Tony Little Bottles

My name is Tony Viles, they call me Little Bottles. My job usually consists of hanging out with the boys drinking beer and messing with the ladies. Now imagine my surprise when I get a message that the boss wants to see me. I haven’t done anything wrong that I know of. So, I’m a bit anxious to meet him. My time in the mob has been truly uneventful seeing as how I’ve only been involved a year. I just turned 19 but I look 25.

I finally get to the place I’m to meet the boss and there’s this big goon standing out front not letting me into the building. He tells me to go around back and tell the guy at the door, “Little Black Book”. Inside I’m hustled to the basement where in this dark room I see the figure of a small black man who I come to find out is named the Little Black Book because he’s a bookie for the mob. He hands me two satchel’s that I’m to take to the racetrack and give to the General Manager Jimmie Two Fingers. I think I know what’s in the bags, but I don’t open them. I make my way to the track and find my way to Jimmie Two Fingers office. I hand him the satchels. He looks inside both of them keeps one, hands me another satchel that’s much heavier and gives me back one of the satchels that I brought. I was told to see Louie The Skeleton at the local mortuary. There I give him the two bags and he keeps the small one and gives me another bag just as heavy as the one I got from Two Fingers. He tells me I need to take the bags to Willie the Jewel. I know Willie as the local jeweler that makes rings and other jewelry for the mob. I walk into the jewelry store and a few minutes later I’m taken back to see Willie. Willie is sweating profusely but very happy to see me. He asks if I was followed. I told him I wasn’t told to look for anything suspicious going on, so I told him I wasn’t. All this time I keep wondering if I get anything out of all this running around. Willie tells me to go to the Deli and grab two Italian Specials and a couple of Cokes and bring them back to him.

I get back to the jewelry store where Willie takes one of the Sandwiches and Cokes and gives me the other and directions and a second satchel for the next place I have to go to. Inside the bag from the deli was another item that was wrapped that Willie threw in the satchel. I was told not to let anyone take the satchel I had because it would not make the boss happy. So now I’m getting a bit curious as to what the end game is in all this movement of satchels. If you’re keeping up, you have an idea what was in each satchel so far. But now I had the original satchel and a second satchel from Willie The Jewel and something from the deli shop.

My next stop was at night, I was sent to see Angela, the Madam of the local whorehouse. This place was in a very seedy and rundown part of town and they told me I’d recognize the place because it had a red streetlight in front of it. I was told to go in from the back as that is where the office was. I really was nervous as this was my first time in a whorehouse. I needed to act confident like it was nothing to me. The man at the back door asked for the code. The Jewel never gave me a code, so I used the one I needed to start all of this. Little Black Book. The guy laughed and opened the door right away. It was dark inside with very dimly lit red lights down the hallway and scantily clad women going from room to room. Angela, a very tall buxom woman, invited me into the office. It was very smoky as there were a few women in the room smoking from long cigarette holders. There was a bunch of giggling and whispers going on with them and I was getting a bit, well you know. I handed Angela the satchel with the deli package and she poured it all out on her desk. There must have been a hundred grand there! What had me really curious was the big thud that the package from the deli made. It wasn’t normal. Angela opened it before counting any of the money. It was a .38 Special. This is an interesting piece of this puzzle. If you’ll remember I was supposed to pick up two Italian Specials from the deli. My wheels are spinning now. She carefully inspected the pistol and then replaced it in the paper it came in. Then she put a neatly wrapped package in my satchel and told me that someone would ask for it in the near future. She handed out some money to the girls then handed some to me as well. She then told me to go home and then go see Tommy Knuckles, the butcher, in the morning by 9AM. Then she handed me a different satchel that was heavy but not as much as the one I’d been dragging around.

Tommy Knuckles is a big burly guy that can throw half a cow around like it was nothing. He sees me come in and directs me to a doorway after he finishes with a customer. He tells me to give the whorehouse bag to the driver of the truck that was being loaded. Then he tells me the boss wants to see me. I ask where I’m supposed to go and Knuckles insists, I already know where to go to find the little black book. So off I go to see the Little Black Book. I get to the back door of the bosses building and instead of being taken downstairs I went upstairs about three floors. The place was empty except for a guy standing guard at a door at the end of the hall. I tell him I’m there because the boss asked to see me. He says, “You got the little black book?” I tell him the only Little Black Book is the bookie in the basement. He chuckles and lets me in.

After what seemed like an eternity with a bunch of muffled voices in the enclosed office a woman emerges. She is elegant and saunters to her desk, moves some papers around and grabs a note. Then she says the boss will see me now. I walk in behind her and am greeted by the bookie sitting in a chair in the office. We exchange pleasantries and he begins to grill me on where I had been and why it had taken so long to get back to the boss’s office. I explained my every move and when I was done explaining myself, he asked for the package that was put in my satchel. He began to open it and to my surprise it was a little black book. Just then the back door to the office burst open and a hood was placed over my head and I was bound on my wrists and thrown into a car. I was going somewhere but couldn’t get my bearings. It felt like an hour had passed and we pulled up a gravel drive. They took me out of the car and took me inside. It felt oddly familiar to me even though I couldn’t see. I was put in a very comfortable chair. My wrists were undone, and the hood was taken off. The large chair behind the desk was facing away from me and I couldn’t see who it was, but I knew I was in my grandfather’s house. One of the guys dropped the satchel on the desk and said’ “It’s all there boss, plus some, the little black book too”. The chair began to turn, and it was my grandfather but very frail looking. He said “You have passed my test. Congratulations!” Then he keeled over

The funeral was a week and a half later. “Family” came from all over to pay their respects, and right after was the reading of the will. I was bequeathed with the little black book that the Madam had put in my satchel. My grandfather’s writing on the inside said, “To my Loyal Grandson, I give to you the access to the family fortune”. The book was blank except the last page which said, “The will has disclosed that you hold this book as a testament to what you will do with the family businesses and holdings”. With all my love, your Grandfather, The Boss.

Copyright 2021 Kevin Eric Miller