A Brooklyn Saga by Carolyn Angiolillo & Ronald Joseph Kule

Author:Carolyn Angiolillo & Ronald Joseph Kule [Angiolillo, Carolyn & Kule, Ronald Joseph]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: historical fiction, Brooklyn, New York, novel, Italian culture, Mafia, Catholic Church, A Brooklyn Saga, Stories from the Stoop
Publisher: CAROLYNBOOKS, L.L.C.
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 12: FATSO’S DEBACLE

Several times a month, Freddie Ferrara, a burly, overly obese Mafioso often referred to as “Fatso” by Angie’s block neighbors and others, dined in Chichi’s with his British-born wife, Eliza. Tonight, watched by Wei from above the laundry, he parked in the restaurant’s reserved lot.

As usual, Fatso, dressed in a signature brown and black patterned jack shirt over dark silk pants, was yelling at his wife as they walked to the restaurant. Suddenly, he smacked her across her face, escalating the din of their argument loud enough for others to make out the couple’s words from as far as a block away. Already cringe-worthy, the Saturday-night incident was about to get worse.

Unable to do much else because of attention fixated on the loud, obnoxious man, horrified onlookers watched Fatso turn and swiftly punch his wife in the face, knocking her out cold! She dropped like a paper doll, unconscious.

Fatso turned, picked her nearly lifeless body up with the help of one of the Chichi brothers, and entered the eatery, stopping only to say, “Leave her in the coat closet to revive herself!”

Seeing the atrocity unfold before her eyes upset Angie terribly. Adding to her distress, from every stoop, she heard complaints from other people who, having just witnessed the same event, remarked how horrible they felt that Fatso went too far this time. Inexplicably, their initial reactions of shock also brought out admissions that what they just saw was not so unusual. The neighbors were sure that this was not the first time Fatso had knocked out his wife. Knowing they could not easily confront the real evil in front of them, they adjusted to what just happened with a groundswell of verbal justifications. Words overheard from other stoops, unbelievable to Angie’s ears, projected that her neighbors expected this kind of offbeat behavior!

Reason did not apply here. Apathetic shoulders shrugged, eyes looked away, people got up and left the stoops to retreat inside their homes as if nothing happened. From others, choice words erupted and spewed anger into the cool night air, yet no one thought enough to lift a single finger to help or at least report the incident! Perhaps shocked, maybe inured to any violence or too weak and confused to respond in any manner, people reacted.

Angie’s emotional numbness had accumulated over a relatively small number of years, puncturing her mind and heart, and now burst, falling flat like a pin-pricked balloon. A scream of panic coursed through her body inside and reminded her of every gruesome event she had ever witnessed. The mental images drove her thoughts to the brink of madness, and she screamed, thinking, This neighborhood breeds a lot of hate, and I don’t like it! Why do people have to be so mean? And because Fatso is connected, no one in this neighborhood does a damn thing about helping Eliza? Are they too worried about getting hurt themselves?

Watching everything unfold from above the laundry, Wei, fixated and rigid, looked at the

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