Sex and Mafia, an excerpt from the new book by Roberto Saviano – Corriere.it

The man’s name is Lou, he works at an accounting firm, and that makes you think because he doesn’t seem to be very good at counting money. At least not your own. He has a hundred dollars left, which is not a small amount in absolute terms, but small considering the evening’s bets. At the table you fly high. weekly poker that Lou is having fun with friends and that he is watching the weekend games in the halls of Atlantic City, where gambling is legal.

Everyone understood that Lou was sick. Now you will understand to what extent.
The evening had started well, luck had gone in the right direction, namely Lou’s luck. Then things got bad. He lost, lost and lost some more.
Every now and then his teeth chatter with a sharp crack and the nail on his index finger shortens a little. Soon I’ll get to the flesh of the fingertip. He would like to change his finger, but his thumbnail was used up along with his money on the previous hands. Sure, he could keep gnawing on his middle finger, but he doesn’t want his classmates watching him put his long finger in his mouth. Since he is holding the cards with his other hand, all he has to do is jump to his ring finger. And he does. But still ridiculous. It seems that he wants to imitate the listener’s gesture. Sure, we got to the fruit. And out of mercy one of those present stands up and says: Last hand, okay?. The others nod. Lou also nods reluctantly: Final hand.

The man in front of him deals the cards, Lou turns them over sparingly, he likes that. As an experienced player, he manages to suppress a smile and also his enthusiasm when he says: Served. He has three ladies and two boys. A nice full house. This is divine providence. Maybe he can go home with the same money he had at the table. Or maybe, if someone in the audience is stupid enough to raise something, they could even put a nice nest egg in their pocket. Lou throws his last hundred dollars on the table.

Here comes the first one to pass. The other two are obviously pretty stupid. One says: I see, a used car salesman from Belleville, New Jersey. Not rich, but he lacks nothing. The other guy, on the other hand, must be a real idiot because he collects five hundred dollars. One of the DeCavalcante boys, his mafia affiliation must have gone to his head, he’ll want to do it to whoever has the biggest cock. His problems. Lou’s problem, however, is that he doesn’t have the five hundred.

You don’t joke with the DeCavalcantes. Lou knows it, every now and then he does a few odd jobs for her, takes care of the accounting, gives financial tips, launders some money. Never more than that because they know who they are related to. Someone with his relatives will never be able to become a man of honor. Patience.
The others look at him, waiting to see him with his butt on the ground. The car salesman also gave in his five hundred. And now? Be good, Lou, they think, go home, tomorrow another day, maybe you’ll feel better. But he has no intention of losing like that with the full house in hand just because he ran out of gas.

He continues to gnaw on his ring finger. He doesn’t want any sign of giving in, he knows that, but he can’t avoid it. He needs to focus on something other than the faces of those two bastards.
Avanti, Lou. We don’t have all night. Do you have them or don’t you have them? If you don’t have them, look at each other, we’ll see between the two of us.
They are there.
And where the hell are they?
Wait.
“I’m not waiting for shit anymore,” says the DeCavalcante guy. Two minutes and I take the plate.
Calm down, do the car thing, at most you and I will play it out. The other shrugs his shoulders.
Two minutes to scrape the bottom of the trunk and see if anything comes out. Lou takes his finger out of his mouth and reaches into his pocket to get his wallet out.
What do you hope to find there? Let’s end it here, come on.

Mind your own business. Lou opens his leather wallet, now curved and thin as a toenail, and looks for something inside. The DeCavalcante guy slams his hand on the table, which twitches. Then he snorts and shakes his head. What do you want to play for, the Wine & Spirits card? Lou doesn’t answer, opens his wallet wide, searches the flaps with his fingers. Something in his expression has changed. He had an idea. Maybe all is not lost yet. Maybe he has another card to play, one more form bang on the table. Or maybe, as the guy says, just the liquor store points card.

The boys look at each other. Maybe he found a few dollars and they were wrong, they think. Imagine this is not possible. He would have let her go a long time ago. Lou is quick, he’s passionate when it comes to going down the drain. He has no more money. He was a man with a thousand resources, he burned nine hundred and ninety-nine of them. However, what he has left is desired by all the children sitting at the table. He knows it. his little darling. His latest form his wife’s photo. He takes it out of his wallet and throws it onto the cloth as if it were a hundred dollar bill, nothing more, nothing less. I play her. Let’s see if there’s anything left to laugh about.