THE RECIPE by JOE PARENTE (ebook reader ink .TXT) 📖

Chapter One The Recipe

1929


“Hey Frankie, let’s get outa here! He’s comin! I can see him runnin’ fast!”
“Get the hell off those tracks, you kids!” A deep voice came from behind a rail car.
It was dark and you couldn’t see much. The red and green two-color lantern he was carrying was reflecting off the switchman’s striped shirt and the shiny worn tracks of the rail.
They were warned before, about playing around the rails, but always got away from the man wearing the black and white striped cap.
“God-damn it you kids, I’ll get you this time!” He was gaining on them. “You’re gonna spend some time with the cops this time!” He yelled. “You guys think you’re little toughies don’t you!” His voice was shaking as his breathing came in gasps. He was catching up with them in a hurry.
“Frankie, we gotta do something; He’s gettin' closer! Pop will skin us if we get caught!”
They now could see his arms pumping as the grinding of crunching gravel was being smashed under his feet. The pulverizing sound got louder as he got closer to the two boys. It was though a big monster was chewing giant rocks into powder, masticating in rhythmic heaving sounds.
Their stride was much shorter than his. For every step he took, they had to make two or three. Sweat was pouring from their faces as they approached the gas lighting of the intersection.
“Joey, look at that old ladder! Hey, I got an idea. Help me with it, we can put it over the tracks. You know he has to take it off. You know, in case a train comes by.” Frankie said.
“Yeah, Frankie, good idea!”
“Hurry, He’s getting closer, Joey. This ladder is heavy; we’re going to have to drag it over.” Frankie was moving it but needed to do it faster.
They struggled to move the heavy wooden thing to the tracks. Frankie noticed some dog shit under the dim lights then looked around on the ground. He found what he needed; it was a wide stick laying on the ground that would be perfect for the use of spreading. “I’ve got another idea, Joey”. He said, laughing “But we got to be quick.”
Frank smeared as much dog shit, on as many rungs of the ladder as he could. “Now let’s get running, because if I’m right, lantern man is gonna be real mad.” Frankie and Joey continued down the track as fast as their legs could go.
The glare of the lantern he was carrying did not allow the switchman to see the boys manipulating the large ladder into position. For all he knew, they were taking a breath. God knows, he needed a break. He was breathing very hard and was about to give up when he noticed the ladder blocking the tracks.
“Jesus Christ, so that’s what you're up to.” He muttered, under his breath. He knew that he had to get that thing off the tracks because the ‘Ten Eighteen’ was due soon. He set his lantern down on the groundand grabbed the ladder in an attempt to lift it. It was heavy; he was breathing so hard from running that he didn’t have much energy left. He lifted one end and walked his way down the ladder rung by rung lifting it by by grasping each square stepping rung with his bare hands.
Then it hit his nostrils! He screamed! “You little bastaaaaards!” Suddenly, all his energy came back to him. He flung the ladder free of the tracks,tried to wipe off his face, making the odor much worse, grabbed his lantern and ran to catch those two ten-year old little shits.
At that same time, the boys that were hiding in the bushes, near the tracks couldn’t believe the new burst of stamina that their chaser had found.
Laughing bursts ceased and the fear came back to them; they broke back into a fast run. They didn’t bother to look back as the loud cussing and gravel- shattering began again. All of a sudden,things were quiet. Both boys looked back. It appeared the switchman had tripped and fallen. There was no longer a lantern of green and red. There was an orange glow of burning kerosene where the colored lantern should have been. The lenses on the lantern shattered and the loud cursing of the chaser swore. “I’ll get you boys, so help me!”
Again the man got up and started to run after them. The boys were frozen at the sight of the big man chugging towards them. His striped shirt reflected the light from the intersection’s glow. To their surprise, the white shirt and the man took another fall. Frankie and Joe looked at each other and burst out laughing. They just could not believe their luck.
Joey’s eyes were tearing from laughing so hard. “We better get back; we don’t need to get in trouble from Pop.”
“Yeah, let’s cut through Fratello’s yard.”
“Yeah, OK, but let’s not get caught. Make sure you watch out for dog shit!” They both erupted in laughter again.


Leonardo caught the two boys trying to sneak in the back door. “Hey, what’s the matta' you two? Where you been?-- Joey, if you gonna live with us, you gotta behave, and you, Frankie, you know betta' than this.Ya both missed supper and look at your trousers! What you gonna wear for school? What’s all that grease and stuff you got on there?” He touched a black spot and examined it by rubbing it between his fingers. “You two been horsin’ by the tracks again?”
Frank looked down at his feet. “Sorry Pop, we was, well we was, kinda--forgot about the time.”
His father put his hand on his head. “Why are you so wet; you been sweatin?”
“Yeah, Pop we was in a hurry-- to get home.”
“Like I never heard that one before.” He put his hand on Joey’s head, spun them both around and lightly swatted their butts. “Get into the tub and wash them clothes with you. Give me them shoes so I can run them on the buffer. I’ll get you something to eat.” He turned his back and shook his head with a smile.


Joey’s mother and father, the Santorini's, were killed about a year ago, in some kind of neighborhood problem. All that was known at the time was that Salvatore Santorini was a gambler and owed some tough guys a lot of money. When he couldn’t pay, his parents disappeared.
At that time, Joey moved in with Frankie and his father. Later the Santorini family, except for Joey, was found under the railroad trestle, dead. Ever since then, Joey was like a brother to Frankie. During those days, families fixed their own problems. They didn’t have to go to an authority, one reason was, there was no one to go to.
Frankie Bonino’s father, Leonardo, was a great cook. Joey was a skinny, tall kid but it wasn’t because Leonardo didn’t feed him. He would make his special spaghetti and meatballs and for a change he would make rigatoni and meatballs. Sometimes he would add some veal or sausages that Fratello’s meat shop would make for him. The thing that made Leonardo’s sauce special was because he added a special ingredient to that sauce. No one in the neighborhood knew what it was that he added. Leonardo’s mother taught him how to make it and he swore he would never give up the recipe. It was something that set it apart from all others. Anyone walking through the Italian neighborhood on a Sunday night would be in heaven from the aroma filling the streets on that day.
Spaghetti was always one of the dishes made by the Italian women on Sundays. Anyone that would walk by the Bonino’s house always had a tendency to linger a little longer to try to guess what he put in the sauce.
He always started with fresh garlic and a little onion. He would then sauté them together with olive oil and fresh oregano from the garden. He would put in the seasonings that all of the other women would add with the addition of one other. That was the mystery.
When Frankie was a kid the Italian women would try to bribe him to provide the answer for that final added ingredient, They did this by offering a cannoli for the answer. When Frankie told his father of this, Leonardo made sure that Frankie asked for two cannolis for the chance of finding the secret. Of course, he never told, but they kept trying.
When Joey arrived in the home, the price for a possible discovery went to three cannolis. During that period, the three of them must have eaten hundreds of those sweet little pastries. This was one of the pacts that the three of them had developed over the years.
Although Leonardo never gave out the secret, he must have known these women were interested in something else. It must have been Leonardo’s charm and his ability to make beautiful music with his mandolin. He would melt their hearts with his charm.
Leonardo was married and never strayed. It was a good family. Frankie always saw his father happy. The one time sadness touched the household is when Leonardo’s wife died of a heart ailment after a long bout with diabetes. In fact, Frankie’s mother, Maria, would trust only Frankie to administer her insulin shots. There was some thing that Frankie had inherited from his father that made him gentle but yet firm when it came to important matters. It was though the situation was under his control at all times.
When Joey came into their home, it made Leonardo think of the future and not the heartbreak of the past. This effect caused a special bond between the three of them.


When Leonardo was a young boy, he had the ability to play any musical instrument. He wore delicate wire rim glasses, so his father cautioned him not to break them. The other kids on the block would tease him whenever they would go out to play baseball, or stickball. Leo, as the kids would call him, would taunt him into playing, but he knew his father couldn’t afford another pair. Lenny found other ways to use his time, so he took up the mandolin. It wasn’t much of a mandolin but it was a precious one. It had been handed down to him from his grandfather. It had been glued and repaired but still sounded good. He had always dreamed of playing to an audience, or at least, to take lessons. Everything he was able to play was self taught. He found he could play any instrument, even though he could not read music.


Antonio Ceridino was a famous violinist that was from the neighborhood. He was