CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
THE WRONG BOX
Danny Marino had looked at the gray man.
Then he had looked at the box. It was a cardboard box about the size of a cigar box, tied with string. It didn’t look important. Danny was beginning to understand that this didn’t mean anything.
“You said it’s the wrong box,” Danny expostulated.
“That’s right.”
“How do you know?”
The gray man looked at him.
“Take it back.”
“To the dry cleaner?”
“You know another place?”
Danny glanced down the street.
The man with the umbrella was standing half a block away. There wasn’t any rain. He had the umbrella open anyway, which Danny had previously noted.
Danny looked back at the gray man.
“What’s in the box?”
“I really don’t know.”
“Then how do you know it’s the wrong box?”
The gray man seemed to consider this.
“Because you have it.”
He turned and walked away.
Danny watched him go.
The man with the umbrella was gone.
Danny stood on the sidewalk holding the box.
Tony Spada had sent him to Caruso.
Caruso had given him a dry-cleaning ticket.
The ticket said 317.
The dry cleaner had given him the box.
So far, everything had gone exactly according to instructions.
That was the problem.
Danny went back into the dry cleaner.
The gray-haired clerk was behind the counter.
Danny put the box down.
“I think you gave me the wrong box.”
The clerk looked at it.
“What number?”
“Three seventeen.”
Danny handed him the ticket.
The clerk looked at the ticket.
Then he looked at the box.
“No.”
“No what?”
“Not the wrong box.”
“You’re sure?”
The clerk pushed the box toward Danny.
“Three seventeen.”
Danny didn’t pick it up.
“A man outside says it’s the wrong box.”
The clerk stopped moving.
It wasn’t much of a stop. His hands simply became still.
“What man?”
“Gray suit. Gray hat.”
The clerk looked toward the window.
“He tell you his name?”
“No.”
“Then you don’t know who he is.”
“That seems to be going around.”
The clerk pushed the box another inch toward Danny.
“Three seventeen.”
Danny picked it up.
“That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
Danny went outside again.
Nobody was waiting for him.
He walked west.
At the next corner he stopped at a newsstand and bought a newspaper he didn’t want. He stood there looking at the sports page.
Nobody came past.
He folded the paper under his arm and continued walking.
At Third Avenue he crossed the street.
Then he crossed back.
A taxi honked at him.
Danny made a gesture at the driver.
The driver made a better one.
Danny kept walking.
The man with the umbrella was behind him again.
Danny turned into a luncheonette.
He sat at the counter and ordered coffee.
The box sat beside his elbow.
The waitress looked at it.
“You want me to put that someplace?”
“No.”
“Then move it. Somebody spills coffee, you’ll blame me.”
Danny put the box on his lap.
The man with the umbrella walked past the window.
Danny drank his coffee.
Five minutes later he paid and left.
The umbrella man was nowhere in sight.
Danny headed downtown.
When he reached the Downtown Athletic & Bridge Club, Nicky Bellomo was sitting at the card table eating a pastrami sandwich. There was mustard on his cuff.
Tony Spada was behind the small and very ancient and well-worn desk.
Danny put the box in front of him on the desktop.
Tony looked at it.
“What is that?”
Danny waited.
“You sent me.”
“I know I sent you.”
“Caruso gave me a ticket.”
“I know.”
“Three seventeen.”
Tony looked at the box again.
“And?”
“The ticket got me this.”
Tony didn’t touch it.
“What is it?”
“I was hoping you knew.”
Nicky looked over from the card table.
“Looks like a box.”
“Thank you, Nicky,” Tony said.
Nicky returned to his sandwich.
Tony looked at Danny.
“Anybody talk to you?”
Danny thought about it.
“A man told me I had the wrong box.”
Tony’s expression didn’t change.
“What man?”
“Gray suit. Gray hat.”
“That narrows it down.”
“He told me to take it back.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
Tony looked up sharply.
Danny waited.
“And?”
“They gave it back.”
Tony leaned back in his chair.
For a while nobody said anything.
Nicky chewed.
Finally Tony asked, “Anybody else?”
“A man with an open umbrella.”
“What did he say?”
“Nothing.”
“Then how do you know he was with it?”
“It wasn’t raining and the umbrella was open.”
Nicky stopped chewing.
Tony looked at him.
Nicky started chewing again.
Tony picked up the telephone.
He dialed a number from memory.
Danny couldn’t hear the other end.
Tony said, “It’s me.”
He listened.
“Three seventeen.”
He listened again.
“No.”
Another pause.
“He brought it here.”
Tony looked at Danny.
“No, he didn’t open it.”
Danny hadn’t considered opening it.
Tony listened for almost a minute.
Then he said, “All right.”
He hung up.
“What?”
Tony didn’t answer.
He looked at the box.
Then he pushed it across the desk toward Danny.
“Take it back.”
Danny stared at him.
“To the dry cleaner?”
“No.”
“Where?”
Tony wrote an address on a piece of paper.
Danny looked at it.
It was on Mulberry Street.
“Who do I give it to?”
“You don’t.”
Danny waited.
Tony waited longer.
“All right,” Danny said. “What do I do with it?”
“You go to the address. There’s a cigar store.”
“And?”
“You buy a cigar.”
“I don’t smoke cigars.”
“Nobody asked you to smoke it.”
“What kind?”
Tony looked annoyed.
“A cigar, Danny.”
Danny put the paper in his pocket.
“And the box?”
“You carry the box.”
“Then what?”
“Somebody will ask you the time.”
“What time do I tell him?”
“The right time.”
Danny looked at Tony.
Tony looked back.
Nicky was trying not to look at either of them.
Danny picked up the box.
At the door Tony said, “Danny.”
Danny turned.
“If nobody asks you the time, you bring it back.”
“That simple?”
“No.”
Danny waited.
Tony rubbed his forehead.
“This goes higher than me.”
“How high?”
Tony didn’t answer.
Nicky did.
“All the way up the ladder.”
The room became very quiet.
Danny looked at Nicky.
“What ladder?” Danny almost asked out loud, but he kept his silence.
Nicky stopped chewing.
Tony looked at Nicky.
Nicky looked at Tony.
Nobody looked at Danny.
After a while Tony picked up the racing form.
“Go buy your cigar.”
Danny left with the box.
Behind him, nobody said another word.
He was halfway down the block when he saw the man with the umbrella again.
And this time, the umbrella man was clearly waiting for him.
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CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO BREAKDOWN
THE WRONG BOX
WHAT HAPPENS
Danny has received a small cardboard box from the dry cleaner in exchange for ticket 317.
A mysterious gray man tells Danny that he has the wrong box and should take it back. The man refuses to explain how he knows.
Danny returns to the dry cleaner. The clerk checks the ticket and insists that the box is correct:
317.
Danny leaves with it.
Meanwhile, the man carrying an open umbrella on a dry day continues following him.
Danny returns to the Downtown Athletic & Bridge Club and gives the box to Tony Spada.
Tony clearly wasn’t expecting a box.
That changes everything.
Tony makes a telephone call. Whoever is on the other end knows enough about the situation to give Tony new instructions.
Danny is sent to a cigar store on Mulberry Street carrying the box. He is to buy a cigar and wait.
Someone is supposed to ask him the time.
Danny is to give the correct time.
If nobody asks, he brings the box back.
Just before Danny leaves, Tony admits that the matter goes higher than he does.
Nicky supplies the missing information:
“Bonanno high.”
Danny asks:
“Who’s Bonanno?”
The room goes silent.
WHAT DANNY KNOWS
Almost nothing.
He knows:
- Caruso gave him ticket 317.
- Ticket 317 produced the box.
- The dry cleaner insists it is the correct box.
- The gray man insists it is the wrong box.
- The umbrella man is following him.
- Tony apparently did not expect the box.
- Somebody above Tony is now giving instructions.
- The name Bonanno makes Tony and Nicky very uncomfortable.
Most importantly, Danny still doesn’t know what’s inside the box.
WHAT THE READER KNOWS
The reader knows slightly more than Danny, but not enough to solve anything.
The name Bonanno suddenly places the seemingly trivial errand in a much larger world.
Until this moment Danny has dealt mainly with Tony, Nicky, Caruso, couriers, clerks and mysterious men on the street.
Now we discover that the chain may reach far above them.
But we still don’t know whether Bonanno is actually involved.
Nicky may only mean:
This is that level of business.
That’s much better than confirming anything.
THE BOX
The box works because it is completely unimpressive.
Cardboard.
String.
Cigar-box size.
No markings.
No visible reason anyone should care about it.
And yet everyone cares about it.
The question isn’t merely:
What’s in the box?
It’s becoming:
Who thinks the box belongs to whom?
That gives us several possible factions without identifying any of them.
THE UMBRELLA MAN
He becomes stronger by doing nothing.
He doesn’t threaten Danny.
He doesn’t approach him.
He doesn’t even speak.
He simply keeps appearing.
The open umbrella on a dry day gives Danny one unmistakable identifying feature without telling us anything about the man’s identity.
He may be protecting Danny.
He may be following the box.
He may be waiting for Danny to lead him somewhere.
Or he may be making sure somebody else doesn’t take it.
We don’t know.
THE BONANNO MOMENT
This is the chapter’s payoff.
Nicky blurts out:
“Bonanno high.”
Danny asks the perfectly reasonable question:
“Who’s Bonanno?”
And suddenly nobody wants to talk.
That accomplishes several things at once.
It reminds us that Danny really is an outsider.
It makes Nicky realize he has said too much.
It tells us Tony is afraid of something above his level.
And it introduces a real historical name without requiring Joseph Bonanno to become a character in the story.
The silence does all the work.
COMEDY
The humor continues to come from Danny trying to treat insanity as an ordinary job.
He asks sensible questions.
Everyone gives him useless answers.
The best example is the cigar-store instruction:
“Somebody will ask you the time.”
“What time do I tell him?”
“The right time.”
Perfect Danny Marino territory.
WHAT CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE NOW OWES US
Very little.
That’s important.
Danny should go to the cigar store.
He should buy the cigar.
And then we find out whether somebody asks him the time.
We do not need to open the box.
We do not need to explain Bonanno.
We do not need to identify the umbrella man.
In fact, the longer everybody except Danny seems to understand what is happening, the better.
Danny’s job remains wonderfully simple:
Carry the box. Buy a cigar. Tell somebody what time it is.
What could possibly go wrong?
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Here’s the Bardo bus! Hop on!
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See You At The Top!!!
gorby