[TheStellarEnsemble.com] The Godfather - Mario Puzo

Still the Don did not answer. Finally he shrugged. “Every man has one destiny,” he said.He did not add that the witnessing of Fanucci’s murder had decided that of his son. He merelyturned away and added quietly, “Come in tomorrow morning at nine o’clock. Genco will showyou what to do.”But Genco Abbandando, with that shrewd insight that a Consigliere must have, realizedthe true wish of the Don and used Sonny mostly as a bodyguard for his father, a position inwhich he could also learn the subtleties of being a Don. And it brought out a professorial instinctin the Don himself, who often gave lectures on how to succeed for the benefit of his eldest son.Besides his oft-repeated theory that a man has but one destiny, the Don constantlyreproved Sonny for that young man’s outbursts of temper. The Don considered a use of threatsthe most foolish kind of exposure; the unleashing of anger without forethought as the mostdangerous indulgence. No one had ever heard the Don utter a naked threat, no one had ever seenhim in an uncontrollable rage. It was unthinkable. And so he tried to teach Sonny his owndisciplines. He claimed that there was no greater natural advantage in life than having an enemyoverestimate your faults, unless it was to have a friend underestimate your virtues.The caporegime, Clemenza, took Sonny in hand and taught him how to shoot and towield a garrot. Sonny had no taste for the Italian rope, he was too Americanized. He preferredthe simple, direct, impersonal Anglo-Saxon gun, which saddened Clemenza. But Sonny becamea constant and welcome companion to his father, driving his car, helping him in little details. Forthe next two years he seemed like the usual son entering his father’s business, not too bright, nottoo eager, content to hold down a soft job.Meanwhile his boyhood chum and semiadopted brother Tom Hagen was going to college.Fredo was still in high school; Michael, the youngest brother, was in grammar school, and babysister Connie was a toddling girl of four. The family had long since moved to an apartment housein the Bronx. Don Corleone was considering buying a house in Long Island, but he wanted to fitthis in with other plans he was formulating.Vito Corleone was a man with vision. All the great cities of America were being torn byunderworld strife. Guerrilla wars by the dozen flared up, ambitious hoodlums trying to carvethemselves a bit of empire; men like Corleone himself were trying to keep their borders andrackets secure. Don Corleone saw that the newspapers and government agencies were usingthese killings to get stricter and stricter laws, to use harsher police methods. He foresaw that194