Reverse Metamorphosis book one of the Irrevocable Change trilogy (2 page)

While eating a sandwich he scanned through
the morning paper. Luckily, there was no report of any incident at
the bar. Of course, even if the body had been found it was probably
too late to make the morning edition. His mother and stepfather
must have gone out for lunch after church: and if Lizzy, his
younger sister, was home she had stayed in her room. He decided to
see if his best friend Jimmy G. was hanging out at the bar run by
Jimmy’s dad. Clay had learned much about the man from the stories
Jimmy told and from just listening as he hung out around the family
and the men at the bar.

T
ony Giliano was a
big man; six feet four inches tall, weighing two hundred sixty
pounds and didn’t carry an ounce of fat. He was in his late
forties, had black wavy hair and appeared to have a permanent
medium tan.

When Tony was seventeen his father died; he
never stated the exact details of the death, but hinted at his old
man being a collector for a protection racket who was caught
skimming money for himself.

Near the middle of his senior year Tony fell
in love with a tall, slender, olive skinned beauty who transferred
to his school. She was the most beautiful girl Tony had ever seen
and he was determined to claim her. Anna Viscalli was the daughter
of John Viscalli, a mid level boss who had been recruited from
outside the local family area where Tony lived and worked.

Tony and Anna were married in June and their
first son, John Anthony Giliano, was born November 30, 1942. Tony
continued his enforcement work, while working at a slaughter house
and settled into being a father and husband; with an occasional
girlfriend on the side.

Slowly Tony learned the inner politics of
gang life and found he could function well within those strict but
often unspoken rules. Often he found himself discussing problems
with Anna in bed before or after they made love. She was a good
sounding board for his thoughts and ideas, and sometimes offered
some helpful insights of her own. His father-in-law noticed signs
of leadership and was impressed and soon other men in the gang were
reporting to Tony.

Four years into their marriage Anna’s father
staged a brutal take over by killing the gang's top family members.
Tony played an important role in the assassinations and was made a
lieutenant under John.

The next fourteen years were good for Tony
and he rose to be second in command by making himself a trusted and
dependable supporter of his father in law. To show his gratitude,
in 1956 John sponsored Tony for his acceptance into Cosa Nostra as
a made man.

In 1960 John Viscalli’s doctor informed him
he had prostate cancer and would need surgery to stop the spread of
the disease. John decided he had enough money to retire from the
business he had built and could live the rest of his life between
Chicago and Florida. He enjoyed fishing and playing golf and could
grow old doing both if he passed the gang on to Tony; for a price
of course.

With a reputation for being both tough and
savvy Tony seldom had to really crack down on the people he dealt
with. When someone challenged him a couple of weeks in the hospital
would change their thinking. The ones who were dumber than dumb
were found a few miles away, shot, beat to death, garroted, or they
just disappeared, either way, they were no longer a problem.

Jimmy was like his old man in some ways, but
didn’t have the good looks and charisma or the bad temper. He was
smart, tough and determined; if he set his mind on a goal he made
things happen until he got what he wanted. Jimmy had told Clay
enough stories about his dad and his business to know Tony was high
up in the mob, and controlled all of the action in his area; drugs,
prostitution numbers, protection and several other legitimate
businesses.

Tony hosted high stakes poker games above the
bar every Wednesday night starting at five in the afternoon. Down
the hallway from the game room were a bathroom, an office and a
bedroom Tony kept for his personal use. It was used quite often for
Tony's tryst with casual girlfriends.

Although Tony had tried everything to
encourage Jimmy to go to college it didn’t work. Jimmy had his own
plans. He intended to wait a few years after graduation from high
school, live on his own and pay his own way. Then he would work his
way into Tony’s business after it was accepted he wasn’t going to
college. He stayed on the fringe of Tony’s dealings but kept track
of everything as it happened. They often talked in depth about what
was changing, who was moving up in the organization and the like.
Clay suspected Tony already knew what Jimmy had in mind and had
already accepted it.

A
fter parking his car
in the lot behind the bar Clay entered through the back door.
Although it was Sunday afternoon Jimmy and Tony were both there.
Tony’s second in command, Joey Tadono was there too. Joey wasn’t as
big as his boss, but was every bit as tough. He was in charge of
collecting from the illegal portions of Tony’s business, and
handled almost all of the muscle work.

The “Twelfth Street Saloon” was located at
the corner of Twelfth and Gerson on the north west corner of the
intersection; a long, narrow two story brick building connected to
others like it in one of the oldest parts of the city. Twelfth
Street was lined with mostly red brick apartments and commercial
buildings; many of the original businesses had given way to pawn
shops, tattoo parlors, pizza restaurants, record stores and the
like. Parallel parking on both sides of the one-way street left
room for two narrow lanes of traffic.

Most days, except in the dead of winter, Tony
and a contingent of his pal’s and associates could usually be found
outside in front of the bar in the morning and on the shady side of
the building in the afternoon. Inside the place was dark and dingy
with more than a few cobwebs in the corners. The flooring was
three-inch wide bare oak board, colored by tobacco spit and tracked
in rainwater and dirt. The once cream-colored plaster walls were
now brownish mustard yellow from the years of dense smoke emitted
by cigarette and cigar smokers. Except for calendars, and a few
pictures of great Cubs baseball players, the walls were mostly
bare. A Wurlitzer jukebox with 45 RPM records sat in the back at
the end of the oak booths on the Gerson Street wall. The ceiling
was at least fourteen feet high, covered in the square pressed tin
decorative panels popular at the turn of the century. The light
fixtures with white globes hanging down were original as were the
eight ceiling fans with the old flat circular motors with exposed
windings inside the vented motor frames; they were always running,
summer or winter.

And then there was the BAR! What a bar! It
was built of solid red oak with ornately carved trim and rounded
corners. It covered thirty five feet of the inside wall and still
had the original brass foot rail. The back bar was at least twelve
feet high and had six large sections of plate mirror with beveled
edges, set in between large tapered oak columns. On each end of the
bar there were always one gallon jars of pickled pigs feet, and
pickled boiled eggs in purple brine. There was hardly any meat on
the pig’s feet, mostly fat and bone, but the old guys would reach
in with a long handled fork, pull out their catch and chew away.
Monday through Saturday daily specials were served. Dishes like
navy beans and ham with cornbread, beef stew or goulash were tasty,
filling and cheap.

During the work week, Mickey, the day
bartender would be on his stool at the far end talking to the
regulars seated around the bar. Since it was Sunday, John was
manning the bar. He was one of several part-timers who worked
emergencies, weekends and vacations.

Jimmy G. was at the bar too, so they talked
awhile, mostly Jimmy talking about how sick the Cubs were playing
and how they needed to trade up to some better players. They shot a
couple of games of eight ball on the pool table toward the back of
the room and talked about their siblings. Both of them had an older
brother and sister. Jimmy’s brother, John Anthony had graduated
from an Ivy League law school, and his sister Adrianna was
finishing a post grad degree in economics..

Even though he and Jimmy were best friends
Clay decided not to mention the problem he’d had the previous
night. There would be plenty of times later when they were alone to
discuss it. But it sure felt good to be with his best friend to
keep his mind occupied for a while.

Looking at their reflections in the back bar
mirror Clay subconsciously compared the two of them. He was about
twenty pounds lighter than Jimmy, weighing in at two hundred. They
were both stocky and had muscular frames, thanks to their jobs and
occasional sports. Jimmy was six feet two while he was six feet
even. They were even similar in facial features, although Jimmy had
his mom’s darker Sicilian complexion.

Both of them were working full time as union
laborers on construction, but on different jobs. Jimmy’s job was
running behind schedule so the crew was working ten-hour shifts,
six days a week to catch up; they hadn’t seen much of each other
the past week which was unusual. Jimmy remarked he had been having
some trouble at work with a loudmouth “Mick” from up on the North
Side.

“You know me, Clay, I pretty much get along
with everybody. But this guy has been going out of his way to be an
asshole. We’ve had several minor run ins and then this moron tries
to intimidate me in front of the other guys.”

“So what happened?”

“Yesterday he’d been putting the shit on for
me all morning, so during lunch break we got into it and I knocked
him on his ass in front of the whole crew.”

Clay started laughing, “Damn it Jimmy, I
leave you alone for a little while and look what happens. What am I
going to do with you?”

They both laughed and Clay continued, “Do you
think it’s over? Will he back off?”

“Yeah, it’s over. The guy hasn’t got the guts
to push it, he’s just a loudmouth.”

They made their way back to the big round oak
table with claw feet near the back wall. Tony and a couple of the
Sunday regulars were playing a friendly game of poker. The games at
this table were for the dollar a hand crowd and were mostly
attended by men who liked the game, but didn’t have the money for
the games held upstairs.

Clay hung around until five thirty and then
left. Later he would cling to the memory of that casual afternoon
conversation with Jimmy.

The next day he bought a morning paper on his
way to work. An article reported the death of a patron of the bar
he had stopped at the previous Saturday night. The account gave the
man’s name and a short paragraph of the known details. It also
stated the police had no suspects and no immediate leads. He read
the notice for the man’s burial in the obituary section and learned
his attacker was unmarried and had few close relatives. At the job
site he tossed the paper in a trash container, brassed in for work,
and vowed to put the episode behind him and not mention it to
anyone.

N
ineteen days later
on Friday, June 12, 1970 shortly after six o’clock in the evening,
Clay received a phone call from a Giliano relative relaying some
shocking news; Jimmy had died late in the afternoon in an accident
at work. Clay told his parents what had happened and went directly
to Tony’s house. It was the worst night of his life; worse even
than his incident with the drunk just three weeks previously.

Tony owned a large three story yellow brick
home with a clay tile roof. Built in the thirties, the house was in
one of the best neighborhoods south west of Chicago. The house sat
on a large estate size lot with a tall wrought iron fence
surrounding the entire three acres of beautifully manicured
landscaping. A stone guardhouse behind the huge double entrance
gate was manned to keep media and gawkers away. The circular
driveway was full of cars when Clay arrived, so he parked on the
street and walked up the winding concrete drive to the house.

Losing his best friend was hard, but sharing
the grief of his loss with Tony and his wife Anna was the most
upsetting event of his young life. They had both always been like a
second set of parents to him. From the time Jimmy and he had met
they had been inseparable and Anna had treated Clay as if he was
another son instead of just a friend. She bandaged their cuts and
kissed their bruises, and didn’t tell Tony about many of the things
they did. Tony would have yelled at both of them and probably would
have punished Jimmy for doing a lot of the actions they got by
with. And again she was the strong one, consoling both Tony and
Clay, even though he knew she had to be suffering even more than
they were. Relatives of both parents were at the house; Clay knew
he must have talked to most of them, but later didn’t remember much
of what was said.

When Anna left the room Clay learned details
of the accident. Jimmy’s crew was working on a multi story office
building, and the major erection of the walls and concrete floors
was complete. The design called for a large open space in the
center of the building in both the second and third floors. The
open area between vertical columns on each floor would provide an
unobstructed view of the first floor lobby area. The railings
between the columns had not been installed and the openings were
identified only by yellow caution tape. On the first floor, at each
of the four corners under the center opening, large granite columns
would be placed on raised concrete pedestals. Forms had been built
where reinforcing bars stuck up out of the first floor and
additional rebar was to be tied to them to strengthen the base for
the stone columns. Somehow Jimmy had fallen from the third floor
onto the vertical rebar and was impaled on them. His face had hit
the edge of the wood form and his teeth and jaws were badly
damaged. He was still alive when the emergency medical team
arrived, and was in terrible agony while they attempted to free
him. But, due to the number of steel reinforcing rods piercing his
torso, he died before he could be freed.