With Help from Michael O'Leary Pt. 03

The odd behavior troubled Michael and he asked his doctor about it. His doctor told him to get permission from Ralphie's parents to bring him in for an examination, but Michael did not feel comfortable asking Big Ralphie if he could bring his son to the doctor for a physical examination. Fortunately, the habit disappeared when Little Ralphie showed an interest in girls.

Little Ralphie adopted Michael as his foster father and Michael accepted the role with honor. He hoped to save him from the streets and from the fate of the lack of morals, principles, manners, ideals, goals, and standards that his parents failed to foster in him. Because he was so small, he looked younger than his age. At almost 16-years-old when Michael met him, he looked 9-years-old. Those who did not know that he was Big Ralphie's son thought Michael was his father.

Michael had a relatively happy childhood and wanted Little Ralphie to have the same, hoping, he too, one day, would look back at his childhood with fond memories. He took Little Ralphie to Red Sox's baseball games at Fenway Park, Celtics basketball and Bruins hockey games at the Fleet Center, and Patriots football games at Gillette Stadium, as well as exposing him to reluctant Saturday excursions to the Museum of Science and the Museum of Fine Arts, and church for Sunday Mass. He took Little Ralphie to Wrestle Mania once, but the violence and sexuality so overwhelmed Michael that he never did that, again.

During one of the matches, one of the wrestles knocked down a member of the audience who had stepped into the ring. In hindsight, she was probably part of the show, but when he picked the woman up, spun her around, and threw her down on the mat, her short skirt ended up around her waist exposing her panties during which time she, supposedly unconscious lay motionless on the mat. Another woman who was sitting next to the woman who ran up to the wrestling ring, entered behind her friend hoping to save her. The wrestler tried to grab her to give her the same over the head spinning ride but she pulled away from his grasp ripping off her top and exposing her naked breasts to the audience. This, Michael felt, was not an appropriate show to bring young children and to expose them to this kind of behavior at the expense of women.

Over the years, Michael listened to Little Ralphie's endless enthusiasm about the features of this bicycle or that motorcycle or this computer or that car, which he was forever saving to buy. Now, Little Ralphie searched the Internet for scholarships to help him defray his college tuition expenses.

He always contributed to Little Ralphie's savings whenever he fell short of reaching his goal. Like anyone else, Michael liked money, but he enjoyed using the money that he had saved to help others. What good was the money to anyone if it sat in an inactive account collecting interest? He witnessed for himself at the bank that the ones with the most money were the least kind. The sour faces of the tight wads became too stiff to smile. They excluded everyone and everything that interfered with their accumulation of money.

Little Ralphie became a fixture in Michael's life until the day that he left to attend the University of Massachusetts. Michael could not be more proud of him if he was his son.