Evan Myquest
lessons from the godfather by Evan Myquest
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Evan Myquest lessons from the godfather #1
the gate lesson
some days the old man's bones clanked like he was wearing armor then it was hard to sneak up behind the young at play winging off fast as flies in adroit flight around him without knowing the old man hugs and the old man kisses he had to give them
during the tired clanking times the old man sat alone in the garden and remembered his dead friends pointed his finger at their ghosts and told them they should have listened to him
he remembered how they died and how they lived and how they all suffered the fools of the day how during the seasons of drought-lack or rainy-plenty when balanced storerooms could have saved lives ghosts born of old country villages in flames dead bodies in beds and schools names and places still fresh in his memory where the ghosts were born those he could remember clearly those needlessly dead those damned by trust dead friends damned for many reasons how many vows had he spoken in their names to never let go these memories pass them on to his sons yes yes yes grandfather
the gate the gate the gate 2
Evan Myquest and the traitor
in the garden the adroit young dodged the aged and blemished old man no old man's breath in their faces and loss of their youth in exchange for his stories
before they come the man they send will be the traitor do you understand before they come the man they send will be the traitor remember it
how many times was he ignored before the walls no longer held back the hordes and a generation's soldiers and children died again condemned to hear the screams from his children's children
the traitor arrived a matter of time season and political winds as in the days of Troy and the days of Tikal and the days of Tiananmen
the old one knew not from his garden chair but from his bed now knew it was so when the traitorous man they sent proclaiming of peace and god bid everyone open their gates and hearts in amity and calm
knew when he heard the gatechains strain and the gate begin to move clear
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Evan Myquest and the people turned out in costume and plumage in fedoras and wide lapels for celebrations of peace and friendship and the tommy guns spit death up and down the steps until the lawn and hallways ran red knew they would kill this old bone-clanking grandfather in his bed
that one that so called man of god that one michael listened to with believing ears a loudly professing traitorous man of a traitorous god michael listened to with believing ears
how easy to avoid death that day avoid knowing the sadness of the aged
now the new families have their sad lists of dead friends to remember in lonely old age when the young ghosts giggle and play among the garden plants and stalks dodge and cry not to be kissed by the old ghosts
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Evan Myquest lessons from the godfather #2
the vendetta lesson
the wiry tough boss with short curly hair had put a fist through the plasterboard wall lath and dust and chunks of plaster fell as he raged he had just inherited the family become the don and there lie a score to settle for the old man an old combatant from bygone days had attempted murder on the old man
the men around the family conspired
said wait until santino is don that old man is history
he will go crazy do stuff like grab a gun and run out the door
get in his car hit the parkway doing 90 into the city just to put a gun in an old capo's nostrils
blessed be our santino of the rages
i know he likes to pick up a few of the boys and go after punks for harassing runners loving the screams for mercy between kicks he is a son who thinks it is a thing his pop would do
at the old don's bedside
michael leaned close to his injured father's words
forgive me michael if i stop to think during what i must tell you i am old and the words do not come easily to my mind anymore you see santino tonight in his rage someday-5
Evan Myquest someday and probably soon they will use that against santino mark me he will be taken down for nothing maybe take a lot of the family with him and michael it will be partly your fault
you make it worse because you stand to inherit and you are a man that everyone sees you prefer to negotiate the other families see you where you see sonny santino should have a consigliere behind him a man of suspicion an old man in angry pain a man who believes in secrecy and seldom assassination such a man would save sonny from being killed to have your compromising nature in his place you must step away as santino's adviser i am sorry
if you have a temper or if you always think to make vendetta you would be wrong
i tell you what you already know because i cannot tell santino quiet revenge is for when you have mastered holding enemies closer than friends hit a man of god or a dirty cop in his powerless old age it won't be a start to war wait until many are hungry for his place the many will thank you and be in your debt
as well know now that if they come for me then my scores will be clean for the family and those people will write home to uncles and aunts in the old country about how it is over 6
Evan Myquest finally done thirty years for a moment and there will be no war
no father son village blood cycle and little crying
i tell you to believe in the cold ways of the old villages where respected men often disappear and cooks and plumbers smile and drink sambuca over it
because a man went after your father many years ago it does not make sense to make everyone suffer for it now if he missed back then becomes no one to turn to in his old age business should stay that way michael no need to pull sons and daughters away from families
it is a small man lets other people's sons die for an old man's criminal ways you hear this are you listening sure pop i always listen to you i will live to slap you if you are so foolish this way michael and i never want to slap you because i love you you will have babies
fine children who will make you and me, up there, proud
but you must never send men to avenge men that cannot be brought back
you send men to your walls and weak unguarded territories you send men to the people who do not respect your walls or share in your profits you send men in carefully thought out planned hits wait until there is no war to make the war that ends wars
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Evan Myquest the young have better things to do with their lives you know michael you know my crimes will be paid for and i have already outlived the major weight of them there can be no vendetta for me only payment
i have lived too long for anyone to take my death as victory
only payment like the disappearing old men of the mountain villages
promise me promise me no vendetta just business
santino well sadly he is not intelligent in that way he talks of duty and loyalty not business i am afraid he has the passion for death not business he would send an army to the desert to fight and die for sand to throw in my old killers face
do better michael do better for the children and the sons of the families that they grow old with their children they are men and will fight if you say only say when the cost to them will be short in time and small in danger and their way home is clear then they will fight harder and more often for the family and they will laugh with their grandchildren like me 8
Evan Myquest you must listen you must outlive the vendetta and partake in many celebrations as i have
take the man down in the moment when everyone has been happy and forgetful of his crimes and trespasses then take his family as your family with their blessing
but do not make yourself a better alternative than your brother to the families step aside so that all my sons will have more time together i would live to have three large families then let the sand of the ages that means nothing to you and everything to them be still and clean
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Evan Myquest
the godfather lessons #3
the decline and fall lesson
when the music is loud and old when the dancing has no grace and the mustaches grow long
when the signs say all is good
watch out
your enemies will have waited long enough they will be old friends and new relatives at your table
do not do like the romans who killed every tenth of their conquered instead give every tenth member of the new family a gift a car a television a piece of the action most important is to give them the right to speak and be heard bind them to you with your respect for their ways give them the tools to be more powerful than when you took them over if they see riches in the sand let them have it and they will reward you later
try this use for your prosperity 10
Evan Myquest to go after enemies convert them from underneath cull the barbaric in favor of the powerless progressive the barbarians will understand their time is gone
share the bounty of the good days with the new world
now the hard part michael the hardest to do is part with old friends among the families
before the fall comes you need friends not enemies you will have more enemies than you ever realized when the cracks show the cracks will start closer than you know and spread
and they will come from your friends your celebrations
your table
if your table is too like you in word likeness and skill if your table becomes your mirror
when the fissures widen if those who would see the fall in every rumor and blame change who call for a return to old times and new families the reaction is tighten up clamp down resist those calls
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Evan Myquest do the opposite share if you have extra raise percentages of participation not to buy friends but to buy friendship then look among your enemies for new friends send those new men to visit soldiers and family at hospitals and share family tables find the balance and cement the cracks over
then look among your friends for new enemies they will resent the new faces at the table they will be the ones calling for vendetta over the trivial slight
they will want the old music played louder not to hear the new voices they will want the rhetoric of war while they loll in the baths their dance will have no grace pray you find no such enemy in the mirror it will be too late
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Evan Myquest
lessons of the godfather #4
the one way ride lesson
my son i will tell you things you know this once indulge your old father i do not know how many times i repeat myself these days my son i fear for not telling you this than not telling you this many times over
your mother does not want to see you laid out i do not want to see you laid out we want to see you with the rosary in your hands only at mass 13
Evan Myquest
there are cars to ride and die in without choice no one dies because of a car ride they die of bad choices made long before
many old bad choices lead to that place with nowhere to turn and the answers from friends are cold
how can i tell you what i know about this boxed in thing
this shame on a family
what i have seen what i myself have done to too many others
what i have learned is this i know it does not matter what seat in the car or side of the bed or ristorante chair is chosen it will end up stained for everyone to gloat at for the newspaper and police workers to pass around the pictures of you in a bloody heap like a dog with your brains blown out and your eyes open with that same last question everyone asks: what price to have changed this history
i know it does not matter who is in that car or bed or ristorante with you the decision came from many and any of them would be honored to be the chosen assassin they would all do it if it is the last right thing to do
caesar learned this lesson caesar devalued his family's nobility and respect 14
Evan Myquest by his absence in the senate by his presence at battles won but not shared by his marches on his own roma by his fostering of confederacies of fear within his family (forgive me
history is rich in what you should know)
this made the price of caesar's blood lower than the price to stand aside his victories became his own family's defeats so in the end they knew he would make slaves of friends and corpses of his own family
a dagger in the heart of the empire so wide before the man knew how friends are made for candor and honesty is the tragedy of tyrants they knew that to use that same dagger in concert was the last right thing to do
in your dealings with men and women if the hairs on your neck stand up it is for a reason before it is too late obey the instinct to know when a mistake has been made this i tell you because as an old man i am a little wise in the ways to know how to become an old man
your mother does not want to see you laid out i do not want to see you laid out we want to see you with the rosary in your hands only at mass
indulge your old father 15
Evan Myquest in case i repeat myself in absence of memory but not love
there are cars to get in only if there is no choice it could be the feds picking you up it could be the answer to all your prayers to have the government pick you up but do not assume there is no price to surrender
the ristorante walls are full of the stories of the blood that cannot be washed away the cars with four come back as three the bed is the last lie told and death is the last right thing
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Evan Myquest
lessons from the godfather #5
the civics lesson
sit sit sit you move so fast michael we hardly have time to talk anymore for a while here i dreamed
thinking of this garden i must be losing my mind think of all these plants on poles sticking up from the ground how much work is in the garden watering cuttings transplanting timing the seeds indoors several weeks before the frost so that little potted plants become outdoor plants in the warm spring sun
but this strange dream from your father have you ever known me to talk of my dreams this is a strange day
now think of all these plants on poles as legs waving in the air 17
Evan Myquest think of how greedy for fucking these people with their legs in the air are think how little they care for propriety while the sun shines on them yet know these people are sex hungry congressmen and women, judges and presidents to be
they need the water to provide the juices i gave them water picked them up and filled my basket with them but i could not pick them all one was replaced by two
i took the basket into the house and set it next to the juice machine their bodies fell and tumbled into that juicer like that schoolbook horror painting i used the plunger to squeeze them through the blades and i turned the spigot-but this spigot does not pour blood and bone-it pours a golden sweet plum juice sweet in power that courses through one's body
do you understand this maybe it is new pills and my old brain eh
but in the world it seems to me to say with the congress use pictures
with the judges
with the presidents to be
names in the books of whores and pimps
union members from our pockets to spread rumors and picket and heckle opponents 18
Evan Myquest see that the right judges get appointments find power
fulcrum balance points to be tipped with laundered money
leverage
it does not matter which side if it is the winning side every dollar makes someone happy michael
watch the state and federal election thirst grow they will come fast all these strange legs waving in the air like weeds
so that i could not pick them all
i do not know what to make of this i must be losing my mind bodies tumbling into a juicer a garden of waving legs this is a strange day
a stranger way for me to talk to you but it is only an old man's dream during a warm day's nap do you understand this do you think i should have someone take away these new pills
lessons from the godfather #6 19
Evan Myquest
the whole our thing lesson
ah little santino what will you grow into
mikey what will you grow into
bambino fredo you worry me
constantina how helpful you are when you understand what to do
how to tell these children about the world many men are coming over tonight luca wants no part of such talk talk talk meetings but i would have him at my side
some people like to talk about their grandchildren when they should talk about money and vice versa
we are so much in the middle of everything 20
Evan Myquest wars for respect wars for territory we must talk this out before the streets have no people anymore to wave and invite each other for coffee and sambuca and torta
where will the children play how safe will they be on their way to school
our family our thing
everything changes so fast so we must talk again through the speaking turns of the elders to quell the hungers in the middle of everything
some day there will be peace we should be ready for it
santino santino stop rubbing little mikey's head like that he will have no hair left
luca before the meeting go by the market and get several large fish 21
Evan Myquest
lessons from the godfather #8
the wait lesson
once michael i asked santino to wait for a cab your sister connie was with us each five minutes he called a different cab company six taxicab drivers got into a fight in front of us connie hid behind me when they used bad language called santino and me guinea wop motherfucker bastards then they came at us with bats and chains some of those drivers knew us and wanted to protect us
then luca showed up and kept us from a very bad argument
i wanted to just take down their numbers ask around a little bit make some calls
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Evan Myquest no all those drivers wound up in the hospital they did not stop calling names and fighting until luca stopped them he pulled one from another and snapped their limbs some tried to run but santino tripped them then luca put his big hands on them it was not a thing for your mother to know about
santino could not stop laughing when luca took us to your sister's tapdance school
but these cabdrivers were hungry people they had families and then they had hospital bills too and time off work
i dont think santino should have called all those taxicabs i think he should have waited then got their numbers when they started calling names but santino he likes to call names too you know i never use language like that i was very surprised when connie did too that saddened me a little but i was glad she was not afraid it is such a waste of time and effort to use language that does not communicate
the outcome will be the outcome 23
Evan Myquest the next week or the next month
if he waited i could have told him stories we could have had a father son dialogue right there on that street and maybe now these many years later
santino would not be laid out with the rosary around his hands a thing a mother should not see
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Evan Myquest
lessons from the godfather #8
the omerta lesson
i am talking and you will listen to me i asked that you be brought before me for a reason
you know from your oath omerta means to be a man no telling our business to outsiders making bones keeping our thing ours and ours only
we burned the family saints picture you lined up before me you swore on the saint your hearts blood dripped here
now i am angry you see how angry i am i regret you would see this from me 25
Evan Myquest my face usually does not show so much to people who disappoint me
lift up your heads you do not be sick here
the sin is to talk and there is word that you have talked that our family secrets are now on the street
shhhhhhh i am talking i am a man who would be listened to above all you see luca once an army came after him he left them all in holes in a place i shall not name many holes none of which contained all the parts of the same person you see i do not name this place because i can no longer trust you you are no longer men no longer omerta that is a broken thing among us
did you think i would just send you to bed with no supper 26
Evan Myquest that your don is like a father who forgives a child many times
as your father
your padron
hearing your denials i sincerely wish it had not come to this there is disappointment deep in my heart
who among you told i know there is this talker this squealer this rat among you before the oath of omerta is enforced for the sake of generations to come which among you has talked of our secrets now you may answer me answer me like the men you swore to be on the saints ashes
who told your mother i share my afternoon table wine with you children no more wine for any of you until your mother forgives me not a drop
but pop it was connie saw us and told mamma ah fredo you would rat out your sister would you when you have the green face of too much wine you showed your mother ah fredo you worry me 27
Evan Myquest
lessons from the godfather #9
the hydrant lesson
pop you going to get up today yes michael i think i am ready to get up this flu is a bad thing
if i could just lean on you a bit sure pop here's your robe one arm the other
a funny situation when you get tired and out of breath putting on a robe from just a couple days in bed i seem more tired than when this started i know pop it's just the lack of exercise 28
Evan Myquest you look great compared to yesterday though yes, my head is cleared and i cannot wait to eat now an appetite finally mamma has breakfast for you outside everyone is away it will be quiet
michael
when i was laying in that bed for so long
i thought about the family a lot of lives passed before my eyes so many friends
i could not get the idea out of my head how linked together we are each day we talk a little but so much gets done the money flows into accounts the juice we own how influence runs and feeds our purposes like pipes
the same with morale feelings we all have if one of our family gets hit bad how we all feel it
know it
like there are nerves between us
in our eyes we know like an open hydrant that loses the pressure for the whole system 29
Evan Myquest
i do not know why i think these things
michael
you want to hear something stupid
when your mother said i was to stay in that bed not get up for two days
do nothing but sleep and take the syrup
i dreamt of fire hydrants perhaps too much of mamma's soup and all those liquids she makes me drink eh underground pipes set deep and with very high pressure each hydrant ready to gush with water from vast reservoirs and rivers pumping from the source and even though it looks just like a street thing it is so much deeper
i must have been delirious thinking of fire hydrants something the dogs piss on
good thoughts though like about the ones we used to open when it was hot and then the police and fire departments would come fast to turn them off if there were no bosses on the trucks they left them on for a while so we could play in the clean water 30
Evan Myquest
it reminded me that you should remember your soldiers give them enough time to cool down in the heat indulge them these little crimes at the faucets
and know that if you never hear them laugh then something is wrong with the pumps like a bottleneck or a broken pipe that creates a sinkhole trace it down and replace the broken parts you know how to trace a blockage of spirit
follow the laughter down to where there is none the capo who laughs when his soldiers do not that is a bad thing
and if you lean on them hard at times as you test them in the heat remember these silly hydrants i dreamt of and the deep pipes that bring them riches in the heat of it all in the terrible blood heat
but do not be afraid to lean the water flow in dry times people must know who controls the handle and the wrench 31
Evan Myquest fire hydrants and deep pipes
what must you think of me
what is papa telling you michael sit papa
have juice
it is fresh and will give you color again
michael answers mamma he is telling me of how he loves you for making him well his heart is like a fire hydrant of love for you he says o michael you are so silly for a man of your age she says these are not words papa has to say
see michael see how she knows
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Evan Myquest
lessons from the godfather #10
the image lesson
remember michael when we had the magician at your birthday party that time he had this box made everything disappear and
you had to know how
that poor man when you got curious
you found that diagonal mirror inside that box everything he put in there went behind the mirror
i was thinking if your enemies could not count your soldiers if your soldiers were in backrooms of clubs and restaurants special rooms in safe houses well appointed for comfort your enemies they might think you were weak when you were strong
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Evan Myquest and if you need the roman campfires the campfires that were far enough away from the village to seem like many men at night yet not reveal they were only fires and nothing more well you know that story
once upon a time there was a man who used tanks of salad oil in a field as collateral when the auditors counted the serial numbers on those tanks this man had a painter go behind and change those serial numbers then the auditors the verifiers of his collateralized loans they recounted everything several times pronounced his loans backed up and solid
suppose your army is standing on a corner then they are standing on another corner then another maybe they changed clothes and locations in one day perhaps there was a time limit to stay in one place and if sometimes they had friends of ours who owed us favors stand with them with socks stuffed where a holster might be i ask you could this lie be a sin if it saved lives
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Evan Myquest how well could an enemy count them then would they not look to be everywhere
think of the length of an army parade that circles the same block in front of a viewing stand a small country could intimidate a very large one that way no like the english did with fake inflatable tanks and troop carriers in the fields that looked so real from german spotter planes
this is risky business my son this business of image the timing of what you need your enemies and friends to see is a good thing for you to control
i knew a capo once he called his men at random in the morning asked them if there was something they had to tell him about the night before he learned the most secrets and the most in depth truth that way he made it his image to be all knowing and this was how he became all knowing
without knowing anything
pop there are people out there to this day 35
Evan Myquest that think you always had eyes in the back of your head and more spies than the government are you telling me that you never knew anything that it was a trick
michael
the nature and the truth of this is something also to control
i would never spend too much time in front of mirrors that never lie but on days like this i see you as my own mirror
let the old men in the park have their games of chess and logic closely held cards and poker is what life is the bluff of the weaker hand
the misdirect of the magician
but remember
always cut the cards no matter how dumb the dealer looks
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Evan Myquest
lessons from the godfather #11
the life is not the movies lesson
when you were young michael we did not have movies at home but life
real life
is not so much like the movies eh
in the movies we public people would be vilified because we are known in the streets and powerful i imagine santino would be cold calculating and handsome in a black hat perhaps i would be wise and careful speak in well chosen words all the time
you would be a hero
maybe an undercover cop
an infiltrator
with a quick mind
strange imagine fredo a don too or an admiral because he does love being on the lake
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Evan Myquest what if we left brooklyn it would be like the dodgers leaving ebbets field an impossibility we should move outside our friends influences
do you think if there was a movie about us we would live happily ever after like clark gable or better than that contender fellow on the docks
or would there be an elliot ness to take us down rat a tat tat rat a tat tat all those cadillacs with running boards bogart edward g imagine such a thing new york turned into chicago in the twenties
the police breaking up our gambling tables and clubs when they are our best customers and procurers
sure pop sure
maybe the movie santino would sing and dance like fred astaire 38
Evan Myquest i could tango you could run a casino ten stories tall in las vegas
ah michael see that they get someone thin with a good voice to play your father an italian man like our friend frank sinatra yes too bad he does not make movies anymore maybe we could get someone else that young man in the bank hostage movie make him an offer
sure pop sure
hey santino pop says you should be in movies
mikey hoo hah you are a fucking knucklehead you think they have room for another barrymore hoo hah bury
more
get it 39
Evan Myquest
lesson from the godfather #12
at the car dealer with clemenza
hey mikey you see what they call trunk room now i don't think we coulda fit sal in there in one piece anyway
best thing these days they got rid of that center post in the windshield 40
Evan Myquest good for the drive-in movies you know yep, window repair might be got probably harder an' more expensive but c'mon
how many time they shoot out one side an'
not the other yeah yeah moe green's glasses
oh wait a minute mikey no running boards we might need two maybe three cars instead a one now an' we gotta update the fake taxi 'n'cop car, too o this is gonna be expensive
jesus mary look at all the colors now like we need different colors hey, you see this hat whaddaya mean you're out of black in that model mikey we need to shop somewheres else this neighborhood is going to hell
see
perhaps one day you will need a favor
perhaps there will be a problem with your mechanics perhaps there will be a strange flu going around the sales force a capit?
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Evan Myquest mikey
take it easy
we don't need no consigliere to negotiate this
suppose we appeal to this nice man's better nature look we want to make a deal and then the salesman said well then make me an offer
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Evan Myquest
Evan Myquest
Evan lives in Sacramento with his wife, Eva, and a cockatiel that files its taxes as head of household.
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