The Godfather

 “The Godfather” By Mario Puzo
 
112
of laughter. It was deep belly laughter, not faking. He was really breaking up. He pointed 
a finger at Michael, trying to speak through gasps of mirth. “You, the high-class college 
kid, you never wanted to get mixed up in the Family business. Now you wanta kill a 
police captain and the Turk just because you got your face smashed by McCluskey. 
You’re taking it personal, it’s just business and you’re taking it personal. You wanta kill 
these two guys just because you got slapped in the face. It was all a lot of crap. All 
these years it was just a lot of crap.” 
Clemenza and Tessio, completely misunderstanding, thinking that Sonny was laughing 
at his young brother’s bravado for making such an offer, were also smiling broadly and a 
little patronizingly at Michael. Only Hagen warily kept his face impassive. 
Michael looked around at all of them, then stared at Sonny, who still couldn’t stop 
laughing. “You’ll take both of them?” Sonny said. “Hey, kid, they won’t give you medals, 
they put you in the electric chair. You know that? This is no hero business, kid, you don’t 
shoot people from a mile away. You shoot when you see the whites of their eyes like we 
got taught in school, remember? You gotta stand right next to them and blow their 
heads off and their brains get all over your nice Ivy League suit. How about that, kid, you 
wanta do that just because some dumb cop slapped you around?” He was still laughing. 
Michael stood up. “You’d better stop laughing,” he said. The change in him was so 
extraordinary that the smiles vanished from the faces of Clemenza and Tessio. Michael 
was not tall or heavily built but his presence seemed to radiate danger. In that moment 
he was a reincarnation of Don Corleone himself. His eyes had gone a pale tan and his 
face was bleached of color. He seemed at any moment about to fling himself on his 
older and stronger brother. There was no doubt that if he had had a weapon in his 
hands Sonny would have been in danger. Sonny stopped laughing, and Michael said to 
him in a cold deadly voice, “Don’t you think I can do it, you son of a bitch?” 
Sonny had got over his laughing fit. “I know you can do it,” he said. “I wasn’t laughing at 
what you said. I was just laughing at how funny things turn out. I always said you were 
the toughest one in the Family, tougher than the Don himself. You were the only one 
who could stand off the old man. I remember you when you were a kid. What a temper 
you had then. Hell, you even used to fight me and I was a lot older than you. And 
Freddie had to beat the shit out of you at least once a week. And now Sollozzo has you 
figured for the soft touch in the Family because you let McCluskey hit you without 
fighting back and you wouldn’t get mixed up in the Family fights. He figures he got 
nothing to worry about if he meets you head to head. And McCluskey too, he’s got you 

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