Week 5 Story: An Offer I Couldn't Refuse
Don Corleone from The Godfather Movie
"Please Mr. Inuchi, I'm begging"
Those were the last words I ever heard as a innocent kid. Now, I am the senator of New York with only one goal in mind, avenge my brother. Well, he's not my brother by blood, but we sure spilled more of that together than I'd prefer to mention. See, Roy was the son Davis Howell, the head of the largest crime family in Yonkers. When I was young, my father and his father took care of business a lot, so we became more than best friends. I loved Roy, but he was on the path to power, the type of power that would hurt my fathers business associates. See, my father is Michael Inuchi, the main reason why the Howells don't come to Manhattan. Roy was working with the new senator, senator Rawlins. Rawlins would get "campaign donations" from Roy, and in return he'd continue to look the other way with the family. The only problem this presented was that now we had the cops looking extra hard to bust down our operation since they couldn't act in Yonkers no more. I had no problem with this, to be honest, I probably would have tried and worked a treaty with Roy and have both of us go after the Irish, but my pop didn't think like that. "Too optimistic" he'd say.
Well now I'm here. In the senators office, watching my pop break his legs. See, my pop had the bright idea to put out a hit on Roy 500K for the boy. Every back ally crook in New York was looking for him now.
"That should keep him hiding for the next 14 years or so" my pop muttered. "Now, your going to step down from office and give my boy your endorsement capesh? Or, do you think we should pay a visit to Sara" my pop pulled out a picture of Rawlins and his wife. "Your family is just so hospititable aren't they boys?" My pops' goons muttered in agreement.
"Please. Please god leave her out of this. Okay. Bobby has my endorsement. I'll step down and make the announcment first thing Monday. Now please, please just stop hurting me."
"You here that Robert? My boy's a senator. I am so proud of you" my pops laughed and hit Rawlins again "Let's get out of here. We got to buy you some new suits."
Now I am one of the most powerful people in New York. I am a senator and have the Inuchi and Howell crime families on speed dial. But I know that I'm not fit for this. I'm the get away driver, not the guy with the gun. I know Roy would be able to accomplish real good.
Authors Notes:
I took inspiration from the godfather movies for this story. Instead of the traditional story where the king must exile Rama for previous promises, I decided to make it about two competing crime families. I made Bharata Robert (Bobby) and Rama Roy. In this case Bharata's mom is Mr. Inuchi and the senator represents the crown. I also changed it so Rama had a bounty on his head instead of exile causing him to flee. Though not blood brothers, I made it so that the 2 boys were "brothers" in the sense of a deep friendship, as to keep it somewhat true to the original tale. I also chose to make Robert uncomfortable in the position of power, just like how Bharata wanted Rama to be king when he was crowned.
Bibliography:
Ramayana Online: Public Domain Editionhttp://ouocblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/pde-ramayana-kaikeyi-and-dasharatha.html
Hi Matthew! This is a very fun re-telling of the story of Rama's entrance into exile! I have never seen the Godfather before, so I did found it a bit difficult to follow who was who based on the character name changes. The author's note was very helpful in explaining this however! I think it was also very clever of you to change royalty into the mafia - who says kings and crime bosses can't share some of the same prestige?
ReplyDeleteMatt,
ReplyDeleteI have never seen the Godfather, so it was a little difficult for me to navigate through your story. But, I really like the originality of your story, and how you used something you enjoy and were able to make it fit the mold for the story where Rama gets exiled. I want to suggest possibly adding more description about the background of the story and adding more dialogue that helps readers make somewhat of a connection. It could also be kind of hard to follow along with the verbiage in your head. Overall, I thoroughly appreciated your style of storytelling.
Hello Matt! I absolutely love your take on this story. First off, I absolutely adore The Godfather and nearly shrieked when I saw it as your story image. The intro is the best and it really sets the tone. I only love the outro a little bit more as it gives some pretty intense "what will happen" vibes. Overall, I really enjoy your usage of dialogue to bring the story to life! Great Job!
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