The Wild Card Café
by
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At a meeting at Jimmy’s house John brought Will with him. Jimmy wasn’t pleased with this, but Mario agreed and began, “Can I expect the same amount as last year?”John replied, “You’ll probably get more. The field can be seen from the air, thus we’ll have to harvest quickly.”
Mario questioned, “Can you send more men up there?”
“It sounds like you know where my field is.”
“Your field has already cost me one man’s life coming off that mountain.”
“Maybe he fell off.”
“Then he must have lost his voice before the fall.”
“OK, so I don’t want a lot of people snooping around my field.”
“You made your point. Now look, John, I need to know if I’m going to have a steady crop income or the situation could become rough around here.”
“If the law comes poking around, I’ll burn the field immediately. That’s it.”
“Are you threatening me, Johnny boy?”
“No, I’m stating a fact. I’ll be eighteen in two years. If I get caught now, they can only put me away for two years. I can handle that. But after I turn eighteen, I’m out of the business. This includes the gambling and prostitution at the hotel.”
“Maybe. I’ll tell you when you’re out of the business.”
“And maybe you won’t.”
Both men glared at each other as Jimmy and Will looked on. Jimmy had become agitated since no one had ever stood up so boldly to Mario. Will was calculating how he could take Mario and Jimmy out at the same time. It would pose no problem to him.
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About the Book
The story of The Wild Card Café was set in The Kanowski’s had their son John in 1936 who grew up in a life of bootleggers, gambling and prostitutes. At an early age an older woman molested John and she became his friend. She taught the young boy how to grow marijuana and he mistakenly over planted a very large field. The field got them involved with a crime family. Later the boy resisted the control the crime families had over him and he fought back. During that period the boy tried to live a normal teenage life. John vowed to get himself out of illegal business by the time he turned eighteen. The crime families wanted control over the fields. The control of the fields resulted in two Mafia type wars.
About the Author
Richard Orlowski was born in
In writing the autobiography of my family, which was the Orlowski and Rinaldi immigrants who came to this country in 1915. From that writing I learned my Italian grandparents led interesting lives. When I completed the autobiography I realized the actual story would be boring to most people, other than family members. It was then, that I decided to make it a fictional novel. With their lives, as it was, there were enough facts to develop an interesting novel. The bar my grandparents converted into a speak-easy is in the family today.
The task of writing a novel was much larger than I ever imagined. It was not long into the process I realized help was needed. Having hand written it, my wife Susan was the first to lend a hand. Later hiring a typist Tris Moore and a ghostwriter Paula Rowland, it started going together.