A Gangsters Wife

Chapter 2

It must have been two months ago that her ill fitted husband walked into their home proclaiming how Max had stolen the sugar.

"He took it all god damn it!"

His angry fit of rage was slowly rising as the tension between him and his wife grew.

"I told you not to tell him Vinnie! You never give a shit about what i have to say."

As he approached her with a heavy fist and a pulsating temple, the erotic behavior in which he fell to at times of stress and uncertainty, she grabbed the kitchen knife purposely kept at her side and pointed it at her husband.

"Do it again and i'll cut you up. I'll slash you, you know i will. Don't make me Vin. Don't you dare!"

Her grip on the knife was strong and the manner in which she projected her chest- outward and proud- clearly marked the confidence in which she felt at interjecting the start of a heated physical battle between her husband. He backed away with caution but the look in his eyes meant there would be hell to pay for such a threat.

Vinnie’s wife was a strong woman. She held herself with poise and grace. But not a single soul could underestimate her strength to defend for it was far greater than her elegance. With the practice she had acquired through dealing with her husband’s sudden bursts of anger, she knew the business well and knew how to balance herself when the ground underneath her began to crumble.

Vinnie’s composure had now begun to relax. Frustrated that his wife still had not retreated back to her cooking, he could feel the buzz of uneasiness still lingering in the dingy light of their small kitchen. Sofia was on edge knowing what had happened last week when Vin began to lose his cool. The memory of him grabbing at her wrist, pulling her body and throwing her against the kitchen cabinets left her teary eyed. Her own husband. And as much as she hated him for the pain he had caused her with the bruising, tears, screaming kicking and punching, she knew this was not the man she had first set eyes on in the bar in '86. No, in fact this was Vinnie when he had gone too far. Vinnie when the cocaine of choice took him higher and higher, until the ground beneath his feet was just a small inch of space and he was dangling in the clouds like a mad man.

"Babe i know you’re still shaking because of last week but i said i was sorry. Can't you forgive me?"

“You...you fucking almost killed me!! I forgive you Vin but i ain't gonna forget it."

Sofia quickly turned back around in hopes that her husband wouldn't catch her teary eyed and slipping into the pathetic self she felt as she cried her heart out. The memory was still fresh in her head, the thought of losing her husband to the sugar was frightening. Every day he would come in and propose a new business ordeal to retrieve it. Today was no different.

"So um, today i was at Joey's and he told me that Max had come the other night and needed the dope for Boss. Now you and i both know Joe wouldn't just let Max up and out walk the door with the goods without some confrontation yeah? So i asked Joe, yeah know, what he do bout it. But he said he just let him walk! Why, because its Max. Its fucking Max and he thought that wouldn't change nuthin."

"Babe i'm telling you, he was the last in Joe's box and he took the sugar and is giving it to Boss. Im going to find a way to get it back. It's mine god damn it! You know how long it took me to get it? And i gotta give it to Sconey by Thursday or I'm gonna be a dead man."

Sofia knew this deal meant a lot to Vinnie. If Max had really taken the cocaine only to hand it over to the Boss, Vin would sure as hell never see the light of day. For this reason, she kept her mouth shut. Being the wife of a gangster was more than she had ever thought it out to be. The life, the money, the people, the deals, the drugs...and the list continued. She feared her life everyday she woke up in the morning, but over the years learned to contain her shaking self and grasp the truth of the matter. Not even her husband could protect her. Only she could. Now, Sofia knew that she wasn't cut out to be this person. This woman, this wife. But after four years of marriage with Vin, she could no longer neglect the addiction to dope. Even she, Sofia, fell for the sugar and made many mistakes in that small time slot of the married years. Today, she paid the price, living in a shit flat and constantly being threatened by her husband’s connections. To die today, or live another day only to fear death.

As the soup boiled in the pot, and the sun set behind the city escape overlooking their flat, Sofia could only think, "hey, this isn't my fault. The cocaine did this to me. To both of us." Her life, just a patchwork of excuses, her life streaming endlessly day by day, herself only a shadow of her husband closely following his every move waiting to be veiled in secrets...