building, the rats get bigger and meaner until we get to your basement where they are a foot and half and that is not counting the tails. Now eating off the mice and rats are wild cats. They’re lurking all over the place, also there are wild dogs at least 20 to 30 of them; some pretty good size. We also spotted some skunks, raccoon and possum. In short, Mr. Golden, you have your own ecosystem. Also, down in the basement, are people mostly homeless, most are your wino and drunks – but there are drug deals going down by gang bangers and they may be storing drugs in tunnels leading out of your basement. The gang members have dug tunnels into your passageways.

Now that’s the report. Now the estimate, said John, after taking a deep breath. He continued, "We feel we can complete the job in six months. That will include all the repairs; filling in all the extra tunnels and passageways with concrete, getting rid of the undesirable humans and animals, cleaning rugs and upholstery and all the tenant furniture, filling all cracks and holes and painting, fixing pipes and outside leaks and most of all; all pests will be eliminated.