“When are we going to get
there?” asked Lucy looking up from under the brim of her hat.
“Honey,”
said Daniel, not even bothering to look at his daughter as he answered the
question for what felt like the millionth time, “Just a few minutes, we’ll get
there when we get there.”
He pulled his hat over his eyes and slouched into his
corner seat. “Daddy’s very tired honey, let him get a little rest.” He tried to
pull his suit around him like a blanket. Once again the subway car was filled
with the rustling of newspapers and the squeaking and clacking of the car as it
cut through the subterranean passage.
Then
Lucy’s voice filled his ears. “But Daddy, the sun only just came up.” Her voice
was so full of excitement that she was almost yelling. “You can’t be tired.”
Daniel lifted the rim of his hat with his thumb to look at Lucy. The woman
reading the paper next to her shot him a dirty look, and then quickly covered
her face with the paper again, so only the feathers of her decadent hat were
visible.
He
shushed his daughter. “You can ask all
the questions you want after we see Uncle Mike. Just please try to be quiet.”
Lucy
leaned in close, and whispered, “Why are you so tired?”
Daniel
rubbed both his eyes with his open hand. “Look, Lucy, this isn’t sleepy tired.
Sometimes grown-ups have lots of things to do and think about, and they need a
little rest.”
The
subway came to a stop and the floor turned into a beehive of activity as people
shuffled in and out of the doors. “Now are we there?” asked Lucy, already
scooting herself off of her seat to the floor of the car.
“No,
Uncle Mike lives a few more stops away.” Daniel leaned forward, coming to terms
with the fact that he would not be able to get some peace.
Lucy
slid back into her seat. “Why are we going to Uncle Mike’s?”
“I’ve got to talk about
important grown-up things with Uncle Mike, the things that are making daddy
tired.” He then looked at Lucy directly and snapped, “You’re only coming
because your mother is too busy.” The
train once again filled with silence, and Daniel slouched back into the corner
and shut his eyes for the remainder of the trip.
~
Mike’s
house looked like any other on the block: it was a two story red brick row
house. The only distinctive feature was the Rolls Royce parked on the curb
outside, as well as the red roses that grew in the yard.
Daniel
dragged Lucy up to the front door and gave a solid knock on the door. There was
the sound of soft footsteps, followed by the clicking of several deadbolts
being unlocked, and then the creaking of un-oiled hinges.
“Danny!”
Mike’s face appeared from behind the door—almost a mirror image of Daniel’s,
save for the fact that it was fuller and complete with a thin mustache. “How’s
my little baby brother?” He put out his hand for a handshake, then laughed and
embraced Daniel. “You were just the man I was hoping to see.” He then noticed
Lucy peeking out from behind Daniel’s legs. “And if it isn’t my darling niece
Lucy.” He cracked a big smile and bent his knees slightly to face her. “How’s
it going kid?”
Lucy
shied away and wrinkled her face in disgust. Daniel nudged her out in front of
him.
“Come
on, quit being so rude. I couldn’t get you to shut up on the way over here,” he
said with a chuckle.
“I’m
sure she’s tired. Why don’t we go in and talk business.”
He
held the door and motioned them into his home, which was decorated with dark
hardwood floors, and matching handrails and crown molding. The walls were lined
with faded wallpaper and green paint that looked almost black in the dim
lighting. The three walked past the stairs into the back room. Inside, there
was a big mahogany desk and three leather chairs, two in front and one behind
the desk. Thick green and red curtains were drawn over the window.
“Sit.
Sit.” Mike walked around the desk and sank back into his chair to face Daniel.
“You know it’s been so long. I was hoping I could see you.” He opened a drawer
in the desk and pulled out a wallet sized gold case. He popped it open with the
motion of a thumb and revealed a row of brown cigars, and held them up to
Daniel.
“No
thanks. I don’t smoke.”
“You
haven’t changed a bit. Always playing it safe.” Mike pulled out a matchbox and struck
a match, casting a circular pattern of shadows as the match sparked to life.
“What brings you here?” He brought the flame to the cigar in his mouth, his
eyes not even wavering from Daniel. “I thought you wanted nothing to do with
me.”
“Well…”
Daniel swallowed some nonexistent bite of food as he paused. “I need some financial
help.”
Mike
turned to Lucy. “Lucy, why don’t you go sit outside.” Lucy slide out of her
seat and disappeared around the corner.
Mike
smirked. “I knew you came to talk business, I could see it in your face.” His
jovial smile was gone. “The food distribution business not working out for
you? Why don’t you go to a bank? There
are a few still open you know.”
“Times
are changing. I’ve been in dire straits, and I have nowhere to turn.”
“That’s
rich. Little Danny is the moral one in the family until it comes time to pay
the bills.” Mike leaned back in his chair. “Well look, I can’t go around
playing banker. I’m broke too. The
majority of my business lived and died with the Volstead Act. However . . .” He
began to open his drawer. “I may just have an opportunity for you.”
“I’m not getting into the
business.”
“Well then you’re going
bankrupt.” Mike leaned forward across the desk so the odor of his cigar became
unbearably strong, his eyes fixed on Daniel’s. “Look, Daniel, I’m going to
offer you a job. If you read the papers you would know that there are people
out in the streets who would kill for a job, legal or otherwise.”
Mike stood up and walked over to
some shelves that ran across the wall of the office. He picked up a photograph
of a thin mustached man with two nearly identical boys standing next to him.
“Lucy seems like a nice girl. Don’t you want her to have a nice life?” He
paused for a second, setting the picture down. He faced Daniel, who hadn’t
moved since the meeting began. “You don’t want her to live the life we had, do
you? The business made the Lynch family what it is today. You can hide behind
your veil of respectability all you want, Danny, but the business is the reason
why you aren’t some tenement wage slave like Grandad. You owe your life to it.”
For a just a moment the room was
silent as the two brothers locked eyes through the smoke filled air. Then Daniel
let out a sigh. “What do you want?”
Mike returned to the desk and
lifted a white envelope out of the drawer. “I need you to start hauling more
than fruit around in your trucks.” He dropped the envelope onto the desk. “In
that envelope are two addresses: your pick-up and drop off point. Do it next
Saturday. Ask for Eli at the first location.”
“What am I hauling?”
“New associates don’t get to
know, even if they are family. But it’ll get you five grand for your trouble.”
He offered his hand out. “Welcome to the business kid.”
~
Lucy and Daniel walked along red
brick rowhouses back towards the subway station. Daniel kept his hands in his
pockets, continually running his fingers in small circles around the envelope.
Lucy broke the silence. “I don’t
like Uncle Mike.” She was looking up, seeking out eye contact from her father. “He
smells funny, has greasy hair, and I don’t think he means it when he smiles and
laughs like that.”
Daniel’s eyes remained fixed on
the green lamp and the descending stairs at the end of the block. “Lucy, you
should be thankful that you have an uncle like Mike. He is helping our family
out.”
“What did you talk about? Why
couldn’t I hear?”
“Grownup things honey.”
“Well I don’t trust Uncle Mike.
We should remove him from the family.”
Daniel’s mouth cracked into a
smile. “Well, we can’t do that Lucy. Family is forever.”
~
Daniel told no one about the
details of the meeting with his brother. He continued to drive his truck around
town, making deliveries. Two days before the run he drove by the first address,
a normal looking warehouse, just to make sure he knew where it was.
Then Saturday came. At eleven
o’clock, Daniel took the truck out to the warehouse and pulled up to the
loading gate. There was just the red glow of a cigarette coming from a crevasse
in the side of the building. A man in a trench coat and hat crept forward out
of the darkness as Daniel unrolled the window.
“Hey this is private property
pal. You can’t just. . .” The man stopped and looked carefully into Daniel’s
face. Then he broke out into laughter. “You Danny? Right? ”
“Yeah. You’re Eli?”
“Damn, for a split second I
thought you were the boss himself.” He handed Daniel a briefcase through the
window. “That’s all there is.” Eli dropped the cigarette on the ground and
opened the nearby garage door on the warehouse. “Stay safe pal.” The door shut.
Daniel drove away a few blocks,
continually looking in his rearview mirror as he drove, and took a right onto a
narrow street. He popped the case open. In the lamp light that shone through
his window he could make out rows of one hundred dollar bills, neatly stacked
and wrapped, all facing the same direction.
He sat silently in the car and
looked over toward the direction of his house. A continuously looping movie
kept playing in his head, where he would speed home, wake his family, and drive
all night until he hit Canada. Or maybe he would try to make it to Mexico.
Sometimes Mike caught up with him. Other times he got away clean.
He started the ignition and slammed the case
shut, his palms sweating. He managed to drive a few more blocks before stopping
on the side of the road again. For ten minutes his eyes traced the outline of
the case. He then slid the briefcase under the passenger seat, and fumbled
around in his jacket pocket for the envelope. He slid the paper out of the
envelope his brother had given him and set it on the dashboard. He sat up
straight, and drove north out of the Manhattan.
Daniel continued out of the city
on the main highway for almost an hour, and then took a backcountry road out
into a forest. Daniel could barely see out in front of him as his head lights
bounced up and down along the road. He continued deeper and deeper into the
forest, towards the old farmhouse where he was to make the delivery, until the
forest became suddenly filled with bright light and the roar of machine guns.
~
“Hey boss, you made the
headlines.” Eli plopped the newspaper onto the mahogany desk. The headline
read: MAD MIKE DEAD. The small print below the picture of the bullet ridden car
described the exploits of the former bootlegger—how he flooded New York with
cheap liquor, how he set up an organization so vast and complex that he
remained untouchable, how he was suspected of directing around forty murders
during the height of the illegal alcohol trade- in five neat, concise
paragraphs, followed by a summary of his untimely death at the hands of rival
gangsters. The FBI was now investigating the nature of his trip in hopes of
finally cracking his wide criminal syndicate, but since only a briefcase
stuffed with counterfeit bills was found, there were no promising leads.
“Our father used to think we
looked like twins.” Mike took another puff of his cigar. “The Gambinos and the Police must have too.” He
laughed and put his feet up on the desk. “Eli, are the train tickets in order?”
“Yeah.”
“I need a quick shave and then I
think we’re good to go.”
“Don’t you think anyone will figure
it all out?”
“Not right away. The Gambino’s snitch is
getting swimming lessons in the East River.” He rolled the cigar between his
thumb and index finger, examining it. “I’ve sent some people out to take care
of the other loose ends. Daniel liked to keep himself distant from the business;
only his family would know the connection.” He snuffed the cigar out on the
desk as he stood up. “But the time people wise up to fact I’m alive and well,
we’ll be long gone.”
He walked over to the photo
again and picked it up. “I always knew Danny would end up serving the business.
You know Eli, there’s something that my father used to say that Danny never
understood: ‘You can’t change where you come from. Family is forever.’”
-Brandon Carlson
