Chapter 6

Gallo sat down in the car. Eddie sat down next to him, silently grinning to himself over the brilliant performance. He looked over to Gallo with amusement bubbling out of his very words, "I could have been nominated for a friggin' Oscar! My brother Sean always said that I should have become a big time actor like he did, but hell, Dad was pissed off enough that his older son was leaving the family business."

Gallo shrugged, "Let's get going, man. Joe never liked lateness." He was referring to when he would go play at Eddie's house when they were in school together. Eddie would sometimes get an earful from his father about how he hadn't come home from school on time.

Eddie chuckled, "You're right there, bud. Let's get going."

Turning the key, he revved off from Alice's house. Eddie popped in a CD with one hand while the other hand stayed on the wheel. Gallo jumped from the volume that he'd forgotten that Eddie always used, then recognized the song as "I Gotcha" by Joe Tex.

He looked incredulously to his left, "Are you fucking kidding me? We listened to this when it was new!"

Eddie grinned, "Hey! It's awesome, asshole! You should hear some tunes playing on K-BILLY's Super Sounds of the Seventies Weekend. They play stuff you haven't heard since your voice dropped."

Gallo snorted, "Yeah, of course I'd like to be reminded of that stage in my life, thanks a lot."

Eddie laughed, "Oh yeah, you and I nearly failed gym that one year too. Remember that teacher we had? What was his name?"

"His name was Mr. Tony Livingston,' Gallo muttered. He still remembered that sadistic asshole. His son Beaumont had also been in the school, and as far as he knew, the stupid idiot hadn't done anything good with his life since. Who would with a dad that considered it pathetic that a fifteen year old couldn't turn into goddamn John Rambo by the end of the year?

Gallo felt angry at the previous hurts in his life. He hadn't been much of a social guy in high school. Eddie had been his only friend, and that might have saved him because of Eddie's popularity. But no, he was looked down on as the weird tag-along that Eddie cheerfully tolerated. So in Eddie's presence, he was tolerated by the rest, but they'd never have bothered if not for Eddie's sake.

The deep gratitude he was supposed to have for Eddie had long been suppressed in Gallo's mind, along with most of his childhood memories. But all this talk of the 'good old days' from Eddie was bringing it all up.

'Was he doing this on purpose?' Gallo thought to himself angrily.

Eddie looked over, and the bitterness that Gallo was feeling must have revealed itself in his facial expression. He shook his head, "Relax Tommy, just sit back and relax. We're gonna go meet the Don himself now to discuss the favour you owe him." Laughing at another 70's reference, he heard the song end, then promptly switched it back to the beginning of the song.

Gallo groaned, "You haven't changed at all, you used to hear a song five fucking times in a row in high school and then listen to it a couple of days later just when everybody was in the car! Sean threatened to kill you on a regular routine!"

Eddie laughed, "Good songs never get old!"

Gallo cursed under his breath as Eddie drove the two of them to the Cabots' house.

When Gallo entered the room, Joe was sipping some black coffee from a brown mug. Gallo nodded his greetings, and Joe rasped out, "How ya doin' Tommy?"

Gallo shrugged and scratched his nose out of nervousness, "Not bad. I'm getting by with the store." He felt awkward- the store was the very reason that he sat here now.

Joe put the mug down the same time as Eddie came in, "Heard that you'd hooked up with some negro girl."

Gallo flinched at the word Joe used so casually, but didn't want to appear weak in front of Joe, so he said nothing about it. Instead, he shrugged, "Her name's Alice."

Joe nodded, "Hm. She any good-looking?"

Gallo felt worse: it made no difference that Joe thought he was making polite conversation, "Sure. She's a great cook too."

Eddie grinned, "A bit gullible though."

Joe waved a hand at Eddie, "Come on, now. We need to get down to business here."

Eddie clapped a hand on Gallo's shoulders, "Okay, Tommy, this is what we need you to do for us. See we're organizing something, but we're short of guys at this point. It won't work if we don't have enough people."

Gallo frowned, "So what's it about? What's going on?"

Eddie faltered, and grinned exasperatedly at his father, "Christ, how do you open up to this?"

Joe grunted, displeased by Eddie's uncertainty. He folded his hands on the surface of his desk, "It's a robbery. We're gonna hit that big jewelry store not five blocks from here. They just got a new shipment of diamonds, and we're gettin' ready to take it for ourselves."

Gallo almost froze in surprise. He had not believed that this was what he would be asked to do. To join up with a gang of criminals to potentially hurt people in an armed robbery!

Eddie noticed his friend's distress, "Hey don't worry, these guys don't know you, you don't know them. You won't have to carry a gun if you don't want to. We know you aren't a criminal, you'll be the getaway driver."

Gallo felt a bit of relief, but the panic returned like lightening. It didn't matter if he drove the car, he was still a criminal! And he could get arrested by the cops! Maybe he'd run into Holdaway... Gallo's heart almost stopped as he thought of the look on Alice's face when she found out about this. He didn't want to lose her.

Joe thumped the table, "Listen, Tommy, you have to do this for us, and afterward, we're squared off. You don't owe us anything, you go back to your store, and your broad, and you look back on this memory, and fucking laugh about it. It's no big deal, and hell, you get a free trip south out of it."

Gallo noted that he would indeed need to take a quick vacation to avoid the heat. What was going on? What would he do about Alice?

Eddie seemed to read his mind, "Bring the girl along. The more the merrier."

The idea of Alice, whose aunt was married to a police lieutenant, meeting the gang of crooks who might have shot innocent people in the street didn't appeal to Gallo, but he knew that he owed this one last thing, and he was a free man.

Even as he thought of it, a part of him awoke to the idea of being the getaway driver. He wouldn't be watching this from a safe little seat in a movie theatre. He'd be in the middle of the action! He'd never been much of an athlete as a youth, and he had always envied those tough-looking bastards who stood outside the school yard. He'd taken up smoking just to be in their proximity, a habit that he'd never lost, but he'd just been isolated even more after that. Wasn't it every guy's dream to carry a gun and live like those cowboys he'd seen as a little boy? Those same tough bastards that had robbed banks easily and had ridden off into the desert with wild laughter and smiles? Was this the chance for Gallo to finally achieve a taste of what that was like?

He focused back in on the two men in the room. Eddie had noticed his changing expression, and looked relieved. Joe hadn't noticed as fast as his son, and still peered at Gallo as though he needed to persuade the man again.

Gallo waved a hand, "Alright fine, I'll do it. Shit, I'll carry a fucking gun, and I'll get the guys outta there. Then we all go to Hawaii or something?"

Joe nodded, "Yup. For a couple of weeks. I don't know what the hell you're gonna tell that girl of yours, though."

Eddie looked at his father, "Well, so far I'm the brother whose soon-to-be wife cheated on, and now the wedding's cancelled, so maybe we work our way up from there?"

Joe merely stared incredulously at the elaborate lie constructed by the two guys in front of him.

Gallo's eyes lit up, "Hey! That's it! We'll tell her that my brother's taking a trip down to Hawaii, and he's invited his close friends, along with his brother and girlfriend. That'd work." He glanced at Joe, "You might have to pass off as my father, though."

Joe grunted, "I haven't heard bigger shit than when Sean starred in that tough-boys movie. Hopefully this works out better than that did."

Eddie laughed, then turned to Gallo, "So you're in?"

Gallo nodded, "Yeah."

Eddie smiled, "Good. Just one more thing: we're gonna give you a name so that nobody knows who you are. And then you won't be able to recognize anyone."

Clever, Gallo thought. Why did nobody ever think of that before in the movies? He spoke up, "So what's my name, then?"

Joe didn't answer; Eddie was the one who responded, "We're still getting through the list of people, so we're not sure who everyone's gonna be. But for now, you'll be Mr. Brown."

Joe chose that time to begin telling him about the plan, and even after he'd dismissed Gallo for the day with a formal handshake, after Eddie had driven him back home, Gallo wished he'd spoken his mind about how Mr. Brown sounded way to much like Mr. Shit.