آپولونیا

Chapter 7 Apollonia

After the shooting of Captain McCluskey, the police took revenge on all five New York families. The Five Families War of 1946 had begun. But Michael wasn’t there. He was hiding thousands of miles away, in Sicily.

He was staying with Don Tommasino, a friend of his father’s and a Godfather himself. In the evenings, Michael sat in a huge garden filled with flowers, drinking wine and hearing old stories about his family.

During the day, he walked in the Sicilian countryside, dressed in old clothes. Two bodyguards, Fabrizio and Calo, went everywhere with him, carrying guns over their shoulders. Michael often thought of Kay during these long walks in the white hot sun. He felt sad and guilty that he had left America without saying goodbye to her.

One morning, seven months after arriving in Sicily, Michael decided to walk into the mountains past the hilltop town of Corleone. He walked with his two bodyguards along dusty country roads, past fruit-trees and fields of flowers. The hot, still air was rich with the smell of oranges.

Along the way, they met a group of girls and children picking flowers.

They stopped to watch them pass. One girl in a simple dress with a basket over her arm stopped in front of Michael to pick a small pink flower. Michael watched her, studying the way that her long, brown hair shone in the sunlight and hung around her face. Suddenly, the girl lifted her head and looked at him. She had large brown eyes, and her heartshaped mouth was red with the juice of grapes.Michael felt weak, as if hit by lightning. He had never seen anyone so lovely.

The girl lowered her eyes with a shy smile, ran back to join her friends and disappeared down the road. Fabrizio noticed the look on Michael’s face and laughed. ‘Let’s go and find out who she is,’ he suggested.

Michael agreed, and followed Fabrizio and Calo down a narrow path towards the village where the girls and children had gone.

In the village, they sat at a table outside a small cafe. The owner of the cafe was a short man with white hair and a dark moustache. He was a friendly man and he smiled as he served them, not worried at all by the fact that his customers carried guns.

When Fabrizio asked the cafe owner about the beautiful girl they had seen picking flowers, and described her to him, a strange thing happened. The man stopped smiling, looked at the three men angrily, and disappeared inside the cafe. Fabrizio followed him inside and, moments later, ran out looking nervous.

‘Quick, we must go,’ he said to Michael. ‘He’s really angry. The girl’s his daughter.’

But Michael didn’t move. He stared at Fabrizio and said: ‘I want to speak to him.’

Fabrizio quickly drank some wine, picked up his gun and went inside to bring the man to Michael. The cafe owner appeared with two young, strong-looking men at his side. They were his sons. He looked down at Michael without speaking, a hard look in his eye.

Michael spoke to him quietly. ‘I’m sorry if I made you angry,’ he said.

I’m an American hiding in Sicily. My name’s Michael. You can tell the police, and make a lot of money. But then your daughter would lose a father instead of getting a husband. With your agreement, I would like to meet your daughter. With all respect.’The café owner’s face softened. He looked with interest at Michael, this young man with the strange mixture of softness and confidence in his voice. He noticed that the two men with guns looked at this young man with great respect. He was obviously important, and probably rich.

’ Come on Sunday afternoon,’ he said. ‘My name is Vitelli and my house is up there in the hills, above the village.’

‘And what’s you daughter’s name?’ Michael said, standing up and shaking the man’s hand.

‘Apollonia, ‘the cafe owner smiled.

♦

That Sunday, Michael, dressed in his best clothes, brought presents for Apollonia and all her family. He gave Apollonia some jewellery. He began to visit the family home regularly after that. One evening, at the dinner table, he noticed that she was wearing the jewellery he had given her. It was her way of saying that she liked him. He invited her for a walk in the country, and she agreed. They walked side by side, but they were careful not to touch each other. They were not alone. All the women in Apollonia’s family walked behind them, followed by Calo and Fabrizio, carrying their guns.

Two weeks later, Michael and Apollonia got married. Compared to his sister’s wedding to Carlo in New York two years earlier, it was a simple Sicilian wedding. Apollonia wore white while all the other women wore black. The villagers stood in the streets and threw flowers as the couple passed on foot from the church to Apollonia’s house in the hills. The wedding guests walked behind the couple and, behind the guests, there was a band of musicians. The wedding party went on until midnight.

Then Michael took Apollonia away, and drove her to Don Tommasino’s house outside Corleone.