Oh, for those glorious days of youth with family and friends celebrating the most important time of the year together. Generations later, holidays don’t seem the same as when as a child, he or she was part of the most important day of the year. All the glamor, festivity, goodness and love are gone in a somewhat Godless nation.
They arrived in a gold Cadillac Coupe de Ville with an all-leather interior; the best GM could fabricate. She is small, a petit brunette in an evening dress, designer no less, and shrinking. Wracks guesses that she has gone to too many exclusive luncheons at the club. The Wracks never saw her eyes, they were probably dark, serene and intent. The Godfather led her up the steps into the entrance hall and he has a bottle of wine and a box of candies and they sit down in the special room of green shag and a huge flocked Christmas tree adorned with light. He is the Wracks Godfather and he doesn’t think they are related by anything except religion. No one wanted to be Wracks godfather but he intervened, and he was there at the christening and he is here now and very important. An Italian of medium height, but very robust, like of the European samurai class, with dark hair, dark eyes, a look that is piercing and extraordinary. For some reason he likes to take pictures with the Wracks, and he was at his first communion, and his confirmation, but the Wracks guesses that all the photographs have been destroyed. Tonight, he wears a dark expensive worsted suit with pinstripes as became his signature attire. He sports a red tie and gold cufflinks and a white carnation on his left lapel. He tells the Wracks, “When you go to church wear a carnation in your lapel, red if your mother is alive, white if she is not,” and tonight he had on a white carnation. The table is extended, two leaves are added to make the area amenable for eight people, and tonight the table adorns with wedding China, finger bowls to wash your hands and white linen napkins in a porcelain ring with a wreath tied on. The Godfather likes Italian food so tonight, the menu includes a pasta dish, with red sauce made from chicken feet, and braciola, flank steak beaten by a hammer with garlic and parsley and then tied up and simmered in the sauce. After the first course, the group will enjoy an eye of round roast because Grandpa thinks it is the most flavorful. Next, they will enjoy baked russet potatoes and gallons of sour cream, then green beans steamed in sea salt and fresh garlic. For dessert they will have cannelloni: a thin croissant like pastry stuffed with sweet whipped cream. These pastries come from the immigrant bakers that moved to Tranquil Hills and promised to make European bread and pastries for ten years.
After a period of time, the Wrackers, including the Fonz who is dressed like the Wracks in a suit and tie to complement the guests sit at the table. He sits opposite of grandma at the table, and next to the Godfather, and the Godfather sits next to Grandpa who is at the right hand of Mrs. Wracker. Grandma and the wife sit next to the Wracks. Father Wracker raises his glass of red wine brought by the Godfather and says “Merry Christmas”. The group then give thanks to God for another meal and everyone digs in. The guests of course are first and the buffet is set out in the alcove by the passthrough. When everyone is done creating their plate, the Wracks fills his plate with a heaping helping of everything and sits down and engorges his palate. Then comes the roast, and it is done dripping red rare, Italians like to eat raw meat, and the latissimus dorsa disappears with incredible rapidity. Grandma doesn’t eat much and she lived a very long time and she heaps all her meat on the Wracks plate and has a potato and green beans. The Wracks asks for another glass of wine, it is delicious, the godfather brought it and it tastes so good, it must be expensive. Finally, everyone is finished and the Godfather unbuttons his coat and sits back in his chair and smiles. The Wracks opens the side sliding glass door and Grandpa light up a foot long Roi tan, and the godfather’s wife has a cigarette with a gold band on the center. Mother Wracks carries out a large pink cardboard box full of pastries and passes it around. Everyone takes a large cream filled pastry, a decanter of fresh Columbian coffee bounces around and everyone except Grandma has a cup. If he or she wants they can douse their Columbian with fresh half and half. The move to the living room with the huge picture window obscured by a chiffon veil. Father wracks pass around a fresh bottle of Courvoisier. Everyone seems to enjoy themselves. The Fonz disappears. He is either next door with the neighbor’s daughter that never revealed herself to the Wracks or up the street with the Bolt team. The Wracks retrieves all the dishes from the table and places the fine China with fruit engravings and gilded gold leaf trim alone in the dishwasher. They have to be washed alone or they will chip. He then counts the sterling silverware and hand washes the batch in a trough and sets them on the drying tray on the side. The napkin rings and finger bowls will go in as the second batch in the dishwasher when the first load is done. The Wracks is done for now and sits in the linen sofa next to the green Grandpa chair and dozes. The day has been very busy. He wakes up as the guests start to leave and he goes to the coat closet and brings them their wraps. The wife of the Godfather looks at him very curiously, the Wracks doesn’t know why and he helps her into her woolen night cloak and she walks out the door. The Godfather is next and he has a large topcoat like Eliot Ness of the untouchables. He extends his hand to the Wracks, the Wracks attaches himself to the hand which is warm and strong and the Godfather says one word, “Omerta”, and he is out the door. The godfather sets his wife in the gold Cadillac and they start the car, and roll away unnoticed. They might be going back to Vegas. Then the Grandparents get up and leave. They will be back tomorrow laden with gifts. Grandma hugs the Wracks and says, “you are growing up so big,” and they enter the white boxy ford Fairlane coupe with dragon wings and silver trim and they are gone. “Merry Christmas” grandfather waves as passes by to the end of the street with a stop sign.
This is the last time the Wracks ever saw his Godfather. They say he died in his vineyard having a glass of wine with his closest friend. The Wracks never ever met a man like the Godfather; He was a ruffian in Chicago who couldn’t find a job and joined the Mob. He rose through the ranks with violence and intelligence as his call sign. He eventually became Don of Dons but the Wracks knows him only as the godfather. This Catholic man donated one half of his earnings to the Catholic Church and did all his business in church next to the confessional. What ever he did does not matter because this was one of the finest man Yahweh ever put on the earth and he talks to the Wracks and gave him ethics in a world of pathos and chaos. When this man died, they started shooting at the Wracks and he had to leave. Until then his life was a golden age and he grew up straight and righteous and the basis of another story. The Wracks thanks all those who celebrate Christmas for another day on this earth and their blessings in his endeavor. Mao.