Promises

By John Michele

It is written that all is fair in love and war. Politics is war. That came home to John Verra, at first, slowly, then in one inhuman act of violence... "The lust for power in political minds is the strongest passion in life and it impels ambitious men to do deeds of infamy" (William Shakespeare).

Verra believes promises made are promises meant to be kept. His beliefs, to many in his new world, are naive, gullible, and no way to live, especially if one is to survive in a big metropolitan city, where lots of money is to be made involving legal and illegal manipulation. Their primary need is forever present: to remain in power, to control voters, to use them, especially the poor.

His past and his own promises continue to occupy not just his mind but his soul as well. In politics, the opponents are capable and willing to go back to the grave to dig up the bad. What does John Verra have to hide? Will he tell us? Can he be used?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 23, 2021
• ISBN: 9781662454554

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Promises

John Michele

Copyright © 2021 John Michele

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING, INC.

Conneaut Lake, PA

First originally published by Page Publishing 2021

Author photograph courtesy of Dachowski Photography

ISBN 978-1-6624-5454-7 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-6624-5455-4 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Author's Notes

Prologue

It Happened So Quickly

Chapter 1

The Past Is Back

Chapter 2

It Began in '42

Chapter 3

Mayor Harris

Chapter 4

Grandfather Michele's Beneficiary

Chapter 5

Café Sofia

Chapter 6

An Old Friend

Chapter 7

Southie Rumors

Chapter 8

Federal Hill

Chapter 9

The Testas

Chapter 10

What Am I Getting Into?

Chapter 11

Sally's Call

Chapter 12

Accommodations

Chapter 13

License to Carry

Chapter 14

Fenway

Chapter 15

Southie Boss

Chapter 16

Voters Meeting

Chapter 17

Protection

Chapter 18

At the Door

Chapter 19

The Mayor

Chapter 20

Straight Stories

Chapter 21

Janus

Chapter 22

It Never Happened

Chapter 23

It's Back Again

Chapter 24

Unknown Future

About the Author

Acknowledgments

Everyone knows the difficulty of things that are exquisite, so to have the ability in such things gives rise to the greatest wonder, as Baldassare Castiglione said in The Book of the Courtier (1528). His words apply specially to writing.

During the last few years, I've had private alone time, so to occupy myself, I began to read some of the many good books from talented authors I had accumulated but, because of the need to provide, did not have time to enjoy.

Here are just a few:

Tim Russert, in His Wisdom of Our Fathers, provides simple, honest, wise advice that brought back so many good feelings of my large extended family.

Taylor Caldwell, a little English lass who, at age six, won a gold medal for her essay on Charles Dickens. She, with her family, came to America in 1906, and she authored thirty-four best sellers. She lived to write. Her novel, Answer as a Man, talked to me.

Ron Chernow, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Grant and of Washington: A Life and Alexander Hamilton made me realize that US President Grant received a bad deal from many historians. He corrected the record.

Thomas Merton, a monk and a prolific author, understood more about humanity than most of us. In Love and Living, he importantly offered that all people are much more than consumers of goods and government services. We are individuals and deserve to be treated as individuals not part of this or that clan.

Bill Bryson, the author of In a Sunburned Country, made me want to visit Alice Springs in the center of Australia, ride the GAN, and again visit family in Sydney.

Peter D'Epiro and Mary D. Pinkowish, in Sprezzatura: 50 Ways Italian Genius Shaped the World, made me even more proud of my heritage.

I acknowledge these and, of course, many more authors and their books, not to borrow their ideas but to learn from them, to be inspired and motivated when I write. Of course, my family and a close friend do the same every day. How can I thank you enough?

Author's Notes

I believe it is important and necessary to state that my story, Promises, was not taken from crime news or real events. Many of the characters were part of my extended family during my earlier years, and their actual names were used. Today, reality seems to cloud unpleasant comparisons of a name, place, or situation. However, one cannot be held responsible for the roll of the dice, better described as chance. This is all fiction. This story is a sequel to Club Morocco.

Café Sofia

It has been said that the famous Italian tenor Enrico Caruso, prior to 1920, held court and sang in a North End café similar to Café Sofia, thrilling the local Italian immigrants mostly from Sicily and Naples. The North End's Hanover Street offers locals and visitors experiences that give patrons the feeling of being in Rome, Naples, or Palermo, Sicily. According to food review sources, they offer the best chocolates, cappuccino, and espresso in the United States as well as delicacies such as cannoli, tiramisu, biscotto, and gelato.

Fenway Park

Former Red Sox lefty pitcher Bill Lee called Fenway Park a shrine. If one is a Red Sox and a true baseball fan, it most certainly is.

It is located in the Fenway–Kenmore neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, and has been the home of the Boston Red Sox since 1912. It is the oldest active park in Major League Baseball and has hosted the World Series eleven times. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as a local, state, and national place of significance.

It is historically significant to the sport of baseball for momentous team moments and for nationally important baseball players, such as Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, and countless more. The park has been renovated or expanded many times, resulting in quirky features including the Triangle, the Pesky's Pole, and the Green Monster, at thirty-seven feet two inches.

Fenway Park has become a place of pilgrimage, a place to experience even when there are no baseball games underway. The crowds of more than two hundred thousand visitors that tour the ballpark each year do not take into account those who, when it is closed, walked by, come by tour buses or by car, get out, and purchase pictures of the park or take their own photos.

Fenway Park is considered to be one of the most well-known sports venues in the world. It is deservedly a national shrine.

Ken Coleman and Ned Martin

Ken Coleman was an American radio and television sportscaster for more than four decades, 1947–1989. He broadcasted games for the Red Sox, Cleveland Indians, and the National Football League Cleveland Browns. He also broadcasted every football game that Hall of Fame running back, Jim Brown, played and some games for the Cincinnati Reds baseball team. He spent most of his career in Boston broadcasting both the 1967 and 1986 World Series. In addition, he broadcasted college football and national football games for NBC.

Ned Martin was the voice of the Red Sox on radio and may