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CHAPTER ONE

1992

HENRY

Marco sped up the long, curving driveway. No matter how early he awakened in the morning, it seemed he was always fifteen minutes late. The 8 o’clock morning news was just concluding, which meant he was already five minutes late.

As he careened around the last turn into the employee parking lot, all of his folders and papers slid off the back seat and fell to the floor in a jumbled mess. As usual, the parking lot was almost filled, so Marco had to drive to the farthest point to park his battered Volkswagen.

He jumped out of the car and quickly scooped up the pile of papers from the car floor while his car continued to sputter and gasp before giving out in a last mournful wheeze.” Run on”, Tony had described it to him without hearing it. That reminded Marco that Tony had made another appointment for the car that afternoon. Since he already had missed two, Marco knew he better not cancel a third time.

He stuffed the papers and folders under his arm and raced for the door. He quickly opened it and sprinted down the hallway, attempting at the same time to mold his pile of papers into a compact bundle. He slowed to a walk when he got close to the computer room, trying at the same time to control his breathing so his entrance would be as inconspicuous as possible. Having gotten this far undetected, he felt elated. He chuckled to himself as he remembered those old movies where Dagwood raced out of his house every morning and collided with the mailman on his front lawn.” At least I haven’t done that,” he mumbled to himself then chuckled again when he realized that Dagwood probably wasn’t a good role model for many people.

He pretended he hadn’t heard his name and continued to walk slowly and deliberately to his cubicle clenching his teeth tightly in an attempt to regain his breath without gasping.” Covello,” the voice had followed him to his desk.

“Yes Henry,” the words almost exploded out of Marco’s mouth when he couldn’t hold his breath any longer.

“Nice of you to join us this morning, Covello. This is the fourth time this week that you’ve been late. Are you trying for some kind of world record? What did you do in Vietnam, tell the Vietcong to wait until you arrived each morning?”

Marco stiffened and glared at his boss, and quickly looked away and began straightening the papers on his desk. The older man, aware now that he had captured the attention of the whole office, moved belligerently closer, thrusting his long, thin face closer to Marco’s. Because of the closeness of the two, Marco was forced to look into Henry’s eyes, thinking to himself how colorless they were. Henry’s skinny and badly wrinkled neck was extended, exaggerating the poor fit of the shirt he wore. His Adam’s apple moved up and down seemingly uncontrollably, as he groped for words to continue his tirade. Now that he had everyone’s attention, he became increasingly agitated that he couldn’t come up with anything clever to say. His mouth worked and his eyes bulged, yet no words came out. Marco, feeling almost embarrassed for Henry, looked away and started to straighten his papers again. The other workers, having been witness to this same series of events many times, now also lost interest.

Gradually, the hum of activity returned to the room. Only Henry seemed fixed, intent on preserving the moment until he could come up with a clever continuation of his reprimand.

“Fishgrund, I really admire you.” Tony’s jovial, booming voice drew everyone’s attention back to the center of the room.” Here you are, the corporate data processing manager, taking time to greet one of your employees while the entire corporation grinds to a halt because the system is down. What a guy! I have to tell everyone upstairs how calm you are.”

Henry turned his head so swiftly it made a cracking sound. Unintelligible little sounds finally emerged from his mouth. “What do you mean?” His voice seemed almost unnaturally high-pitched.

“I don’t know. I was in the computer room trying to get my salesmen’s commission reports when someone said,’Head crash.’ Everyone started running and shouting. Is a head crash bad, Henry?”

Henry gave out a low moan, which then changed to a whining sound while he started to rock from one foot to the other.

“What a guy! Calm as you please, taking time to talk to one of his troops while he’s being overrun. He’s the kind of guy we needed with us in the war, huh Marco?”

As Henry’s head turned again, Marco who was grinning ear to ear, immediately resumed the serious look he had had before.

Henry looked from Marco to Tony, his head jerking from side to side, reminding Marco of a turtle, checking to see if it was safe to cross a road. After a few more whining sounds, Henry seemed to be jolted into action. He ran from the room, his shirt hanging over his belt flapping behind him. As soon as the door slammed behind Henry, the room exploded in laughter.

“Thanks for bringing the news and getting Henry off my case Tony. Your timing couldn’t have been much better.”

“That’s okay pal, but you don’t have much time before he gets back. By then, you’d better be deeply immersed in your work.”

“Nah, you’re wrong Tony, a head crash is serious. He’ll be gone all day.”

The smile spread on Tony’s face.”There was no head crashed,” he said smugly.”It’s almost totally true. Well… I was a little deceptive. Actually, I stretched the truth considerably.” Tony paused for dramatic effect as Marco’s smiling face changed to one of puzzlement and concern.”To be honest, I lied,” Tony continued. A car crash isn’t much different than a head crash is it Marco?”

The grin widened on Marco’s face. “The big difference is that a good body man can fix a fender in a short time. It’ll take all the kings horses and all the kings men to accumulate and reenter all the data that might be lost in the head crash.”

“Well, thanks for today’s computer lesson. How come you were late again today? You left before I did this morning.”

“I went to get fresh buns from the bakery to take to my dad. You know the old man, he loves fresh baked goods from Angelo’s. It makes his whole day. Once I got there, my mom had to fix me breakfast. She says I look too skinny. I blamed it on you. I told her that now that you’re a big executive, you’re trying to pass for American. I said you won’t allow food in the house so that you can get skinny, emaciated and waspish.”

“She knows me better than that, she loves me. She wouldn’t believe that crap,” Tony answered.

“You know what she said?” Marco continued,” She gave me another one of those Italian pearls of wisdom. She said, ‘Ne mange, ne binna Ga Ga.’”

“What does that mean?” Tony asked.

“Aa ha, I’m right you are trying to pass. You don’t even know one of the key philosophical cornerstones of our heritage,” Marco replied.

“Hey listen pal, I’m almost a pilgrim. I’m third generation American, how should I know what it means?”

“It means… if you don’t eat, you don’t shit.” Both men laughed at Marco’s translation.

“Somewhere in that quote is centuries of Italian wisdom, I just don’t know what it is,” joked Tony. In between laughing he blurted out” The Chinese have Confucius, the Greeks have Aristotle and we have Ne mangia, ne binna gaga.”

The laughter of each man seemed to cause the other to laugh harder, until both were laughing uncontrollably. They were leaning over the desk with tears running down their faces, when Henry strode back into the room. He was followed by a tall, well-dressed man. Marco stopped laughing and stiffened when he saw the two men enter the room. Tony, aware of the arrival of the two men, ignored their entrance. He continued chuckling, then slowly and deliberately wiped the tears from his eyes and turned to face the two men.

Henry paused, glaring at Marco and Tony. His companion gave him a nudge, causing him to stumble in the direction of the two now silent men. They both strode over to Marco and Tony. Marco’s unsmiling countenance was a complete contrast to the amused look on Tony’s face. Both men had a look of expectation. It was clear that Marco was anticipating something unpleasant while Tony appeared to be waiting eagerly for the coming encounter.

“There was no head crash DeJulio,” Henry blurted out” one of these days, your weird sense of humor is going to get you into trouble.”

The smirk on Tony’s face spread to a full smile as Henry continued his attack. The pitch of his voice got so high that he now spoke in a barely perceptible squeal.

“For a manager in this company, you don’t show much regard for other managers or setting a good example for the employees.”

“Now now Henry, calm down,” Tony said in a calm and almost condescending tone. Really there has been no harm done. Besides, as the DP manager it’s a good idea for you to get into the computer room now and then. If I didn’t do these things to you, you might never go into that room. Your employees tell me you haven’t even seen...