The week he learned he would be a father, Carlo walked up and down the New York avenues asking for jobs—in Brooklyn, in Manhattan, in restaurants, in factories, in a printing press, as a doorman, a gardener, a plumber’s assistant. He tried to apprentice himself to bricklayers. He walked into a boutique with a Shopgirl Wanted sign. Everywhere, he was greeted by eyes that would not meet his. He later learned that the one maître d’ who had accepted his handshake turned up with a broken arm and wild eyes three days afterward. Tommy took Carlo to dinner and told him over filettos of veal so tender they dissolved without being chewed that they were family; they were brothers; if there was anything that was upsetting Carlo he could talk about it. “We’ll always keep you safe,” Tommy had said, earnest face made sinister in the low candlelight of the restaurant. After dinner the two men embraced in the midnight gaslight and Tommy cupped Carlo’s neck with his palm and called him brother again. “Business is booming,” Tommy said as he walked away.

That night, Carlo couldn’t sleep. We’ll always keep you safe, Tommy said in his head.

As he looks at the browning, windblown grasses, blurred together now as the car speeds up out of the sludgy New York traffic, Carlo Russo feels something soften inside of him. Suddenly, he could be anyone: a schoolteacher, a dentist, a blacksmith. A regular man, on vacation with his family. Carlo leans out the window and feels the hot air on his face and becomes lighter.

Though he has told no one, not even Joey, Carlo has a plan. This is the last year he will work for the Fianzos. Carlo has been saving small bills in a roll under his floorboard. Just pennies, shaved off here and there, from the money he collects for Tommy Fianzo. He has been inquiring—subtly, this time—about other jobs, in other states. There are farms in Iowa; there are fishermen in Maine; in California, he hears, oranges and grapes ripen under a familiar sun. Carlo is building something of his own. He imagines being in a car several months from now, Lina at his side, Antonia sleeping in the backseat. Driving his family due west at the speed of light.

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