The Easy Life

I walked into the speakeasy with my head held high. The boss had requested me personally. I gave a wink to the hostess and she walked me to his table in the center of the room. A jazz trio played on the stage and the boss man had his eyes closed, listening to the easy melodies. It was early still, so only one of the other dozen tables was occupied, each draped with starched white linen, decorated with one crystal candlestick holding a taper candle. I didn’t want to disturb him, so I stood until the song ended. 

“Ah, Frank!” he said, not even opening his eyes. “Have a seat.”

I pulled out the chair opposite him and sat. The candle was at the same height as his chin, lighting his face with an eerie glow.

“Thank you for seeing me sir, it’s an honor.”

“Not at all, and call me Johnny,”

“No, sir, I couldn’t. It wouldn’t be proper.”

“Frank, son, we’re a family. It’s proper if I say it’s proper.” He took out a silver case from his coat pocket, grabbed a thin cigarette from inside and lit it.

“If you insist, Johnny.” It felt wrong. I had worked for him for only two months. This was the first time I’d even talked to him. 
Johnny smiled at me like he held a secret. 

“Son, I have a special job for you.”

“Yes?”

“You’re assigned to oversee the import tonight, correct?” He lifted his eyebrow at me.

“Yes, sir.”

“Johnny,” he insisted.

“Yes, Johnny.”

“Along with Karl, right?” I nodded. “You’re going to off him tonight.”

My mouth hung open. Karl and I came from the same neighborhood, got into the business at the same time, worked many jobs together. I tried not to let my emotions show, but I was already starting to sweat.

“Why Karl?” I asked. It was the wrong thing to say. The boss glared at me.

“Germans don’t belong in my family,” he stated.  

“Karl’s not German, he was born in America.” I don’t know why I was arguing. I couldn’t stop myself.

 I looked down at my hands, avoiding his eyes.  The boss stood up and leaned over the table. I could feel his smoky breath on my neck.

“When I give an order, I expect it to be obeyed. Do you understand me, Frank?”

“Yes, sir.” He didn’t insist I call him Johnny. 

“You’re dismissed.”

I left the table and went straight to the toilet, bile rising in my throat. Cleaning up at the sink, I was handed a towel by the attendant.

“Mint, sir?” he asked, offering me a tray of candies. 

“Thank you.” I took one and stared at my face in the mirror. 
Violence was inevitable in my line of work. I knew that from the beginning. Smuggling Canadian whiskey was of course illegal. And now, in the middle of what the papers called “the Corn Sugar Wars”, Cleveland was a dangerous place. I’d already been involved in a couple of scuffles in my two months working for Johnny.

“Beggin’ yer pardon, sir,” the restroom attendant’s soft voice interrupted my thoughts. “I couldn’t help but notice you was meetin’ with Johnny Castonie.”

He waited for a reply, but I gave him none.

“I’ve been wanting to get involved in the business, but I don’t really know how. I’ve been told it’s about who you know. That’s why I got this job here, maybe run into a few big wigs, like you. I wondered if you might tell the boss about me?”

I stared at the kid. He wasn’t more than fifteen, made to look even younger in his fancy, oversized uniform, a tux with tails and white gloves. His eyes were shining with hope. I had that same look before tonight. Before I was asked to kill my friend.

“You want advice?” I said. He nodded vigorously. “Get out of Cleveland. Stay away from the business.”

I left the bathroom and walked out of the speakeasy. Dusk had disappeared while I’d been inside. I inhaled deeply the cool night air, tightening my resolve. I had a job to do.  
 
Karl and I stood at the dock with our Tommy guns silently waiting for the shipment. My plan was to wait until the whiskey was loaded on the truck and the boat was sailing away, then I would shoot him. I went over it again and again as we waited, avoiding Karl’s attempts at conversation. I couldn’t talk, fearing I’d give myself away. I couldn’t even look at him. I forced myself to keep my eyes on the water.   

The Erie was calm, the moon hadn’t risen yet. Once I’d spotted the boat, in seconds it was upon us. 

“A little dark for a boat ride!” Karl called the code words.

“Not if you have the eyes of a cat!” The seaman said.

It took only a few minutes to transfer the crates of liquor from the boat to our truck. Karl untied the boat from the dock and we waved at the captain. Both of us watched for a minute, making sure the boat got away safely. When Karl turned around, I had my gun pointed at his chest. 

“What’s this about?” he asked.  He raised his hands and slowly walked toward me.

“I was given an order… I have to…” My hands started to shake.

“Frank, man, don’t do it.”

“The boss himself told me. I’m sorry, Karl.” Tears glistened my eyes and my voice quivered. Karl approached the barrel of my Tommy almost touching it. 

“I’ll go away. I know how to make myself scarce. You’ll never hear from me again. Don’t do this, friend.”

Hearing that word broke me. He was my friend. I lowered the gun. Karl took it from my grasp and put it into the truck. He nodded goodbye and jogged off into the night. 

I stood at the dock for several minutes, staring at the empty space where Karl had been. I only shook out of my trance at the sound of a distant siren. Quickly, I hopped in the truck and drove off. 

When I got to the warehouse, avoiding the coppers easily, Johnny was there. 

“Everything go smoothly?” he asked. I nodded once and walked away.

“Frank,” he called over his shoulder. I turned around halfway. “You’re part of the family now. Family sticks together.” It sounded like a promise from a father and a warning from an enemy all at once.  

“Hey, man,” a voice said as I entered the hall. “You good?” It was Arlo. If Johnny was the family’s father, Arlo was the uncle. “You look rattled. Everything go as planned tonight?” He raised his eyebrows suggesting more than just the shipment. Did he suspect something?  

I nodded.

“Forget about it, man. We all gots to do things we don’t like every once in a while.” He patted my shoulder, a little too roughly. “And we don’t complain about it, capisce?”

“Yes, sir.”

If this is what family was, then I wasn’t sure I wanted to be a part of it. 
 
I stayed in my apartment for three days after that, suffering my first real moral dilemma. My old Mama told me once I didn’t have any morals. She wasn’t far from wrong. I hadn’t thought twice about smuggling liquor or even eliminating the competition, but for some reason being asked to kill Karl was a line I couldn’t cross. Karl was a good guy as far as I could tell. He obeyed orders, respected the boss. He had been my partner in many jobs and I enjoyed his company. Why did he deserve to die? Now that I started thinking of right and wrong, I couldn’t stop. I had killed men… why did they deserve to die? Was being Johnny Castonie’s enemy a good enough reason? It used to be.

I knew guys in our team were ruffed up occasionally for mistakes.  If I kept avoiding the “family” I knew I’d get a beating. If they found out I had let Karl go, I’d be dead. 

A knock came at my door and I didn’t answer. I knew who it was, and I knew they had questions.  I didn’t have any answers. Whoever was out there left after a few minutes. 

They came back the next day.

“Frank!” It was Arlo’s voice. “You alive in there?”

I still didn’t have any answers, but I knew I couldn’t avoid Arlo. I opened the door a crack.

“Sorry, boss. I’ve been under the weather.”

“Sure, okay,” Arlo nodded with suspicion. “You missed a job last night.”

Damn.

“Sorry. I’ve had this awful headache. I guess I forgot about the job.”

Arlo tried to peer over my shoulder into my apartment. I don’t know what he was looking for, but whatever he saw didn’t satisfy him.

“Don’t let it happen again, kid.” He looked at me for a long moment. “You’re lucky I’m here, to tell ya and not Big Jim.”

Big Jim was the one they sent to ruff up folks. He was an expert at causing the most pain without knocking you out. He liked his victims to stay conscious, feeling every hit. 

Arlo left and I started to panic. Big Jim had sent Jimmy and Charles to the hospital after they hadn’t shown up to a job.

I couldn’t stay here. I grabbed my bag and started to pack. A few extra shirts and pants, the picture of my Mama, my Bible (I made a deal with God in my head, that if I got away, I’d finally start reading it) and my cash. I had about a hundred dollars saved up. It would get me out of Cleveland. 
 
I waited until the next morning to leave, just before dawn. I kept my fedora low over my eyes and walked to the train station. I bought the first ticket out of town, to Akron, leaving at ten o’clock. It wasn’t far enough away, but it would do for now, until I could come up with a better plan. 

I watched the minutes tick by, keeping one eye on the doorway. Every time it opened, I jumped, expecting Big Jim, or Arlo, or anyone from the business. It was 9:45.

“Come on, train,” I mumbled to myself.

Suddenly the door swung open and a burly man walked in. I didn’t hesitate. I got up and ran to the back door. I saw the man start to follow me, so once I was at the door, I kept running. Up and down the city streets, I ran as fast as I could for a good ten minutes. Big Jim couldn’t have run that fast, or that far, I was sure. 

A cab pulled up along side of me and I got in, thinking maybe I’d just take it out of town.

“Where you headed, sir?” The cabbie looked at me in his mirror and I gasped. It was Ed, one of Johnny’s men. I reached for the door handle, but the cab sped down the road and threw me against my seat.  

“Now, Frankie, why you gotta run? You was just startin’ to fit in.”

“Please, just let me go. You’ll never have to see me again." 

“You know Johnny wouldn’t like that too much.” 

The cab screeched to a halt behind another car, and I took the opportunity to open my door and exit. I ran and ran until I found myself at the Terminal Tower. My eyes traveled up the tall building and I got dizzy, not sure if it was the size of the building that affected me, or all the running. I started to get sick to my stomach. 

Looking over my shoulder, I saw Ed rounding the corner of the street. Hoping he hadn’t spotted me yet, I ran through the front door of the skyscraper. I found the stairwell, went up a flight and hunkered down. I took slow deep breaths, trying to be as quiet as I could. 

It seemed to work, but after ten minutes I heard someone else enter the stairwell. I went up. The person below me kept walking up, so I did too. At the fortieth floor, I paused and listened, but they were still coming up behind me. 

I took the door on the top floor and found myself on a balcony. The wind blew and whipped my hat off, causing me to lose my balance a little. I looked out at the city. I had never been this high up before.  Pigeons flew in a circle above the buildings. The clouds were spinning in a circle too.  Or maybe I was dizzy.  I looked down, that was the wrong thing to do. It was such a long way down. I started sweating, even though it was windy and cool. I fell to my knees and before I even realized I was sick, I vomited on the balcony floor. 

The door to the balcony opened. I had nowhere to go. I was frozen with both illness and fear. The man walked outside. His trench coat flapped violently in the breeze. He paused and lit a cigarette. Then he turned his head my direction. 

“Karl?”

“Hey, Frankie,” my old friend said.

“You were chasing me?”

“Seems like I wasn’t the only one.” He took a long drag and blew it out. “You shouldn’t have let me go.”

“I couldn’t do it, Karl. I couldn’t do that to you.”

“You don’t understand.” Karl knelt down to where I was stooped in a pool of vomit. “There was a reason Johnny wanted me dead.”

“He said it was because you’re German.” That made Karl throw his head back and laugh.

“Yeah, I suppose that’s true.”

“What’s going on, Karl? Are you here to help me?” He tilted his head in sympathy.

“I wish I could, Frank. But, you see, you’re the only one who knows I’m alive.” Karl sighed.  “Uncle Walt isn’t a forgiving man.  I can’t make the same mistake you did.”  

Uncle Walt was the leader of a rival gang in East Cleveland.  Apparently, Karl had never truly been Johnny’s man.

My hands were shaking. Sweat was pouring down my face. Karl gave his cigarette one last drag then threw it off the balcony. 

Suddenly he heaved me up to my feet and leaned me over the edge of the railing.

“Karl, wait! Let me go.  It’s only right. After all, I let you go. I was on my way out of town already.”

I glanced over my shoulder and the world started to spin again. My stomach rolled and I vomited once more.

“What’s the matter with you? Afraid of heights or somethin’?” Karl gave a low chuckle. “Sorry, friend. Hell of a way to go for you, but I gotta do what I gotta do.”

Then he placed one arm under my legs and heaved me over the railing.