The Riverboat

Jerry was a thirteen-year-old orphan surviving on the streets of New Orleans as best he could. He learned early on to trust no one, except himself. His survival depended on it. He learned to be quick on his feet and cagey in his dealings on the street. The other street people called him Speedy, since he could outrun any cop chasing him.

Julie was also a New Orleans orphan, living on the street. She was a few months younger than Jerry. They had met each other nearly a year ago when a cop had caught Julie stealing some fruit from a sidewalk vendor. He was holding Julie by the arm when suddenly, out of nowhere it seemed, Jerry ran at the cop, knocking him down.

“Run!” Jerry had yelled at Julie. And the two of them had dashed off through the crowded street.

Since then, they had been together. Jerry felt protective of her, which was unusual for him. He had never formed a attachment to any of the other orphans before, but there was something about Julie....

“Julie, what you say we sneak on a riverboat?” Jerry asked one day.

“What for?”

“To get the heck away from here, for one thing. We could get a job on one of them.”

Julie laughed. “Get real, Jerry. Who would hire us? And what could we do anyway?”

“Well, I think we could pass for sixteen. And there's all sorts of things they could have us do.”

“Like what?” she asked, suspiciously.

“Nothing bad, Julie. They must need people to clean the boat...maybe serve the gamblers drinks or whatever. Stuff like that.”

“Hmmm....”

“Is that a yes? Want to try it?”

“We gonna stow away or ask for a job?”

“We'll ask for a job first. If that don't work, we'll stow away on one...just for fun.” He grinned at her.

She smiled back at him. She couldn't help it. He had such a charming smile. “Ok. We'll try for a job first. Which boat you want to try first?”

“Oh...how about the Merry Belle?”

“I like that name. You want to go now?”

“Might as well. Ain't nothing stopping us.”

Hand-in-hand they descended to the wharf.

“You say you want a job?” a deckhand asked.

“Yes, sir. Are you hiring?” Jerry asked.

“How old are ya?”

“Sixteen.”

“Well, I ain't the boss on this boat. You'll have to talk to her.”

“Her?” they both asked in astonishment.

The man chuckled. “Yep. Her. C'mon, I'll take ya to her.”

“Is that why this is called the Merry Belle? Because the owner is a woman?” Julie dared to ask.

The man nodded. “And she's a merry lady too. You'll see. Here we are.” He knocked on a door, then entered.

They found themselves in an elegant room containing velvet and satin-covered furniture and crystal chandeliers. They stared in amazement.

“Merry?”

“Right here, Frank,” answered a woman as she entered the room from a side door.

Jerry gaped at her. She was wearing a low-cut blue satin gown with diamonds gleaming around her neck, from her ears, and on her fingers. Her blond hair was swept up into a bunch of curls, a couple of which cascaded down each side of her face. Her eyes were violet and filled with amusement.

“What have we here?” she asked Frank, looking at Julie and Jerry.

“These two are looking for a job, Merry.”

“Please, have a seat,” Merry told them.

“Thank you, ma'am,” Jerry said.

She laughed. “Just call me Merry, dear.”

He nodded.

“So you're looking for a job, are you?”

“Yes, ma...er...Merry,” Jerry replied.

“Are you old enough to work?”

“Oh yes, Merry,” Julie said. “We're sixteen.”

“I see.” She saw more than they thought she did. They looked about thirteen or fourteen to her. They also had the look of the street kids she saw every day. But they looked so forlorn to her, that she decided she'd hire them anyway. Who would know? It wasn't as if the cops came on the boat looking for minors working. She smiled.

“Well, I could use a few more people,” she told them. “Can you sing?” she asked Julie.

“Umm...yes, I can. But I'm not sure if it's any good.”

“Sing something for me.”

Julie looked at Jerry. He nodded. She sang a haunting ballad and when she was through, Frank and Merry both had tears in their eyes.

“You have a wonderful voice, Julie. I will hire you as the Penny Princess.”

“Penny Princess?”

Merry's eyes twinkled. “Yes. I call it Penny Princess because your dress will be covered with pennies.”

Julie's eyes widened. “A dress made of pennies,” she said in awe.

Merry smiled. “Yes, pennies. And you Jerry, I'll hire you to bus the tables in the lounge Julie will perform in. Ok?”

“Yes, that will be fine,” he answered with a smile.

“Good. It's settled then. Oh, and you will both be given rooms of your own on the boat. And meals are free, of course. Your pay will be $100 a week.”

Their mouths dropped open in surprise. A room, meals and a hundred dollars a week! That was much more than they had expected. They couldn't remember when the last time was that they had slept in a room on a bed.

“And your clothes will be provided for...for work,” Merry added.

Frank showed them their rooms, which were located next to each other. Once Frank left, Julie said, “Oh Jerry, can you believe this?” She looked around the colorful room that contained a big bed with fluffy pillows on it. There was also a dressing table with a mirror and chair, a dresser, a chest and closet, and a desk in one corner. The other door in the room led to a bathroom with a large tub in it.

“This is our lucky day, Julie...for sure.”

She reached out and hugged him. “I'm so glad you came up with the idea to apply for a job on a boat!” She laughed and threw herself on the soft bed, bouncing twice.

“God, I can't even remember what a bed feels like,” Jerry said.

“Then c'mere and feel it.”

He joined her on the bed. “Ahh...this is Heaven.”

Julie giggled. After awhile, she jumped up. “I'm going to have me a bath in that tub,” she declared, heading toward the bathroom.

Jerry smiled, as he got up to go to his own room.

A half hour later, Julie was knocking on his door. He opened it.

She stood there in damp clothes. She had washed them in the tub. He grinned at her.

“Jerry, I was thinking,” she said, coming into his room, “maybe we should swipe another set of clothes.”

“What for? We can buy some when we get paid.”

“Jerry, we can't be going around this here fancy boat, when we're not working, wearing the same clothes every day. They'll wonder about that.”

“Good point. I didn't think of that. Hmm...want to try the dressing room trick then?”

“Might be the best way not to get caught, if we find a real busy store. We'll just put the clothes on, under our own, and walk out.”

He nodded. “Well, let's hope our luck holds. Wouldn't want to get caught now and blow everything for ourselves.”

“Hmm... On second thought, maybe we should steal clothes from clotheslines. That's even safer. Want to?”

“Yeah, that might be better.”

They left the boat after telling Frank they were going to get their belongings. Two hours later, they returned with three outfits apiece, which they had gotten from fourteen different clotheslines throughout the city. They figured that was good enough until they got paid.

“Julie, Merry wants to see ya in her cabin. Ya gotta be fitted for the penny gown.”

“Ok. Thanks, Frank.”

Jerry took the clothes to their rooms while Julie went to her fitting. Ten minutes later, Frank knocked on his door.

“Come with me. We gotta get your uniforms from downstairs.”

Jerry returned to his room with seven uniforms, one for each day. His name had been sewn into them and he was told to wear each one only once, then send it to the laundress downstairs. They would be returned clean.

That was new for Jerry too. On the streets he had lived in the same dirty clothes for weeks at a time before stealing new ones. He still could not believe the change in their luck.

***

“Oh!” Julie exclaimed, seeing the shiny pennies affixed to white satin. “It's beautiful!”

Merry clapped her hands and actually giggled in delight. “I just knew you'd love it. Come, try it on. It might need to be adjusted.”

Julie looked at herself in the mirror. She did, indeed, look like a princess in the dress. They had curled her long auburn hair and the curls hung loose beyond her shoulders. The highlights in her hair nearly matched the shine of the new pennies.

“You look gorgeous,” Merry told her.

“Thank you.”

After removing the gown, Merry taught her the songs she wanted her to sing. She had two days to practice them before her first appearance in the lounge. Jerry started his job that night.

“You look so handsome in your uniform,” Julie told him before he left for the lounge.

“I can't wait to see you in that penny gown, Julie,” he told her in return.

She smiled. “It's gorgeous, Jerry. Wait until you see it!”

“My own princess,” he said, kissing her cheek before going out the door.

Jerry got off work at 6:00a.m. the next morning. He found Julie asleep on his bed.

“Hey,” he said, shaking her awake, “what are you doing here? Did something happen?”

“Huh?” she asked groggily. “Oh! No, I just wanted to see how your first night went. What time is it anyway?”

“Six in the morning.”

Her eyes rounded in surprise. “You worked all night?”

He smiled. “Yeah. These boats are open all night for the gambling crowd, you know. Gotta work from 9:00pm to 6:00am.”

“Nobody comes on board before 9:00pm?”

“They can come on at seven, but the gambling lounges don't open until nine. They can only hang around on the deck or go in the restaurant.”

“Oh, I see. So we have to get used to sleeping all day, huh?”

“Well, most of the day anyway, say until three or four. You might not have to perform all night.”

“No?”

“Probably not. They'll most likely have you sing two or three times a night. You could sleep in between shows.” He grinned.

“Hmmm....Ten, one and three wouldn't be bad. Could go to bed by three-thirty.”

“Right.”

As it turned out, Julie only had to perform twice a night since she was the highlight of the show. She sang at eleven and two, then was free to go to her room. The first night she performed, she was astonished when the patrons threw money on the stage. She saw five, ten, fifty-dollar bills on the floor. Are these people crazy? she wondered. When she finished and left the stage, Frank came on and gathered up the money, which he brought to her in her room.

“This is mine?” she asked, wide-eyed.

“Sure is. Consider it a tip.” He winked at her as he closed the door.

She sat there, counting it. Three hundred dollars! She nearly fainted. Getting up, she hurried back to the lounge, still in her gown, to find Jerry.

She waited until he cleared a table, then stopped him on the way back from the kitchen.

“Jerry!”

“What's wrong?”

“Nothing. The money they threw on the stage?”

“Yeah?”

“It's mine! Frank brought it to me, said it was a tip. Jerry, there's $300!”

He whistled. “Good deal, Julie! Hide it somewhere safe. I gotta get back to work. Talk to you in the morning, ok?”

She nodded and headed back to her room. We got to go shopping tomorrow after we get up, she thought.

***

They roamed the streets of New Orleans for hours the next afternoon. They acted like just what they were: kids. They bought clothes, no more used clothes from clotheslines for them. Julie got some dresses too, that she could wear in the lounge between performances.

Jerry's main purchase was an off-white suit in the latest style. What he wanted it for, Julie hadn't a clue. He also got pants and shirts in a style similar to what he'd seen the men at the lounge wearing. He wanted to blend in.

They also splurged some money on foolishness. She bought him ice cream and took him for a ride in a horse drawn carriage. They went roller skating at the rink on the north side. They ate hot dogs from a street vendor. And when they ran into a couple of street kids they knew, Julie bought them food and sent Jerry into a nearby grocery store to get them some food to take with them for later.

By the time they got back to the boat, they were broke, but it had been the best day they had ever spent on the New Orleans' streets. They were tired, but elated.

And that night, Julie made nearly $400 in tips. Jerry was also getting some tips when he cleaned the tables, but nowhere near as much as Julie. He was lucky if he made $70 or $80 in tips a night. But for kids who never had a dime to call their own before, this was a windfall for them. They began saving most of it.

“What are we saving the money for?” Julie asked him one day.

“To buy our own riverboat some day.”

She looked at him as if he was crazy. “Jerry, you know what that would cost? We'd be old and grey by the time we could afford one.”

Jerry chuckled. “Ah Princess, never say never. Where there's a will, there's a way. We'll do it-somehow.”

“You know, I believe you. You said we could get a job on a riverboat, and we did. So why not buy our own some day?”

“That's my girl. Never stop believing, Julie.”

***

Merry had been doing some serious thinking about the orphans in her employ. She had come to really love those two kids, and she wanted to make sure they'd be safe. So, two months after she hired them, she called both of them to her cabin.

They entered leery, wondering if they would be fired.

Merry smiled at them and told them to have a seat.

“I have an offer to make you,” she said. “First of all, let me say that I know you're not sixteen.”

Their eyes nearly popped out of their heads.

She nodded at them and continued. “I have lived in New Orleans long enough to know street kids when I see them. And you two used to live on the streets, didn't you?”

Julie nodded. Jerry had grown quite pale.

“How old are you?”

“Fourteen,” Jerry answered.

Again, Merry nodded. “That's what I figured...thirteen or fourteen. Anyway, I have decided to adopt the both of you...”

“Adopt?” Julie asked.

Merry reached over and patted her hand in reassurance. “Yes, adopt. Unless...do you have family anywhere?”

“No...not that we know of,” Jerry answered.

“Good! Would you like to be adopted by me? You will be completely safe then. Won't have to worry about anyone catching you. You'll have a good home here with me.”

“Uh...does that mean that once we become your children we no longer have jobs?” Julie wanted to know.

“No, you may continue with your jobs, if you wish, or I could just give you spending money.”

“But what would we do all the time if we don't work?” Jerry asked.

“Anything you wanted to do. Have fun...be kids for a change.”

Julie grinned, and Jerry laughed. “”That'd be a first in a long time, Merry,” Jerry said. “But I think...how about we continue with our jobs? Julie only has two performances a night, and the Penny Princess is your biggest attraction, drawing the people in. As for me, maybe I'll cut my hours down to 9:00pm until 2:00am-if that's all right?”

She smiled at them. “That'll be fine, Jerry. Whatever my kids want....” She giggled in delight, then got up and hugged both of them. “My kids...I do love the sound of that! I've never been a mother before. I hope I do it right. I'll have my attorney draw up the adoption papers right away.”

“I think you'll be a great mother,” Julie told her, and kissed her cheek. “We can't thank you enough for doing this for us.”

“I don't want thanks, Julie. I just want you two to be happy and safe.”

Tears sprang to Julie's eyes. She nodded and hugged Merry again.

***

Their savings were increasing by leaps and bounds. Julie was getting about $700 a night in tips, nearly $5000 a week. Jerry got about $60 a night with his decreased hours. They saved all the tips, and survived on their hundred dollar paychecks. There was nothing they really needed money for. Merry provided everything for them.

They had opened a bank account. Julie shook her head in disbelief as she looked at the latest bank statement. They had a balance of $165, 440-all acquired in less than a year.

“Jerry, I am still not used to the fact we have this kind of money.”

“I know, Julie. Sometimes I think this is all a dream and we'll wake up back in our little hide-away on the street.”

Two days later, Jerry went to Merry's cabin.

“Jerry! What a pleasant surprise. Have a seat,” Merry said. “Everything going ok?”

“Fine. No problem. I wanted to ask you something.”

“Ok. What is it?”

“How much does a riverboat cost?”

Her eyes rounded in surprise at the question. “A lot. Why, do you plan on buying one?”

He smiled, sheepishly. “Actually, yes...one of these days. Julie and I had the idea to do that since you first hired us.”

She nodded, running the idea of a second riverboat over in her mind. It seemed like a good idea, but she had enough to handle with this one.

“Tell you what, Jerry. How about you and I go partners on another riverboat? How much money do you have saved?”

“Over $165,000.”

She blinked, amazed they had that much. “All right, this is what we'll do. I'll add the difference in price to the amount you have to buy the boat. You and Julie will live on it and run the operation. Twenty-five percent of the profits come to me, the rest is yours and Julie's. Deal?”

Jerry couldn't believe what he had just heard. “So what you're saying is that the boat will be technically ours with a 25% cut for you?”

“That's right. I already have a riverboat to run here. As your partner in the other boat, I get 25% of the profits.”

“Deal!” he said, grinning.

She clapped her hands, and grabbed the phone to call her attorney. “This is so much fun!”

He raised an eyebrow at her, and she laughed.

Within two months, they had found the ideal boat. Two weeks after that, the boat was theirs.

“What are you going to name her?” Julie asked, her eyes sweeping across the riverboat.

“You name her, Princess.”

“Me? Uh...let me think.”

He waited, expectantly.

“I got it! How about Jerry's Jewel? You know, Jewel could stand for Julie.” She grinned.

“Ahh....perfect!” He gave her a hug. Jerry's Jewel it is then.”

The next few months were hectic as they redecorated the entire riverboat and hired all the employees they'd need, from card dealers down to maintenance men. Finally, the night arrived for the grand opening.

“I'm a nervous wreck, Jerry,” Julie told him, as they went on deck, prepared to welcome their first customers to Jerry's Jewel.

“Me too, but we shouldn't be. We know what we're doing. Everything's ready....”

“Well, it's about time you got here,” Merry said with a bright smile.

“Merry!” Julie exclaimed.

“Did you think I'd miss the grand opening of our new riverboat?” she asked, giving them both a hug and a kiss.

“The thought never entered my mind,” Jerry said with a grin.

Jerry and Julie went down the gangplank. Julie carried a bottle of champagne and Jerry had a pair of scissors. Jerry stopped, turned and held his hand out to Merry. “Come, you are a part of this.” She joined them with a radiant smile on her face, and the three of them descended to the tape across the entrance to the boat.

Jerry handed Merry the scissors, put his hand over hers, and they cut the tape. Julie lifted the champagne bottle, turned toward the side of the boat and hurled it at it. It broke, splattering champagne, and the crowd cheered.

“Welcome to Jerry's Jewel!”Jerry shouted.

The three of them stood there greeting the people as they ascended to the deck above.

Julie had taken the theme of the Penny Princess, but instead of pennies, she had a black satin gown made covered with silver dollars. Her stage name became the Silver Fox.

“Doesn't she look beautiful?” Merry said, watching her sing.

“Indeed she does,” answered a proud Jerry. “And they love her. I see hundred dollar bills on the stage.”

“Look again, dear. That one has three zeros on it.”

Jerry laughed. “So it does...so it does. She is a star.”

“A rare jewel,” Merry agreed. “I'm so proud of both of you!”

“We never could have come this far without you, Merry. If you hadn't hired us, knowing we were lying I might add, we'd still be running on the streets, trying to survive.”

She smiled. “You both looked so forlorn. There was just something about you two...more than met the eye, I guess. So I decided to take a chance, and I've never regretted it for a minute. You have the qualities that count, even if you had to live on the streets for a while.”

“More than awhile, Merry. I was on the street since I was ten, and Julie was from the age of eleven.”

“So young... What happened? How did you end up there at that age?”

“In my case, an accident. My parents had gone out after I was in bed one night. Their car crashed. The landlord called the social workers to remove me from the house. I ran from them...to the streets.”

“And Julie?”

“She lived with her grandfather. He died in his sleep one night...and she ran.”

“So sad... But Jerry, you'd have been better off with the social workers. They'd have found you another home, and family.”

“Maybe...but we were scared. We'd lost the people we loved most. All of a sudden, it was like the world came crashing down on us. Our security was gone. Nothing would ever be the same again. We didn't know what to do, or who to trust. We didn't want another family, we wanted ours back-and that could never happen.”

Merry had tears in her eyes. “You poor darlings... And how do you feel now, having me as your family? I know I can never take the place of your real mother....”

“We love you, Merry. We would have it no other way now. You're what we needed all those years. Too bad we hadn't met sooner, but we can't read God's mind, eh? Perhaps he had a reason making us wait until we were fourteen to find you.”

She nodded and wiped her tears away, just as Julie finished her song.

***

The years marched by. Julie and Jerry bought more riverboats until there was a whole fleet of them. Merry was a partner in all the new purchases. They called this the MerryLine fleet. Their attorneys found qualified people to manage the boats for them, and Jerry made his rounds of all the riverboats every night to make sure there were no problems and all was running smoothly. Julie and Merry ran the operation on the Merry Belle and Jerry's Jewel.

Ten years after they had first walked up that gangplank to the Merry Belle, they were multi-millionaires, heading for a billion fast-and so was Merry. She had never dreamed of a whole fleet of riverboats, until Jerry suggested it. She had been content with just the Merry Belle. Her adopted children never ceased to amaze her.

Julie decided at one point to build a home, of sorts, for the street kids. She convinced Jerry to convert one of the newly purchased riverboats into what would amount to a houseboat. They had individual cabins built on the boat. They ended up with fifty double-occupancy cabins. Then they converted what would have been one of the lounges into a dorm filled with cots, lockers and chests. Julie thought the dorm would be perfect for the younger kids. The older ones would be in the cabins. She kept the kitchen well stocked with food. Another lounge was converted into a game room for the kids. They hired staff to cook for the children, clean their rooms and wash their clothes, as well as those necessary to maintain the boat itself.

Jerry and Julie went out on the streets of New Orleans, looking for the orphans. Jerry found some of his old friends, still on the streets. Some were now over twenty-one. He offered a seventeen-year-old girl and an eighteen-year-old boy the job of 'supervising' the house. The main purpose was to make sure the kids didn't destroy anything. They could come and go as they pleased. Jerry offered to pay them $200 a week. They accepted eagerly.

Julie told the younger children who agreed to live on the riverboat that they had to go to school and stay out of trouble, if they wanted to live there. They were somewhat leery as they agreed. She bought them all new clothes, so they wouldn't be embarrassed at school. Jerry promised a bike to each child that got an A on his or her report card.

Then Jerry took the older people aside back on the street. He offered jobs on the riverboats to everyone who was sixteen or older. They had just added a few new boats to the fleet and needed employees. By the time they were through, they were convinced they had found all the orphans in New Orleans. But they told the others that if they saw any more to bring them to the riverboat.

“That was really a nice thing for you to do,” Merry told them.

Julie smiled. “They shouldn't have to live on the street, Merry. It's not their fault that life handed them a bad deal. I know what it's like out there. They need the security of a home-a place to call their own-a place to go back to at the end of the day...a bed to sleep in instead of sleeping in some alley, constantly waking up to chase the rats away.”

“It must have been so awful for you living on the street. I can't even imagine it,” Merry said, shaking her head.

Julie nodded. “It's something you learn to accept, but never really get used to.”

“I'm glad you could do this, and save them from the streets.”

“You saved them all, Merry. If not for you, saving us, we couldn't have saved them now. I love you, Merry.”

“And I love you both,” Merry said, embracing her.

The Youth Haven is still afloat on the river today. Children have come and gone over the years, but new ones always seem to pop up to fill the vacancies. The city of New Orleans presented Jerry and Julie with a grant, which would be renewed every year, to help with the cost of housing the orphans. They preferred having the kids on the riverboat rather than on the streets causing havoc among the tourists.


The end