Family Ties

Family Ties 2474 Words

"Make the Drop." Maria knew she had heard them correctly. She had often wondered about her family's ties. No one had ever said the M-word, but in her family things were rarely said directly. Important information was usually communicated through raised eyebrows, and sentences that seemed to stop abruptly whenever Maria entered the room.

Thanks to Netflix, Maria liked to think she was well versed in what happened to people who got in the way of a good Italian plan. Sometimes they ended up in the trunk of a car. Usually, they were found sleeping with the fishes.

She replayed the scenario in her head again. She had been upstairs in her bedroom doing homework when she'd heard her father talking in the kitchen.

“Make the drop. Tuesday,” he'd said.

Then her mother lowered her voice. “Are you sure that's the best time?”

“It's the only option,” he replied.  

Maria dropped her pencil and tiptoed to the door, carefully putting her ear against it.

The next thing she heard was her father say made her blood run cold, “Maria can’t know.”  

Those words spiraled in Maria’s head, “Maria can’t know.” Know what? Why wasn’t she allowed? Were they protecting her?  

Maria didn’t realize her door wasn’t all the way closed and as she was listening, she leaned into it causing it to close. It made a clicking sound. Maria's stomach tightened. She froze waiting to hear investigative footsteps coming up the stairs.  

Instead, she heard one more sentence. “Once Bobby gets it, we're done.” Then silence.

Maria didn’t move, couldn’t move. She was frozen at her door in terror. When the blood returned to her limbs, she sat down on her bed and spent the next twenty minutes staring at the wall trying to make sense of it all, wishing it would go away.   

She wondered if that’s how they got away with it. It had to be because her Uncle Bobby, who was a police officer, was in on it.  

She had secretly been suspicious of Uncle Bobby for years. He always seemed to know things before everyone else did. True, he was a cop, but the information he knew about seemed privy even for him. Now Maria understood that when Uncle Bobby talked about being able to “read people”, that also meant being able to camouflage himself. And he was doing it perfectly.  

Maria barely slept that night. This was too big for her to hold on to. She wasn’t just afraid for herself, she was afraid for her whole family. She wondered if her brother knew.  

The following evening was Sunday family dinner. This was usually Maria’s favorite night of the week. Tonight, she barely felt like eating, much less conversing. She found her place in the dining room. Her mother's famous rigatoni covered half the table, and her cousin Frank had brought fresh mozzarella from his deli.

Everyone was there: Aunts, Uncles, Cousins. Her older brother, Rudy sat across from her shoveling rigatoni into his mouth while arguing with their father about the Detroit Lions.  

Maria studied him carefully. Rudy was twenty-one. To her, he knew everything. At least that's what Maria had believed up until now.

She looked up to him on all levels. He had been the first person to teach her how to ride a bike and how to throw a football. He'd even helped her sneak out once when she was fourteen. They had a pact to take that evening with them to their graves. She never thought that might come true sooner rather than later.  

If Maria could trust anyone in the family, it should be Rudy. But could she? She watched as Uncle Bobby leaned toward Rudy and whispered something. Rudy’s expression turned from jovial to serious.  

Maria's hand shook and her rigatoni fell off her fork. What did he just say?

A few minutes later, her father stood and disappeared into the kitchen. Both Uncle Bobby and Rudy followed them. Maria started to sweat in places she usually only sweat in the extreme heat, or gym class. She pushed back her chair.

“Where are you going?” her mother asked.

“Uh, Bathroom.” Maria said, startled.  

Maria headed toward the stairs.

She made it to the bottom of the steps before she heard voices from the kitchen.

“Tuesday,” her father said.

“I don’t know,” Rudy questioned.  

“Don't worry,” Uncle Bobby said. “It’s a solid plan.”

Good God, there was a full blown plan. Maria’s head felt light and dizzy and she became nauseated. She slowly inched her way up the rest of the stairs and made it to the bathroom. She’d never experienced a panic attack before, but decided that this must be what one felt like. She couldn't take full breaths and the ones she was taking were rapid, but hollow. She felt like no air was getting to her lungs at all. There were no paper bags to breathe in, so she took a towel, made a cone shape and began breathing into that to try and regulate.  

She needed to tell someone. But who? Uncle Bobby was obviously involved and so were her parents. Rudy clearly knew what was going on.  

She splashed her face with water and used the towel that just saved her life to pat it dry. She flushed the toilet so as to not draw attention to herself and returned to the dining room table and sat down.

Her mother smiled at her. “Everything okay, honey?”

Maria forced a smile. “Um hmm.”

She stabbed a piece of mozzarella with her fork. She absolutely wasn't fine. She was now under the assumption that she was surrounded by criminals who were very good at pretending to be normal. Maria couldn’t believe it had taken her this long to realize what was going on right in her own house.  

That night, she kept replaying the last two days in her head until nearly two in the morning. She finally reached for her phone. It had to be done. She had to tell someone and there was one person she could trust. Elaine. She was Maria’s best friend and had been since third grade.  

Maria typed. RU awake?

Three dots appeared almost immediately. Obvi. What's wrong?  Elaine replied.  

Maria stared at the screen afraid of what she was about to type next.  

I think my family is in the mafia.

WHAT????

The response came so quickly Maria almost dropped her phone.  

Maria chose her next words carefully. Pls don’t tell anyone. I’m afraid it could make things worse.  

Elaine wrote back, Are you safe rn?

For now…

The next morning, Elaine arrived at Maria's house a half an hour early.

She walked through the front door carrying a backpack, two coffees, a notebook and the determined look of someone who had been waiting their entire life for an opportunity to investigate organized crime.

“So?.” Elaine whispered.  

Maria closed the door behind her. “My dad said, ‘Make the drop Tuesday.’”

Elaine nodded, looking serious. “Classic.”

“My mom said, ‘Are you sure that's the best place?’”

“Suspicious.” Elaine remarked.  

“And Dad said, ‘Maria can’t know.’”

Elaine's eyes widened. “Holy sh..!”

Maria lowered her voice even more. Then my dad said, ‘Once Bobby gets it, we're done.’”

Elaine slowly set down her coffee. “Your uncle Bobby, the cop?”

Maria nodded. Elaine took out her notebook and jotted down what she’d heard Maria report so far. 

She then took a minute before commenting. “Okay. That's either the dumbest mafia operation in history or it could be the smartest.”

“I know, right?” Maria agreed.

They spent the next hour work-shopping what they finally called The “FML”, or The “Family Mafia Link” which had meaning on two levels.  

They put Maria’s father at the top and her mother in parentheses next to him. Underneath her parents was Uncle Bobby. On the following line was Rudy as they knew he knew something. They put Cousin Frank on the bottom line just in case he fit in somewhere down the line.  

“What do you think Frank actually has to do with it?” Elaine inquired.   

“I don't know.” Maria said.  

“Well, he owns the deli.” Elaine suggested.  

“That he does.” Maria agreed.  

Elaine frowned. “I don't think owning a deli is evidence.”

“Elaine, haven’t you ever watched The Sopranos?”  

“Um, no.” Elaine replied.  

“Then you do not understand the caveat of owning a deli in this situation!” Maria exclaimed.  

Their plan developed over the course of about 2 hours. They drew lines and arrows and sketched out details of how they were going to go about spying on Maria’s family. By the time they were done, Elaine’s notepad looked like it contained about 10 well rehearsed football plays.  

The best idea they came up with was to follow Maria’s father, find the drop and figure out what was being delivered. From there, they would decide what to do next, but they both agreed their options were limited, especially with Uncle Bobby on the force.  .  

Tuesday arrived. Maria tried to distract herself at school. At lunch, both her and Elaine kept waiting for Maria's phone to ding with a message that one of the key players in the FML had gone missing. Finally, the last bell rang, and at two-thirty sharp, Elaine and Maria headed out.  

With Elaine driving to keep their anonymity, they tailed Maria’s father. They kept a two car separation at all times. They followed him through town, right to Uncle Frank’s Deli.

“I knew he was involved,” Maria said.

“I mean, he owns the deli - how could he not be?” Elaine suggested.  

With Uncle Frank in the car, Maria’s father backed out of the deli and headed out of town. The road narrowed and the traffic became sparse. Elaine was no longer able to keep cars between them, so she just tried to remain distanced while still being able to keep him in sight. About 20 minutes later, he pulled into an old, worn-down parking lot.

Elaine stopped along the road about a quarter mile from their location. The girls got out of the car and found a skinny treeline to hide behind. It looked like the lot belonged to a used car dealership. Her father parked near the back.

A few minutes later, Uncle Bobby arrived. Maria grabbed Elaine's arm.

“OMG Elaine, he is involved.” 

Uncle Bobby got out of his car. Maria swore he looked right at them. They both ducked.  

“Why are we ducking?” Elaine whispered.

“I don't know.” Maria replied.  

Her father opened the trunk of his car. Uncle Bobby went into the dealership. Maria held her breath. Her father pulled out a large envelope. Uncle Bobby came back out with the owner. She overheard Uncle Bobby refer to him as “Cousin Freddy.” He’d probably been at Sunday night’s dinner and she just didn’t notice him. Her mom’s rigatoni night pulled in about 20-30 family members each week.  

Her dad handed the envelope to Uncle Bobby who looked inside and appeared to be counting. Then he handed it to Cousin Freddie who also counted the money. Uncle Bobby smiled and her father shook Cousin Freddie’s hand.  

“Well, they're buying something.” Maria said.  

Elaine agreed. “Do you think it’s a weapon, drugs, or maybe someone’s silence?”

They watched Uncle Bobby and Freddie enter the dealership for the second time. About thirty seconds later, they came back outside and Uncle Bobby was carrying another envelope, smaller this time. He handed it to Maria's father. Finally, Maria couldn't take it anymore.  

She said to Elaine, “We don’t have time for this!”

Elaine tried to grab her arm. “Maria, MARIA!”

But Maria was already crossing the parking lot. She marched straight towards her father. He turned and saw her. His face drained of all color.

“Maria, what are you doing here sweetheart?” Her dad asked sheepishly.  

Maria did not hold back. She stopped in front of him, crossed her arms and angrily said, “What am I doing here?? Why are you out here in the middle of the day committing crimes dad?”

Her father looked at Uncle Bobby. Uncle Bobby was frantically flagging down Rudy, who had just gotten there. Rudy did not see Uncle Bobby’s warning and walked directly into Maria’s wrath.

Maria felt nauseated again. “Rudy, tell me it’s not true?”

Her brother walked toward her. “Maria, it was supposed to be a surprise.”

“What?” Maria asked, confused.  

Her father held up the keys. “These.”

Maria looked at them. Nobody knew quite what to say at that moment.

Finally, her father broke the silence and spoke. “Well, we were going to wait until next Friday.”

Maria stared at him. “For what?”

Her mother appeared from behind the dealership, carrying a giant red bow. “Well, if I’m correct, you are going to be sixteen in two weeks.” 

“Oh mom…my birthday.” Maria blinked back tears.

“It’s a big year,” her mother said.

“The whole family pitched in," her father remarked.  

“Your Uncle Bobby arranged things with Cousin Freddie,” Rudy added.

“Yeah, he gave us a great deal and a warranty just in case you fail your final drivers test.” Uncle Bobby teased.  

“Your cousin Frank helped with the down payment,” her mother said laughing.  

“Your mother knew which color would be your favorite,” he chimed in.  

Maria couldn’t wait any longer to ask. “But what about the drop?”

Her father looked puzzled.“What are you talking about Maria?”

“Tuesday! You said to make the drop!”

Her mother was appalled. Uncle Bobby was kind of hurt by the assumption of illegal activity. Rudy was cracking up. Maria stood perfectly still and Elaine at that moment wished that she could simply disappear. She replayed the other sentence in her head. “Maria can’t know.” How could she have gotten this situation so wrong?  

Her father held out his hand and handed Maria the keys that had been in the small manila envelope. “Happy birthday, my love.”

Maria looked at the slightly used, dark red Subaru Outback parked by her father’s car. She looked back at her family. Then she looked at Elaine.

With a shrug, Elaine said. “I mean technically, we were right about the money.”

Maria thanked her family apologetically and she and Elaine moved Elaine’s car into the lot. They’d come back for it later. It was time to take the Subaru out for a spin.  

Elaine climbed into the passenger seat and Maria started the engine. As they pulled away from the dealership, Elaine looked over at her.

“So...” Elaine hinted.

“What??” Maria exclaimed.

“You don’t really think your family is innocent, do you??”

Maria glanced in the rear view mirror. Her parents, Rudy, Uncle Bobby, and Cousin Frank were still standing in the parking lot.

Maria grinned. “No.”

Elaine raised an eyebrow. “I knew it! But why?”

Maria laughed, “Because I do not have a cousin Freddie.”