The Godfather

 “The Godfather” By Mario Puzo
 
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open. He also had a small glass-topped table by the bed which held some other 
instruments. He was all business now, examining her, sticking his fingers inside her and 
moving them around. She was beginning to feel humiliated when he kissed her on the 
navel and said, almost absentmindedly, “First time I’ve enjoyed my work.” Then he 
flipped her over and thrust a finger in her rectum, feeling around, but his other hand was 
stroking her neck affectionately. When he was finished he turned her right side up again, 
kissed her tenderly on the mouth and said, “Baby, I’m going to build you a whole new 
thing down there, and then I’ll try it out personally. It will be a medical first, I’ll be able to 
write a paper on it for the official journals.” 
Jules did everything with such good-humored affection, he so obviously cared for her, 
that Lucy got over her shame and embarrassment. He even had the medical textbook 
down off its shelf to show her a case like her own and the surgical procedure to correct 
it. She found herself quite interested. 
“It’s a health thing too,” Jules said. “If you don’t get it corrected you’re going to have a 
hell of a lot of trouble later on with your whole plumbing system. The structure becomes 
progressively weaker unless it’s corrected by surgery. It’s a damn shame that 
old-fashioned prudery keeps a lot of doctors from properly diagnosing and correcting the 
situation, and a lot of women from complaining about it.” 
“Don’t talk about it, please don’t talk about it,” Lucy said. 
He could see that she was still to some extent ashamed of her secret, embarrassed by 
her “ugly defect.” Though to his medically trained mind this seemed the height of 
silliness, he was sensitive enough to identify with her. It also put him on the right track to 
making her feel better. 
“OK, I know your secret so now I’ll tell you mine,” he said. “You always ask me what I’m 
doing in this town, one of the youngest and most brilliant surgeons in the East.” He was 
mocking some newspaper reports about himself. “The truth is that I’m an abortionist, 
which in itself is not so bad, so is half the medical profession; but I got caught. I had a 
friend, a doctor named Kennedy, we interned together, and he’s a really straight guy but 
he said he’d help me. I understand Tom Hagen had told him if he ever needed help on 
anything the Corleone Family was indebted to him. So he spoke to Hagen. The next 
thing I know the charges were dropped, but the Medical Association and the Eastern 
establishment had me blacklisted. So the Corleone Family got me this job out here. I 
make a good living. I do a job that has to be done. These show girls are always getting 

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