Finding the bar

A cold wind coming in from Lake Michigan blew over the docks of Chicago. The sun was struggling in a losing battle with the coming night. A tired fisherman moored his boat while his deckhand pulled the catch on the waiting handcart.

Jack had just come from the funeral. No one had been there other than the priest, hired by the city council and the gravediggers anxious to hurry things up so they could finish their day. He pushed open the door of the bar that was tucked away between two warehouses close to pier 3. Hardly anyone looked up and the atmosphere was difficult to read. There was tension on some faces. A group of men at the back seemed rather cheerful, while some separated individuals sobbed quietly or stared at their empty glasses, lost in thoughts.

The keeper served the rum quickly and Jack looked around, shortly thereafter being asked what his story was.
The man seemed friendly, with a moustache that seemed to be asymmetrical.

About the past

Their conversation was strangely open, while hardly knowing one and another.

“I just buried my father.” Jack said. “For some reason the priest kept referring to him as Max, while his name was really Bob. Maybe the man had so many funerals to visit that he mixed up the names. Or maybe my father had used an alias, as he might have considered that safer considering his grandfather killed the notorious Godfather DoctorBoom, whose supporters still roam these streets today.”
 

About today

After having talked history, their conversation inevitably turned to the sudden bloodshed and arrests that were happening on the shady side of the law. The FBN was coming down hard and left the world of organised crime in chaos.

“Sure, today was bad, because I lost my father. But this is the business we are in. In some strange way, I was at peace with this day way before it happened. But today was really bad because law-enforcement got the best of us. As a collective we failed to uphold our values of Loyalty, Respect and Omerta. We allowed these values to become void terminology. Maybe my grandfather was in part responsible for that, so the next motherfucker in charge was thinking 'Hey, this isn’t going to happen to me.’ And they wouldn’t have been wrong there. Neither were the motherfuckers in charge before them. Nor were the motherfuckers that shot each of those people. This is our fucking business.”

…

“But somewhere running around in circles, we slipped. We let it get too far. There’s a chicken & egg dilemma here. Everyone is right to some extent. Everyone has been an asshole to some extent. But despite of that, previously our world has always kept turning around and for some reason, this time it didn’t. And let’s not point fingers that the associates were less trustable this time, so more desperate measures had to be put in place. This late regime was undeniable efficient, but with horrible results for anyone that wasn’t them. Indeed, nothing they did was unique to them, but different because of the sheer scale and persistent execution of the culling. We didn’t see things turn so dramatically during any of the recent administrations in power, so this was simply different. If the effects are this different, the deed was different. Even the last time Disorderś lineage ran things, stuff was completely different. But I don’t want to point a finger to this past regime either. As a community we have become weak. We allowed things to get this far as a collective. Neither in backbone or alternatives, no one has been able to turn things around for the assumed better and that’s a shame. The fact that the FBN brought down the top of our community because things went out of control, means we failed as a collective. We lost. All of us.”
 

About tomorrow

The man was looking at his empty glass and then at Jack, as if he wanted a reward for listening to all that. The barkeeper quickly topped both glasses up after a simple hand gesture of Jack.

“So all this is just a story. I am just a variable in a story that keeps repeating, which involves so many different people, right? What’s next is difficult. Some would see this as a new start. Some are afraid things will continue as before. Whatever will be, will be.

I can just decide for myself. I can choose the life that I want to live. I believe that for the life I want to live on this side of the law, a lot of people need a change of attitude. A more healthy, okay mindset. And please, let’s not become pussies who surprise each other with a box of cupcakes every 1.000th telegram. Fuck that shit. That’s not what we are here for, but we do need to become a little bit more human. To prevent the FBN from intervening with our business again. To make things enjoyable for all of us, despite the reality of competition. I promote competition, but not to the extent we all lose.

And for that, maybe people have to show things can be different. People have to take a stand. Dare to be.

To the lineage of DoctorBoom, I would like to extend my apologies for my grandfather’s actions. I fully agree with him doing what was necessary, but after all they had been through, that was a stab in the back nonetheless. I don’t feel like having to make something up, nor do I seek for approval of my lineage. I’m just putting out a hand here, out of recognition that my father did enjoy most of his time serving DoctorBoom. Well, I’m not apologising, nor reaching out to anyone else, so that was it.

My father lived long, but lost his enthusiasm about life while hiding his lineage. That was his biggest loss. I won’t lose that part of my identity. I will engage people and I’m going to try to help people in this community. I’m going to offer my help, ideas and respectful criticism to the new leaders and those that remained in place, if they would have it. 

I will be honest. I am going to build a gun while doing that. Unless I create a respectful, trustful relationship with leadership I fully expect to be shot before I can do any damage, and I would not complain about that. But what’s the rush? Give me a chance until then and I will give you a chance as well. We all lost enough here.

Let’s start winning, shall we?