I love you Arlyne

5:00 p.m. September 25, 1935...

“Don’t you have to get back to your job Scar?” Arlyne said, tying my tie. 

“Well of course, but you do too.” I replied, “We have a big day today. I’ve set up a meeting with Frank Albermarle. He needs me to do him a favor”. 

Arlyne looked confused, “You do know that he’s part of the Genovese family right? You need to be careful with him”. 

What does he want from me? I haven’t done a job on my own since I became the leader, how am I supposed to do this, a job for the Genovese family? Why does he want ME to do a job that anyone in his family can do? I don’t know what he wants, but whatever it is, it’s going to be a lot of money. Well, it better be or I’m not doing shit. 

“Do you think I should do this?”

“Well, first you need to find out what he wants. I’ll be back at seven to let you know what I find, okay?” 

With her saying this, I got a little worried. 

“Oh don’t look so worried sweetness, it’ll be okay, I promise”. 

She always had a wonderful way of calming me down. I really do admire her. Those long blonde locks, big beautiful emerald green eyes, her amazing soft voice, but I’m scared to love again. The last woman I loved ended up being a psychopath. She’s the reason I have this scar over my eye, the reason I can’t smile with the left side of my face. I stayed for 10 years after Jeremiah was born, so he wouldn't lose a mother, but after everything she put me through, I just had to end it. I guess that’s one good thing about being a mafia leader, you get other people to take care of your problems for you. 

8:00 p.m. September 25, 1935...

The meeting is about to start. Why am I so worried? Just walk in, all-natural Scar. Don’t think too much about it. I mean come on man, you’ve done this ten-thousand times just breathe in and breathe out. The more you think the more you…

My consigliere, Toney, peeped his head through the door. “Scar, Mr. Albemarle is here to see you.”

Alright, I think I’m ready now. I walked into the room to see Frank Albemarle sitting in the chair in front of my desk. I walked around to my seat and sat down. I always record every conversation I have, for legal purposes of course. I keep my recorder in the top left drawer in my desk, but when I went to turn it on, it wasn’t there. This shit head took my recorder. I had to play it off, but he began to speak. 

“Looking for this, Scar?” He questioned smiling. 

“You think you’re tough shit don’t you?”

“Well of course, but we're not going to be recording anything today. I came to you because I need a favor,” he paused for a minute, “I need you to kill my don’s son, Al. I don’t want him to become the leader. I need to be the Don. I was supposed to be next. Please, I’ll give you seven,” He seemed to be genuine, almost,  “But listen, I need YOU to do this. I know you can get it done with no issues. I don’t trust anyone else, I NEED you.”

“How about twelve?” I questioned him. I don’t need twelve million, I’m shooting more for ten, I just need to see how much he's willing to pay. This seems a little sketchy though, so If I’m going to risk my life, I might as well go out big, ya know?

“I’ll go nine.”

“Eleven?”

“Ten?” He asked with a hopeful voice.

“I’ll go ten. I need a picture with all of his personal information attached, you know the drill. Daily schedule, height, age, blah blah blah. Let me know when this needs to be done by. Send me a letter with all the information. As of right now, I’m booked for a while, but I can make things work faster for more money.” Man, twelve really sounds good right now, but I don’t think he’s in a huge rush. His boss is only forty and the son is only twenty. He has a good five to ten years before any of this really needs to happen. 

He looked me in the eyes, with a hopeful smile and said, “Oh, I won’t need this for another seven-ish years.” 

Shit, I wanted more money man. It’s fine. It’s really fine. “Mr. Albermarle, let me have my recorder,” I said, “Oh and since I couldn’t record, you can’t either, so give me yours,” I swear he thinks I’m an idiot like I couldn’t hear it clicking every thirty seconds. He also doesn’t realize that my office has a hidden camera that can hear every conversation. I’m successful for a reason, I’m not an idiot. 

“Oh you sly dog.” he said handing me both tapes, “Delete it, I need it back. I’m not going to leave until I get it Mr. Scar.”

I deleted the recording and handed his recorder back to him. I then stood up, as he did, and walked him to the door. Toney was waiting to escort him out of my building. “Toney, take care of the poor man,” I joked while going back to my desk. I'm going to be completely honest, I’m so scared. It’s been over ten years since I’ve done a job like this. I usually get my soldiers to do this for me, but I have to. ME. I have to do this myself. I know this is going to be difficult, but I still have seven years to think about all of this. I began to talk to myself, “Scar, my man, you have time. Don’t overthink this, you’ve done it before, you still got it.” I turned around to the door and I didn’t realize that Arlyne was standing there. 

“Scar,” she said, “don’t do it”. 

“Why not? It’s not my first time, trust me, it’ll be okay.” I reassured her. 

“No Scar for real. I think he's up to something. I really don’t trust this. Please listen to me this time,” she begged.

“Arlyne, I’ll be fine. I don't need you worrying about me, okay?”

“Scar, I already talked to Toney about hiring someone else to do this for you. They agreed to do it for you. Please listen to me for once! Jeremiah will only be 19 and if something were to happen to you,” she tried to hold back her tears, “he wouldn’t be ready to fulfill this job.”

“Don’t bring Jeremiah into this. Nothing’s going to happen to me. I’ve done it before and I can do this shit again Arlyne.” At this point, I was getting agitated. “I don’t need anyone else to do this for me.”

“JUST LISTEN TO ME. PLEASE. I already hired someone else. And please don’t cuss at me anymore.”

“Arlyne, it’ll be okay. Just leave me alone. Leave. He wants ME to do it, not anyone else.” I needed her to stop worrying. It was making me nervous. “Who did you hire anyway.”

“Toney’s brother, Lorenzo. Please, Scar. Please.”

“Arlyne. No. I already said no. I’m done with this conversation. Get out of my office.” I felt so bad for getting mad at her, but sometimes I just can’t control my emotions. “We can discuss things later.”

So, she left. I know this upset her, but I can do this on my own. Honestly, I was just done with the argument. That was the last thing I needed. I can’t deal with this. I need to talk to Lorenzo about this, but not anytime soon. 

10:00 a.m. January 1, 1939…

“Scar, you have a letter from Mr. Albermarle,” Toney stated. 

“Thank you, Toney.” I sat down to read the letter;

“Mr. Scar, 

I have been watching Al for over three years now and I think I have all the details you need… Again, I need YOU and ONLY YOU to do this for me. 

• Height: 5”9
• Age: 24
• Weight: 173.5 (I know, he’s an actual stick)
• Daily schedule
• 0700hrs: Gets ready- showers, gets dressed, and leaves the Brooklyn office. 
• 0800hrs: Gets on the subway to go to get breakfast. The subway leads to New York, New York.
• 0900hrs: Eats breakfast at Sullivan Street Bakery every morning.
• 1000hrs: Leaves the bakery and heads to Central Park. 
• 1200hrs: Arrives at Central Park and walks around, looking for whomever his father assigns to his that day. 
• 1400hrs: Heads to any place in NYC to eat lunch. 
• 1600hrs: Heads back to the Brooklyn office. Takes a different subway every day, smart man. 
• 1900hrs: Arrives back in Brooklyn and walks down the alleyways to get back to the office. He cannot be seen, obviously for protection purposes. 
• I’m thinking you can get him during this time. The sky is getting dark and he’s in the alleys. 
• 2000hrs: Arrives at the office.
• 2300hrs: Goes to sleep. 

Thank you for allowing me to set this up with you. It has really been a pleasure. I know this is against all family regulations and rules, but it is very important to me. This will really be a benefit for my family and myself. When I am the boss, I think that I could make an alliance with you, so we can protect each other and work together for more money. This is for a later conversation though, but please keep it in mind.

Thanks again, 

Frank Albemarle”

Okay, he really wants this. I’ll do this around 7:30 just to be safe. Ten million is a lot of money, so this is definitely happening. I figure now is a good time to talk to Lorenzo about the job. 

“Hey Toney,” I called out, “Could you get Lorenzo to meet me in my office in about five minutes?”

“Of course Scar.”

Lorenzo walks through the door. “What’s up boss?” He asked nervously. 

“You know the job you’ve been hired to do?” I asked.

He nodded.

“Well, I figured I was going to do it anyway. You don’t need to risk your life for me. Let me do this one.” 

“Are you sure boss?” He questioned. 

“Yes, I’m sure. Now go back to doing what you always do and don’t worry about this anymore.” I told him. 

With this, he left. Now that everything is set up, all I have to do now is wait. Well, I still have to do my other duties, but never mind. I know this sounds sinister, but I'm kind of excited. It’s just been so long. Anyway, today isn’t looking too busy so I’m probably going to take a really good nap and have Toney cover today’s jobs. Man, I don’t know what I would do without him. 

9:00 p.m. September 24, 1942…

Tomorrow is the big day. I can’t believe this. My first actual job in over ten years. This is crazy. Arlyne hasn’t spoken to me since the last argument and I think she knows that I’m doing this, not Lorenzo. It’s been a very long seven years. I miss her. I can’t apologize, that’s just not who I am. I feel terrible, but it’s over and done with. Everything’s set up and ready. Now, all I need to do is pray, big time, and wait for tomorrow. 

7:00 p.m. September 25, 1942…

I arrived in Brooklyn to scope out the alleys and such. As of right now, Al is walking back to the office. I need to take a look at him, so I can follow, but not too close. 

About fifteen minutes later, I finally spotted him. I began to follow him. Right turn after right turn, left after left for about fifteen minutes. It is now seven-thirty, it's actually about to happen. He took his final left turn. I drew out my gun, still following him. As soon as I turned onto the alleyway, I was greeted by Al, Frank, and about thirty other men. What the fuck is going on. 

“Scar, you really thought that you could get away with killing MY son?” a familiar voice called out, “it simply cannot be done this easily. I thought you were smarter than this.”

I began to tremble. This can’t be happening right now. The other men began to circle around me. They drew their guns and aimed at me. 

“You have two options Scar, drop your gun and die, or you can go down with a fight.” He chuckled. “I don’t see why you would even…

BOOM. Someone shot. Everyone began to look around. It came from behind me. I turned and saw Arlyne, Toney, Lorenzo, and some of my soldiers. 

“Don’t just stand there, shoot them you pieces of shit!” The voice cried out. 

One by one, people started to fall to the ground I heard Arlyne call for more soldiers. I heard Toney scream in pain. Lorenzo rushed over to him and someone shot him. He fell on Toney, which just made toney scream even louder. I rushed over to him and before I knew it, I fell. I got shot in my stomach. I heard sirens in the distance and a lot of footsteps running away. 

“SCAR!” I heard Arlyne rush over to me. “Scar, sweetness are you alive? Please respond.” She was holding back her tears. 

“I’m so sorry Arlyne. I really messed up,” I said as the sirens grew louder. “I should’ve listened to you.”

I could tell she wanted to say something, but she just looked away. 

“You can’t stay here,” I said, grabbing her hand and holding my stomach with the other. “You’ll get in trouble and I need you to be there for Jeremiah.”

“I know Scar, I do.” She began to cry.

My eyes lit up with hope. “Please tell Jeremiah everything he needs to know. Tell him to not make the same mistakes I did.” 

“Of course Scar,” She sobbed, “anything for you.”

This was breaking my heart. Everything was getting darker and darker. The sirens were so very loud. “Arlyne run, run before they get here.”

She began to get up. The sirens were very close and there were very fast footsteps coming up from behind me. People were yelling and asking where we were.

“Run, please,” I told her. “Don’t worry about me anymore, I’ll be okay.” 

“I don’t want to leave you,” she cried, "but I know I need to. I love you Scar, I really do". With this, she ran off.

I was thinking to myself about how much I truly loved her. How much I wanted to stay on this earth, alive. I began to slowly drift off into darkness. Why do I have to leave her alone? Why can't I just stay here? Why didn't I listen to her in the beginning?