The Godfather

 “The Godfather” By Mario Puzo
 
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with the Don, known for his logical reasonableness. They had come to hate Sonny for 
his bloodthirstiness, which they considered barbaric. Also not good business sense. 
Nobody wanted the old days back again with all its turmoil and trouble. 
One evening Connie Corleone received an anonymous phone call, a girl’s voice, asking 
for Carlo. “Who is this?” Connie asked. 
The girl on the other end giggled and said, “I’m a friend of Carlo’s. I just wanted to tell 
him I can’t see him tonight. I have to go out of town.” 
“You lousy bitch,” Connie Corleone said. She screamed it again into the phone. “You 
lousy tramp bitch.” There was a click on the other end. 
Carlo had gone to the track for that afternoon and when he came home in the late 
evening he was sore at losing and half drunk from the bottle he always carried. As soon 
as he stepped into the door, Connie started screaming curses at him. He ignored her 
and went in to take a shower. When he came out he dried his naked body in front of her 
and started dolling up to go out. 
Connie stood with hands on hips, her face pointy and white with rage. “You’re not going 
anyplace,” she said. “Your girl friend called and said she can’t make it tonight. You lousy 
bastard, you have the nerve to give your whores my phone number. I’ll kill you, you 
bastard.” She rushed at him, kicking and scratching. 
He held her off with one muscular forearm. “You’re crazy,” he said coldly. But she could 
see he was worried, as if he knew the crazy girl he was screwing would actually pull 
such a stunt. “She was kidding around, some nut,” Carlo said. 
Connie ducked around his arm and clawed at his face. She got a little bit of his cheek 
under her fingernails. With surprising patience he pushed her away. She noticed he was 
careful because of her pregnancy and that gave her the courage to feed her rage. She 
was also excited. Pretty soon she wouldn’t be able to do anything, the doctor had said 
no sex for the last two months and she wanted it, before the last two months started. Yet 
her wish to inflict a physical injury on Carlo was very real too. She followed him into the 
bedroom. 
She could see he was scared and that filled her with contemptuous delight. “You’re 
staying home,” she said, “you’re not going out.” 
“OK, OK,” he said. He was still undressed, only wearing his shorts. He liked to go 
around the house like that, he was proud of his V-shaped body, the golden skin. Connie 

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