Three Cheers for Tyranny [prologue]
Three Cheers for Tyranny
[ index] - [prologue] - [ part 1] - [ part 2] - [ part 3] - [ part 4] - [ part 5a] - [ part 5b] - [ part 6]
[ art by laziilemon] - [ mix by quarterturn]
In the early 1900s, Francesco Ruscica and his family-two younger sisters and his mother and father-emigrated from Sicily to America, through Ellis Island. They lived in New York for a time, Francesco working as a delivery boy to earn some extra money for the family, even though he was only fourteen. His father soon got a job that awarded them more financial security, but Francesco kept working, learning English from the both the locals and the Irish, as well as several words and phrases of German. Though he never attended an English school, Francesco became an expert in finding out what people wanted or needed, and making himself available to provide it.
When the Ruscicas moved to New Jersey, Francesco kept up the contacts he’d made in New York, using them to build himself an even bigger social network. People he’d never met began to recognize him walking down the street. His father had laid the foundations for their family, but Francesco knew it was up to him to build their new home. And he was confident that he could do just that.
About twenty years later, Francesco Ruscica had changed his name to Frank Rush, reasoning that it was more distinctive in the almost completely Italian neighborhood, and that his American associates would trust him more if he had an Anglicized name. Frank had married another Sicilian immigrant, Anna-Maria, and they had a teenage son, Michael.
Everyone in their neighborhood knew Frank by name, and knew which nondescript brick house was his, and knew when his son’s birthday was. Frank had indeed built up a home for his family, and he was in the process of grooming young Michael to take over for him someday.
In 1950, Michael courted and married a girl from the neighborhood, Elena. Five years later, they welcomed their first daughter to the family, Belladonna. Michael had learned about the inner workings of his father’s business, and that certain aspects of it weren’t to be discussed outside the family. That certain parts were illegal. Frank was still in charge, though, and Michael wasn’t concerned when he and Elena had their second daughter, Maria. If Frank was disappointed that Michael hadn’t given him a grandson, he didn’t show it. He doted on the girls as only a rich, powerful man could, and in the 60s, he quietly handed over the Family to Michael.
Michael acted under his father’s exacting orders for several years, but when Frank died, things changed quickly. Michael pursued his morally ambiguous interests, hired his close friends to divide the workload (and share the blame, if the need ever arose), and invested his father’s fortune. With some of the money, he bought a house for his mother back in Sicily, and took his daughters there during the summer.
“La vita bella,” he told them, his two beautiful girls. They lived the good life, the perfect life.
Before long, though, his little girls became teenagers; Belladonna-Donna, she insisted, in a fit of adolescent rebellion-started dating a boy at school, a boy who wasn’t Italian. Donald Way, he was called; Scottish-American, a few years older than Donna, and from a poor family. Michael didn’t approve, and Elena only tolerated the relationship with an upturned nose and a gracefully arched eyebrow.
Straight out of high school, Donna married the boy and begged Michael to give him a job, to let him work for the Family. Michael flat-out refused. He dreaded to think how Frank would’ve reacted to his beloved Belladonna’s behavior. He forbade Donna from leaving the house, and after a full week’s worth of Elena playing the middleman, he grudgingly agreed to help Donald find an acceptable job-outside the family, of course.
It wasn’t long until Gerard was born, and then Michael, three years later. The family’s domestic bliss was short-lived, however, when Donald had a fatal accident while out in his delivery truck.
Heartbroken, Donna fled the house to mourn in private, leaving the two boys with their grandparents. Elena took on the role of nurturing mother, and Michael was able to overlook the boys’ unfortunate heritage on their father’s side.
The boys weren’t alone, either. Their Aunt Maria had moved out of the house and married an Italian, Joe Staiano, who came from a reasonably high-profile family in New York. They had two young boys as well, Anthony and Marco; Anthony a year younger than Gerard, and Marco the same age as little Mikey. One of Michael’s caporegimi, a leader in the Family, Franco Iero, also had a son, Frank Jr.
The five boys, the youngest generation of the Family, became inseparable as they grew older; their age differences had little meaning to them, because they were part of a group, part of a gang. Part of the Family.
***
[ part 1]