No one who knows how to play people would ever have trusted him.
He was phonier than a $3 bill (unless you are in the Bahamas - see photo above - I have a lot of weird stuff, eh?). The guy was 6'-4", about 210 lbs of good-looking man (so you know I'm not talking about myself). His unblemished dark-chocolate skin and his neatly trimmed short locks were probably enough to fool many a person. If his looks didn't do it, his glad-handing talk probably would.
"Hey! How are ya? Good to see ya! I haven't seen you in a long time. Watcha been doing with yourself?" was all said in a quick, fluid breath.
I guess he could sense if more was needed or not. If it was, he would follow up his opening statements with: "You're looking good! Really great! Have you been working out or something?"
It should be noted that he really liked the ladies. Tell me... what woman wouldn't want to be flattered by a good-looking man. Hey, even if he isn't your cup of tea and prefer a little white milk in there, there was still something magnetic about Julius Johnson Magic Erving (not his real name) that would draw people to his side; to his way of thinking.
I suppose that if I ever had told him that I liked him but thought he was a bullshit artist, he would say how surprised and hurt he was by my accusation, after all he has the highest degree of respect for me. I could see him doing that (and I did see him say this to others)... turning the table on them to make them feel 'wrong' all the while wondering how he had been found out.
A word to the wise. You can't bullshit a bullshitter. You can, I suppose, but you'll never know who is actually winning.
He used to 'smarm' his way onto women. They loved it. Or so they said out loud. But in secret, they told me how they hated it. That it was all so much bullshit. But apparently, that hate was not enough to stop some from lending him money.
Somehow, he finagled a small loan from three female AETs of about ¥20,000 (Cdn $200) each. That's $600! A minor figure in the grand scheme of things, but still pretty good when not one of them had the guts to ask for their money back. It didn't matter - he never seemed to have any money anyways.
From an Australian barmaid he was dating in his home town, he borrowed the equivalent of ¥100,000 ($1,000 Cdn) and bought himself a used car. She never asked to be repaid, assuming he was a nice guy and would repay her when he was able - perhaps after his moral fibre transplant operation that he was going to have a week from last month.
At an AET gathering for all of the folk in four nearby provinces including Tochigi-ken, I was crawling around delivering messages to some jerk from the love of my life that week (Trish Pepper - just friends, but that was great, too), when I was set upon by the familiar: "Hey! How are ya? Good to see ya! I haven't seen you in a long time. Watcha been doing with yourself?"
He and another guy who was dating a gorgeous blonde AET I had my eye on (and escorted her dancing in Tokyo one weekend (never slept with, because we were friends)) sat and talked with each other and each had a shot of sake (Japanese rice wine). But what got me was when Julius Johnson Magic Erving toasted us with: "Here's to Tochigi-ken's three womanizers."
I was shocked. You could have knocked me over with a rock (no, really). I drank up because I was already too drunk to argue, but it stuck in my craw, though. And who makes toasts like that?!
Is that what people think about me here? Screw that! My friends knew better. I mean, I never used a woman for personal gain - just sex. And even then it was never my intention to just get sex... I know in my head and my heart that I always wanted more.
Everybody knew that Julius Johnson Magic Erving was happy. I knew, and excluding the odd chance greeting, I never went out of my way to talk to him. I just got a bad vibe from him.
Turns out the happiness was a facade. He was not as happy as everyone thought. Why? Because he suddenly skipped the country and headed back to the U.S.--Boston, I believe. But not before he sold everything in his apartment.
I may have mentioned this previously, but AETs on the JET Programme, are provided with a rental accommodation that is fully furnished by our respective city/town/hamlet board of educations. In others words, we don't own anything in the place unless we ourselves physically purchased it.
Julius Johnson Magic Erving sold the television, VCR (a machine people used before PVRs - personal video recorders), stereo system, cabinets, tables, chairs, sofa, futons, blankets, air-conditioning unit - everything!
And he left his board of education office with an international telephone bill of over ¥400,000. That's about $4,500.
While his board of education office wanted to pursue the matter across international boundaries and make him pay for his crimes, I was told (maybe it's rumour and innuendo - I'm repeating the story I was told here) that CLAIR (Council of Local Authorities for International Relations) asked them to not pursue the matter as it would not be good for the image of the JET Programme. It was thought that the media would kill us, and CLAIR would be out of a job.
His office reluctantly agreed, and the matter was hushed up. I still don't know if the office had to eat the loss, or whether CLAIR came to their aid for keeping their mouth shut. Whatever. That was the story I was told - and considering I got some of my data straight from some of the women who had lent him money as well as other Tochigi-ken AET leaders, I have no reason to doubt the truth of this story.
Who says crime doesn't pay?
Who says crime doesn't pay?
Somewhere still needing a loan,
Andrew Joseph
Today's title is rocked on by AC/DC: HIGHWAY TO HELL
PS: That other guy who drank with Julius Johnson Magic Erving and myself - he was more like me than our blog subject. I liked him. I just coveted his girlfriend. And anyways, I only went out with her as an escort after they had broken up. She called me up and asked me to go dancing with her in Tokyo - because she enjoyed my company, thought I was cute (!), and wanted the protection against - well, the rest of Japan. Plus she knew I could dance. She was a sweet girl - and yes, I would have slept with her - but the opportunity never presented itself. We paid our own way the entire weekend.
PPS: Not much was ever mentioned of Julius Johnson Magic Erving about a week after he left until now - 17 years later in 2010. It's a good thing I write stuff down.
PPPS: And no, I'm not telling you the blonde's name. Mostly because it eludes me at the moment. Crap. Why didn't I write that down?
