Chapter 2
2
BENNY
“ D ad, listen, they brought you a problem to look at. That is respect for the don. Going behind your back or bitching about it would be an issue. This is how you wanna handle things. When can we meet with them and talk about this?”
He harrumphs. My dad used to be more reasonable than this. In the last couple years, he’s had some problems remembering and it’s made him mean as shit. I dragged him to the doctor a few months ago and went in with him. He lied about how bad the problem was and I told the truth. He was furious and didn’t talk to me for three weeks after that. Since then, Dad has doubled down on his archaic, my way or the highway attitude.
“I’m not gonna negotiate with these assholes, Benny. You talk it out like they got a say in the matter, and next thing you know they want a labor union and shit. The foot soldiers gotta know their place. If they don’t like the way the territory’s divided up, maybe they prove they can do more. Don’t come whine about it to my son like some little bitch,” he coughs and takes a drink from his glass. I know it’s not water, nine-thirty in the morning or not.
“I didn’t say give in to them. Hearing them out goes a long way with people. Listen to them, nod your head a couple times, tell them you hear what they’re saying, and you’ll get back to them with possible adjustments.”
“Is this what I paid tuition for? For you to come back to me with safe space woke bullshit vocabulary words?” he snorts.
“Yes. I made an A in Woke Bullshit Vocab, advanced level.” I say with a sigh, wondering if I have the worst blood pressure of any twenty-six-year-old in this city.
It’s taking a lot of self-control not to knock everything off his desk, grab him by his shiny polyester lapels and tell him to get the fuck out of my way and let me run things before he alienates all the lieutenants, and we end up with no organization.
He’s pissed off enough people in the last three years alone that it’s a testament to my managerial skills that we have the loyal staff we do. Because I practically follow him around like an apologetic nanny after a bad toddler, smoothing things over.
This pointless conversation is over. I shrug, throw out my paper coffee cup and tell him I’m taking off.
“Where you going?”
“Gino’s having a barbecue, celebrate the new baby and all. I said I’d bring the beer, so I better go ice some down. I’ll send them your regards.”
“Yeah, you do that. I’ll be here doing real work while you party with your cousins.”
I’m the fixer who’s going to buy beer on a Sunday morning to do damage control. When Gino invited us to his place and said it would be an honor to have the head of the family there, my dad looked him straight in the eye and said, “You got a wife? I thought you was gay. What happened to that skinny redheaded fella?”
“That’s Molly,” he said faintly and I think I died inside. I just cleared my throat and hoped we could breeze past the fact that my dad has all the charm of surprise raisins when you thought you had a chocolate chip cookie.
I hope a couple cases of beer will help smooth over my old man mistaking his nephew’s wife for a guy.
At Gino’s I hang out by the barbecue grill shooting the shit with the guys. The baby spits up all down her mom’s shoulder. Her sister takes the little one so Molly can go change.
“How’s she doing’?” I ask Molly’s sister.
“She’s adorable! She already gained a pound since they came home,” she beams.
“I mean Molly. She gettin’ enough sleep or you think they need a baby nurse for a couple weeks?”
“She’s tired as hell. If he don’t pull it together I’m gonna kick his ass,” she says, nodding at Gino.
I grab a beer and stop by Gino’s station at the grill. “How many Italian sausages you gonna eat?” he asks.
“Two. Quick question, bro. How long you think Molly’s gonna put up with your shit?” I ask.
“What the hell?” he says.
“You gotta do nighttime feedings. No excuses. She pushed a kid out for you. Let the woman sleep, bro,” I say, keeping my tone half joking.
“It isn’t like she’s ever gonna let me near her again,” he grumbles.
“What did you think was going to happen? You had a kid.”
“It’s like she changed so much, Benny,” he says. He looks gutted.
“How much time do you spend with the baby?” I ask.
“What? Like altogether?”
“In a day, how much?”
“I hold her when Mol has a shower or whatever. I hope she don’t wake up when I’m holding her cause she’s just gonna cry.”
“You nervous about dropping her?”
“She’s so little! You see her? Them fingernails are the tiniest little thing I ever saw. Jesus, Benny, what if I go to pick up my phone and don’t hold on to her real good and she slips—” He sounds anguished.
I clap him on the shoulder, “You were the star running back when we went to state. You know how to hold onto a football. You got this, man.”
“Shit, I guess you’re right. I fucked up, huh?”
“You better get her some flowers. Make a mushy speech when we eat.”
“You think so?”
“If I was you, you bet your ass I’d be reading poetry to the woman that had my baby. Nothing would be too much or too embarrassing.” I say.
“You man the grill. I’m gonna go check on my wife. Tell her she’s doing a great job.”
I serve up the meat and make sure everyone’s fed until Gino comes back. I sit down to cool off in the shade and Gino’s mom sits by me.
“How are you doing? I bet you can’t get enough of that grandbaby,” I say.
“I hoped somebody would give him a kick in the ass before I had to,” she shakes her head.
“Gino? He’ll be okay. He just needed to get his head out of his ass,” I say.
“You can say that again. He went in and told Molly he wants to take her out to dinner tomorrow night and asked me to keep the baby. I’m excited to keep her, but mainly seeing Molly cry because she was so happy for the attention nearly did me in right there.”
“Well take it easy. Don’t let the stress get to you. We all need you around.”
“I don’t know what would’ve happened with them if you didn’t step in. Thank God we got someone with sense at the head of this family,” she says.
“Ah, that’s nice of you, Aunt Virginia, but my dad’s still the head of the family.”
“For what, another month? I know my brother, Benny. He ain’t been himself for years. We got too much riding on this organization to protect his ego. You know what I’m sayin’?”
I keep my expression affable. She wants me to step in and take over. She also knows my dad will hang on until he’s forced out, and that sure as shit won’t be pretty. Very few people know he’s struggling, and most people just assume he’s a huge asshole.
Any rumor of instability in the organization would give an opening for a power grab by the Ricco family. They’re a smaller organization but ambitious. We’ve been in a state of armed neutrality without aggression for over a decade.
“I’m not sure what you’re saying, Aunt Gin. Can you help me out here?” I say.
“Save it for somebody that hasn’t known you since you were a kid. I know that shit eating grin.” She takes another drag off her cigarette and shakes her head.
“I don’t doubt you know my shit-eating grin when you see it, but I don’t know what it has to do with Dad. He is fit as a fiddle and still mean as shit, just like always,” I say with a chuckle I hope sounds affectionate.
“I’m the first one to say he’s been mean since he was born. But he was always so smart. It breaks my heart to see him go downhill. A couple weeks ago I called to tell him I was getting flowers for our parents’ monument, and he acted like he had no idea what I was talking about.”
“You know how he gets when he’s busy. Laser focused on one thing, and everyone else can go to hell,” I say smoothly. She fixes that gimlet eye on me, shrugs.
“Maybe so. Let me know if I can help. It would piss him off, but I’d do it anyway.”
“Offering to help has pissed him off as long as I can remember.” I say.
“You should’ve seen him as a kid. Nobody could tell him anything. Had to learn the hard way and be independent. Like somebody else I know,” she said wryly.
“I guess I got that from him.”
“That’s right. Stubborn as a mule. But you got your mama’s big heart, God rest her soul.” Aunt Gin crosses herself. I nod respectfully and don’t point out that she and my mom fought like rivals on a drag show when I was a kid.
My phone rings and I excuse myself to take the call. After that I go admire the sleeping baby, clap Gino on the back and let Molly know the night nurse I hired them starts tomorrow.