Mobster's Girl

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Mangia (mahn-ja):  to eat, and eat, and eat more (even if you’re not hungry)

Antonio:

I walk into Nonna’s apartment still thinking about her-Megan.  I’ll admit I saw her coming. So I dragged out my cigarette a little longer than necessary. How could I not see her coming with that shock of beautiful red hair on her head?  Ever since her family moved in, I was always silently checking my surroundings for her at school, the movies, even the streets.

Meatballs, tomatoes, and basil mix into an aroma that wafts through from the kitchen.  Even when Nonna isn’t cooking you can still smell the ghost of Italian food in the air and on the plastic covered furniture.

“Tonio!” she yells again, “You leave ta girl alone, gabish!”  Nonna scolds with a ladle, waving it at my face.

“What, Nonna?  I wasn’t doing anything.”  Nonna’s orthopedic shoes shift on the linoleum floor.

She harrumphs, “I knew boys like you.  I was young too, ya know! I saw yous lookin’ at her like she was strawberry gelato!  You’re your father’s son!”

“Nonna, please.”  I shake my head.

“You gotta prove your worth!”  You could always count on one thing with Nonna, yelling.  It’s how she talks.  When she’s quiet-you’re in trouble. “Now set the table!”

Nonna loads me up with dishes of food to take home to my ma.  I place it all on the floor of the backseat of my car for the two-mile drive home.  I kiss her good-bye like the good grandson.

My phone beeps with a text message from Vito:

Vito : Where r u?

Tonio: Jus leavin’ Nonna’s

Vito: Meet me @ the dock

Tonio: Can’t. gotta meet Pop

Vito: K

Mom’s beamer is there when I get home.  I carry the food into the house.

“Ma! Nonna’s got food for you.” I call out heading over to the fridge to put the dishes in.  While my head is still in the fridge, Mom comes around the corner.

“Hey, Sweetie,” she leans into kiss me. 

“Hi, Ma,” I flip the door closed and pop a can of soda.  Caramel-colored soda sprays all over the front of my white shirt.  “Ugh, fanabola!”

“Hey! Don’t swear,” My mom yells and clips me with her hand on the back of my head.  Her slap echoes in my skull.

“Sorry,” I mumble as I strip my shirt off.  “I gotta change before I go see Dad.”

I climb the stairs to my room.  My room hasn’t changed much over the years.  I’ve added some posters and pictures of friends but that’s it.  I rummage through my drawer to find a clean t-shirt.  Wow, I really need to do laundry.  I fish to the bottom of the drawer and feel a piece of paper. A picture, an elementary school class picture from 5th grade.  This must have been stuck at the back of my drawer for years.  It makes me laugh.  I scan up and down the rows of pictures. Vito, Ronnie, Alessandra, Louie and there in the third row, Megan O’Neill.  Her freckled face and wild red hair made my heart slam even all those years ago.  I had drawn a heart around her little tiny picture.  What a stunad I was! 

I throw an old black t-shirt on and hurry down the stairs.  Pop will be mad if I’m late for a meeting.  Turning eighteen means that I have to attend; it’s not optional anymore.

I jump into my Camaro, an eighteenth birthday gift from my dad, and race to the restaurant.  All the meetings take place at Gino’s Restaurant.  It’s a co-owned place that I sometimes work at as a waiter when I’m needed.  The heads of the town’s families all own it.  My father started it and named it after his father, my grandfather, Gino Delisi.

I walk in, and the first person I see is, Mr. Maranzano, my friend Alessandra’s father. 

“Ah, Antonio!” he beams, “What a boy?”  He grabs my face in his hands and kisses me on both cheeks. “You’re eighteen now, you call me Vinny! Eh!”  Then he smacks me gently.  My mother calls them ‘love taps.’  I call them annoying and sometimes painful.

“Thank you, Vinny,” I say appreciatively to Mr. Maranzano.  People are already starting to treat me differently.

I spin around to see Luigi Prazzo.  I watch him size me up.  He looks me up and down.  Instead of a greeting, all I get is a nod in my direction.  I never liked him.  I don’t trust him either.  His son Dino is an asshole.

“Is that my lady-killer nephew!?” Uncle Tutti comes strolling in from the kitchen.  “Come ‘ere goombah!”  I walk into my Uncle’s arms.  He slaps me on the back in greeting.

“Hey, Uncle Tutti.”  His name is Mario but everyone calls him Tutti.  I don’t know why, they just do.

The restaurant is closed on Mondays, so that is when the group usually meets.  But tonight, they closed the restaurant on a Saturday night for me and my initiation.  My father claps his hands together and everyone turns their attention to him.

“Let’s sit.”  He walks to me and hugs me.  “Antonio, my boy,” he says as he pats my face. “Sit next to me, son.”

I walk to the large table that is set up just for these meetings.  There are eight of us tonight.  My friends, Ronnie Contini’s son and Louis Ferretti’s son, don’t show.  They won’t be eighteen for another year, so their attendance is optional.  Dino Prazzo is away at college.  He’s a chooch.  I can’t stand him or his father.

A waitress comes from the kitchen to pour wine into everyone’s glasses.  My father starts to speak.  “My family, today we welcome a new man, my son, Tonio.  He has been an exceptional student, and learned many valuable lessons over the years.  He joins us with a full heart, and we welcome him with open arms.  He, like all our sons, is the future of Palmetto, New Jersey.  So let us raise our glasses to Antonio Rinaldo Delisi, Jr.”  My father raises his glass.  “Vino, Antonio, Salud!”

A chorus of ‘Salud’ echoes off the restaurant walls.  I pick up my glass and drink with them.