The Godfather / Крестный отец

Chapter 1

Amerigo Bonasera sat in New York Criminal Court[1] and waited for vengeance on the men who had so cruelly hurt his daughter, who had tried to dishonor her[2].

The judge rolled up the sleeves of his black robe.

“You acted like the worst kind of degenerates,” the judge said harshly. The two young men bowed their heads.

The judge went on. “You acted like wild beasts in a jungle and you are fortunate you did not sexually molest[3] that poor girl or I’d put you behind bars[4] for twenty years.” He spoke again.

“But because of your youth, your clean records[5], because of your fine families, I sentence you to three years’ confinement to the penitentiary. Sentence to be suspended[6].”

Only forty years of professional mourning kept the frustration and hatred from showing on Amerigo Bonasera’s face. His beautiful young daughter was still in the hospital with her broken jaw wired together; and now these two animales[7] went free? It had all been a farce. He watched the happy parents around their darling sons. Oh, they were all happy now, they were smiling now.

Out of control, Bonasera shouted, “You will weep as I have wept – I will make you weep as your children make me weep”. A huge bailiff moved quickly to where Bonasera stood. But it was not necessary.

He turned to his wife and told her, “They have made fools of us.” He paused and then made his decision. “For justice we must go on our knees to Don Corleone.”

In a richly decorated Los Angeles hotel suite, Johnny Fontane was as jealously drunk as any ordinary husband. It was four in the morning and he was having drunken fantasies of murdering his wife when she got home. If she ever did come home. It was too late to call his first wife and ask about the kids and he felt funny about calling any of his friends now that his career was going down. He heard finally his wife’s key in the door, but he kept drinking until she walked into the room and stood before him. She was to him so very beautiful, the angelic face, violet eyes, the delicately fragile but perfectly formed body. A hundred million men all over the world were in love with the face of Margot Ashton. And paid to see it on the screen.

“Where the hell were you?” Johnny Fontane asked.

“Out fucking[8],” she said.

He jumped over the cocktail table and grabbed her by the throat. But close up to that magical face, the lovely violet eyes, he lost his anger and became helpless again. She screamed, “Johnny, not in the face, I’m making a picture.”

She was laughing. He punched her in the stomach and she fell to the floor. He fell on top of her. He beat her but he was not hitting her hard enough. He couldn’t. And she was giggling at him. Spread on the floor, she taunted him between giggles. “Come on, stick it in. Stick it in, Johnny, that’s what you really want.”

Johnny Fontane got up. He hated the woman on the floor but her beauty protected her. Margot rolled away, and got to her feet facing him. “Poor Johnny. Goodbye, Johnny.” She walked into the bedroom and he heard her turn the key in the lock.

Johnny sat on the floor with his face in his hands. The humiliating despair overwhelmed him.[9] But as he had learned to survive the jungle of Hollywood, he picked up the phone and called for a car to take him to the airport. There was one person who could save him. He would go back to New York to the one man with the power, the wisdom, he needed and a love he still trusted. His Godfather Corleone.

The baker, Nazorine, still dusty with flour, scowled at his wife, his daughter, Katherine, and his baker’s helper, Enzo. Enzo was one of the many thousands of Italian Army prisoners allowed daily to work in the American economy but he lived in constant fear that he would be sent back to Italy. Nazorine asked fiercely, “Have you dishonored my family? Have you given my daughter a little package to remember you by now that the war is over and you know America will kick your ass back to your village full of shit in Sicily[10]?”

Enzo, a very short, strongly built boy, put his hand over his heart and said almost in tears, “Padrone[11], I swear by the Holy Virgin I have never taken advantage of your kindness[12]. I love your daughter with all respect and I ask for her hand. But if they send me back to Italy I can never come back to America. I will never be able to marry Katherine.”

Katherine was weeping. “I’ll go and live in Italy,” she screamed at her father. “I’ll run away if you don’t keep Enzo here.”

Nazorine glanced at her. She was a “hot number[13]” this daughter of his. He had seen her brush her buttocks against Enzo’s front. The young man’s hot loaf would soon be in her oven, Nazorine thought. Enzo must be kept in America and be made an American citizen. And there was only one man who could arrange such an afaf ir. The Godfather. Don Corleone.

All of these people and many others received invitations to the wedding of Miss Constanzia Corleone, to be celebrated in August 1945. The father of the bride, Don Vito Corleone, never forgot his old friends and neighbors though he himself now lived in a huge house on Long Island. The reception would be held in that house and the festivities would go on all day. There was no doubt it would be a great occasion. The war with the Japanese had just ended so there would not be any fear for their sons fighting in the Army. A wedding was just what people needed to show their joy.

And so on that Saturday morning the friends of Don Corleone came from New York City to do him honor[14]. They bore cream-colored envelopes stuffed with cash as bridal gifts, no checks. Inside each envelope a card established the identity of the giver and the measure of his respect for the Godfather.

Don Vito Corleone was a man to whom everybody came for help, and never were they disappointed. He made no empty promises. Only one thing was required. That you, you yourself, state your friendship. And then, Don Corleone would take that man’s troubles to his heart and he would solve that man’s problem. His reward? Friendship, the respectful title of “Don”, and sometimes the more affectionate salutation of “Godfather”. And perhaps, to show respect only, never for profit, some humble gift[15]. It was understood, it was mere good manners, to say that you were in his debt and that he had the right to call upon you at any time for some small service.

Now on this great day, his daughter’s wedding day, Don Vito Corleone stood in the doorway of his Long Beach home to greet his guests. Many of them owed their good fortune in life to the Don[16] and on this occasion felt free to call him “Godfather” to his face. Don Corleone received everyone – rich and poor, powerful and humble – with an equal show of love. That was his character.

Standing at the door with him were two of his three sons. The eldest, baptized Santino but called Sonny by everyone except his father, was looked at askance[17] by the older Italian men; with admiration by the younger. Sonny Corleone was tall for a first-generation American of Italian parentage, almost six feet, and his bushy, curly hair made him look even taller. His face was that of a gross Cupid, the features even[18]. He was built as powerfully as a bull and it was common knowledge that he was so generously endowed by nature[19] that his wife feared the marriage bed as unbelievers once feared the rack[20].

Here at the wedding feast, some young matrons measured Sonny Corleone with confident eyes. But on this particular day they were wasting their time. Sonny Corleone, despite the presence of his wife and three small children, had plans for his sister’s maid of honor, Lucy Mancini. She had flirted with Sonny in the past week and squeezed his hand that morning at the altar.

The second son, Frederico, called Fred or Fredo, was a child every Italian prayed to the saints for. Dutiful, loyal, always at the service of his father, living with his parents at age thirty. He was short and burly, not handsome but with the same Cupid head of the family. Despite all these virtues he did not have that personal magnetism, that animal force, so necessary for a leader of men, and he was not expected to inherit the family business.

The third son, Michael Corleone, did not stand with his father and his two brothers but sat at a table in the corner of the garden. But even there he could not escape the attentions of the family friends.

Michael Corleone was the youngest son of the Don and the only child who had refused the great man’s direction. He did not have the heavy, Cupid-shaped face of the other children, and his jet black hair was straight rather than curly. He was handsome in a delicate way.

Now this youngest son sat in the corner of the garden to demonstrate his separation from father and family. Beside him sat the American girl everyone had heard about but whom no one had seen until this day. He had, of course, shown the proper respect and introduced her to everyone at the wedding, including his family. They were not impressed with her. She was too thin, she was too fair, her face was too intelligent for a woman, her manner too free for a maiden. Her name, too, was outlandish to their ears; she called herself Kay Adams. Every guest noticed that the Don paid no particular attention to this third son. Michael had been his favorite before the war and obviously the chosen heir to run the family business when the proper moment came. He had all the quiet force and intelligence of his great father. But when World War II began, Michael Corleone volunteered for the Marine Corps[21].

Don Corleone had no desire of letting his youngest son be killed in the service. Doctors had been bribed, secret arrangements had been made, a great deal of money had been spent. But Michael was twenty-one years of age and nothing could be done against his own will. He became a Captain and won medals. In 1944, when his picture was printed in Life magazine, the Don had sighed and said, “He performs those miracles for strangers.”

When Michael Corleone was discharged early in 1945 because of his wound, he stayed home for a few weeks, then, without consulting anyone, entered Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, and so he left his father’s house.

Michael Corleone was amusing Kay Adams by telling her little stories about some of the more colorful wedding guests. Finally her attention was caught by a small group of men. The men were Amerigo Bonasera, Nazorine the Baker, Anthony Coppola and Luca Brasi. She noticed that these four men did not seem particularly happy. Michael smiled. “No, they’re not,” he said. “They’re waiting to see my father in private. They have favors to ask.[22]”

There were, now, hundreds of guests in the huge garden, some dancing on the wooden platform decorated with flowers, others sitting at long tables with spicy food and jugs of homemade wine. The bride, Connie Corleone, sat at a special raised table with her groom. It was a rustic setting[23] in the old Italian style. Not to the bride’s taste, but Connie had agreed to a “guinea[24]” wedding to please her father because she had so displeased him in her choice of a husband.

The groom, Carlo Rizzi, was born of a Sicilian father and the North Italian mother from whom he had inherited his blond hair and blue eyes. His parents lived in Nevada and Carlo had left that state because of a little trouble with the law. In New York he met Sonny Corleone and so met the sister. Don Corleone, of course, sent trusted friends to Nevada and they reported that Carlo’s police trouble was not serious. They also came back with detailed information on legal gambling in Nevada which greatly interested the Don who profited from everything.

Connie Corleone was a not quite pretty girl, thin and nervous and certain to become shrewish later in life. But today, transformed by her white bridal gown and eager virginity, she was so radiant as to be almost beautiful.

She thought Carlo incredibly handsome. He filled her glass with wine. He was courteous to her as if they were both actors in a play. But he kept looking toward the huge silk purse the bride wore on her right shoulder and which was now stuffed full of money envelopes. Carlo Rizzi smiled. It was only the beginning. He had, after all, married into a royal family. They would have to take care of him.[25]

Peter Clemenza was rotating young girls around the wooden dance floor in a rustic Tarantella. Immensely tall, immensely huge, he danced with such skill, his hard belly bumping the breasts of younger, tinier women, that all the guests were applauding him. When Clemenza finally collapsed in a chair, Paulie Gatto brought him a glass of icy wine and wiped the perspiring brow of his boss with his silk handkerchief[26]. But instead of thanking Paulie Clemenza said, “Do your job. Take a walk around the neighborhood and see everything is OK.”

The band took a refreshment break.[27] A young man named Nino Valenti picked up a mandolin, put his left foot up on a chair and began to sing a Sicilian love song. His face was handsome though bloated by continual drinking and he was already a little drunk. The women shrieked with joy and the men shouted the last word of each stanza with the singer.

Sonny Corleone made his way to the bride’s table and sat down beside young Lucy Mancini, the maid of honor.

They were safe. His wife was in the kitchen putting the last touches on the serving of the wedding cake. Sonny whispered a few words in the young girl’s ear and she rose. Sonny waited a few minutes and then casually followed her.

All eyes followed them. The maid of honor, Americanized by three years of college, was a ripe girl who already had a “reputation”. Now holding her pink gown up off the ground, Lucy Mancini went into the house, smiling with false innocence, ran lightly up the stairs to the bathroom. She stayed there for a few moments. When she came out Sonny Corleone was on the landing above, beckoning her upward.

From behind the closed window of Don Corleone’s “ofcif e”, Thomas Hagen watched the wedding party. The walls behind him were filled with law books. Hagen was the Don’s lawyer and acting Consigliere, or counselor, and as such held the most vital subordinate position in the family business. He and the Don had solved many problems in this room, and so when he saw the Godfather leave the festivities and enter the house, he knew there would be a little work this day. Then Hagen saw Sonny Corleone whisper in Lucy Mancini’s ear and their little comedy as he followed her into the house. He went to the desk and picked up a handwritten list of the people who had been granted permission to see Don Corleone privately. When the Don entered the room, Hagen handed him the list. Don Corleone nodded and said, “Leave Bonasera to the end.”

Hagen went directly out into the garden and pointed to the baker, Nazorine.

Don Corleone greeted the baker with an embrace. They had played together as children in Italy and had grown up in friendship. Every Easter freshly baked pies arrived at Don Corleone’s home. On Christmas, on family birthdays, rich creamy pastries showed the Nazorines’ respect. Now the time had come for the baker to ask for his rights as a loyal friend, and Don Corleone looked forward with great pleasure to meeting his request.

He gave the baker a Di Nobili cigar and a glass of yellow Strega[28] and put his hand on the man’s shoulder. He knew from bitter experience what courage it took to ask a favor from a fellow man.

The baker told the story of his daughter and Enzo. Only Godfather Corleone could help this loving couple. He was their last hope.

The Don walked Nazorine up and down the room, his hand on the baker’s shoulder, his head nodding with understanding to keep up the man’s courage. When the baker had finished, Don Corleone smiled at him and said, “My dear friend, put all your worries aside.” He went on to explain very carefully what must be done. The Congressman of the district must be petitioned. The Congressman would propose a special bill that would allow Enzo to become a citizen. The bill would surely pass Congress. Don Corleone explained that this would cost money. He, Don Corleone, would guarantee performance and accept payment. Did his friend agree?

The baker nodded his head. He did not expect such a great favor for nothing. That was understood. A special Act of Congress does not come cheap. Nazorine was almost tearful in his thanks.

The next man was a very simple case. His name was Anthony Coppola and he was the son of a man Don Corleone had worked with in his youth. Coppola needed five hundred dollars to open a pizzeria. For some reason, he couldn’t get credit. The Don reached into his pocket and took out a roll of bills. It was not quite enough. He grimaced and said to Tom Hagen, “Loan me a hundred dollars, I’ll pay you back Monday when I go to the bank.” The man protested that four hundred dollars would be enough, but Don Corleone patted his shoulder[29], saying, apologetically, “This wedding left me a little short of cash.” Hagen watched with admiration. How flattering to Anthony Coppola that a man like the Don would borrow to loan him money.

When Coppola had gone, the Don raised his head inquiringly. Hagen said, “He’s not on the list but Luca Brasi wants to see you. He understands it can’t be public but he wants to congratulate you in person.”

For the first time the Don seemed displeased. “Is it necessary?” he asked.

Hagen shrugged. “You understand him better than I do. But he was very grateful that you invited him to the wedding. He never expected that. I think he wants to show his gratitude.”

Don Corleone nodded and gestured that Luca Brasi should be brought to him.

Luca Brasi was one of the most feared men in the Eastern underworld. His great talent, it was said, was that he could do a job of murder all by himself and never be found by the police.

When Michael told Kay that story, for the first time Kay began to understand. She asked, “You’re not saying that a man like that works for your father?”

The hell with it[30], he thought. He said, straight out.[31]“Nearly fifteen years ago some people wanted to take over my father’s oil importing business. They tried to kill him and nearly did. Luca Brasi went after them. The story is that he killed six men in two weeks and that ended the famous olive oil war.” He smiled as if it were a joke.

“You mean your father was shot by gangsters?”

“Fifteen years ago,” Michael said. “Everything’s been peaceful since then.” He was afraid he had gone too far.

“You’re trying to scare me,” Kay said. “You just don’t want me to marry you.” She smiled at him. “Very clever.”

Luca Brasi was indeed a man to frighten the devil in hell himself. Short, squat, massive-skulled, his presence sent out danger. Brasi’s reputation for violence was awesome and his devotion to Don Corleone legendary. Luca Brasi did not fear the police, he did not fear society, he did not fear God, he did not fear hell, he did not fear or love his fellow man. But he had chosen, to fear and love Don Corleone. When Hagen brought him in, the terrible Brasi felt stiff with respect. He stuttered over the flowery congratulations and then handed the Don an envelope with cash as a gift for the bridal couple.

So that was what he wanted to do. Hagen noticed the change in Don Corleone. The Don received Brasi as a man who has done him an enormous service. The money in the envelope was sure to be more than anyone else had given. Brasi had spent many hours deciding on the sum. He wanted to be the most generous to show that he had the most respect, and that was why he had given his envelope to the Don personally. Brasi kissed the Don’s hand before he went out the door.

When the door closed Don Corleone gave a small sigh of relief. Brasi was the only man in the world who could make him nervous. The man was like a natural force, he had to be handled as carefully as dynamite. He looked at Hagen. “Is Bonasera the only one left?”

Hagen nodded. Don Corleone frowned in thought, then said, “Before you bring him in, tell Santino to come here. He should learn some things.”

Out in the garden, Hagen looked for Sonny Corleone. He told the waiting Bonasera to be patient and went over to Michael Corleone and his girl friend. “Did you see Sonny?” he asked. Michael shook his head. Damn, Hagen thought, if Sonny was with the maid of honor all this time there was going to be a mess of trouble.

Seeing Hagen go into the house, Kay Adams asked Michael Corleone, “Who is he? You introduced him as your brother but his name is different and he certainly doesn’t look Italian.”

“Tom lived with us since he was twelve years old,” Michael said. “His parents died and he was in the streets with this bad eye infection. Sonny brought him home one night and he just stayed. He didn’t have any place to go. He lived with us until he got married.”

Kay Adams was excited. “That’s really romantic,” she said. “Your father must be a warmhearted person. To adopt somebody just like that[32] when he had so many children of his own.”

They saw Hagen follow Sonny into the Don’s ofcif e and then point a finger at Amerigo Bonasera. “Why do they bother your father with business on a day like this?” Kay asked.

Michael laughed again. “Because they know that by tradition no Sicilian can refuse a request on his daughter’s wedding day. And no Sicilian ever lets a chance like that go by.[33]”

During the summer, preparing for the wedding of her best friend, Connie Corleone, Lucy Mancini heard the whispered stories about Sonny.

Now as she ran up the steps toward Sonny a tremendous flash of desire went through her body. On the landing Sonny grabbed her hand and pulled her down the hall into an empty bedroom. Her legs went weak as the door closed behind them. She felt Sonny’s mouth on hers, his lips tasting of burnt tobacco, bitter. At that moment she felt his hand come up beneath her bridesmaid’s gown. And for the first time in her life she reached a shattering climax. They leaned against each other, out of breath.

It might have been going on for some time but now they could hear the soft knocking on the door. Then they heard Tom Hagen’s voice, very low, “Sonny, you in there?”

Sonny winked at Lucy. “Yeah, Tom, what is it?”

Hagen’s voice, still low, said, “The Don wants you in his ofcif e. Now.” They could hear his footsteps as he walked away. Sonny waited for a few moments and then slipped out the door after Hagen.

Lucy combed her hair and checked her dress. She went out the door and ran into the garden. She took her seat at the bridal table next to Connie, who exclaimed, “Lucy, where were you? You look drunk. Stay beside me now.”

The blond groom poured Lucy a glass of wine and smiled knowingly. Lucy didn’t care. She lifted the dark red juice to her mouth and drank. Slyly she whispered in Connie’s ear, “Only a few hours more and you’ll know what it’s all about.” Connie giggled.

Amerigo Bonasera followed Hagen into the corner room of the house and found Don Corleone sitting behind a huge desk. Sonny Corleone was standing by the window, looking out into the garden. For the first time that afternoon the

Don did not embrace the visitor or shake hands. The undertaker got the invitation because his wife and the wife of the Don were the closest of friends. Amerigo Bonasera himself was in disfavor with Don Corleone.

Bonasera began his request. “You must excuse my daughter, your wife’s goddaughter, for not doing your family the respect of coming today. She is in the hospital still.” “We all know of your daughter’s misfortune,” Don Corleone said. “If I can help her in any way, you have only to speak. My wife is her godmother after all. I have never forgotten that honor.” This was a rebuke. The undertaker never called Don Corleone “Godfather” as custom dictated.

Bonasera asked, directly now, “May I speak to you alone?”

Don Corleone shook his head. “I trust these two men with my life. They are my two right arms. I cannot insult them by sending them away.”

The undertaker closed his eyes for a moment and then began to speak. “I raised my daughter in the American fashion. I believe in America. America has made my fortune. I gave my daughter her freedom and yet taught her never to dishonor her family. She found a ‘boy friend’, not an Italian. She went to the movies with him. She stayed out late. But he never came to meet her parents. I accepted all this without a protest, the fault is mine. Two months ago he took her for a drive. He had a friend with him. They made her drink whiskey and then they tried to take advantage of her. She resisted. She kept her honor. They beat her. Like an animal. When I went to the hospital she had two black eyes. Her nose was broken. Her jaw was shattered. They had to wire it together. She wept through her pain. ‘Father, Father, why did they do it? Why did they do this to me?’ And I wept.” Bonasera could not speak further, he was weeping now though his voice had not shown his emotion.