Act Ten
Scene Two
Sub-Scene Three
Philly, here I come...
It was what Junior was told
when he took the drive to Philly, or towards it. He was with three of the boys
who served the father. The boys were armed with their handguns and no
submachine guns. They did not want to attract any unwanted attention.
It was just a drive with
four men in the vehicle.
The drive on the T-Ford was
silent, with the uneven roads making most of the grunts while the engine
groaned on the long drive. They were doing about fifty miles an hour, and that
accounts for the silent curses both by the passengers and the vehicle, with the
occasional puff at the engine side.
“Louis, did you fill the
gas?” Junior asked.
“Yes, Boss. She is old, but
she has not given me any reasons to dump her.” Louis is one of the best drivers
among the boys. He does most of the drive-by shoots and has not even dented the
T-Ford in all those escapades.
“How far more to Philly?”
Junior asked.
“A long drive, boss. We will
get there before the coffee break.”
“Stop over at the next café.
I need to take a leak.” Bannon called out.
“I could stop here or there.
You can piss here. The soils here need your piss.” Louis smiled. “Unless you
are pissing the sickly piss.”
Gonorrhoea and Syphilis were
rampant then in Rome, partly due to the prostitution trade and the promiscuous
conduct of many. Salvarsan (or arsphenamine), discovered in 1910, was used to
treat the ailment, replacing mercury, which was prescribed for many years.
Records from the period,
released to the public by the Military Archives of the Irish Army, show that
gonorrhoea and syphilis among troops reached crisis levels by 1924, with more
than 300 of the Army’s 15,000 soldiers infected with one or the other (https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/army-declared-war-on-sexually-transmitted-diseases-in-1920s-1.2969761).
“I do not have that.” Bannon
said it in anger.
“I saw it in the bag.” Louis
smiled. He was a devout father and husband.
“It was for Nell. He asked
for that. I bought it for...”
“Hold on. Intersection
ahead. I need to slow down.” Louis called out. Early Model T Fords used
mechanical band brakes and a transmission brake, but only on the rear wheels.
Henry Ford believed that equipping his car with front brakes would cause the
car to end over during a hard stop, so he only put rear brakes on them.
They reached the crossed
intersection when their vehicle got impacted by the truck on the driver’s front
side. The impact pushed the T-Ford into a spin and ended up in the ditch there.
Louis, the driver, was dead from the impact. Junior tried to crawl out, but the
vehicle was on its side, and he needed to climb over Louis to get out.
“Junior, let me get out
first.” Steve at the right rear was getting out. “Bannon is injured. It looks
like he is out.”
Junior slid his body across
the driver and slowly alighted from the vehicle. He saw the truck in the same
state on the side of the road, and the driver slumped over the steering wheel.
Junior pushed himself out of the ditch and stood by the road. Steve joined him
there with the blood stains on the clothes.
“Not mine. It was Bannon. He
was...” Steve stopped midway in his explanation when the bullet penetrated the
back of his head. He fell headfirst onto the road. Junior crouched down on
instinct and pulled his gun from the shoulder holster. He saw then the two-
hitmen approaching him.
“Do not do it, kid. We got
you covered on both sides.” Junor saw the third hitman to his left.
“I just want to leave you a
message. Get to Philadelphia and do not return to Rome. Money will be given to
you.” One of the hitmen told Junior. “Stay in exile.”
“Who are you?” Junior asked.
“Your friends.” The hitman
then left. Junior crawled to the road and said, "There." Soon, a
truck pulled up, and the good Samaritan took Junior to the nearest infirmary.
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