The Godfather

 “The Godfather” By Mario Puzo
 
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at the blackboard. One guy who made big bets looked down at the little girl he was 
holding by the hand and said teasingly, “Who do you like today, Honey, Giants or the 
Pirates?” The little girl, fascinated by the colorful names, said, “Are Giants stronger than 
Pirates?” The father laughed. 
A line began to form in front of the two writers. When a writer filled one of his sheets he 
tore it off, wrapped the money he had collected in it and handed it to Carlo. Carlo went 
out the back exit of the room and up a flight of steps to an apartment which housed the 
candy store owner’s family. He called in the bets to his central exchange and put the 
money in a small wall safe that was hidden by an extended window drape. Then he 
went back down into the candy store after having first burned the bet sheet and flushed 
its ashes down the toilet bowl. 
None of the Sunday games started before two P.M. because of the blue laws, so after 
the first crowd of bettors, family men who had to get their bets in and rush home to take 
their families to the beach, came the trickling of bachelor gamblers or the diehards who 
condemned their families to Sundays in the hot city apartments. These bachelor bettors 
were the big gamblers, they bet heavier and came back around four o’clock to bet the 
second games of doubleheaders. They were the ones who made Carlo’s Sundays a 
full-time day with overtime, though some married men called in from the beach to try 
and recoup their losses. 
By one-thirty the betting had trickled off so that Carlo and Sally Rags could go out and 
sit on the stoop beside the candy store and get some fresh air. They watched the 
stickball game the kids were having. A police car went by. They ignored it. This book 
had very heavy protection at the precinct and couldn’t be touched on a local level. A raid 
would have to be ordered from the very top and even then a warning would come 
through in plenty of time. 
Coach came out and sat beside them. They gossiped a while about baseball and 
women. Carlo said laughingly, “I had to bat my wife around again today, teach her who’s 
boss.” 
Coach said casually, “She’s knocked up pretty big now, ain’t she?” 
“Ahh, I just slapped her face a few times,” Carlo said. “I didn’t hurt her.” He brooded for 
a moment. “She thinks she can boss me around, I don’t stand for that.” 
There were still a few bettors hanging around shooting the breeze, talking baseball, 
some of them sitting on the steps above the two writers and Carlo. Suddenly the kids 

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