The Godfather

 “The Godfather” By Mario Puzo
 
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lousy he’d given up. And his throat would hurt like hell the next day, hurt in a different 
way than before the warts had been taken off. Hurt worse, burning. He was afraid to 
keep singing, afraid that he’d lose his voice forever, or ruin it. 
And if he couldn’t sing, what the hell was the use of everything else? Everything else 
was just bullshit. Sing was the only thing he really knew. Maybe he knew more about 
singing and his kind of music than anybody else in the world. He was that good, he 
realized now. All those years had made him a real pro. Nobody could tell him, the right 
and the wrong, he didn’t have to ask anybody. He knew. What a waste, what a damn 
waste. 
It was Friday and he decided to spend the weekend with Virginia and the kids. He called 
her up as he always did to tell her he was coming. Really to give her a chance to say no. 
She never said no. Not in all the years they had been divorced. Because she would 
never say no to a meeting of her daughters and their father. What a broad, Johnny 
thought. He’d been lucky with Virginia. And though he knew he cared more about her 
than any other woman he knew it was impossible for them to live together sexually. 
Maybe when they were sixty-five, like when you retire, they’d retire together, retire from 
everything. 
But reality shattered these tests when he arrived there and found Virginia was feeling a 
little grouchy herself and the two girls not that crazy to see him because they had been 
promised a weekend visit with some girl friends on a California ranch where they could 
ride horses. 
He told Virginia to send the girls off to the ranch and kissed them good-bye with an 
amused smile. He understood them so well. What kid wouldn’t rather go riding horses 
on a ranch than hang around with a grouchy father who picked his own spots as a 
father. He said to Virginia, “I’ll have a few drinks and then I’ll shove off too.” 
“All right,” she said. She was having one of her bad days, rare, but recognizable. It 
wasn’t too easy for her leading this kind of life. 
She saw him taking an extra large drink. “What are you cheering yourself up for?” 
Virginia asked. “Everything is going so beautifully for you. I never dreamed you had it in 
you to be such a good businessman.” 
Johnny smiled at her. “It’s not so hard,” he said. At the same time he was thinking, so 
that’s what was wrong. He understood women and he understood now that Virginia was 
down because she thought he was having everything his own way. Women really hated 

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