Joe Kennedy’s Bidding

*Disclaimer: This is a work of FICTION! No part of it is true, although it uses the real names of historical characters. NONE of it should be taken as fact or actual events.

Few people know this about John Fitzgerald Kennedy, but after the war and before he became president, he was the protagonist of an incident at a very exclusive little department store in Queens, New York.

John was short on temper that day. He had disagreed with his father, Joe, regarding a matter of special importance to him. Furthermore, his brothers hadn’t really backed him up, which always put John on edge. The oldest of the Kennedy clan had been killed in the war. This morning, Joe had informed John he was looking at him to more or less occupy Joe Jr’s place. John was not at all thrilled at the prospect.

As he walked into the store he had nothing like a smile on his face. While usually he reserved a warm welcome for everyone he met, today he was fuming. He was looking to buy what he’d been sent to buy (he didn’t even want to leave the house) and get out of there. Over and over he repeated in his head that whatever it was that his father had said about humility was bullshit. Fuck humility, he wished that they’d just sent one of the many maids to buy the stupid thing. A grown man still taking orders from his father, can you believe it? Well, it was just a small way to show him who was really in charge.

There was a young boy helping out around the store, he couldn’t have been older than seventeen. He kept fumbling about and couldn’t find what John was looking for. Impatient and furious, John hurried him up. The kid got more nervous. Nobody had ever asked for that particular item because, first of all, it was ridiculously expensive, and second of all, it was extremely rare.

There were only two of them in New York at the time, in fact, it being so rare was the reason Joe had sent John to go buy it in the first place. One of the few remaining glass ornaments originally part of a collection that dated back almost a hundred years.

This store, known only to those who know about exclusive stores, carried exactly one of them. The other six were spread across the United States, and only one other was in New York. The young kid knew that what he was looking for was precious. Moreover, he had a pretty good idea who John was and the combined pressure could barely let him breathe, let alone think clearly. When he’d finally found the delicate glass heirloom he began walking back to John as carefully as he could. John, not wanting to spend one more second in the place, hurried the kid along. When he was almost in front of his client, the kid tripped and fell on his face. The heirloom broke into a million pieces.

John saw the kid’s face on the floor. Horror washed over it, almost like the kind he’d seen during the war. The kid would have to work a thousand life times to pay that back, but all John could think of was his own white hot rage. Now he’d have to spend even longer, humiliated, running around the city to do his father’s bidding. Without thinking, the honorable John Fitzgerald Kennedy, kicked the kid in the face while he was on the floor. Then he slowly turned over to the shocked owner of the store and demanded the kid be fired immediatly. The old man mumbled something about the kid being his son and John quickly threatened him. Still shocked, he walked over his own kid bleeding on the floor and opened the door for Mr. Kennedy. He promised he’d be personally responsible for the broken item and they’d find some way to pay them back for the trouble.

Having let off a little steam, John got into his limousine and drove around for a few hours looking for the next shop.

*Disclaimer: This is a work of FICTION! No part of it is true, although it uses the real names of historical characters. NONE of it should be taken as fact or actual events.