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

to the side of the building. The other boys that were with Guido started to follow them.
Frankie held up his hand. “Kinda private, ok?”
“It’s ok, I’ll be right back.” He directed the order to his buddies.
Guido and Frankie walked around to the side of the building. “Yeah, what is it?”
“I think you have something that belongs to Joey and he would like it back.” Frankie stood a little closer to him.
Guido backed up. “What? I ain’t got nothin.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah.” Guido started to leave.
Frankie held up his hand. “We was gonna give you some money to get it back.”
Guido turned back to look with interest. “Yeah, How much?"
“Well let’s say, one dollar”
Guido snickered. “You make it two dollars and uh,it’s a deal.”
“Gee, two dollars? Yeah, ok, but you have to bring the coat today. His old man is mean and will beat him bad if he doesn’t get it back right away. Can you bring it, let’s say, we meet here, after school?”
“Yeah, Yeah,OK.”
“OK, oh, and uh, one other thing, can we do this alone? I kind of want to do this between just you and me. See, Joey’s Pop gave me three dollars to get the coat back and I wanted to keep the other dollar. I
don’t want anybody to see that I only gave you two.”
Guido thought to himself, 'I just hit the jackpot' and he knew he had him. “Hey, I’ll tell you what, give me that other dollar and we’ll
call it square.”
“How about, I’ll split it with you, then we can get more money later on another deal.” There was a pause as one of the teachers rang the hand bell for school to start. “What do you say?” Frankie stuck his hand out to shake.
“Yeah, OK" Guido turned ignoring Frankie’s outstretched hand. “You have the money, I’ll get the coat. I’ll meet you right here right afta’.”
Guido ran over to meet with his other guys. They all ran up the steps laughing.
Frankie walked over to Joey with a smile. “Don’t worry I’ll get it. Right after school, I want you to run home. I’ll be along after I get it.”
“Alright Frankie, what did you tell him?”
“I’ll tell you later; right now, we gots to get to school.” They both walked up the stairs. Frankie had an odd smile on his face.


The loud clanging of the school bell was deafening as the doors burst open to new snow. Hundreds of kids were piling out of the building.
The first to emerge were slipping and sliding down the stairs and at the same time laughing and yelling with the thoughts of the up-coming weekend. All they had in their minds was the fun that they were going to have playing in the cold fresh snow.
All Frankie had on his mind was Guido. Anticipating what was about to happen, Frankie had taken his glasses off.
“Hey Frank, did you bring the money?” Guido had gotten out a little earlier and was waiting at the side of the building. “Hey, where’s your glasses?”
“I took them off because they were giving me a headache.” Frank approached him and noticed that Guido was carrying Joey’s coat.
“You got the money?”
“Yeah” Frankie walked over, close to where Guido was standing. By reaching for what Guido thought was money in his back pocket, Frankie, with all his massive weight stomped hard and very quickly breaking Guido’s instep. Guido went down in instant pain. His face had turned white with agony. Frankie pointed his threatening finger and continued in a soft but firm voice. “If you ever do something to upset my brother, tease or steal anything from him again, I’ll break the other one.” Frankie grabbed Joey’s coat that had fallen onto the snow. He continued. “I don’t want you tellin’ anybody about this. You tell ‘em that you slipped and fell on the stairway, Ok?”
Guido cried out. “Ok.”
Frankie yelled at the group of kids around the corner. “Somebody, help! This guy fell over here!”
With his cheeks red and feeling his heartbeat surging in his head, Frankie walked triumphantly home.
Joey and Pop were waiting when Frankie walked through the front door.
“Hey, what’s for supper Pop?” Frankie threw Joey’s coat onto the hook by the door as if nothing had happened.
Pop glanced at it. “We are going to have chicken tonight.”
“Wow!” Joey said.
Leonardo knew that he wouldn’t question his son about how he got the coat back. He was certain that Frankie did things right. “Now you two wash up and use the scrub brush; it’s time for to eat.”
The boys came to the table noticing something different about the place setting before them. There were the usual plates with knives and forks but also had the addition of three wine tumblers. Pop’s glass was filled with his wine and theirs was half-filled with water. Pop lifted the large platter to the table with the large boiled chicken sprinkled with oregano surrounded with Italian bread with the hard crust and soft center. On another dish he had taken a big head of lettuce cut in three big wedges on which he had poured olive oil and red wine vinegar with fresh garlic chunks sprinkled about. As he served to each plate he would set the lettuce wedge and tossed a couple of tablespoons of parmesan on top. He finished serving the moist chicken to the two plates then broke the bread in chunks. He took the remaining food left on the platter and as usual, set it in front of where he would sit. No one would start eating until he began.
Then, before he sat down, he opened the icebox and took out the gallon of wine he had made the year before. The next thing he did was very unusual. He took the gallon of wine and filled the rest of their glasses with the red wine. “Now we celebrate, salute.”
The boys looked at each other and picked up their glasses. This was one of the most memorable suppers that they had ever had. They spent hours at the table that night and with only one glass of wine, they were drunk with happiness.
Leonardo taught them to take a piece of Italian bread and soak it in the wine and then let the bread melt in their mouths before swallowing.
No questions were asked at the table about the jacket or how Frankie got it. It was a proud moment for Frankie because he knew that special dinner was for him. Imprint

Text: No portion of this book can be sold or copied without the permission of the author. parente.joe@gmail.com
Publication Date: 12-21-2009

All Rights Reserved

Dedication:
For My Grandfather