Won't You Love Me?

CHAPTER ONE

Name: Joseph Levitch (Jerry Lewis)

Year: 1932

Age: 6

Mom's gone again...Dad hasn't been here for days...and I'm all alone. I shoot up from the kitchen table, flinching as the screeching of the chair against the tile breaks the deafening silence. I stand stock still in the middle of the dimly lit kitchen, blood pounding in my ears, until a torrent of emotions abruptly washes over me, and my legs begin moving. My bare feet pound against the cold tile and then the hardwood floors of the hallway as I run out of the apartment and into the frigid night air.

The surprising colors of bright yellow and orange surrounding me like a cloud as they hang above me on trees and fall to the sidewalk are almost beautiful...they probably would have been if it weren't for the terrifying, indescribable panic that keeps my feet moving.

"Mommy..." I sob as I hurry past dishevelled men sprawled in the street, sleeping off more whiskey than they could afford, and stray men and women walking to a late night cocktail party. Any one of them could have been President Hoover for all I care; I can only think about the mounting fear that I would never see Mommy again. I'm alone, and I'm scared.

As I turn the corner, an offensive brightness cuts through the tears blurring my vision, and the familiar, sweet, sweet sound of the piano that my mom always plays makes me cut into the bar to my left. The hope that swells within me is almost overtaken by the raucous laughing, overwhelming reek of cigar smoke, and the feeling of being small and lost. But when I glimpse her slender fingers moving across the keys like they're creatures independent of her control, I cry out and maneuver between the tables until I am gazing up at her with glassy eyes and a trembling lower lip.

When she finally sees me, a yelp escapes her lips, and she grabs my hand hurriedly to lead me out of the bar. She stops only to tell an angry-looking man in a tweed suit where she's going, and then we are out in the biting wind again. She is walking so quickly, and her grip on my hand so tight, that I have to run to keep up.

Finally mom comes to a halt, and I hear her sob.

"Don't cry, mommy, please! I didn't mean anything, I didn't know where you went! I was all by myself! Please, mommy!" I cry out in panic, tugging on her hand so she would turn to look at me. I don't want her to be mad.

"Oh, Joey, I'm sorry." Mom turns around to face me with eyes glistening, and she kneels down to wrap her arms around me in a momentary embrace. She kisses my forehead tenderly, and I close my eyes for what feels like an eternity. She loves me. She truly cares for me. What a wonderful feeling.

6 Months Later

"Honey, we've got to leave now or we won't be back in time for rehearsals!" Mom calls out cheerily, brushing her dark hair in the mirror as dad emerges from the bathroom in his swim trunks. I don't know why she tries to look so nice when she's only going to get all wet in a minute or so. I finish unpacking my clothes and putting them in the top drawer of the nightstand by the bed, and smile. This time unpacking my clothes doesn't mean I'm about to stay at Aunt Rose's or someone else's house. I'm with mom and dad now.

Finally we get around to leaving for the pool, and I can hardly keep from skipping through the halls, I'm just so excited. What a place! I feel like I'm in a dream as we pass the almost shockingly blue floors and stark red couches of the lobby, and I remember seeing the outside of the President's Hotel for the first time, with it reaching so high and far that I felt like I was an ant, but at the same time I knew I wanted to live somewhere like that someday.

We end up going swimming for about an hour, and that's fun and all, but I just can't wait to see mom and dad in rehearsals-I think secretly they can't wait to be in rehearsals, either.