The day after the funeral I woke up to a call at 6 a.m. from my Uncle Luca. He let me know that his son, Angelo was going to take me along with him all day and show me the ropes. If I did alright, he would think about bringing me into the crew for real. I was nervous and excited at the same time to see what they had in store for me.
Waking up so early was an unfamiliar concept. Even the sun was still sleeping in. I dragged myself out of bed and went to the bathroom to get ready for the day. My reflection in the bathroom mirror looked like a zombie, which matched how I felt. I decided to take a quick shower. Nothing wakes you up quite like a blast of ice-cold water.
After that, I went to my closet and picked out the least wrinkly clothes I could find. One wants to look their best on their first day joining a gang. Those articles I’d read on how to pass interviews said to dress for the job that you want, so eventually I settled on a red Adidas tracksuit with a white undershirt. Sleek, timeless, and comfortable; the perfect combination for the fashion-conscious criminal. I didn’t have a gold chain yet to complete the look, but it was better than nothing.
My bedroom door barely made a sound when I closed it softly behind me. I tip-toed down the staircase, trying my best not to wake up my mom. She didn’t know about this “audition” I was doing for Uncle Luca and I thought it would be for the best if I kept her out of the loop on this for as long as possible.
My cousin Angelo was already waiting in front of the house in his Dodge Charger when I got outside. He burst out laughing when I opened the passenger side door.
Angelo Moretti Mafia Soldier, Moretti Family
“Bro, what the hell are you wearing?” he said between laughs.
I slid into the seat and closed the door. “What? It’s just a tracksuit.”
“You look like an extra from The Sopranos.”
“Tony Soprano was a very successful man, so I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“It’s supposed to be eighty degrees today. Why would you wear a full tracksuit? You’re gonna pass out.”
I unzipped the jacket and flung it into the back seat. “Alright, so what are we doing and why’d we have to get up so early? I didn’t even have time to eat breakfast.”
“We can get something to eat on the way,” He said, ignoring my questions. The car roared to life as he turned the key to the ignition.
Angelo was three years older than me but he’d always been like a brother to me. We chatted and got caught up on what was new in each other’s lives as we cruised the highway. I found out that Angelo had gotten back together with his on-again-off-again girlfriend of the past four years, Bianca. He felt like things were different this time and that they might even get married. I tried my best to be supportive even though I’d seen the two of them go through this cycle countless times before.
Before long Angelo parked the car in the parking lot of Jimmy’s Eastside Diner. It was a stereotypical old-school, no-frills diner. Visually, the place didn’t seem all that impressive but I’d eaten there before a few times and the food was always great. We walked inside and the sweet smell of pancakes and maple syrup wafted into my nostrils. It was still really early in the morning, so there weren’t many other customers eating there yet. Angelo led me to a booth near the back and took the seat that was facing the door. A few moments later, a cute brunette waitress walked over to our booth.
“Hi, my name is Debbie and I’ll be your server for today,” she said, handing us a couple of menus. “I’ll give you a couple of minutes to look over the menu and be back with you soon.”
Angelo handed his menu right back to her. “That’s alright, I already know what I want. I’ll have a toasted bagel and a cup of coffee. Black.”
I looked over the menu quickly. “And I’ll have a cheese omelette with hash browns, toast, and some bacon. Oh, and hot chocolate if you’ve got it. With whipped cream on top.”
Angelo raised an eyebrow and I just grinned. I never held back when I knew that someone else was paying for my meal.
“Great! Your food will be out in a jiffy,” Debbie smiled. She picked up my menu and headed towards the kitchen.
Angelo waited until she was out of earshot before he started talking. “There’s this quick little errand that I need to take care of and you’re gonna be my backup. We should be in and out of there in less than five minutes. No big deal. But I have to lay out some ground rules before we go.”
“What exactly is this errand?” I said. “And since when do you care about following rules?’
“Since I got talked into babysitting my goofy cousin. Now shut up for a second and listen,” He said. “The first rule is that you do whatever I tell you to do.”
I nodded. “Fine. What’s the second rule.”
“The second rule is that you do whatever I tell you to do. No questions and no talking back.”
“Sir, yes, sir!” I said, giving him a sarcastic army salute.
Angelo was not amused. “I’m serious, Nico. I don’t want this thing going sideways.”
“I get it. You’re the boss,” I said. “Is there anything else?”
“Yeah, the third and probably most important rule; Don’t show any signs of weakness. No matter how bad things get, don’t let anyone know that it’s getting to you. You need to seem like everything is going according to your plan.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Um, how bad are things going to get? You still haven’t told me what we’re doing.”
“What’s rule number one?”
“Do whatever you tell me to do. No questions and no talking back.”
“Good. You’re learning,” He smirked.
Debbie came back a few minutes later with the food. My omelette tasted like it was crafted by the gods themselves. It was golden and fluffy with just the right amount of seasoning. The cheese melted in my mouth like butter. And don’t even get me started on the hash browns. Whoever they had working back in the kitchen deserved a raise. I scarfed down my food and washed it down with a mug of sweet hot chocolate with hints of cinnamon in it. Angelo rapped his fingers on the table impatiently as I wiped my mouth with a napkin.
He got out of the booth and left some cash on the table. “Are you done? Let’s get out of here already.”
I waved goodbye to the waitress and followed Angelo out of the diner. It looked much brighter outside than it had when I’d first woken up. We hopped in his car and he peeled out of the parking lot. I was surprised when he only drove a couple of blocks away before parking the car. I looked around, but it didn’t seem like we were anywhere special. It was an average neighborhood and the house that we parked in front of was pretty nondescript. It was a white one-story house with a neatly mowed front lawn. The paint on the house was a bit faded, but other than that it looked decent. Nothing to write home about though.
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Angela turned to face me. “Okay, here’s the deal. The jerkoff who lives here borrowed five grand from us and hasn’t paid up. I’m gonna knock on the front door while you stand at the back door and look tough. Don’t let him get away.”
“Shouldn’t I at least have a weapon or something?” I said.
“Relax,” Angelo snorted. “This guy is harmless. You’ll be fine.”
Somehow that didn’t do much to reassure me. I hopped out of the car and looked around. We were the only two people on the block. Angelo walked up to the front door while I hurried around to the back.
Angelo banged on the door three times. He waited a couple of seconds but there was no reply. Angelo banged on the door a little louder and rang the doorbell. I saw the lights come on inside the house. There was a pause and then I heard footsteps hurrying to the back door. The locks clicked and the door swung open, bringing me face to face with a disheveled middle-aged blonde man wearing a ratty old robe. I didn’t know if it was him or the robe, but something smelled bad. His eyes were bugging out of his head when he saw me.
I crossed my arms and tried my best to look intimidating. “Get back in the house. Now.”
The man’s eyes darted back and forth. I could tell that he was debating whether or not he could overpower me. It seemed like a bad idea to give him time to make a decision.
“Sorry about this,” I said as I swung my leg back.
I kicked him in the nuts as hard as I could. The color drained from his face and he dropped to the ground like a piano in a classic cartoon. He cried out in agony. I felt bad about doing it, but it was the only thing I could think of to keep him from escaping.
“You wouldn’t want to wake your neighbors, would you? Let’s take this inside,” I said.
I covered his mouth with my hand to keep him from making too much noise and dragged him back into the house. While he struggled to get back on his feet, I locked the door so he couldn’t try to get away again. The man staggered in front of me like a drunk as I herded him towards the front door. He opened it and we were greeted by Angelo’s scowling face.
“Ryan, you weren’t trying to skip out on me, were you?” Angelo said as he locked the door behind him.
“Oh, hi. G-good to see you, Angelo,” Ryan said. “Of course not. I didn’t know that you were coming over.”
“How could you have known? You’ve been ducking me for the past two weeks.”
“You’ve been trying to get in touch with me? That’s weird. I haven’t gotten any calls from you or anything, man. Are you sure that you have the right number?”
“Cut the crap. I’m a busy guy and I’ve got other shit I’d rather be doing. Where’s the money?”
Ryan scrambled over to a denim jacket that was draped over a chair and fished out his wallet. His hand was shaking as he handed it over to Angelo. “T-this is all I have right now, but I swear I’ll pay back the rest soon.”
Angelo pulled out the bills from the wallet and quickly counted them. “A hundred bucks? Quit holding out on me. I know you have more than that.”
“I swear that’s all the money I have right now,” Ryan said.
Angelo walked over to the coffee table in the living room and picked up a book. It was a big hardcover book with a picture of an electric guitar player on the front.
“The Complete History of Rock & Roll,” Angelo read from the cover. “Is this any good?”
“I feel like it doesn’t go into enough detail about some of the lesser-known subgenres, but overall it’s a great read,” Ryan said. “I like it.”
“Yeah?” Angelo said. Without warning, he smacked Ryan across the face with the book. Blood splurted from Ryan’s nose like a geyser and he collapsed onto the ground for the second time that morning. His hand rose to his face in disbelief.
“How do ya like that?” Angelo snarled. He whacked him with the book a couple more times. “How do ya like that, motherfucker?!”
“I don’t have any more money!” Ryan yelled, blood flowing into his mouth. “How many times do I have to say it?”
“That’s interesting because I heard from a reliable source that you were blabbing at Gina’s Bar last night about how you’d just scored big at the racetrack,” Angelo said.
Ryan’s eyes widened and I could practically hear the gears in his head turning as he tried to figure out his next lie. Christ, this guy had the worst poker face I’d ever seen.
“Oh, thaaat money,” He laughed nervously. “I f-forgot all about it. Sorry, I’ll just go to my room and get it.”
“Nice try,” Angelo sneered. He looked over at me. “You stay here and don’t let him out of your sight. I’ll get the money from his room. If this prick gives you any trouble, feel free to slap him around.”
I nodded. He walked away, leaving me alone with Ryan. My heart was beating like a coke fiend. I knew that I’d asked to be part of the crew, but this was one hell of an orientation. Everything was moving at a mile a minute and I’d barely had any time to think about how messed up the situation was until now. Sure this guy owed money and seemed to be a compulsive liar, but it didn’t feel great to be an accessory to his assault. His face looked like he’d just gone three rounds in the boxing ring with Mike Tyson. I could hear Angelo throwing things around in the other room
Tears streamed down Ryan’s face as he looked up at me. “Please, just let me go,” he whispered. “I’ve got to get away from that psycho. Just let me go.”
There was no chance of that happening. I heard Angelo walking into the room and I punched Ryan in the face. “Shut up.”
Angelo had a stack of cash in his hands but he still didn’t look happy. He stuffed the cash in his pocket before hauling Ryan back up to his feet and staring him down. “That was only three grand. Where’s the rest of the money? I swear to god I’m not gonna ask you again.”
“That was all I had,” Ryan wept.
“Okay, it looks like we’re doing this the hard way,” Angelo said. He threw Ryan back on the ground and pinned his arm down. “Nico, stomp on his hand. Maybe that’ll jog his memory.”
I scrunched up my face. “Don’t you think he’s had enough already?”
“He needs to learn that you don’t mess with the Morettis!”
I looked at Ryan’s bruised and bloodied face. “I think you got your point across.”
Angelo glared at me. “If you don’t think you can handle this, you can walk away right now.”
“That’s not it. He keeps on insisting that he doesn’t have any more money, so why don’t we just take some of his stuff that looks valuable? Like that computer,” I said, pointing to the fancy gaming PC in the corner of the room. “I just don’t see the point of crippling the guy.”
Angelo stared at the trembling man on the ground for a long time before standing up again. “Fine. It looks like it’s your lucky day, asshole. Help me take the computer to the car before I change my mind. And the TV too.”
Ryan nodded his head and scurried over to disconnect the computer and its two monitors. Angelo followed close behind him, blooded book in hand. Ryan was wheezing by the time he finished loading the equipment into the back seat of the car.
“Hand over your phone,” Angelo said.
Ryan handed it over without saying a word. Even he knew better than to press his luck at this point. Angelo opened up the app for the Ring doorbell camera. I got a quick look at the videos of us arriving at the house and bringing out the computer before Angelo deleted all the footage. Then he took out the phone’s sim card and battery before putting the phone into his pocket. Ryan opened his mouth to protest and closed it again as soon as Angelo looked at him.
“Consider your debt paid. I don’t want to see you again. Is that clear?” He said.
“You got it,” Ryan said. He practically tripped over himself running back into the house.
I slid into the passenger seat of the car. Angelo slammed the door when he got inside. There was a vein popping out on the side of his forehead.
“Don’t ever talk back to me like that in front of a mark again!” He said. “If you make me look weak then they’ll think they can walk all over us.”
I winced. “I just thought that if you pushed him too far then the next time you saw him he might pull a gun on you or something.”
Angelo softened up a bit. “Look, I appreciate you worrying about me but I can take care of myself. I’m the one who’s supposed to be looking out for you,” He said. “Besides, that pussy knows exactly what would happen if he tried to shoot on a Moretti.”
“You said don’t do it again… So does that mean that I’m in the gang now?” I asked.
Angelo rolled his eyes and smiled. “We’ll see. Let’s go. We’ve got a couple of other people to drop in on.”