[TheStellarEnsemble.com] The Godfather - Mario Puzo

Kay said timidly, “I cameo to ask about Mike, I haven’t heard from him. Mr. Hagen saidnobody knows where he is, that he’ll turn up in a little while.”Hagen spoke quickly, “That’s all we can tell her now, Ma.”Mrs. Corleone gave him a look of withering contempt...Now you gonna tell me what todo? My husband don’t tell me what to do, God have mercy on him.” She crossed herself.“Is Mr. Corleone all right?” Kay asked.“Fine,” Mrs. Corleone said. “Fine. He’s getting old, he’s getting foolish to let somethinglike that happen.” She tapped her head disrespectfully. She poured the coffee and forced Kay toeat some bread and cheese.After they drank their coffee Mrs. Corleone took one of Kay’s hands in her two brownones. She said quietly, “Mikey no gonna write you, you no gonna hear from Mikey. He hidetwo-three years. Maybe more, maybe much more. You go home to your family and find a niceyoung fellow and get married.”Kay took the letter out of her purse. “Will you send this to him?”The old lady took the letter and patted Kay on the cheek. “Sure, sure,” she said. Hagenstarted to protest and she screamed at him in Italian. Then she led Kay to the door. There shekissed her on the cheek very quickly and said, “You forget about Mikey, he no the man for youanymore.”There was a car waiting for her with two men up front. They drove her all the way to herhotel in New York never saying a word. Neither did Kay. She was trying to get used to the factthat the young man she had loved was a cold-blooded murderer. And that she had been told bythe most unimpeachable source: his mother.Chapter 16Carlo Rizzi was punk sore at the world. Once married into the Corleone Family, he’dbeen shunted aside with a small bookmaker’s business on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.He’d counted on one of the houses in the mall on Long Beach, he knew the Don could moveretainer families out when he pleased and he had been sure it would happen and he would be onthe inside of everything. But the Don wasn’t treating him right. The “Great Don,” he thoughtwith scorn. An old Moustache Pete who’d been caught out on the street by gunmen like any208