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magic_fratboy1) Tommy was four years old, and standing at his father's knee while the Dodgers played on television. Tommy liked the baseball games, but today he was more fascinated by the pictures dancing in Poppa's hands. They moved back and forth in a ribbon of red and black with splashes of cheery yellow and blue, numbers and signs and intricate pictures that were magical to him.
They were pretty pictures, and Poppa's fingers made them dance like magic.
"Poppa? Wha's dat?"
Poppa stopped making the cards dance, his gaze down and his face serious, unfamiliar. Tommy rarely saw Poppa that serious unless he was angry...
Then he smiled and became Tommy's Poppa again, the moment passing as he spread the cards and showed him the pretty pictures on them. He could count numbers up to ten, over and over again in red and black. The pictures were strange and fascinating, with letters he only sort of remembered because they weren't in the order of the ABC song...
"These are playing cards, Tom Tom...and you know? I think you're a big enough boy to see your first magic trick. Would you like that?"
Curious about this thing called 'magic' and the strange, delightfully secret way Poppa whispered about it, Tommy nodded and climbed into Poppa's lap to watch.
* * * * *
2) Like any self-respecting six year old boy, Tommy Karras hated girls.
Girls were a huge pain in the butt. They were loud, they cried a lot, and they were always tormenting him. Staring, trying to kiss him, pushing him in the dirt...girls were mean, and more trouble than they were worth.
Still, he was never mean to girls. They were people, too...and really, Tommy wasn't mean to anyone. He was too scared to be mean...unless someone needed his help.
That was why he ran halfway across the playground when he saw three of the biggest boys in class picking on Bela Sullivan. Pops always said that only bad men hurt girls, and Tommy was a good man just like his Pops.
Even if helping got him a bloody nose from Timmy Pascal and a trip to the principal's office and a lecture from Momma and his very first black rain cloud on his behavior chart from Miss Katona instead of a gold star.
Pops told him he did good, his cousin Carbone punched out Timmy Pascal the next day...and most importantly, Bela Sullivan said thank you.
And made sure none of the other girls in his class ever tried to kiss him again.
* * * * *
3) He was eight years old when Momma cried for three days and Pops stopped smiling and above all, stopped doing magic tricks for him. He was alarmed, until he overheard his parents having a conversation that only deepened his confusion...
Tommy wanted answers...so he got his Uncle Yousef (who wasn't really his uncle and just spent an awful lot of time with his Aunt Zephyr) to take him to the 6th Street library.
He spent an entire day searching book after book for things he couldn't ask an adult. There was nothing that told him anything, so finally he had to ask a librarian, after three hours, where he could find the books on how babies were born.
The books he needed were in the children's section, but the answers he sought weren't. With the librarian's kind help, he ventured out into other sections of the library where he was able to figure out how a mommy could 'lose' a baby that hadn't even been born yet.
When Uncle Yousef picked him up and took him home, he hugged Momma and Pops both without telling them why, and from that night on always knelt a couple extra seconds in silence when he finished his bedtime prayers.
He didn't want to make his parents sad by telling them by praying out loud for the little brother or sister that nobody got to meet.
* * * * *
4)In all his ten years of life, Tommy had never seen so many lights in one place, not even in Manhattan.
He didn't understand at first why Pop was so excited to drive down some stupid street after dark, but when they came to Las Vegas Boulevard...Tommy finally understood why The Strip was unlike any other place in the whole world.
It was like a giant carnival, or some kind of magic that made it as bright as daytime. There were real life magicians here, too, all over the place. Tommy even recognized a couple of casinos where they performed, including...
"Pop! POP!! It's the Frontier! Didja see that?" he exploded suddenly, straining against his seatbelt to try and get a better view out the window.
"Thomas Gregory Karras, sit down in your seat!!"
"Tom Tom, listen to your mother...I see it. They're in there right now, doing a show! Can you imagine?"
He could imagine...and he did as his parents started arguing in Greek again, the way they always did when Momma heard them talking about magic. Somewhere inside the Frontier, Siegfried and Roy were doing real magic with wild tigers. The very idea of it made him quiver with excitement, only worse. Squirming in his seat, bouncing his heels against the floorboards, Tommy could actually feel the magic inside of him. Mom would tell him to be reasonable, but he knew it was true.
Tommy missed his friends in Brooklyn...but maybe moving to Las Vegas wasn't so bad after all.
* * * * *
5) Like any self-respecting thirteen year old boy, Tommy Karras really liked girls...they just didn't like him. That's what he thought, anyway, until his friends pointed out the way that Becky Sanders and her friends spent break and lunchtime huddled together across the cafeteria, staring at him like he was on the menu.
He used magic to get the nerve up to talk to her, and with a few squeaky compliments he managed to win her over and ask her to eat lunch with him at school the next day.
They were together for three days when they kissed for the first time.
Neither one of them knew what they were doing, but it came to them pretty quickly. The warm press of closed mouths was nice, but then she sighed a little and he leaned in reflexively...and the way their lips met was incredible. The new experience was enhanced and enriched not only in its novelty, but by the fact that they were pretty sure they were getting it right.
They were together for a whole month before she broke up with him for Craig Nelson, but he never forgot his first meeting of love and magic in that one amazing kiss.
* * * * *
6) He was fourteen when he collapsed on the basketball court with stomach cramps. Luckily, Albert Gray had an older brother with a car, and he got to the hospital in time. The appendectomy passed by in a haze of drugs and pain, but the recovery was slow and painful...a week of hell on earth he'd never forget.
"You're a lucky boy, son. In the old days, appendicitis would have killed you."
He wouldn't understand until years later why he was plagued with nightmares about his own death for the next two months.
* * * * *
7) "You're going to UNLV."
"I'm going to UCLA!" Seventeen year old Tommy protested, helpless with impotent fury at his mother's opposition. "What the hell is wrong with goin' to school outta state?"
"One, we agreed you were staying close to home. Two? UNLV has an excellent athletics program, and you're on an athletic scholarship!!"
"So what, all I'm good enough to be is a stupid jock?!?!" he snapped, hardly believing his own ears. It was like he was standing outside of himself, listening to some other dude argue with his mom about where he was going to college.
"Moro, I never said that..."
"Yeah, that's exactly what you're sayin'." he shot back viciously. "I know you ain't happy that I'm not your little clone, but art's what I'm good at, and this is a golden opportunity to get a solid degree in one of the best places in the world to find a job! This ain't classical shit like Italy or France, this is commercial art! I could make a solid living and be doin' something I love! And you know what? That's exactly what I am gonna do!"
"Thomas Gregory Karras..."
"Forget it! I'm submitting the application tomorrow and you can't fuckin' stop me!!"
Stalking out of the kitchen, he stopped dead in the hall when his father stepped into his path.
"You'll apologize to your mother later, Tom Tom."
Gulping, he nodded meekly. "Yes, sir."
"And for the record? You're staying with my friend Mack's nephew when you go out there...so I know you'll be safe."
His heart swelled when he realized he'd just gotten his father's blessing. "No shit?"
"No shit." He paused, then grinned and nodded towards the bathroom. "You can go throw up now."
Tommy nodded hastily and bolted for the toilet, where his nervous stomach could finally empty itself of his fear...and his lunch.
Tommy Karras
Original Character
They were pretty pictures, and Poppa's fingers made them dance like magic.
"Poppa? Wha's dat?"
Poppa stopped making the cards dance, his gaze down and his face serious, unfamiliar. Tommy rarely saw Poppa that serious unless he was angry...
Then he smiled and became Tommy's Poppa again, the moment passing as he spread the cards and showed him the pretty pictures on them. He could count numbers up to ten, over and over again in red and black. The pictures were strange and fascinating, with letters he only sort of remembered because they weren't in the order of the ABC song...
"These are playing cards, Tom Tom...and you know? I think you're a big enough boy to see your first magic trick. Would you like that?"
Curious about this thing called 'magic' and the strange, delightfully secret way Poppa whispered about it, Tommy nodded and climbed into Poppa's lap to watch.
2) Like any self-respecting six year old boy, Tommy Karras hated girls.
Girls were a huge pain in the butt. They were loud, they cried a lot, and they were always tormenting him. Staring, trying to kiss him, pushing him in the dirt...girls were mean, and more trouble than they were worth.
Still, he was never mean to girls. They were people, too...and really, Tommy wasn't mean to anyone. He was too scared to be mean...unless someone needed his help.
That was why he ran halfway across the playground when he saw three of the biggest boys in class picking on Bela Sullivan. Pops always said that only bad men hurt girls, and Tommy was a good man just like his Pops.
Even if helping got him a bloody nose from Timmy Pascal and a trip to the principal's office and a lecture from Momma and his very first black rain cloud on his behavior chart from Miss Katona instead of a gold star.
Pops told him he did good, his cousin Carbone punched out Timmy Pascal the next day...and most importantly, Bela Sullivan said thank you.
And made sure none of the other girls in his class ever tried to kiss him again.
3) He was eight years old when Momma cried for three days and Pops stopped smiling and above all, stopped doing magic tricks for him. He was alarmed, until he overheard his parents having a conversation that only deepened his confusion...
Tommy wanted answers...so he got his Uncle Yousef (who wasn't really his uncle and just spent an awful lot of time with his Aunt Zephyr) to take him to the 6th Street library.
He spent an entire day searching book after book for things he couldn't ask an adult. There was nothing that told him anything, so finally he had to ask a librarian, after three hours, where he could find the books on how babies were born.
The books he needed were in the children's section, but the answers he sought weren't. With the librarian's kind help, he ventured out into other sections of the library where he was able to figure out how a mommy could 'lose' a baby that hadn't even been born yet.
When Uncle Yousef picked him up and took him home, he hugged Momma and Pops both without telling them why, and from that night on always knelt a couple extra seconds in silence when he finished his bedtime prayers.
He didn't want to make his parents sad by telling them by praying out loud for the little brother or sister that nobody got to meet.
4)In all his ten years of life, Tommy had never seen so many lights in one place, not even in Manhattan.
He didn't understand at first why Pop was so excited to drive down some stupid street after dark, but when they came to Las Vegas Boulevard...Tommy finally understood why The Strip was unlike any other place in the whole world.
It was like a giant carnival, or some kind of magic that made it as bright as daytime. There were real life magicians here, too, all over the place. Tommy even recognized a couple of casinos where they performed, including...
"Pop! POP!! It's the Frontier! Didja see that?" he exploded suddenly, straining against his seatbelt to try and get a better view out the window.
"Thomas Gregory Karras, sit down in your seat!!"
"Tom Tom, listen to your mother...I see it. They're in there right now, doing a show! Can you imagine?"
He could imagine...and he did as his parents started arguing in Greek again, the way they always did when Momma heard them talking about magic. Somewhere inside the Frontier, Siegfried and Roy were doing real magic with wild tigers. The very idea of it made him quiver with excitement, only worse. Squirming in his seat, bouncing his heels against the floorboards, Tommy could actually feel the magic inside of him. Mom would tell him to be reasonable, but he knew it was true.
Tommy missed his friends in Brooklyn...but maybe moving to Las Vegas wasn't so bad after all.
5) Like any self-respecting thirteen year old boy, Tommy Karras really liked girls...they just didn't like him. That's what he thought, anyway, until his friends pointed out the way that Becky Sanders and her friends spent break and lunchtime huddled together across the cafeteria, staring at him like he was on the menu.
He used magic to get the nerve up to talk to her, and with a few squeaky compliments he managed to win her over and ask her to eat lunch with him at school the next day.
They were together for three days when they kissed for the first time.
Neither one of them knew what they were doing, but it came to them pretty quickly. The warm press of closed mouths was nice, but then she sighed a little and he leaned in reflexively...and the way their lips met was incredible. The new experience was enhanced and enriched not only in its novelty, but by the fact that they were pretty sure they were getting it right.
They were together for a whole month before she broke up with him for Craig Nelson, but he never forgot his first meeting of love and magic in that one amazing kiss.
6) He was fourteen when he collapsed on the basketball court with stomach cramps. Luckily, Albert Gray had an older brother with a car, and he got to the hospital in time. The appendectomy passed by in a haze of drugs and pain, but the recovery was slow and painful...a week of hell on earth he'd never forget.
"You're a lucky boy, son. In the old days, appendicitis would have killed you."
He wouldn't understand until years later why he was plagued with nightmares about his own death for the next two months.
7) "You're going to UNLV."
"I'm going to UCLA!" Seventeen year old Tommy protested, helpless with impotent fury at his mother's opposition. "What the hell is wrong with goin' to school outta state?"
"One, we agreed you were staying close to home. Two? UNLV has an excellent athletics program, and you're on an athletic scholarship!!"
"So what, all I'm good enough to be is a stupid jock?!?!" he snapped, hardly believing his own ears. It was like he was standing outside of himself, listening to some other dude argue with his mom about where he was going to college.
"Moro, I never said that..."
"Yeah, that's exactly what you're sayin'." he shot back viciously. "I know you ain't happy that I'm not your little clone, but art's what I'm good at, and this is a golden opportunity to get a solid degree in one of the best places in the world to find a job! This ain't classical shit like Italy or France, this is commercial art! I could make a solid living and be doin' something I love! And you know what? That's exactly what I am gonna do!"
"Thomas Gregory Karras..."
"Forget it! I'm submitting the application tomorrow and you can't fuckin' stop me!!"
Stalking out of the kitchen, he stopped dead in the hall when his father stepped into his path.
"You'll apologize to your mother later, Tom Tom."
Gulping, he nodded meekly. "Yes, sir."
"And for the record? You're staying with my friend Mack's nephew when you go out there...so I know you'll be safe."
His heart swelled when he realized he'd just gotten his father's blessing. "No shit?"
"No shit." He paused, then grinned and nodded towards the bathroom. "You can go throw up now."
Tommy nodded hastily and bolted for the toilet, where his nervous stomach could finally empty itself of his fear...and his lunch.
Tommy Karras
Original Character
