Gardenia

“I don’t hate Italians. I don’t hit French people. What I do hate are when bourgeois yuppie idiots think that they are my father.” says Al Capone’s son.

“Her father was British old money. Get over it.” says Al Capone. “The Italians of his day respected him.”

“Maybe they were more elite than us.” say a few living Italian men.

“What if they were?” says Lacey.

“Yeah. Sure.” says an Italian.

“You were just talking to him. Why were you so violent?” asks Lacey.

“I didn’t like what you were implying.” he admits.

“That’s disgusting.” says Lacey.

“I might agree.” he says.

“Well what exactly-That’s awful.” says Lacey.

“I think they did it on purpose.” says his uncle.

“Because they got smart!” says Lacey.

“We were too sophisticated for their own good.” he says.

“That’s my working hypothesis from a certain angle.” says Lacey.

“They couldn’t handle being accountable to us.” says his uncle.

“Listen…if there’s an Illuminati…how or when does that theory fall apart?” says Lacey.

“It doesn’t.” says Lem. “Or does it?”

“I can’t see where.” says Lacey.

“Yeah! We were fearless!” says a man from the 1930’s.

“Who started the vilification of the so-called criminal underground?” asks Lacey.

“The south?” says Zelda jokingly.

“I always felt that the mafia was-“ starts F. Scott Fitzgerald cheerfully.