After the service, Uncle Alfredo was greeted by a barrel chested middle aged man, with hair greying at the temples, and a gold medallion nestled in the chest hair on display by an open-collared shirt.
"How you doin', Ricky?" Alfredo said gruffly as he half-embraced his associate.
"Hey, nice service," Ricardo "Ricky" DiPaulo replied. "The girl spoke well. Did you talk to her about our arrangement?"
Alfredo nodded, looking around. "It's an imperfect solution, but the best one for continuity of our affairs until we see Tony again."
"Where is she?" Ricky asked. "I'd like to meet her personally."
Alfredo gave him a look. "Ricky, I know you with blondes. This isn't some stripper bimbo. Keep it in your pants."
"What are you talkin' to me like that for?" Ricky protested. "You think I need a lecture about women?"
"Relax, I just don't want to see her undermined," Alfredo said, adding, "At least not yet."
The two men stepped outside the church where they spotted Dawn chatting excitedly on the phone.
"Yeah, I guess it's like gangster movies?" she was saying. "I don't fully understand it. Hold on, I'll call you back!" she turned and smiled as Alfredo and Ricky approached. "Uncle Alfredo, we must have some kind of jet, right?"
He nodded hesitantly. "Yes, why?"
"Awesome, well, I thought we could pick up some friends from college," she explained. "Some of the other girls on the cheerleading teams are totally smart and really cool. People call us the 'pom-pom mafia'. They would be totally helpful in this gangster thing."
"Uh, Dawn, sweetheart," Alfredo stammered. "You have to be careful what you say, especially over the phone. Don't call this a 'gangster thing'".
"Yeah, no problem," she assured him breezily. "Who's this?"
"Well, this is Uncle Ricardo, one of the capos."
"Ricky," he said with a smile. "Nice to meet you, Dawn."
She shook his offered hand. "What's a capo?"
"Capo means captain," Alfredo whispered to her. "Uncle Ricardo is one of the men who worked for Papa Sablone. The capos run the organization and direct the soldiers on your command."
"Cool, I'm your new boss, Ricky," Dawn laughed, then noticed her phone buzz. "Hold on, I've got a call... Hi, Cindy!"
"That's funny, she asked me what a capo is!" Ricky noticed Alfredo's worried look and laughed good naturedly.
"It is totally bad-ass!" Dawn was confiding in her friend. "But I can't talk about secret gangster business on the phone." She winked knowingly at Alfredo, who rolled his eyes.
When Dawn got off the phone, Ricky told her that the first order of business would be to meet the capos. "Give me your phone number, I'll call you and tell you where the meeting is."
"Good idea," Dawn agreed. "Yeah, I want to have control over everything so I can start delegating once the pom-pom mafia gets here." The men looked for her to laugh at the obvious joke, but she just nodded and glanced around. "Okay, see ya!"
"It's okay, I can take care of her," Ricky said to Alfredo as they watched her walk away. "Hey, don't worry, at this point the business runs itself. Guys can step forward to keep it that way." For Alfredo, that's what he was worried about; enterprising capos like Ricardo stepping into the vacuum.
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