Goldie

Goldie—whose nametag read BURT D. but who was universally known by his gold tooth and his Spanish surname de Oro, meaning "gold"—was the smallest of the doormen at Theo's building on East Fifty-Seventh Street. A wan, thin, lively little guy, light-skinned Puerto Rican and a former featherweight boxer, he was pouchy in the face from drinking and sometimes turned up on the night shift smelling of J&B, but he remained wiry, muscular, and quick, always kidding around, having a cigarette break on the corner, shifting from foot to foot and blowing on his white-gloved hands when it was cold, telling jokes in Spanish and cracking the other doormen up.

Identity and Role in Theo's Childhood

Goldie was a fixture of Theo's early life, a man who adored Theo's mother, Audrey Decker. On the last morning of her life, April 10th, Goldie was on duty outside the building, walking backwards down Fifty-Seventh with his arm up, whistling for a taxi. He noticed Audrey looked exhausted and her hands were shaky as she re-tied her scarf, and he glanced at Theo with an air of slight disapproval, aware of the tension between mother and son. He engaged Audrey in easy conversation about the weather, complaining about the spring damp and declaring himself a "tropical bird" who loved the heat, and he tried to give her an umbrella from the lost-and-found can by the fireplace before she got into the cab. After he shut the taxi door, he leaned down and knocked on the window, saying, "You have a blessed day."

The Aftermath of the Explosion

In the chaotic aftermath of the museum bombing that killed Audrey, Goldie was one of the few constants in Theo's shattered world. When Theo returned to the building years later, after his father's death and his flight from Las Vegas, he found the building had been gutted and sold for upscale condos. The art-deco doors were gone, and in place of the cool dim lobby gaped a cavern of gravel and concrete. The loss of this last touchstone—the familiar faces, the glad greetings of "hey manito!"—hit Theo hard, as he realized he would never be able to thank Goldie and Jose for the money they had given him, or tell them his father had died.

The Gift of Money and the Final Farewell

On the day Theo left New York for Las Vegas with his father and Xandra, Goldie intercepted him in the lobby. He hugged Theo awkwardly, saying, "My God, what a thing." He then produced a gigantic wad of cash, explaining that Theo's mother had once paid for a computer for Goldie's son when the delivery men were about to haul it away. "She saw what was happening, and she opened her bag and she took out her checkbook," Goldie said. "She said to me, 'Goldie, I know your son needs this computer for his schoolwork. Please let me do this thing for you, my friend, and you pay me when you can.'" Jose, standing nearby, nodded fiercely, saying, "That's your mother that did that. She cared about people you know?" Goldie and Jose warned Theo not to tell anyone about the money, and Goldie helped him retrieve his suitcase from the package room, where it had been kept off the books to protect it from being claimed by someone else. Goldie hailed a cab for Theo, slapped the roof, and said, "Good luck, man. See you around. God bless."