Gold Coast

"Yeah. I got to find a place of honour for it. A

"I'm happy to hear that. Your wife is very thoughtful to send over her cooking." I'd slipped back into my inane Wasp speech patterns now that the important business was done with, and I could see that Frank was miffed. He'd probably thought we were soul mates, talking about bribery, murder, and Beryl Carlisle's damp pants, but I wanted to show him that even if we wallowed in the same slops for a while, I could still soar like an eagle. I think he appreciated this on one level. That's what he was buying: an eagle. Pigs were cheaper. I became aware that something had caused a drop in the noise level. I looked toward the door and saw Susan coming toward me, A

A

The nouveaux riches among The Creek membership, however, would be the most vociferously judgemental, they being the most insecure and the most likely to be made uncomfortable by the Bellarosas, who reminded them of themselves when they lived in Lefrak City or Levittown.

Anyway, Susan looked stu

Drink orders were given, and the four of us fell into small talk. I said to A

She smiled and her eyes sparkled. Clearly she liked me. For some reason, my eyes drifted to her cleavage, and there was that gold cross again, nestled between those voluptuous boobs, and if ever there was a mixed signal, that was it. Susan inquired of Frank and me, "Did you get your business finished?"

I replied, "Frank was very helpful."

"Good," Susan replied. She said to Frank, "My attorneys advised me to strike a separate deal with the government. In effect to abandon John. Can you believe that? What sort of people have we become?"

Bellarosa, on learning that Susan had her own attorneys, must have wondered the same thing. But to his credit he seemed to understand the underlying meaning of that question and replied, "Governments come and go. Laws come and go. You owe loyalty to family, to your own blood, and to your wife or your husband." He looked at me, "And if your wife has given you children and if she is a good wife, you owe loyalty to her family, too. Capisce?"

Frank, of course, hadn't met the Stanhopes. I mumbled a reply. Bellarosa continued, "If you betray family, you are damned to hell for eternity." He added, "If family betrays you, then no punishment is severe enough."

That sounded like something you'd pull out of a fortune ca

Forgetting that I'd said we didn't talk sex here, he replied, "A man can go with another woman without betraying his wife. This is the nature of a man. A wife ca

A

My, hadn't we become familiar with a Mafia don?

And so we chit-chatted through a round of drinks, giving our audience something to talk about over the weekend.

At eight, we retired to one of the dining rooms where Susan and I greeted a few people we knew and introduced the Bellarosas without using any of Frank's titles. No one, of course, snubbed the Bellarosas the way they would have twenty or thirty years ago. On the contrary, politeness grips most of American society now as if we'd been bombed with laughing gas, and your average white turkey will shake hands with a suspected murderer, converse on the street with bums who accost him, and probably open the door to armed robbers so as not to appear rude. Thus I knew we weren't going to have any scenes vis-a-vis the Bellarosas, and I was right.

We all sat, ordered more drinks, discussed the menu, and listened to the specials from Christopher, the maitre d', who Frank decided was a faggot. We placed our orders with Richard, an elderly gent who prided himself on remembering every order without writing it down. Alas, that is no longer the case, and hasn't been for some years, so with Richard as your waiter, you either eat what he brings, or you embarrass him by sending it back. I eat what he brings.