The Sopranos: Caliper Story

EPISODE ONE (Part One)

EPISODE ONE (Part One)

What I think is beautiful? Well, for one thing, I think beauty is speed. Control. Adrenaline. 

     I think beauty is the ability to get into a car and immediately, all your fears are expelled, because you trust you vehicle. You know its workings, you know its abilities. And if you treat it well, it treats you well back.

     You meld with your machine and you become one being. Out on the road, you’re the soul, and the vehicle is your vessel. And I think that’s what everyone ultimately wants. Something they know they can control.

     Well, unfortunately for them,

      They can’t race.

      Two years ago, my crew and I faced something that seemed insurmountable. Our new recruit, Jay, apparently had placed a hefty bounty on me. I had been his mystery challenger out in the streets a few years before that. We discovered he was a stray and took him in.

      And everything fell apart right in our faces. Then a year after that, he comes out alive, driving in a brand new Lamborghini. And he returned.

      Racing had always been in my blood. It was like an itch I couldn’t remove. My parents were young when they had me, and amazingly were in the street racing business, and I grew up in that.

     And then I was given my own ride to tame the streets with. My family began the Sopranos. Now, I’m laying its foundation. I’m keeping my crew in control of the city. 

     And no one else.

      I pull up in our safe house’s driveway, and I hear California Love by 2Pac blasting out into the streets through the windows. Basically, the safe house is like an unwanted garage that racers just grab when they find it. Other crews have multiple safe houses in different parts of the city, in order to keep tabs on territory, and whoever may be trespassing.

      I pat my Chevrolet Corvette Z06’s head. This muscle car’s been with me through everything. I’m trying not to be sentimental since I’m supposed to be the intimidating crew boss, but how could I not when until now, it’s still alive for me?

     My car keys swing and jingle as I press them into my butt pockets and I hear laughing and chatter inside. I hit my car’s horn a couple of times, the two short beeps alert them, and they turn down the music.

     Today’s my birthday and no doubt they had drinks in there. I walk up to the garage doors and push it up. I see my friends smiling big, holding each a glass of the drink of their choice.

     There was Ross, handsome as ever with his corkscrew curls hanging past his jaw, and Ryan, the best body kit worker in the whole universe. He’d fixed up my car after it fell apart during Helena, the bounty hunter that wouldn’t give up, due to a grudge she had on my family. Apparently, my mother had killed her sister. And when Jay didn’t know who I was, and placed a bounty on me, well, let’s just say that had helped her to find revenge on the Soprano lineage.

     Ryan re-dyed his hair brown. Before it was red. Thanks to Courtney’s persistence, Ryan now looked like a normal person, and not a colorful red ball on a Christmas tree.

      I run over and hug Courtney and Jess, my best friends, and my right hand girls. Courtney had upgraded, her straight her was now a beautiful gradient of neon blue. A gentle cotton candy color on the crown of her head, and down the length of the hair, it got darker, an ocean blue. It framed her face beautifully.

      “Happy birthday,” Courtney says, smiling warmly, arms still wrapped around me. My heart warmed. 

      “Thank you.” I say as she lets go of me.