The Godfather

 “The Godfather” By Mario Puzo
 
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stoop and unlock his hands from the railing. Standing up, he could see the kids look at 
him with the staring, sickened faces of people who had witnessed the degradation of a 
fellow human being. He was a little dizzy but if was more from shock, the raw fear that 
had taken command of his body; he was not badly hurt despite the shower of heavy 
blows. He let Coach lead him by the arm into the back room of the candy store and put 
ice on his face, which, though it was not cut or bleeding, was lumpy with swelling 
bruises. The fear was subsiding now and the humiliation he had suffered made him sick 
to his stomach so that he had to throw up. Coach held his head over the sink, supported 
him as if he were drunk, then helped him upstairs to the apartment and made him lie 
down in one of the bedrooms. Carlo never noticed that Sally Rags had disappeared. 
Sally Rags had walked down to Third Avenue and called Rocco Lampone to report what 
had happened. Rocco took the news calmly and in his turn called his caporegime, Pete 
Clemenza. Clemenza groaned and said, “Oh, Christ, that goddamn Sonny and his 
temper,” but his finger had prudently clicked down on the hook so that Rocco never 
heard his remark. 
Clemenza called the house in Long Beach and got Tom Hagen. Hagen was silent for a 
moment and then he said, “Send some of your people and cars out on the road to Long 
Beach as soon as you can, just in case Sonny gets held up by traffic or an accident. 
When he gets sore like that he doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing. Maybe some of 
our friends on the other side will hear he was in town. You sever can tell.” 
Clemenza said doubtfully, “By the time I could get anybody on the road, Sonny will be 
home. That goes for the Tattaglias too.” 
“I know,” Hagen said patiently. “But if something out of the ordinary happens, Sonny 
may be held up. Do the best you can, Pete.” 
Grudgingly Clemenza called Rocco Lampone and told him to get a few people and cars 
and cover the road to Long Beach. He himself went out to his beloved Cadillac and with 
three of the platoon of guards who now garrisoned his home, started over the Atlantic 
Beach Bridge, toward New York City. 
One of the hangers-on around the candy store, a small bettor on the payroll of the 
Tattaglia Family as an informer, called the contact he had with his people. But the 
Tattaglia Family had not streamlined itself for the war, the contact still had to go all the 
way through the insulation layers before he finally got to the caporegime, who contacted 
the Tattaglia chief. By that time Sonny Corleone was safely back in the mall, in his 

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