It Isn’t the Money I Mind

Spring, early 1950s. A middle-aged man, not so well dressed and balding, enters a city park in search of company. Following a circular path, he encounters the following: boys playing stickball; a young mother minding a baby carriage; an infant learning to walk; two kids playing checkers; and a little girl having trouble pushing her baby stroller. To the young mother, the man shows a newspaper clipping of a child star he says is his daughter—one who gives him no money from her big salary. To a few boys playing ball, the man shows a newspaper clipping of a promising boxer he used to manage—one whose contract he says he lost, along with the money that goes with it, to the Mob. Having completed his circle, the man leaves the park through a side entrance: the same one he used to enter the grounds.