She was unpacking Danny's bag when she found his journal. She laid her hand across the worn brown leather cover. She could feel the wrinkles with her finger tips. It looked like he had been using this for a long long long time. She really had no insight to who he was, and she wandered whether she should open up the dog eared pages and read it. She sat it on the coffee table, and tried to ignore it, as she went back to the bag of his belongings. But the journal called to her. And before she knew it, she had grabbed it, and was flipping through the pages, trying to get a sense of who this man was. She read for hours, forgetting to eat, and most importantly, forgetting to pee. But this journal was so engrossing, and she was so very sad to see the differences they had as children. Her's was a loving upbringing, and his seemed like the things nightmares were made of. 

Danny had been paying for his father's sins for most of his life. Children in the schoolyard heard stories from their parents about his father, so, they in turn teased Danny relentlessly.  His dad lived on the cusp of looking like a full fledged criminal and an upstanding banker. He had been working to launder money for the mafia, which in turn had given him a very comfortable life. He was a hard man, who would bring the wrath of hell on you if you crossed him. He was Irish, and they are known to have quite the temper. Thing were always supposed to go exactly as he wanted, or all hell would break lose. 

Danny's mother was a once beautiful woman of Irish decent. She had ivory skin, with freckles sprinkled across her nose. Her fiery red hair had faded over the years, it was closer to strawberry blond, with gray and white highlights throughout.  She was a brow beaten woman. Danny's father had never once had a kind word to say to her after their wedding. She had taken many a beating, and she was now, just a ghost of the woman she once was. She had tried to shelter Danny as much as she could throughout the years, but as he grew older, his eyes, his ears and his father's fists showed him the truth of who his father really was. 

She placed the journal back in Danny's bag. She would never tell him that she had read it. It was something she really shouldn't have done, but, if he was going to be living here, she had to know more about him. As she cleaned the kitchen after making a quick sandwich, her heart ached for the boy he had been. No one deserved to grow up that. She vowed to read more later, but she knew he would probably be coming home soon. He had gone out with a couple of the guys for cigars and whiskey at the local speakeasy.  She washed her face, and made up the couch for Danny, and headed to bed, so she wouldn't have to face him tonight.

She had slept fitfully, her dreams about the sad little boy that to this day, paid for his father's sins. She sat up in her bed, and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She headed to the bathroom to shower for the day. She stood under the shower head and let the water beat the tension out of her neck and shoulders. When she was finished, she dried and dressed quickly.  When she walked through the living room, headed for the kitchen for coffee, she noticed that Danny was already up, and gone, coffee was waiting for her, as well as one of those yummy lemon scones from the corner bakery.  She had some time to kill before she was due in south Philly for a bank job, so, she grabbed the leather book from Danny's bag and started to read.

He was 9 years old the first time his father's fists had turned on him. He had been playing with a wooden car in his room, when he heard his parents arguing very loudly, followed by the sound of skin hitting skin. It sounds just like it's name. It's a SLAP. He rushed out, to find his mother sitting on the floor, with a very red mark on her face, and she quickly tried to cover it with her own hand, but, her hand wasn't as large as his father's and you could clearly see fingermarks beyond what she was covering. He quickly ran to his mother's side, and stood glaring at his father. All 4 foot, 6 inches of him, staring his father down, like a man. His father snatched the boy by his hair, and threw him to the side. Then his father grabbed his mother by the hair and drug her over to the sink. He was muttering something about a broken plate, but Danny didn't hear anything, as he flew into a white hot rage and started pummeling his father with his fists in the stomach and groin. His father let go of his mother's hair, and grabbed Danny's arm as he pummeled. With the other hand, he punched the little boy in the face. 

When Danny came to, he was laying in his bed, with his mother hovering over him. He had the worst headache he had ever had in his life. His nose was broken, and both eyes were black. His mother laid cool washcloths on his forehead and quietly sang to him to lull him back to sleep. He fell back into a deep slumber, where he stayed for several days. His mother wanted to call the doctor, she was terrified for her boy, but Danny's father refused to let her.

Niki's heart broke into a million pieces reading the stories about Danny's life. At 9 years old, she was riding ponies at the stable where her father placed bets weekly. She and Kevin were catching frogs in the pond behind those stables. She had Kevin, Danny had no one.  She looked at her watch. Oh!! She had lost track of time, she had to leave for south Philly. She carefully placed the journal back, grabbed her things and headed out to face the day. 

It had been a successful day in South Philly for her, but she was tired when she got back to the HQ, so instead of going out to celebrate with the guys, she opted to go home and unwind by cooking a nice meal for Danny, and herself. As the driver dropped her off at the apartment, she noticed it was dark. Strange, she didn't see Danny at the HQ, was he avoiding her?  She walked in and on the counter by the sink was a Philly Cheese Steak from her favorite little bistro, and a note. 

Niki, 

I had to to to Las Vegas for a little while. Will be back tomorrow night. Enjoy the peace and quiet.

Danny

She poured herself a nice large glass of red, and sat down to eat her sandwich, then she remembered the journal. She went to grab Danny's bag, but it wasn't there. Of course he would have taken it. She sighed very audibly and again, sat down to eat her sandwich. She was about halfway through the glass of red when she saw something peeking out from under the couch...... the JOURNAL!! She rushed over and grabbed and began thumbing through the pages once more.

When he had finally came too, his face was too bruised to send to school. It would raise questions that they would rather note answer, so, his father sent him down to the railroad to make a few bucks a week. "IT'S HIGH TIME YOU EARN YOUR KEEP BOY.. I'M DONE PAYING YOUR WAY!!!!"  So Danny began working for a man named Saul, who was in charge of the coal containers. He gave Danny the job of shoveling coal into bins that they would load onto the trains so that they could be fueled properly. So Danny shoveled and shoveled, by the time he was 16 He had been working in the railroads for 7 years, and still, he shoveled coal. He brought his pay home every week and his father took it. 

His mother  sent him as much as she could to spend time with his cousins, Kevin and Niki, but she feared that it wasn't enough, and that Danny would be a hard man, just like his father. In the years that passed, his mother's health withered, but she was proud of her boy, he was becoming a good man. Perhaps being at the railroad had been good for him, although she would have liked to him have a formal education. She tried to teach him in the evenings and Danny had proven himself to be a bright boy. Reading was his favorite. On Saturdays when he wasn't working, you could find him the the woods, propped under a tree with a book in his hands.

She had read for hours, losing herself in the story of Danny's life. It was hard to believe, the kind man that he was, had come from such a beast like his father. She was proud of the boy that had overcome such a shitty life to become such a good hearted person.  It was well past midnight, when she placed the journal back under the couch. She wasn't ready to let Danny know that she'd been reading about all the personal things he had wrote about his life.  She changed into her nightgown and washed her face and cleaned her teeth. As she settled into bed for the night, she wondered if sleep would come to her easy tonight.