Smokin cigarettes and watching captain Kangeroo

March 1965

'Salud Louie' Pasquale said raising his glass to commemorate the moment. They all drank in unison as he drank as if all sharing in the same sorrow. Louie had gotten pinched in an extortion scheme, but he had done the right thing he didn't rat he didn't give them shit and so he was going away for a few. 'You did the right thing Louie.' Pasquale said as the toast was over. All of Louie's friends and family were there including all of Pasquales crew. Louie sat in the corner after it was all over, aloof withdrawn. Pasquale contemplated going over to him but than thought better of it. Louie was in one of his moods. He was just like that sometimes, woulden't talk much seemed to shy away. There was something off about Louie that Pasquale had noticed from the start. Something about him that just didn't seem to fit in. He would be there at the cardgames and he wouldent say a word just sitting there was an impassive face. Admist all the others bawdy talk and boasting Louie would just sit there and stare. Some of the others in his crew called him 'the rock' because of his impassive face. Still Pasquale understood somehow. There eyes would meet sometimes and they would share a quick moment of understanding. Louie was not cut out for the life. He was born in the wrong time, the wrong age. Pasquale walked through the smoke filled bar to where Louie sat at the end of the bar. 'You alright louie?' He asked. 'Yeah. Just depressed worried about how Dianne and the kids are going to do.' Louie slouched taking a large gulp from the drink in front of him. 'Don't worry Louie all take care of it.' Pasquale said. Take care of it he he had already. Louie's wife had come to him a few months ago wondering what to do about him. She had told him about Louie's depression and how he had told her about contemplating suicide. Pasquale had listened to her concerns but he had also taken advantage of her in her time of weakness. He had slept with a member of his crew's wife. It was an offence which was punishable by death in their life. Pasquale had been destroyed by guilt because of it. It was something he knew he could never live down. 'I am a bad man.' It was the first thing he had told his wife when they got married. She had taken it as a joke but he had been in earnest. Pasquale had told her that so she would know what she was getting into, but now he pondered those words. 'Another round for Louie!' He said to the bartender raising his glass.