Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20A | 20B | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25-26 | 27 | 28-29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35-36 | 37 | 38A | 38B | 38C | 38D | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42-43 | 44-45 | 46 | 47 | 48-49A | 49B | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57A | 57B | 58-59| 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68-69 | 70A | 70B | 71A
PART II
ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS
71B
S E P T E M B E R 1 9 2 9
“I … Trey said something that’s been bothering me,” Dot said low.
“Oh?”
“He said … um … about me and Gio being … together. Like that, the way you and Trey are. That it would … settle me?”
Marina blinked. “Well,” she said, then took a bite, thinking while she chewed. “I don’t know if I can explain it, but I’ll try.”
Dot nodded eagerly.
“This is the way Trey explained it to me.” She tried to describe about best pals and having fun that way, but it wasn’t coming out right and she got impatient with herself. “No! I mean, that there’s something inside you that stops worrying about tomorrow or other people and whether they like you or not because after you do that with your best pal, you wake up knowing that no matter what, there’s somebody in the world who wants you and cares about you and always will and that’s never going to change. After Trey and I do … that, it makes me feel … I don’t know. Solid. Secure.” She paused. “Safe. Protected. Like I have a real home, like I belong somewhere where I am wanted. I’m not just a name floating around in a house that’s not mine, tiptoeing around the other people who live there. With Trey I can say what I think and get angry and yell and know that he’s not going to hold it against me and then we do … that … and everything is all right again.”
Dot blinked in amazement. “That’s what that means? That if Gio and I did … that … ”
“You wouldn’t be mad at me anymore because you would have another best pal who would be with you always. You accused me of leaving you because I got married, but you’ve always been planning to go to Utah to college. We used to live only a few blocks from each other, but Utah is over a thousand miles away. In a year and a half, you’ll leave me behind and probably never come back. And if you do, you’ll get married or get a job and never have time for me.”
Dot’s eyes widened and then began to glitter. Her mouth turned down.
“I always knew that,” Marina said gently, “even though it didn’t seem you thought about that at all. I was scared because then I wouldn’t have anybody, but I didn’t say anything because you’re so excited. Now I have somebody and every time Trey and I are … um … indecent, it’s a promise that I will always be wanted by somebody, somewhere. I took what he said to mean that it would be that way for you and Gio too if you ever got married.
“So after that first time, I thought about it for a long time. It’s not like that with every couple because look at Mother and Father, and look at my real mother and whoever my real father is. So you might feel differently with Gio. But I decided that my husband might be evil, but he’s not to me and he won’t be to our baby. He’s mine and he wants me to be with him and he cares about me and he thinks I’m smart and he tries to make me happy. He brings me flowers and cute little knickknacks he finds. I wouldn’t feel this way if he were awful to me, but if he were that kind of man, I don’t think your father would’ve let me marry him. When he’s mad at you and yells, it’s because you hurt my feelings and he’s trying to fix it.”
Dot looked shocked. “So he’s not trying to get rid of me?”
“No! He just doesn’t like it when you hurt my feelings. That’s all.”
“And eloping?!”
“If you and Gio got married too, we’d both be settled and not worry about splitting up.”
She scowled. “Are you telling me to elope? Forget college?”
Marina shrugged helplessly. “No. But I see Trey’s point. I get to do what I want. Now I can see your parents really are strict, but compared to how Mother and Father were … I’m not saying to do it,” she added hurriedly. “I’m saying it’s a choice. You can get married and go to college.”
“But what if I make a mistake?” she whispered, her voice trembling. “People break up all the time. What if … ?”
“That’s why I’m not saying to do it. You don’t know. I don’t know. What I do know is that Gio wants to marry you and he’s, well, a man of the world. More than Trey. Your mother told me once men fall in love quicker than women and they hardly think about it and they never say it, but when they do, that’s it. Their minds are made up. Dot, you know everything about him, I think. All the bad things he’s done. He ran away from home so he could be free to be a better person and he’s been working his way up. He doesn’t do his old job at 1520, he went to church with you, he stopped smoking and drinking, and he respects your father. He won’t elope with you even if you wanted to because he wants to have your father’s blessing. Dot, he’s a good man, no matter what he’s done.”
“I don’t like thinking about that,” she muttered. “It’s … awful.”
“But you still love him or you wouldn’t have listened to him when he asked to explain.”
Dot bit her lip. “Do you love Trey?”
Marina shook her head. “Not like that, the way your mother loves your father. I love Trey the way I love you.”
“Oh.”
“I’m indecent with him because he’s my husband and that’s what husbands and wives who are very good friends—and couples who love each other the way you and Gio do—do to have fun. It doesn’t take very much time and you don’t have to dress up, and it doesn’t cost anything to do it, not like Fairyland and baseball games, cotton candy and Crackerjacks and everything. That adds up,” she added sagely.
Dot scowled in thought. “That’s a very practical way of looking at it. Kinda takes all the mystery out of it.”
Marina shook her head. “It’s not mysterious at all.”
What she didn’t tell Dot, however, was that she still needed the sweet tea to get over her embarrassment and lingering dread that Trey would start thinking of her as a loose woman. Even if she could be herself, the sweet tea gave her an excuse, some space between herself and the act of being indecent, permission to let herself go with that wonderful body sneeze.
It was easy to talk about indecencies as just another fun thing couples did together, nothing special, but … it was special. Marina didn’t like that she had to have the sweet tea, but she was positive she could not give Trey what he wanted without it, which meant she would feel awful in the morning. She didn’t like that she thought of being indecent as special because then what? If she really believed what she told Dot, she’d be able to do it without sweet tea the same way she could ride rollercoasters.
“Um … ” Dot said again hesitantly, “do you think you and Trey could … well, let me tag along on your outings again? Pictures and such?”
Marina sighed. “Dot, we go during school hours and Sundays. You know that. I can ask for Saturdays, but a threesome is always awkward—” She gasped when Dot grimaced. “You want Gio to come along!”
Dot flushed.
“Dot!” Marina cried, thoroughly exasperated. “Gio has a hard enough time sneaking around at all. He’ll never do that. What you need to do is badger your father instead of me, just the way Trey said.”
“Would you have ever badgered your parents?”
“I did! Politely! At the right time. It worked or else I wouldn’t be here now!”
“Not with my church activities!”
“Most of the time,” she amended. “And I knew I had to stop before Mother— I think I knew she would do something like she did. She scares me. She’s always scared me but I didn’t know. Your father yells like Trey does! He’s never going to beat you and then someday you’ll turn eighteen—”
“And I’ll be in Utah,” she said flatly.
“Not on your birthday. There is no reason Gio can’t go with you as your husband.”
“You’ve gotten really sneaky since you married him.”
Marina nodded, not feeling insulted in the least, which surprised her. “I married an evil man, remember?”
Again, Dot flushed. “I’m sorry. He’s not. I’m just … ” She sighed heavily, then muttered, “I’m jealous. You’re mine. Gio is mine. You and he have both chosen Trey over me.”
Marina bowed her head. She didn’t know what to do, but she knew she couldn’t change Gio’s mind and her life and loyalty were to Trey because she was a good woman and he was good to her.
“You’re going to have to talk to your father, but he’s not going to give you what you want. He’s protecting you from the Machine and more than that, he’s protecting you from the New York Mafia. They’re a lot more powerful than Boss Tom and Brother John put together. They don’t want to get into a war with Boss Tom, but they do want Gio and if they know he’s here, somebody is going to be here so they can get paid for bringing him back to New York alive for the bosses to kill him. Maybe, just maybe, Utah would be a good place for him to hide. That’s what Trey said. They wouldn’t believe Gio would run with Mormons, much less turn his back on the Catholic church no matter what. They’d assume any girl he married would be Catholic or turn Catholic, not the other way around.”
Dot’s rosiness had turned ghost and her breath hitched.
“You didn’t know?” Marina whispered, horrified she said something she oughtn’t. Why hadn’t Trey told her? He was very specific about things she should not tell anybody.
“I don’t— I don’t understand.”
Marina sighed in resignation. “Gio’s real name is Matteo Terranova. He’s part of a big crime family with connections everywhere, and he’s in a lot of trouble with his family because he … didn’t finish a job he was ordered to do.” Then she told her the job, what Gio had not done, and described the Cosa Nostra’s punishment rituals as Trey had explained them to her. Then, “It’s not just his own family. When he turned, he turned on all the bosses, all the outfits like in Chicago and Atlantic City, not just his own. Every Mafia soldier in the country is looking for him because if they find him and bring him in alive, they’ll get a lot of money. I thought you knew that. Your father doesn’t want you to be a widow in a year or two or three or however long, and he doesn’t want to take the chance that they would kill you to punish Gio. That’s why he won’t budge. You have to convince him you’re willing to take the chance. Get your father to let you take Gio to BYU, get him to change his name to something English, because he doesn’t want to do that, either, and they’ll never find him.”
That was when Dot dropped her head on the table and began to sob.
* * *
“You’re not mad?” Marina asked Trey hesitantly at breakfast.
“Naw. I didn’t tell you not to spill that because she needed to know, Gio wasn’t going to tell her, my first loyalty’s to Albright or I wouldn’t give a shit whether she was out with Gio or not, so long as it’s not on speak time, but that’s a mute point—”
“Moot.”
“Moot.”
Marina released a relieved sigh.
“There isn’t much I get mad about, excepting you breaking my rules, but I do got a bone to pick.”
Marina’s mouth dropped open and her spine tingled. Was he going to send her away? Was he going to start sleeping at the speakeasy again? For the first time since she was indecent with him, she no longer felt safe and secure in him and this situation.
“Carville’s got a crush on you.”
Marina’s brow wrinkled. “What?” she asked, confused. It wasn’t true, but even if it was, how was that her fault?
“Miss Stanley tells me Carville’s got a crush on you,” he repeated. “She thinks you’re spendin’ entirely too much time with him, givin’ him dinner an’ whatnot—”
“You told me to!” she cried, imagining getting an old, crusty math tutor who needed the money and resented her, her slow learning, her inability to learn if he couldn’t teach her correctly, but had to keep the job because he needed the money.
“Yeah, I did, but he ain’t welcome to dinner anymore. It don’t take two hours for dinner an’ I doubt he’s teachin’ you durin’ dinner. Nobody can take four straight hours of that kinda math without their brain shrivelin’.”
“Miss Stanley was coming to dinner too! If she’s so concerned, why did she stop coming to dinner?”
“She and Carville don’t get along. They both teach at East, but Miss Stanley likes women, and Carville’s snide about it. She’s worried about you and him together.”
“We don’t do anything wrong!” Marina cried. “We just talk about books! He likes Agatha Christie too!”
That was the wrong thing to say. Trey’s face flushed and his nostrils flared. “You what?” he growled.
“Um … you don’t … You and I don’t talk, not since we started being indecent together, I mean. We don’t lie in bed and read or share notes anymore. Nobody in the neighborhood reads much and Dot certainly doesn’t! I miss that, miss talking to someone about books we both like. I don’t know how he could have a crush on me anyway! I’m fat and ugly!”
Trey’s mouth opened and closed in astonishment, but for which thing, she didn’t know. “You spend six hours a week with him doin’ somethin’ you do with me?”
“Did!” she screamed, hopping to her feet, fists clenched by her side. Tomorrow she’d cringe at this, but right now she was too angry to stop. “You did! You want to be indecent more than you want to talk to me!” He gaped at her, which she took to mean he was about to acknowledge his error to himself.
“You don’t even read anymore and if you do, I don’t know about it, much less get to talk about it! All you want to do with me anymore is be indecent. Dot thinks we go do fun things when you’re home, like Fairyland and the pictures and, and, and those things! But we don’t. We do the, the thing, which I like, when I’ve had sweet tea, but I’d like to do other things too! Mr. Carville talks to me! So does Miss Stanley, but it’s always about the same thing and I can’t get a word in edgewise! Dot’s all but abandoned me and blaming me for it, which she wouldn’t do if Gio had any bravery at all. My neighborhood friends have children, so the only time I get to spend with them is when I take them grocery shopping. I don’t go to school or church so I don’t have a chance to make new friends. You have the speakeasy and you come home ready to be indecent. Then I make breakfast for you, you tell me how your night went, you don’t care what I did all day, and off you go! I’m lonely, Trey! You’ve got the speak and a whole bunch of people to talk to and I’m alone practically all the time!”
He was staring at her—a weird sort of glare, really—and his jaw began to grind. She braced herself for a rant, but the only thing he did was storm upstairs, take a shower, and head out the door without so much as a smile or goodbye.
Marina didn’t bother to plan dinner.
Mr. Carville would never come over again.
71B
If you don’t want to wait 2 years to get to the end, you can buy it here.
Donations can be made here, if you so desire.
♪♫ You can’t always get what you want ♫
And you may not even want what you get.
You’ve reminded me of a favorite anecdote: Two jobs ago, I had a boss so neurotic he was convinced no shrink in SW OH was good enough for him, so he had a shrink in Chicago. Boss would usually have his appointments by phone in his office with the door and blinds closed and his feet up on his desk. Once, though, he decided he needed an in-person appointment and tasked me with booking him a hotel room in Chicago.
There was just one problem with this – his in-person appointment was scheduled in Chicago at the same time as the annual convention of the National Restaurant Association. There were no hotel rooms to be had in Chicagoland. When I reported this, he got frustrated with me and determined to do it himself. A few minutes later, I walked past his office, and he said, “You’ll appreciate this…”
He was on hold with a travel agent. Guess what the hold music was?
Should have been “Crazy” by Patsy Cline.
Mr. Carville would never come over again.
He’s sleeping with the fishes.
Well he sure ain’t sleeping with Miss Stanley.
Miss Stanley is jealous she can’t have Marina.
This just more interesting.
Get in here, assholes https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87821224358?pwd=eW55MTRDbDNtQkh2aHd3M1Nmenlzdz09
Listened to Tucker’s Putin interview.
Interesting to get to hear a world leader trying to speak directly to the American people and convince them to change course. Tucker’s questions were often non sequiturs and showed he isn’t as smart as I wish he was.
Obviously Putin is a master dissembler, but to do that, he mixes in some real truths, and I happen to agree that we have better things to do than mess around in Ukraine. That doesn’t mean his invasion is correct.
I Googled Tucker Carlson just for shits and giggles to sere the hysterical media reaction. Got a kick out of The New Republic for attacking Carlson for giving Putin a platform to spread Kremlin talking points on US foreign policy from the last half century. That was their job before 2016.
His questioning got thrown off a bit by the marathon length answers I think.
For sure Putin could have used a little wrangling, but there were sometimes the question was just so out of left field.
I liked the response on the nordstream question, it seemed very immediate which makes me think it’s true, well that and basic logic.
OT: What your birth month gun says about you.
😱. Just kidding. I’ve done half of that.
Long ‘un tonight. Diving back in.
There are several chapters in a row that are long and/or don’t have good places to break. It makes for too-long or too-short posts. I haven’t figured out how to deal with it properly.
I don’t mind them long. Tonight’s went by fast even though it’s a Friday night and I nodded off a couple times midway through but that’s my fault.
Long commute tire you out?
No, insomnia tires me out.
I can’t imagine if I still had a real commute OMG.
Sorry. Insomnia is no fun.
Glibz After Dark.
https://archive.is/gTKL6/48232c627bbbe522ac71c7613c7d84e87f638cbe.webp
NSFW.
https://archive.is/4wirp/8661d127108049fe064b449a05d67cc623689923.webp
NSFW.
https://archive.is/8odpP/adc3b9d6351403cb436a542ad55f659b987f6562.webp
NSFW.
https://archive.is/Wjt9u/fdb7a361ddf7ff87d1165ca3b193eed8de88b6bc.webp
NSFW.
https://archive.is/htrrI/f60ac893763f7ccf9aaea955bbc2adb509722ece.webp
NSFW.
Interesting, Japanese women used to dye their teeth black to appear attractive and currently will paste fake snaggleteeth to their real teeth to appear youthful:
https://cvltnation.com/ohaguro-and-yaeba-japanese-cosmetic-dentistry/
Between ritual suicide, tentacle porn, and this stuff they really give the Germans a run for their money in the weirdest ethnicity category.
JFC. I had no idea. That is nuts (to me).
I’m calling bullshit. Mako Ishino, two years before Dunst’s birth: https://youtu.be/_ogu_2IXufw
The snaggleteeth were common in 80’s aidorus. First thing I notice in current year performances and reunions is the dental work many had since.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E40MZNEVIAITJsR?format=jpg&name=large
It’s been a long f***ing day. What up my Glibbers?
Locked out from forgetting my password. I blame Biden.
Found another device that hasn’t expired yet. Anyone know how lock the WP lockout period is? 24 hours?
The WP logout period is as long as it takes for you to compose a long, well-thought-out post and forget to copy it to your clipboard before hitting “Post Comment”.
Well yes. I meant the entered wrong password and locked account. Because pretty sure I used a throw away email to register (I didn’t know who you other
fuckersfeds were during the exodus.Continuing the downward spiral of liquor store purchase. Evan Williams on tap tonight.
Lol
https://primary.jwwb.nl/public/j/b/w/temp-jdzyjnjyvedbbckxjsvn/5bqqfs/verpakking_1990_honkbal1-1.jpg
GI Joe Real International Hero just doesn’t have the same ring. ‘Murika! Fuck yeah!
“What Research Says About Cats: They’re Selfish, Unfeeling, and Environmentally Harmful”
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/what-research-says-about-cats-they-re-selfish-unfeeling-environmentally-harmful-creatures?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us
I’m not a cat person but fuck off-I strongly suspect they don’t give two shits about anything but the supposed environmental harm.
Any nonsense will be given a hearing if it’s presented as being environmental.
Just got up, so I haven’t read it yet. Did it say they’re libertarian?
sprinkling is fine, but the ground is soaked from the week’s rain: 7am tee time is useless
looks like I’m watching Premier League live this week; none of the commentators are Celts, so that reduces the intellectual joy in trying to figure out what is being said
came within 100 miles of Lachowsky Wednesday; what ever happened to Apples and Knives, former AR Glib
I usually find judicial proceedings straightforward, but Advisory Opinion podcast has some great insights on this past week that I would not guessed or inferred
https://megaphone.link/DISPME5670525182
Is it to “Install pontoons on the house” levels of rain yet?
The Wolf is down 3′ this week somehow, but upstream it’s up an inch since yesterday: a tiny rise headed our way. I would guess the levee is at least 10′ above the house although it’s not wide enough to get here: we’re 1,000 feet away with the whole width of the Mississippi to absorb a breech even at peak.
Big Muddy has been steady all week at 22′ (it’s installed at 184′ ASL) after record lows this summer. Of course, local rain has nothing to do with its height: that is a conspiracy betwixt Nebraska, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota, and they did doodly squat the past two weeks, so we’ll be at pool by end of the month.
My ass is about 246′ ASL as we speak, so 40′ to go before the house gets a free delivery to Suthen.
The local record is 48′, so 232′ ASL.
Pardon me, I’m just waking up. But what does American Sign Language have to do with water level?
Good morning.
“The sun’s magnetic poles are about to flip, and it could cause lower latitude northern lights, more intense solar storms and potential danger for astronauts and satellite communication. However, experts predict there’s no overt cause for concern.”
https://news.yahoo.com/sun-magnetic-poles-flip-2024-203700310.html
If the sun does this every eleven years, we should be old hats at this. Did civilization collapse in 2013? No? Well, then!
Yeah, but how do the sun aliens deal with their compasses going haywire?
“Wait, I thought we were heading North this whole time! What’s going on—oh, the magnetic poles flipped again. I really need to start looking at my calendar.”
“However, experts predict there’s no overt cause for concern.”
Well, shit. Now I AM worried. 😒
I’m not sure about the source for this…
“At first glance, it looks just like another real estate pro hustling to rent homes on social media.
But at 1 Time Payment Homes, the site makes it clear these are squatter homes and spells out just what that means in a pinned Insta story.
“The company’s owners will come out, so will the police. The police will tell you there’s nothing they can do about it — squatters rights,” our Channel 2 producer J.P. read off the Instagram account.”
https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/squatters-are-taking-over-homes-all-over-the-nation-on-an-industrial-scale-and-turning-them-into-dens-of-crime/
“A Beverly Hills mansion seized by the court from a fugitive surgeon behind California’s biggest insurance fraud scheme is now a wild party house taken over by squatters, who are profiting off of regular ragers that are driving neighbors nuts.
The Mediterranean estate at 1316 Beverly Grove, listed for $4.5 million has been occupied by “a very sophisticated criminal ring of squatters,” the home’s listing agent John A. Woodward IV tells Los Angeles magazine. The squatters, he believes, are earning upwards of $30,000 a month renting rooms and hosting huge house parties with $100 entry fees.”
Nuke it from orbit.
Oh; I was taking notes.
$30k a month?
I could use money like that. I don’t live in California, though, so it might not work out so well for me.
I’m in late. Good morning!
😁🌄
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3ppiohVRZ0s
🎶🎶
This song is old enough to be married with two kids and a mortgage, and yet it is still 🔥.
Good morning, Sean, cav, Don, U, and Ted’S.! (And maybe Stinky?)
☕
Is that still San Francisco Coffee?
It is. Three bags left, then back to Caribou medium roast.
suh’ fam
whats goody yo
TALL CANS!
/after breakfast with Tres Ver 2.0
Good morning, homey! Have a Grand Morning Out with the clone!
Mornin’, reprobates! Mornin’, UCS. Plenty glibs up early on Saturday.
I made cucumber and onion salad the other day—something I remember eating on occasion as a kid—and it turned out surprisingly well.
Last night, I pulled the onions out and sautéed them with yellow squash, and sprinkled lemon pepper and salt over the mix, and that also turned out pretty good.