Mr. Dicaprio, Mr. Dicaprio, sir excuse me, Mr. Dicaprio can I get you anything?  The voice called out only to receive no answer. Tony Dicaprio sat at a table that was outside of a bistro in Syracuse Sicily.   Tony returned to Sicily for two reasons.   As he sat there he began to recall a question he had asked his grandfather.   

He looked at the clouds as they slowly took different shapes in the morning sky.   He sipped his coffee slowly as he thought on those days when he was a small child.  He was at his happiest when he was in Sicily.  There he understood the life, they why behind what was expected, why things needed to be done properly.   The respect of the women in the country and for the men of honor.  

He loved how his grandfather held court resolving problems in the local town and how they showed love for his grandfather who protected them and treated them as if they all were his friends and family.  Lucious Dicaprio was the head of the Dicaprio family until his death.   On that day his younger brother Santino Dicaprio took over and merged the smaller Pirazzi family into the Dicaprio family.  

Tony was crushed when his grandfather died, that was a week of hell for him.  He could never forget that day.  His Grandfather was passed that Sunday and was buried on Tuesday his mother was killed in a car bomb and his father declared his vendetta and succeeded but it also sent him to prison where he died exactly a year later.   Tony was 10 then when he and his brother Vito went to live with the rest of the Dicaprio family.   

Tony looked at his cigarette as it burned slowly his anger grow slowly within each time he thought on that week.  He was too young to help his father and too weak to watch his mother funeral without shedding a tear.  Too young to take over the Family his Grandfather wanted him to head.  Tony looked at the bottle of POI red wine It was something he loved and wanted whenever he went to Sicily.  It was his Grandfather first choice in wines.  It had a sweet fruity taste and a beautiful scent and coloring.  

He poured a small amount into his glass and swirled it around in the glass before drinking it quickly to pour even more into the glass.  Then he heard the voice of his grandfather telling him how costa nostra began in Sicily.   

My bambino let papa tell you a story about men of honor?  A long time ago about 350 years ago the holiday which we celebrate we call  the Sicilian Vespers, it all started on Easter Monday as the bells were ringing out, calling the faithful to Vespers.  An insult from a French soldier directed at a Sicilian lady was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Since 1266, in fact, the Angevin French had been ruling Sicily with an iron rod, imposing high taxes and generally insulting and mistreating our people at will.   Then we stood up to stop this unfair treatment. Rioting broke out in the streets of Palermo, the French were massacred in the streets by the hundreds. News quickly travelled around the island and the revolt became evermore widespread until the entire island became practically free of Angevin rule.

The last staglers of the Angevin army were given shelter in the Castle of Sperlinga by the townsfolk. They lasted a year. Testament to this kindness is testified to by a phrase engraved into the walls: "Quod Siculis placuit sola Sperlinga negavit" (Sperlinga alone refused what pleased the Sicilians).

On hearing the news, the King of Naples, and therefore Sicily, Charles of Anjou, was furious. War was announced and the Sicilians, not having an army of their own appealed to various sponsors for protection.

They made rather a bad miscalculation by asking the Pope for aid - his reply, so it is said, was to excommunicate the entire island.  Eventually, however, after the inevitable twists and turns, plots and counterplots, the Sicilians turned to Peter III, King of Aragon, who accepted to take Sicily into his kingdom and launch a war against the Angevin Kings of Naples that would last 20 years.  And so started 400 years of Spanish domination in Sicily.  

The nobility owned most of the land and enforced law and order through their private armies.  The owners of such estates needed to hire full-time guardians.    The barons steadily sold off or rented their lands to private citizens.  The result was a huge boom in landowners with this increase in property owners and commerce disputes that needed settling, contracts that needed enforcing, transactions that needed oversight, and properties that needed protecting.  After Italy annexed Sicily it redistributed a large share of public and church land to private citizens.  These aristocrats would constantly be in the debt for rent and taxes.  This lead to the loss of their properties entirely.

 In countryside towns that lacked formal constabulary, local elites responded to banditry by recruiting young men into private armies to hunt down thieves and negotiate the return of stolen property, in exchange for a pardon for the thieves and a fee from the victims.   All this was accompanied by harsh feelings of hate, passion for revenge, and the well known popular concept of “who does not do justice by himself has no honor.”

Then the cost of having an army was to great.  The barons were releasing their private armies to let the state take over the job of enforcing the law.  Other released them because  It was cheaper for these estates to contract their protection to a mafioso rather than employing full-time guards.  

The smaller villages started banded together in groups to protect themselves and carry out their own justice.  In Sicily, the term “mafioso,” or Mafia member, initially had no criminal connotations and was used to refer to a person who was suspicious of central authority.   

The soldiers were often made up of former bandits and criminals, usually the most skilled and violent of them.   This saved communities the trouble of training their own policemen, but some of these soldiers  were more inclined to collude with their former brethren rather than destroy them.   A mafioso in these regions could protect multiple small estates at once, which gave him great independence and leverage to charge high prices.  The landowners in this region were also frequently absent and could not watch over their properties should the protector withdraw, further increasing his bargaining power.

The new authorities were not up to the task, largely due to their inexperience with capitalism.   Lack of manpower was also a problem; there were to  few active policemen for the entire island.   Some towns did not have a  police force, only visited every few months by some troops to collect malcontents, leaving criminals to operate with impunity in the interim.  Compounding these problems was banditry; rising food prices, the loss of public and church lands pushed many desperate peasants to steal.  That then grow into kidnappings for ransom, murder, robbery, and witness intimidation.  The Mafia also maintained funds to support the families of imprisoned members  

In the face of rising crime, booming commerce, and inefficient authorities, property owners turned to extralegal arbitrators and protectors. These extralegal protectors eventually organized themselves into the what we have today families or men of honor.   We became an essential part of social structure, one which coexisted with society and its formal laws, unlike the common forms of criminality.  We integrated ourselves into society.  The families, developed their own system for justice and retribution, carrying out their actions in secret.  The people trust us to do what is right not the so called politicians that merily seek money and fame.  We do what we to to maintain common law and decency.  One day when you lead this family you must uphold the honor and dole out justice.   

Tony heard the young waitress calling out his name over and over again.  He lost his memory of his grandfather telling the story and was back among the present.  He smiled and attempted to pour another glass of wine but the bottle was empty and the sun was starting to set.   He shook his head as he realized that the memory was so vivid that he lost all track of time.  

Tony walked from the inn they stayed in the night before with four armed men.  These men were members of the Dicaprio family there in Sicily.  They were men that were respected and known for one thing that they did perfectly.  Jaspher, Silvio and his younger brother Nello & Donte they were the enforcers and long arm of the Dicaprio family.  Tony walked and talked with them he did more listening than talking.   The day was just starting, the sun was rising as they walked to Leontini a small town just north of Syracuse.   Tony wanted to walk like in the old days only the rich had cars and that would have given him away for what he wanted to do.   He had on farmers clothes a sawed off double barrel shotgun with string tied to it for a makeshift sling, just about everyone travelled looking like that.  Everyone hunted over there and those that didnt carry a shotgun carried a knife for protection.    

He was going there for a reason, the man that gave the order seventeen years ago to kill Tony’s father was out of prison and when Tony’s granduncle took over the Family, he granted Tony request that this man be spared until his freedom and on that day he personally would settle the debt.   This was the Vendetta that the Dicaprio’s left for Tony to do.   Tony’s younger brother had to wait if Tony failed then Vito could claim the debt.  

This man was Matteo Vaccaro and he controlled a small clan they were cattle thieves, extortionist and murderers, they were kept in check by Lucious Dicaprio Tony’s grandfather a man of honor he ruled with love and those that had paid and those that were in need received.  He was fair and yes at times he took but only after he asked and if he took he would return later.  He was respected as a wise Don and if he loaned it charged a fair tax less than the banks and cheaper than the courts for justice.  The Vaccaro leader was feared but hated and much smaller than the Dicaprio’s.  It became worse when Tony’s grand uncle Salvatore merged his wife’s family the Pirazzi clan with the Dicaprio’s family into one they became a powerful respected family.  Salvatore collected taxes for anything the Vaccaro did and denied them some rackets that would bring them the attention of the government.  

It was Lucious that first taxed them and had five of Matteo family members executed for the insult for taking from the Dicaprio’s holdings. Matteo father was bitter and died bitter and when he took over wanted revenge.  He blamed Lucious for his father’s death but knew that Lucious could have them all wiped off the map.  So Matteo waited for Lucius to die.  He struct at the right time but Tony’s father was a wise man also. He went to see Salvatore and worked out the plan for the family’s to become one and allow him to repay his Vendetta.  Rosario Dicaprio sat his two son’s down and told them what happen to there mother and what he had to do and how should he fail what they most do.  

Rosario sent his son’s to live with his uncle Salvatore Dicaprio in Catania.   It was there that Tony lived and a year later met his cousins Carlo, Joseph, Stefano and finally another Dicaprio Frank.   Tony remember those days well.  The sun was up as they had a few more miles to go.  Tony stopped under a few trees as they removed there shoes and drank water.  They rested for about an hour before putting there shoe’s back on and heading on there way.     

His thoughts shifted to his first meeting with Francesca Messina.

He was eleven.  She was ten, a skinny tall kid dressed up like a boy.  She was arguing with Vito and Frank about a pond where they were skipping rocks.  Vito nor Frank knew her prior to this occasion and he, being the oldest, didn’t want problems.  So, he went over to make the peace.  He looked at the kid in front of him, with dirty smudges covering half of their face.

“What’s your name?”  He asked.

“Frankie Messina, What’s yours?”  The kid replied, giving him no reason she wasn’t a boy.  Yet there was something about this kid, something that felt different than other boys he knew.  He couldn’t put his finger on it, but whatever it was it caused him to stare.

“What are ya, simple or something?”  Frankie asked.  Clearly, she was picking for a fight, but Tony was  very wise for one so young and so he knew a calm head would help him and his family members avoid a fight.

“Tony… Tony DiCaprio.”  He managed.

She walked from Tony, to Vito and then paused in front of Frank.  It was obvious she realized that he was the hot head of the three of them.  All she had to do was smirk at him and Frank was ready to fight.  The two exchanged verbal jabs, back and forth until it seemed inevitable that they were going to strike each other.  Again, Tony stepped up and put himself between them.

Frankie’s dark eyes locked onto Tony’s.  “Come on then.”  She said.  “You afraid?”

He knew he should feel something definable, anger or amusement, but neither of those things came to mind when Frankie stepped into his personal space.  He felt his heart pounding in his ears but not the sort he usually got before he started a fight.  This was all together new, different, and terrifying in a way that the couldn’t express.  Hoping to defuse the situation with humor and a game, he snatched her hat.

Liquid midnight poured down around her face and onto her shoulders as a full head of girls hair fell down from the freshly removed cap.  Tony was awestruck.   Frankie’s eyes sparkled with fury.   She was the most beautiful creature Tony ever saw and with all her might she slapped across the face, bringing her hands up as if she expected him to return the blow in equal measure – but all Tony could do was smile dumbly.

“I CAN FIGHT YOU!”  She raged.  She pulled back her hand, this time in a fist, but Tony leaned out of the path of her blow.  She’d swung so hard that as she missed him all together and spun round falling into him backwards.  He caught her.  Then lifted her up, gently pushing her away from him, his hands on her hips.  He could feel the beginnings of curves there that his eyes had not seen, and his heart fluttered with the electricity of a young heart’s first crush.  She turned back, giving him a confused look, as his hands lingered a moment too long.

Seeing him lost in his own thoughts, she tried to take advantage.  Giving him a vicious smirk she turned to swung once more, with less force. Startled Tony threw up his hand in defense and caught her by the wrist.  As gently as he could manage with her still struggling, he lowered her arm and released it.

Frank and Vito’s laughter at her must have unsettled her as Francesca took a step backwards and tripped over a root.  Frankie fell hard to the ground and both her bottom and her pride were bruised.  Tony, worried she was hurt, came over and stuck out a hand.  She looked up at him and took it. He pulled her up with such strength that she popped up standing only inches from his face. And for the first of many times in his life, Tony was hit with the impossibly strong urge to place his lips atop hers though it made so little sense to him then.

Looking back now, the memory of her blushing smile, he had to know now that she felt it too.  After a moment, Frankie stepped back and she snatched back her cap.  She turned and ran up the big hill with the old gnarled tree under whose branches they’d spend many a lazy afternoon. Once there, she stopped to yell back, “Tony DiCaprio, you’re the ugliest boy I ever saw!”

Tony smiled grow bigger as his brother walked up to him and looked in his face.  “Tony’s got a girlfriend.”  Vito taunted, and Frank nodded in agreement.  Tony looked at Vito and pushed him to the ground.  Vito was laughing, and Frank then taunted in his best ‘girl’ voice, “Tony you are the ugliest boy ever born.

Tony shook his head laughing said, “No Frank, you are!”

They all laughed as Tony watched her running off in a distance.  He realized then he had no idea who she really was, where she lived or if he would ever see her again.  The thought of never seeing her again absolutely terrified him.  Tony knew he had to find Frankie.

Tony asked everyone he knew if they knew a Frankie, because none of them could remember the surname she’d given.  But, all without much luck.  It wasn’t until Tony and his younger family members went to find their elders with the whole story of a girl named Frankie who dressed as a boy that he found her again.

The Messina family was a powerful family and Francesca was well known as the free-spirited girl who spent more time hunting and playing in the creeks with boys than she ever spent in a kitchen.  It was said, her mother had been ill most of her young life and might be dying.  Her father, a Made-Man was the Don Enzo Messina’s son.  So, it was that the boy’s found their elders at the Messina household for an afternoon on of business and a social gathering.  Frankie watched them coming up the path, a frog lodged tight in her throat, sending her scurrying to the sides of her grandfather and uncles who let her hide in a nearby tree.  Tony didn’t see her from her hiding place, but she saw him, and she went and hid.

Tony sat with the elders and listened, he was learning and was almost invisible accept to the two Don’s that were talking as old friends; the pair of them solidifying their bond and partnership.

“Francesca!”  Her great-aunt called out from the front steps of the main house.

Frankie sighed and dropped down out of the tree mere feet from the place where Tony sat quietly with his family, running to her great-aunt who instantly began giving her a hard time about climbing trees when potatoes needed peeling in preparation for dinner.

“She lives here!”  Vito whispered to Tony, encouraging him to boldness.  “Now’s your chance!”

Tony stood while the men were laughing over Frankie’s exit from the tree.  Tony raced out to the edge of the yard where a peddler was selling small bouquets of flower.  Tony leapt the fence with a well-placed hand and swinging his feet over as if he did it a million times.

The peddler, realizing whose property he was on, stopped as Tony came to him.  The Peddler smiled and handed him nice bouquet of flowers even before Tony had asked for them.

Tony tilted his head, “But I haven’t paid you and I need two bundles of flowers.”  Tony tried to offer him a few coins.

The man refused, but Tony said, “I am Tony Dicaprio, a man of honor like my grandfather and father.  Please…”

The Peddler smiled and tip his hat as he recognized the name.  He took the coins and moved on down the road.  Tony walked back to where the women were sitting outside the kitchen door.  He handed the brightest most perfect set or flowers to Frankie’s great-aunt who lived with and cared for her brother after his wife passed away a few years prior.

Removing his cap squeezing the cap like a rag, “I am Tony DiCaprio.”

Then he divided the remaining bouquet and gave a flower to each girl there, but when he got to Frankie he gave the last five flowers which he had already carefully selected to her… four pink roses and one red one.  The only roses in the set.  He could tell she was tempted to toss them in his face, to rejected them for fear of it making her seem weak in front of her entire family who now watched her so closely.  However, spotting her Grandfather’s eyes upon her from across the yard, she knew she could not.

Instead, she looked into his eyes and saw something there she’d felt only briefly at the riverside.  She slowly took the flowers and against her will a smile came across her face and that of all the women there.

She didn’t want to smile, but as Tony’s youthful toothy smile split his face ear to ear she couldn’t stop herself.  Her Great-Aunt spoke then, “Next Sunday, young man, we will have a dance.  Will you attend?”

Tony never took his eyes off the cleaned faced pretty girl and replied, “Yes ma’am I will be there.”  She heard his reply and then she sniffed the roses, to hide her smile, but her eyes showed her joy and Tony knew he would never be the same again.

Tony smiled as he continued to walk with his men, only to pausing momentarily to look at the beautiful rustic landscape created by God that laid all around him.  The Island of Sicily to most it was a rock where very little grew, but to the people of Sicily it was beautiful fields of wildflowers with rolling hills and history like no other nation.  A land that has yet to be conquered and ruled by foreign power for over a thousand years; the heart of the Sicilian still lives on.

They reached the city Leontini the sun was coming off its highest point as they could smell the meals cooking from a distance.  They made it to a small inn it was a stone brick building with an old broken wooden door.  Tony took as seat as the owner walked over to them.  Tony handed the man two million lire for food for him and his men the owner smiled that is a year’s pay for him.  Tony then ask if they had room for them to sleep the man nodded with joy.  Tony then handed him another three million lire and the owner ensure that they had clean sheets and blankets and breakfast in the morning was eggs and bread with bacon and cheese and wine and fruit.  

That following morning the men had woke early and started cleaning there weapons and checking there ammo.  There knive where sharpen and then they washed and dressed as if they were preparing to die.  They ate breakfast with smiles and laughter then they stood wine the last bottle was shared equally between them they lifted their cups and looked at each other without saying a word they drunk what was in them and then slung their shotguns over their shoulders and walked out to find the Vaccaro’s family home.