> Don't get involved in a hand you can't finish.

The next night, Joey was back working at Angelo's. Before he could be accosted by Amy, the first one to pull him aside was the boss himself.

"Hey kid, how you been doing lately?" Angelo asked.

"Good..."

"Listen, I need you to come on a delivery with me today."

Joey immediately frowned. He'd seen enough movies to know a "delivery" with a guy like Angelo wasn't going to involve anything wholesome. He showed a bitter smile. "Can I say no?"

"No. Come with me."

Joey sighed. 'This kind of world always has two sides. Here comes the nasty part.'

They walked downstairs to Angelo's car. Joey's eyebrows curved upwards when he saw it was a Toyota Corolla. He remembered Johnny, Angelo's minion, was driving a much nicer car than this. 'I hope he isn't planning to whack me and burn me in this car...'

"Is this your car?" Joey asked.

"Yea. My main car's in the shop. Get in."

Joey reminded himself that if he survived this, he should write a will or at least a letter to his mom so she'll know where to find his money. That would help her for a while. With reluctance, he opened the door and sat in the passenger seat.

They drove for a long time, all the way to Staten Island. They even had to drive the car onto a ferry to get there. As they stood on the boat, Joey and Angelo gazed at the Statue of Liberty. It was said to be the best view of it that you could find. Between the salty sea air and the sounds of seagulls, this was about as far away from civilization that the two of them had been in a long time.

"You've been doing a pretty good job for me. Is everything alright with your ma'? School good?" Angelo asked.

"Everything's fine," Joey replied. He hated these types of moments where people felt the need to make boring small talk to break the silence.

"You got any plans for after graduation? You gonna go to college or somethin'?"

Joey watched the calm waves as they were sent rolling by the moving ferry. "College is not for me. I'll be happy just to get a job that can pay the bills and take the load of mom's back."

Angelo frowned when he heard that. "A man's gotta have ambition, you know?"

Joey sneered and looked at him. "What should my ambition be Angelo? Give me a lesson. Is this the part where you tell me about how I can own the city and try to recruit me as a gangster?"

Angelo sighed. "No...That would be about the dumbest thing you could do. There ain't no good end there. I ain't ever met a man that didn't have his family torn apart in this life, one way or another."

Angelo looked back out at the Statue of Liberty in the distance. "Still, it's important to have dreams. When our ancestors came here from Italy, they saw somethin' much like this view here. Came here on those dirty ships, all that time at sea, wasn't it so that kids like you could do somethin' one day?"

'This guy sure is sentimental today,' Joey looked at Angelo. Then he thought about his "Ancestors." As far as his mom's side, his main priority was helping her so he believed he was doing the right thing there. As for his dad, he'd never met that side of the family, and he didn't want to either. They had to be real pieces of work to create a bastard like that.

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Joey organized his feelings into words. "All I can do right now is do my best to live one day at a time. A month ago I barely had enough food to put in my mouth. Now I found something I like at least, something to look forward to."

"You must mean poker. Yea, you've got the talent, but...you know from my experience, playin' that for a living ain't no easy life. It can be a dangerous game."

"My life was never easy to begin with."

"Yea..."

As the sun began to set, they watched the water of the Upper New York Bay. Joey wondered about what it would look like if it was crystal clear, like it must have been so many years ago, just pure water. He tried to picture that time before people came here and brought their industry, pollution, and all the costs of society. It must have been extremely beautiful, but somehow, he just couldn't picture it. 

***

Eventually, they arrived in Staten Island, back in the car now. Even though he grew up in New York, Joey had never been here before. It was a borough that wasn't visited often by outsiders. He was looking around the neighborhood when the car pulled into a parking lot and stopped. It was at the back of a commercial area of some stores, but it was dark now and there were few cars around.

"Get out," Angelo said. They exited and Angelo popped the trunk, leaving it open as he walked away from the car.

'Well, this is going about the way I expected so far. I just hope I won't end up being the one in the trunk." Joey quickly caught up to him but they didn't go far.

Angelo went to the back of one of the stores, took his phone out and made a call. Soon, a man opened the rear door, greeted Angelo, and handed him some tightly double wrapped plastic bags. Angelo took the bags and handed them to Joey by the handles. "Put these in the trunk."

Joey took the bags and did as instructed. 'Rule number one of these things is never look in the bag.' Se7en was one of his favorite movies, but not his dream scenario to be in.

A few more rounds of bag transfers and they were done. Joey briefly glanced at the bags in the trunk as he closed it. Although he didn't want to, he couldn't avoid making a grim estimation; In total, there were roughly enough bags to complete a human body. He gulped.

"Hurry and get in. It's going to rot back there if we leave it for too long," Angelo scolded.

Joey sighed. 'I really wish I didn't get involved in this...' The cool manner in which Angelo felt about this whole thing was repulsive to him. Joey became paranoid, searching for police cars in the rearview mirror every other second. He was visualizing what it would be like in prison. Then the car stopped again. It wasn't near the water like Joey expected, which is usually where people dump bodies in New York City. Instead, they were in a residential neighborhood.

"Let's go. Just don't do anything stupid," Angelo said.

'I've heard there are people who bury bodies under house foundations or deep pits in their backyards.' Despite it being Winter, as Joey got out of the car, he was visibly sweating.

Angelo popped the trunk and walked up to a house. It was a fairly normal two-story house, with beige paneling and a small patio, similar to the other houses on this tree-lined street. He rang the doorbell.

Joey envisioned a bald giant coming out wearing a bloodstained meat apron. What he saw was even more shocking.

It was a little old lady with curly gray hair and large glasses. 'You can't trust the appearance of anyone these days. I've heard that many serial killers were well-liked by their neighbors. Now I see they even have old grannies hiding corpses.' Joey was growing more and more disappointed with the world.

"What are you doing? Go bring the bags inside!" Angelo yelled.

Joey's face fell, but he had already accepted his fate. 'Once you see certain things in this world, there are only two ways to go: where the boss tells you, and down below.' The fact that his thoughts rhymed only made him more depressed. This was shaping up to be a poetic tragedy. Resigned to his fate, he brought the bags inside.

"Put them on the kitchen table."

After a few runs, all the bags were there. Angelo locked the car and went inside. Once the old granny crypt keeper closed the door, they were locked in that dungeon. Angelo walked up to the bags. He rolled up his sleeves and put on a stern expression. Slowly, he opened a bag.

'I don't want to see this.' Joey closed his eyes. It was one thing to see something on tv. Once you saw it in real life, there was no escape. He hoped there would be some miracle by which this would all end. So he stood there with his eyes closed as long as he could.

...

*Sniff* *Sniff*

'What is that?' Joey smelled something familiar. He couldn't help but open his eyes to check. What he saw deeply disturbed him.

'Why is it marinara sauce?!?'

The bags were filled with groceries.