The Godfather

 “The Godfather” By Mario Puzo
 
347
old friend and Godfather as lovingly as a mother prepares a bride for her wedding. 
Everyone commented on how not even death itself had been able to erase the nobility 
and the dignity of the great Don’s countenance and such remarks made Amerigo 
Bonasera fill with knowing pride, a curious sense of power. Only he knew what a terrible 
massacre death had perpetrated on the Don’s appearance. 
All the old friends and servitors came. Nazorine, his wife, his daughter and her husband 
and their children, Lucy Mancini came with Freddie from Las Vegas. Tom Hagen and his 
wife and children, the Dons from San Francisco and Los Angeles, Boston and 
Cleveland. Rocco Lampone and Albert Neri were pallbearers with Clemenza and Tessio 
and, of course, the sons of the Don. The mall and all its houses were filled with floral 
wreaths. 
Outside the gates of the mall were the newspapermen and photographers and a small 
truck that was known to contain FBI men with their movie cameras recording this epic. 
Some newspapermen who tried to crash the funeral inside found that the gate and fence 
were manned with security guards who demanded identification and an invitation card. 
And though they were treated with the utmost courtesy, refreshment sent out to them, 
they were not permitted inside. They tried to speak with some of the people coming out 
but were met with stony stares and not a syllable. 
Michael Corleone spent most of the day in the corner library room with Kay, Tom Hagen 
and Freddie. People were ushered in to see him, to offer their condolences. Michael 
received them with all courtesy even when some of them addressed him as Godfather 
or Don Michael, only Kay noticing his lips tighten with displeasure. 
Clemenza and Tessio came to join this inner circle and Michael personally served them 
with a drink. There was some gossip of business. Michael informed them that the mall 
and all its houses were to be sold to a development and construction company. At an 
enormous profit, still another proof of the great Don’s genius. 
They all understood that now the whole empire would be in the West. That the Corleone 
Family would liquidate its power in New York. Such action had been awaiting the 
retirement or death of the Don. 
It was nearly ten years since there had been such a celebration of people in this house, 
nearly ten years since the wedding of Constanzia Corleone and Carlo Rizzi, so 
somebody said. Michael walked to the window that looked out on the garden. That long 
time ago he had sat in the garden with Kay never dreaming that so curious a destiny 

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