The Godfather

 “The Godfather” By Mario Puzo
 
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and eat.” As soon as he said it he regretted it. 
His Uncle Al was on him like a cat on a mouse. Not so much for the insult to his sister 
this particular day but because it was obvious that he often talked to his mother in such 
a fashion when they were alone. Tommy never dared say such a thing in from of her 
brother. This particular Sunday he had just been careless. To his misfortune. 
Before the frightened eyes of the two women, Al Neri gave his nephew a merciless, 
careful, physical beating. At first the youth made an attempt at self-defense but soon 
gave that up and begged for mercy. Neri slapped his face until the lips were swollen and 
bloody. He rocked the kid’s head back and slammed him against the wall. He punched 
him in the stomach, then got him prone on the floor and slapped his face into the carpet. 
He told the two women to wait and made Tommy go down the street and get into his 
car. There he put the fear of God into him. “If my sister ever tells me you talk like that to 
her again, this beating will seem like kisses from a broad,” he told Tommy. “I want to see 
you straighten out. Now go up the house and tell my wife I’m waiting for her.” 
It was two months after this that Al Neri got back from a late shift on the force and found 
his wife had left him. She had packed all her clothes and gone back to her family. Her 
father told him that Rita was afraid of him, that she was afraid to live with him because 
of his temper. Al was stunned with disbelief. He had never struck his wife, never 
threatened her in any way, had never felt anything but affection for her. But he was so 
bewildered by her action that he decided to let a few days go by before he went over to 
her family’s house to talk to her. 
It was unfortunate that the next night he ran into trouble on his shift. His car answered a 
call in Harlem, a report of a deadly assault. As usual Neri jumped out of the patrol car 
while it was still rolling to a stop. It was after midnight and he was carrying his huge 
flashlight. It was easy spotting the trouble. There was a crowd gathered outside a 
tenement doorway. One Negro woman said to Neri, “There’s a man in there cutting a 
little girl.” 
Neri went into the hallway. There was an open door at the far end with light streaming 
out and he could hear moaning. Still handling the flashlight, he went down the hall and 
through the open doorway. 
He almost fell over two bodies stretched out on the floor. One was a Negro woman of 
about twenty-five. The other was a Negro girl of no more than twelve. Both were bloody 
from razor cuts on their faces and bodies. In the living room Neri saw the man who was 

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