Genco Abbandando had run a long race with death, and now, vanquished, he
Содержание книги
- The washed-out rag of an American girl.
- Two sons to the wedding feast.
- Family. They would have to take care of him.
- Landing above, beckoning her upward.
- Corner room, Thomas Hagen watched the wedding party in the festooned garden.
- Disappearing into the garden.
- Don Corleone nodded and gestured that Luca Blasi should be brought to him.
- Story about Luca?' and Tom said, 'When you're a hundred.’ Michael sipped his
- Polite stretching of rubbery, veal-colored lips.
- Refuse a request on his daughter's wedding day. And no Sicilian ever lets a
- Lucy Mancini lifted her pink gown off the floor and ran up the steps. Sonny
- Treacherously triumphant, as if she had stolen a treasure from the bride.
- Amerigo Bonasera followed Hagen into the corner room of the house and
- Bonasera hesitated, then bent down and put his lips so close to the Don's hairy
- Don Corleone rose from behind the desk. His face was still impassive but his
- Sonny Corleone pressed close to the window. What he saw made him move
- Corleone led him into the house.
- Won't take me back unless I come crawling on my hands and knees, and I can't
- Never says anything against you. You couldn't help him a bit? Why not? He sings
- Hagen sat behind the desk and made notes. The Don heaved a sigh and asked,
- Hagen made a face of impressed approval that was very strangely Italian on
- When Johnny Fontane appeared in the garden, Kay Adams recognized him
- Favors. Someday he'll be at each one of those people's houses and they had
- Something special. Go your own way now, you're a man after all. But come to me
- Others into the sick man's room.
- Genco Abbandando had run a long race with death, and now, vanquished, he
- And criminal traitor to man.
- Spitball he was holding in his hand across to the clerk, who picked it up and
- Following Friday. But Hagen knew that to the Don, both were of equal importance,
- Any grown man could reasonably expect, and he found life interesting.
- Marines the day after Pearl Harbor.
- And his benefactor's blood family.
- Their lives or until they accepted defeat and returned to their home towns.
- Jack Woltz was a tall, powerfully built man with a heavy paunch almost
- A personal friend of mine. If I let him know I'm being pressured, you guys will
- Hagen listened patiently. He had expected better from a man of Woltz's stature.
- Than he had appeared this morning.
- Going to race him, I'm going to put him to stud. I'm going to build the greatest
- Much too sensitive. He never asks a second favor where he has been refused the
- Make me ridiculous. A man in my position, Mr. Hagen, can't afford to look
- For the first time, Woltz succeeded in astounding Hagen. He found it
- Naturally, anxious to show their gratitude.
- Were one hundred thousand black Chevy sedans in New York City.
- Tom Hagen went to his law office in the city on Thursday morning. He planned
- Threat against Don Corleone himself. Genius had its rewards.
- Be made to tell who had done the buying.
- Producer of the film telling him to report for work the following Monday.
- For any rap as long as he knows that they will be well taken care of for living
- Notoriously straitlaced in matters of sex.
- Legal protection is a must. I hear, Don Corleone, that you have as many judges in
Lay exhausted on the raised bed. He was wasted away to no more than a skeleton,
And what had once been vigorous black hair had turned into obscene stringy
wisps. Don Corleone said cheerily, "Genco, dear friend, I have brought my sons
to pay their respects, and look, even Johnny, all the way from Hollywood."
The dying man raised his fevered eyes gratefully to the Don. He let the young
Men clasp his bony hand in their fleshy ones. His wife and daughters ranged
Themselves along his bed, kissing his cheek, taking his other hand in turn.
3 The Don pressed his old friend's hand. He said comfortingly, "Hurry up and
Get better and we'll take a trip back to Italy together to our old village. We'll play
boccie in front of the wineshop like our fathers before us."
The dying man shook his head. He motioned the young men and his family
Away from his bedside; with the other bony claw he hung fast to the Don. He tried
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To speak. The Don put his head down and then sat on the bedside chair. Genco
Abbandando was babbling about their childhood. Then his coal-black eyes
Became sly. He whispered. The Don bent closer. The others in the room were
Astonished to see tears running down Don Corleone's face as he shook his head.
The quavering voice grew louder, filling the room. With a tortured, superhuman
Effort, Abbandando lifted his head off his pillow, eyes unseeing, and pointed a
skeletal forefinger at the Don. "Godfather, Godfather," he called out blindly, "save
Me from death, I beg of you. My flesh is burning off my bones and I can feel the
Worms eating away my brain. Godfather, cure me, you have the power, dry the
Tears of my poor wife. In Corleone we played together as children and now will
you let me die when I fear hell for my sins?"
5 The Don was silent. Abbandando said, "It is your daughter's wedding day, you
cannot refuse me."
The Don spoke quietly, gravely, to pierce through the blasphemous delirium.
"Old friend," he said, "I have no such powers. If I did I would be more merciful
Than God, believe me. But don't fear death and don't fear hell. I will have a mass
Said for your soul every night and every morning. Your wife and your children will
pray for you. How can God punish you with so many pleas for mercy?"
The skeleton face took on a cunning expression that was obscene.
Abbandando said slyly, "It's been arranged then?"
8 When the Don answered, his voice was cold, without comfort. "You blaspheme.
Resign yourself."
Abbandando fell back on the pillow. His eyes lost their wild gleam of hope. The
Nurse came back into the room and started shooing them out in a very matter-of-
fact way. The Don got up but Abbandando put out his hand. "Godfather," he said,
"stay here with me and help me meet death. Perhaps if He sees you near me He
Will be frightened and leave me in peace. Or perhaps you can say a word, pull a
few strings, eh?" The dying man winked as if he were mocking the Don, now not
really serious. "You're brothers in blood, after all." Then, as if fearing the Don
would be offended, he clutched at his hand. "Stay with me, let me hold your hand.
We'll outwit that bastard as we've outwitted others. Godfather, don't betray me."
The Don motioned the other people out of the room. They left. He took the
Withered claw of Genco Abbandando in his own two broad hands. Softly,
Reassuringly, he comforted his friend, as they waited for death together. As if the
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Don could truly snatch the life of Genco Abbandando back from that most foul
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