|
For Salvatore Jr. and Tony Chicago was like heaven. They were used to seeing their own people working and living, and were familiar with the mafia and omerta. In Palermo Tony recalled Don's being like kings, in New York more like a Mayor or Sherriff of a particular section, but in Chicago if you were a Don, or if you were connected you were just like everyone else, but respected and well off. Never had he seen Italian immigrants thriving so well and being treated with such respect by non-Italians. Tony had always despised the Don's and their familiga giving Italians a bad name in America.
But as he and Salvatore Jr. roamed the streets of Chicago looking for work Tony did begin to wonder if maybe he had it all wrong. Maybe working for pennies just to live as honorable as it was, wasn't the true meaning of opportunity. Especially after Salvatore Jr. had told him how he worked such grueling hours in such despicable conditions and he still couldnt afford bread most days.
Surely that's not what his mother and father had in their minds for him when they sent him to America. They wanted him to succeed and be well off, not be a poor farmer. Well up to this point Tony felt as if he was still just a poor farmer in a sense, but without the farm to show for it.
After a few days of walking up and down the streets, hopping railcars, eating at immigrant kitchens, and sleeping in stairwells. Tony and Salvatore Jr. headed to the area they first saw upon their arrival. Where italians lived as upstanding members of the city Little Italy as they called it, very unlike the slums as Tony viewed them, of New York. Tony and Salvatore Jr. had heard talks that the booming businesses' were more than met the eye. Tony and Salvatore Jr. Weren't completely sure what that meant but had a pretty good idea.
Tony had remembered seeing an interesting looking place called Twin Anchors off North Sedgwick street. Tony remembered it was interesting that a building with its front windows boarded up could have people coming and going at such a high rate. It was supposed to be a soft drink bar, but Tony thought it funny that stumbling men and women dressed so dapper would be frequenting a soda shop. Tony and Salvatore Jr. had wanted to get a jump start on the hunt today so when they arrived at Twin Anchors at just twenty after ten they found it no suprise to find it relatively desolate. Tony approached the door and reached for the knob but it seemed locked. That seemed funny to both Tony and Salvatore Jr. a business closed this early in the day. Before Tony could reach his hand back out to knock the door cracked open, then swung all the way. The well dressed man who opened the door criticized both Tony and Salvatore Jr. before hurrying them in. Inside they noticed a very smoky, quiet, almost depressing atmosphere. The man who let them in took a seat at a booth away from all the boarded up windows, but close enough to the door to keep an eye on it as it did seem.
The smell in the air didn't particularly smell like soda, though it could have been the smoke. Both Tony and Salvatore Jr. had both tasted soda before and had been to real soda shops a few times since being in America whenever they could find a way to get the money. As Tony and Salvatore Jr. approached the bar Tony sat down quietly while Salvatore Jr. pounded his hands down on the bar and loudly asked who ran the joint. The next sound Tony heard was the click of a gun hammer being pulled back, a sound familar to him from the countryside of Palermo |
