Description
With dark unruly hair styled into the quiff becoming popular with edgy young men and large mahogany-coloured eyes, at twenty-four Tommy Goldberg looks like a cross between a matinee idol and one of the proto-rock'n'roll musicians beginning to populate the underground music scene. There is some of his mother's olive complexion in his skin tone and he has sharp cheekbones and straight defined nose (at least, before it was broken) of his father. He is a little taller than average and powerfully built, with broad shoulders and strong legs and he can often be found wearing the navy blue overalls of occupation or else rolled-up jeans and a shirt over a t-shirt. When occasion requires it, he can force himself to put on a single-breasted grey suit and tie if necessary.
Personality
Quiet, passionate and intense, Tommy has the tendency to act without shame on his most strongly felt emotions but does not delve too deeply into their foundations. Of late, he has lost his direction and has found himself in a safe but discontent limbo fixing cars at his uncle's auto shop.
Equipment
He is never without a spanner and a schweizer offiziersmesser or swiss army knife. Often he carries a notebook- useful for jotting down parts for order or for the design of some new chassis or gearbox.
History
His mother, Effie Knowles, was killed when Tommy was four years old by a member of one of the old Italian gangs- the Seccharinis- that ruled huge swathes of New York in the 1920s and 30s. She had had the misfortune to have witnessed the murder of the leader of a rival gang. Tommy narrowly escaped and was hunted by the killers for fear that this four year old might reveal their identity. Rescued from crooked cops by Ben and Josephine Goldberg, two journalists who were investigating the murder, he was swiftly taken into hiding. Effie had been mistress to one of the playboy heirs to the mob empire, Adolpho Seccharini, though Tommy had had little contact with his probable father. Consequently, the man's brother- Francisco- helped the Goldbergs to conceal Tommy, wanting to take care of his nephew himself.
In fact, though Effie Knowles was dead by the time Ben Goldberg first met Tommy, the two had engaged in a drunken tryst several years ago whilst on breaks from their respective significant others. It was only when Jo Goldberg discovered her husband's name on the boy's birth certificate did an alternative story emerge. With Adolpho finally killed in a joint attempt to stop Tommy's pursuers once and for all, Francisco reluctantly gave up his claim on the boy, allowing the Goldberg's to adopt him though remaining a 'family friend'. Tommy has never been informed that his adoptive father may very well be his biological one too, though he integrated well with the other Goldberg siblings in his childhood.
Eager to escape New York until the fuss over Tommy's disappearance died down, the Goldberg's took their new son on an extended trip around Europe whilst working as freelancers. They only returned in 1938 and Tommy spent most of his formative years in Budapest, Cairo, Prague and London, being home-schooled or occasionally enrolled in local schools if they remained in one place long enough. He returned to the city of his birth when he was twelve years old and left school at eighteen, enlisting to fight in the final year of the war that raged in the countries of his upbringing. He joined the 7th Armoured Division and fought alongside the British in the Ardennes. Upon his return, rather than enrol at NYU as he had previously intended, he began work as a mechanic at Ben's brother-in-law's auto workshop and has remained there ever since.
