Doing a Good Thing for a Bad Man
(I do not own any rights to the film or its content. I have used some of the dialogue from the film to better play out my fanfiction and by no means do I intend it to be plagiarized. I needed some of its dialogue to fall along with my idea that's all.)
I remember like it was just yesterday. Sonny came out of nowhere. After he appeared all the sounds of the cracks of the windows stopped, immediately replaced by the shots sonny gave that man in his arm and in his head. Ever since that first time sonny looked me in the eyes, I knew something was meant to change in my life, just didn't know exactly what it was.
(Flashback)
Ma fatha and I ran up tha stairs.
"I didn't rat dad. I didn't rat!" I told my dad as he held my arm and I followed his steps quickly.
"I know you didn't rat," my fatha reassured me as we came back from my questioned line up.
"I did a good thing right?" I asked my fatha confused.
"Yea, you did a good thing. You did a good thing for a bad man…," my fatha replied with a worried look.
I did a good thing for a bad man. I didn't understand that, not at nine years old. All I knew was I wasn't a rat and I wasn't about to become one. Not in my neighborhood. That night ma father told me that sometimes you have to do things even though they don't seem right. He also told me that as I got older, I would eventually understand.
"Hey kid!" one of sonny's minions called out to me as I fixed the gear on my bike right outside my stoop and he asked me to follow him. Sonny had me called into his office.
"I finally get to meet you face to face. I'm sonny. Take a seat."
"Yea…" I replied.
"Are you scared of me?" Sonny asked me with a grin on his face.
"No," I assured him.
"Good. What's your name?" Sonny asked.
"Calogero," I replied with more trust.
That day we talked about the Yankees and personal interest we shared. He told me stuff that changed my life's perspective and my perspective on the Yankees (Mickey Mandal). It was as if I knew this man my whole life. I eventually asked him about that day he shot that man.
"Was it really over a parking space." I asked.
All I got was chuckles and a big grin.
"When you get older you'll understand," Sonny said as he grinned.
After that Sonny and I spent a lot of time together. He would let me serve and help out in the bar and he'd pay me by the hour. I wasn't just working for him, I was also learning from him. I was getting a second education on the streets. He eventually gave me the nickname C. He said my name was too big and we had to do something about is so he did. He took me everywhere and introduced me as his boy.
Hangin' out with Sonny made things easier in the neighborhood for me. It was because of him. People didn't respect Sonny, they feared him. I would get gifts and one time as I ran upstairs to tell my dad I walked in to an intense vive from both my parents. They had found the stash of money I had saved from working with Sonny.
"Where have you been?! Where did you get this," my mother Rosina asked.
"…" I didn't know what to say.
"Your mother asked you a question Calogero," my dad said infuriated.
"You know doing stuff. It's my savings.
"I told you I didn't want you back there! Why don't you listen? I tell you what young man, you and I are going to give this back," my father said angrily.
"Wait honey, let's talk about it. I mean its money. He said he wasn't doing nothing bad. We can use the extra money," my mother suggested as she tried to calm my father down.
My father graved me from the arm and we went downstairs to see Sonny.
"My son doesn't need this," my father told Sonny as we barged into his office and he threw the money on the table.
"I did not give that to you I gave it to ya' son," Sonny replied quiet disturbed.
"That is right. MY SON," my father reassured Sonny.
I felt the tension in my father's voice as he said, "MY SON." As if he was trying to remember Sonny I was indeed my father's son. I knew it wasn't something normal. But at age nine I did not pay much attention to it- that changed quickly.
I was asked to step outside by Sonny. One of his minions shut the door behind me not aware that I could still hear from out there.
I heard Sonny scream, "You don't talk to me like that ever again! I treat that boy like he is my son!"
"I don't care! He is MY SON! I know what you did to Rosina. I know what you are capable of. You need to stay away from MY SON you hear me!? I am not afraid of you." My father challenged Sonny.
"Whatever I did to Rosina was a mistake! I know I was wrong I tried to fix things I tried to apologize! She knows I was not myself that night especially not when I was on those things (drugs)! NO MATTER WHAT HE IS MY SON," Sonny cried out.
"You raped her! You were, and always will be, a bad man. I will not let you be part of our son's life you hear me! You stay away from him!" my father yelled as one of Sonny's men opened the door and threw him out.
"Get the fuck out of here before I give you a slap!" Sonny told my dad.
I couldn't believe it. I was nine years old and I had been lied to about my fatha this whole time. I could not help but feel extreme anger towards Sonny. I couldn't believe he would do such thing. It was like as I was strapped to a chair and someone yanked my heart out as it was still beating. I didn't understand. I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs. I wanted to punch Sonny in the face. He had to pay. He wasn't ma father, Lorenzo was. It was one of those things you wished you never heard but I acted like I hadn't heard a thing- but I wanted revenge.
Eight years past and as I grew Sonny grew in power. As his power grew, my secret grew in strength and I made it a mission to become Sonny's right hand man and friend. I had to gain his trust.
Sonny always kept an eye out for me. If I needed someone he was there. He was becoming more and more of a father figure (the one he hasn't been all these years) and it was hard to me to keep that hate. He gave me the best advice for the streets aside from my father's advice which made me hate him less. I hated that. I wanted to hate him, but it kept keeping harder. I saw sides of Sonny I didn't like but others that made me love him like a father too.
The best advice Sonny had given me so far was about my interracial crush. Jane was a girl who lived a couple blocks away. I liked her, and I liked her good.
I told Sonny I had met a girl named Jane but that she was colored.
He said, "ok, so."
"…but you know people talk and I don't-" I replied.
"Fuck those idiots do what your heart tells you," Sonny said in a rough tone, "matter of fact I will let you borrow my car for a date."
"You don't let anyone touch your car," I said surprised.
"Just take it. That way you can give her the door test," Sonny said.
"What's the door test?" I asked.
"You have a lot to learn son," I heard the tension in his voice as he said son. It was so awkward for like a second and then we went back to the topic, "I've done made mistakes in my time I regret but don't blow it if you really like her so just listen. You get out of the car and lock both doors. You open her door. As you walk past the back rear view mirror, you see if she reaches over to unlock the door for you. If she doesn't, you dump her fast!"
"What? Dump her?!" I said surprised.
"Yea!" he said, "no questions asked. If she doesn't reach over to unlock that door she is selfish broad, you hear me?"
I knew that day Sonny was looking up to me as his son. That made me happy deep inside. I realized little by little that he did regret what happened with my mother and that he couldn't change that. I knew that he taking me under his wing meant a lot for him as it did to me. As my relationship with Sonny grew my relationship with my father became strained. It was hard because I loved my father. But I became to love Sonny as well. It was the hardest thing I've done in my life, to go from hating someone and wishing them death to loving them and looking up to them.
After my date went wrong someone tried to kill Sonny. The put a bomb in the car and he thought it was me. That was the first time I ever told him I looked up to him as a father.
"Why would I hurt you?! You've been like a father to me!" I said as he let go of my neck and collar after he had slapped me in the face.
I had to walk away because I knew he had regret his anger rage and he knew he had done wrong.
That same night my friends were planned to fire bomb the store in Jane's neighborhood. They wanted me to go so I jumped in the car with them. We were riding around on our way to our destination. I knew my conscience was talking to me. I knew it was wrong. I felt it in my gut. I felt my heart beat get faster and faster by the second. We were at a stop and Sonny comes out of nowhere and yanks me out of the car.
Later that night I got the news that my little league mafia fiends had died. The toys they had prepared for the colored went off as one of them threw one back at the car. The car exploded and there they were. Wasted talent. Sonny had saved my life! I was grateful for him. He saved me and I had to tell him.
"He saved my life," I said with gratefulness.
I had to tell him. I wanted to thank him. I wanted to thank my father for saving my life. I ran as fast I could to the bar.
It was time for me to tell him I forgave him for what he had done to my mother. I was just so grateful. When I got to the bar I spotted him from afar. All I saw was him smiling at me waving. I kept waving back.
All of a sudden I felt a strange vibe. But all I could see was Sonny's (my father's) big smile. Out of all the smiling faces I focused on one; a face whom was not smiling, a face who was serious and strange. I quickly saw him as he was pulling out his gun from his pocket. In less than a fraction of a second everything stopped. I had jumped in front of my father. I sacrificed my life for him. I realized I was slowly dying. Next thing you know out of nowhere my father comes in and cries out. The last thing I saw and heard was my father's words to me.
"You can't go C! Stay with me! You can't leave me son! I love you!" Sonny said as he held my bloody body as hard as he could while my eyes closed for the last time.
As C had given his last breath, Lorenzo (his father) was crying and screaming along with Sonny. He didn't even care that Sonny called him son or was holding him. He knew he had to give those last few seconds of C's life to him and as much as he wanted to push Sonny away from C, he couldn't.
Weeks went by and the only thing on Lorenzo's mind was his words of advice to C when he would demand him to stay away from Sonny.
"The worst thing in life is wasted talent," Lorenzo knew that his son could have been someone of great honor, "you did a good thing for a bad man son." Lorenzo said as he cried over C's grave.
