truck motors outside on the mall. The trucks that would empty all the houses of furniture.
The Corleone Family would be flying back to Las Vegas in the afternoon, including
Mama Corleone.
When Kay came out of the bathroom, Michael was propped up on his pillow smoking
a cigarette. "Why the hell do you have to go to church every morning?" he said. "I don't
mind Sundays, but why the hell during the week? You're as bad as my mother." He
reached over in the darkness and switched on the tablelight.
Kay sat at the edge of the bed to pull on her stockings. "You know how converted
Catholics are," she said. "They take it more seriously."
Michael reached over to touch her thigh, on the warm skin where the top of her nylon
hose ended. "Don't," she said. "I'm taking Communion this morning."
He didn't try to hold her when she got up from the bed. He said, smiling slightly, "If
you're such a strict Catholic, how come you let the kids duck going to church so much?"
She felt uncomfortable and she was wary. He was studying her with what she thought
of privately as his "Don's" eye. "They have plenty of time," she said. "When we get back
home, I'll make them attend more."
She kissed him good-bye before she left. Outside the house the air was already
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getting warm. The summer sun rising in the east was red. Kay walked to where her car
was parked near the gates of the mall. Mama Corleone, dressed in her widow black,
was already sitting in it, waiting for her. It had become a set routine, early Mass, every
morning, together.
Kay kissed the old woman's wrinkled cheek, then got behind the wheel.
Mama Corleone asked suspiciously, "You eata breakfast?"
"No," Kay said.
The old woman nodded her head approvingly. Kay had once forgotten that it was
forbidden to take food from midnight on before receiving Holy Communion. That had
been a long time ago, but Mama Corleone never trusted her after that and always
checked. "You feel all right?" the old woman asked.
"Yes," Kay said.
The church was small and desolate in the early morning sunlight. Its stained-glass
windows shielded the interior from heat, it would be cool there, a place to rest. Kay
helped her mother-in-law up the white stone steps and then let her go before her. The
old woman preferred a pew up front, close to the altar. Kay waited on the steps for an
extra minute. She was always reluctant at this last moment, always a little fearful.
Finally she entered the cool darkness. She took the holy water on her fingertips and
made the sign of the cross, fleetingly touched her wet fingertips to her parched lips.
Candles flickered redly before the saints, the Christ on his cross. Kay genuflected
before entering her row and then knelt on the hard wooden rail of the pew to wait for her
call to Communion. She bowed her head as if she were praying, but she was not quite
ready for that.
It was only here in these dim, vaulted churches that she allowed herself to think about
her husband's other life. About that terrible night a year ago when he had deliberately
used all their trust and love in each other to make her believe his lie that he had not
killed his sister's husband.
She had left him because of that lie, not because of the deed. The next morning she
had taken the children away with her to her parents' house in New Hampshire. Without
a word to anyone, without really knowing what action she meant to take. Michael had
immediately understood. He had called her the first day and then left her alone. It was a
week before the limousine from New York pulled up in front of her house with Tom
Hagen.
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She had spent a long terrible afternoon with Tom Hagen, the most terrible afternoon
of her life. They had gone for a walk in the woods outside her little town and Hagen had
not been gentle.
Kay had made the mistake of trying to be cruelly flippant, a role to which she was not
suited. "Did Mike send you up here to threaten me?" she asked. "I expected to see
some of the 'boys' get out of the car with their machine guns to make me go back."
For the first time since she had known him, she saw Hagen angry. He said harshly,
"That's the worst kind of juvenile crap I've ever heard. I never expected that from a
woman like you. Come on, Kay."
"All right," she said.
They walked along the green country road. Hagen asked quietly, "Why did you run
away?"
Kay said, "Because Michael lied to me. Because he made a fool of me when he stood
Godfather to Connie's boy. He betrayed me. I can't love a man like that. I can't live with
it. I can't let him be father to my children."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Hagen said.
She turned on him with now-justified rage. "I mean that he killed his sister's husband.
Do you understand that?" She paused for a moment. "And he lied to me."
They walked on for a long time in silence. Finally Hagen said, "You have no way of
really knowing that's all true. But just for the sake of argument let's assume that it's true.
I'm not saying it is, remember. But what if I gave you what might be some justification
for what he did. Or rather some possible justifications?"
Kay looked at him scornfully. "That's the first time I've seen the lawyer side of you,
Tom. It's not your best side."
Hagen grinned. "OK. Just hear me out. What if Carlo had put Sonny on the spot,
fingered him. What if Carlo beating up Connie that time was a deliberate plot to get
Sonny out in the open, that they knew he would take the route over the Jones Beach
Causeway? What if Carlo had been paid to help get Sonny killed? Then what?"
Kay didn't answer. Hagen went on. "And what if the Don, a great man, couldn't bring
himself to do what he had to do, avenge his son's death by killing his daughter's
husband? What if that, finally, was too much for him, and he made Michael his
successor, knowing that Michael would take that load off his shoulders, would take that
guilt?"
"It was all over with," Kay said, tears springing into her eyes. "Everybody was happy.
Why couldn't Carlo be forgiven? Why couldn't everything go on and everybody forget?"
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She had led across a meadow to a tree-shaded brook. Hagen sank down on the grass
and sighed. He looked around, sighed again and said, "In this world you could do it."
Kay said, "He's not the man I married."
Hagen laughed shortly. "If he were, he'd be dead now. You'd be a widow now. You'd
have no problem."
Kay blazed out at him. "What the hell does that mean? Come on, Tom, speak out
straight once in your life. I know Michael can't, but you're not Sicilian, you can tell a
woman the truth, you can treat her like an equal, a fellow human being."
There was another long silence. Hagen shook his head. "You've got Mike wrong.
You're mad because he lied to you. Well, he warned you never to ask him about
business. You're mad because he was Godfather to Carlo's boy. But you made him do
that. Actually it was the right move for him to make if he was going to take action
against Carlo. The classical tactical move to win the victim's trust." Hagen gave her a
grim smile. "Is that straight enough talk for you?" But Kay bowed her head.
Hagen went on. "I'll give you some more straight talk. After the Don died, Mike was
set up to be killed. Do you know who set him up? Tessio. So Tessio had to be killed.
Carlo had to be killed. Because treachery can't be forgiven. Michael could have forgiven
it, but people never forgive themselves and so they would always be dangerous.
Michael really liked Tessio. He loves his sister. But he would be shirking his duty to you