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In a cauldron of deceit, a Sicilian family who immigrated to a rural Indiana farm is caught up in a tangled web of incest, adultery, prostitution, religious fervor, mysterious deaths, alternate lifestyles, and drugs. Family members looking for something they cannot name, immersed in a boiling cauldron of conflict, blackmail leads to a gruesome murder that is as mysterious as the motives themselves.
Set in the mid-twentieth century, Makes the World Go ’round is an earthy tale written in varied formats- prologues, stream-of-consciousness, prose, and script.
G. L. Rockey’s writing includes novels: Truths of the Heart, The Journalist, Time & Chance, Five Star Review, and Boolean Traveler. Also published is an anthology, Bats in the Belfry, Bells in the Attic and a nonfiction book, From the Back of the House: Memories of a Steak House Clan.
EXCERPT
“My heart has followed all my days something I cannot name.”
- B. White, THE DOOR
A CAUL is a piece of membrane that covers a newborn’s head and face. Birth with a caul is rare, occurring in fewer than 1 in 80,000 births. Some believe that a child born with a caul will be lucky, possess insights, discern different dimensions, is a messenger sent by a higher force to guide mankind. Others believe a caul evokes the Evil Eye.
CHARACTERS
Bruno Tocafondi¼immigrant from Sicily
Josephine Tocafondi¼Bruno’s wife
Carly Tocafondi¼Bruno and Josephine’s son
Faith Freeman¼daughter of Thomas & Jill Freeman/ Carly’s wife
Tom Tocafondi ¼ Son of Faith and Carly
Ron Tocafondi ¼ Tom’s half-brother, son of Faith and Uncle Pinky
Uncle Pinky ¼ a.k.a., Ronald (Ron) Diamond, farmhand/stock car driver
Aunt Jane ¼ married to Uncle Pinky
Jasmine ¼ a prostitute, Ron’s wife
Ginger ¼ a reformed prostitute, (a.k.a. Lila)
Tom’s wife
Secondary Characters
Burt Johnson – owner of Feed & Seed store
Jason Grover – pastor Blood of the Lamb Church
Beulah Grover – Pastor Grover’s wife
Genevieve Hurley – wealthy widow, Lila’s (Ginger’s) foster mother
Mario – Tom and Lila’s son
Hugo – Ron’s post marriage gay partner
Sid – wealthy customer of prostitute Ginger
First Sheriff – Al Nanni
Second Sheriff – Max Gelder
Rabbi Ricki – Rabbi at Tom and Lila’s wedding
Bowser – Ron’s Boxer/German Shepard dog
PROLOGUE
“The way it’s told, the curious genealogy of the Freeman and Tocafondii families goes like this. Freeman’s first:
“On or about August 2nd 1850, on his tobacco farm outside Hardinsburg, Kentucky, slave owner Hiram Marrow–five feet eleven, white male–after eating a hearty fried chicken supper, moseyed to and entered his slave’s log cabin. There, for the better part of an hour, he amused himself with his favorite slave, the one he had named Cela. Nine months later in the spring of 1851 a son was born to Celia and she named him Cato. Cato, chestnut skin of his mother, with Hiram Marrow’s facial features, grew to young manhood.
“Then, in 1866 the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution ratified, Celia along with fifteen-year-old Cato become free and assumed the surname Freeman.
“1876, twenty-five-year-old, Cato, relocated to Indianapolis, Indiana where he met a young woman, Jing Huang. After a brief intimate encounter, they married and had a son whom they name James.
“Twenty years later, 1896, twenty-year-old, James, married an Italian immigrant’s daughter, Theresa Natase and they had a son whom they named Thomas.
“In 1915, nineteen-year-old Thomas married a sixteen-year-old Dutch immigrant’s daughter–blond hair, blue eyes, one slightly crossed–Jill Nesbitt. In that same year, a daughter was born to Thomas and Jill. They named her Faith. She was petite with blonde hair, alluring green eyes, one eye ever so slightly crossed, her mother’s slender nose; shapely figure with large bust and curvaceous hips; her father’s full lips, and chestnut-colored skin. She was whispered by some, ‘Mulatto.’”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“The Tocafondi genealogy unfolds thusly:
“On or about April 2nd, 1899, Rosario Tocafondi owned a six-acre farm near Via Renato Guttuso, Sicily. On his farm he grew olive and citrus trees, tomatoes, and garlic. He also tended, holding to his belief that fertilized chicken eggs tasted best, twelve hens and one rooster. Along with the chickens, he kept one goat, one cow, and three pigs. Rosario, married to Maria DeAngelo, the couple had twelve children, eleven sons and one daughter. The youngest son, born April 2 1899, they named Bruno.
“Bruno, in 1920, at the age of 21 married his first cousin, nine years his senior, an opera student at the University of Catania, Josephine Canaletto. Josephine had studied in the United States and was proficient in several languages including English. Six months later a son was born to Bruno and Josephine. They named him Carly.
“As Carly grew older, Josephine (her dream to become an opera Prima Donna cut short due to the sperm infusion by Bruno) immersed Carly in everything opera. She also (because she knew of Bruno’s dream to move to America) tutored Bruno and Carly in the English language.
“Carly nine years old, in the spring of 1929 Bruno Tocafondi, yielding to a life time urge, declared to his wife Josephine, “È tempo o mai più di mettere in gioco il mio sogno americano.” (It’s time or never more to stake my American dream.)
“After a long harrowing voyage, Bruno arrived New York’s Ellis Island, U.S. June 25 1929, a form was dutifully filled out for Bruno. A copy was placed in the family scrapbook which reads:
United States of America
Immigration Form – Ellis Island
Date: June 25, 1929
Immigrant Port of Departure: Palermo
Date of Departure: June 10, 1929
Name of Ship: Baltic American Line
Name of Immigrant: Bruno Tocafondi
AGE: 30
Date of Birth: April 2, 1899
Last Residence: Sicily
Signature of immigrant: X
“Moving along, Bruno, after some time adjusting, all the while improving his English, received a tip about a farm job in the State of Indiana. Weaned on agriculture by his father, his interest peaked, and he inquired further. The Indiana farm, located ten miles west southwest of Indianapolis, at 4929 Gibbs Rd., was owned by widow, Thelda Kunkle. Her husband, Dorsey, killed in a farm accident and, the couple having no children, Thelda sought someone with experience to manage her 636-acre farm.
“Bruno (with assistance) wrote a letter of application to Thelda Kunkle noting his husbandry experience in Sicily. Shortly thereafter he received an offer of employment and in August of the same year that he had arrived in the United States, after a letter of acceptance to Thelda Kunkle, Bruno traveled to the State of Indiana to begin work on the Kunkle farm.
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BOOK ONE
CHAPTER 1
Bruno, dressed in brown overalls, white, long sleeve shirt, carrying a scuffed valise, stepped off a Trailways Bus that had stopped on a rural road in central Indiana. First thing he saw was a U.S. post office box with, on the side painted in white, RFD 4929 Gibbs Rd. He paused for a moment to look at the property–surrounded by a half dozen sycamore trees spaced here and there in a lush green yard and, a stone’s throw behind the mailbox, sat a two-story, painted white with green trim, farmhouse.
Walking to the farmhouse entrance, the front door opened and Widow Kunkle, with a caution smile, said, “You must be Bruno.”
“Si si, yes.”
Thelda welcomed Bruno in and after a brief chat, Bruno was given a tour of the four-bedroom farmhouse. Following the tour, the couple stepped outside and strolled past (painted the same green as the farmhouse) an outhouse. Paused a moment, Bruno smiled approval, “Molto bella.”
They then walked, located some distance beyond, to a red barn with attached silo and outbuildings. Bruno again smiled approval and they moved to a smaller lean-to in which was parked a John Deere tractor. Along with the tractor was a disc cultivator, manure spreader, harvester, and planter. A stroll beyond the barn, lead them to a bunk house where Thelda said, “This will be your living quarters.”
Bruno smiled, “Molto bene, si, signora.”
That evening, Bruno invited by Thelda to a chicken dinner, pleasantries were exchanged and Thelda explained, “Of our farm, 600 acres are tillable with woodland and brush making up the remained 36 acres. Traversing the sound end of the property is Crooked Creek, suitable for fishing, swimming, if you like.”
Bruno nodded, “I likea, mi piace molto.”
Thelda paused then went on, “Of the 600 acres tillable in a given year, we devote three hundred acres to corn with one hundred given to soy beans, roughly¼rotated every other year, two hundred or so acres, abiding the ‘good book,’ every seventh year we leave one or the other fallow, corn to soy beans, that is.”
Dinner finished, over rhubarb pie and coffee, Thelda shared a family tradition: “The Kunkles, going back more than a hundred or so years, so as to always be close to the land, don’t you know, have a plot of ground set aside for family burials¼it’s a field at the northeast corner¼ about a half-acre.”
The weeks progressing, Bruno, “Slaving like a mule,” after only a month, widow Kunkle impressed with his hard work, Italian accent, and gentle ways, provided living quarters for him in a spare bedroom of the main house. Bruno toiled (including chores for Thelda) many days twelve hours on the farm, six days a week. Soon thereafter, after he taught Thelda how to make Sicilian pasta meat sauce, he shared her bed.
CHAPTER 2
Feeling abandoned in Sicily, Josephine, eager to hear from Bruno, wrote letters to him imploring Come presto venire in America. Finally, after months of unanswered letters, waiting no longer, she arrived at the Kunkle farm with son Carly in tow.
Josephine, after quickly surmising the situation, not a month later, Widow Kunkle in good health, having no known illnesses, passed over in her sleep.
After a short funeral, Widow Kunkle was buried in the family plot of the farm beside her husband Dorsey.
A day after the funeral, Josephine, going through Thelda Kunkle’s things, found a newly penned will which bequeathed to Bruno the farm, house, everything.
Bruno, learning of the will, shut off for a week, soon thereafter, at the urging of Josephine, introduced thirteen chickens (twelve hens, one rooster), and three pigs to the farm. Josephine reminded Bruno to put the pig pen downwind of the farmhouse.
CHAPTER 3
Some years later – circa 1931
Inheritance
BRUNO TOCAFONDI sits on the front porch of the KUNKLE (now TOCAFONDI) farmhouse, his arm around his son, CARLY’S shoulder, they look out over the farmland.
BRUNO: Somaday, my son, this all be a yous. Youa be a signora of the land, a contadino barra del terreno
CARLY: But Papa, I don’t want to be a farmer; I want to be an opera singer. Muma wants me to be an opera singer.
BRUNO: Oh my a son, what’s a matter for you, be opera singer. You can a no even singa happy birthday, carry the tunes.
CARLY: But Papa, I can learn, Mama said so, I’ll go to school.
BRUNO: Carly, Carly, Carly, I tella you a thing, never forget–you cana no learna carry the tune, tunes a either in you or is a no.
(JOSEPHINE opens the screen door and steps from inside the farmhouse onto the porch)
CARLY: (running to her) Muma! Muma! Papa says I can’t be an opera singer. Ohooooo Muma.
JOSEPHINE: (wrapping arms around her son, evil eye on BRUNO) We a seea mya little bambino. We a seea. Noa you worry.
CHAPTER 4
Years later – circa 1933
The Interview
After a long and hard spring planting, son CARLY more interested in helping JOSEPHINE cook than farming, BRUNO interviews PINKY DIAMOND–Short diminutive man, kinky red hair, freckled white skin, blue eyes–for a job as farm hand.
BRUNO: Whatsa you name?
PINKY: Ron Diamond, most call me Pinky.
BRUNO: Whatsa that Pink?
PINKY: (pointing to his kinky red hair) That’s my handle.
BRUNO: Wherea you from?
PINKY: Terre Haute originally but I grew up in Indy.
BRUNO: Whatsa Indy?
PINKY: Indianapolis.
BRUNO: Wherea you work?
PINKY: Shucks, all over.
BRUNO: Yeah.
PINKY: Yeah.
BRUNO: Whata you do?
PINKY: Just about anything.
BRUNO: Youa marry?
PINKY: Yep, Jane (winks) part Swed and part Shawnee.
BRUNO: Whata Swed?
PINKY: Swed, Swiss.
BRUNO: Likea da cheese?
PINKY: No no, Switzerland.
BRUNO: Whatsa that other?
PINKY: Shawnee.
BRUNO: Whatsa that?
PINKY: Indian, you know, pow wow, wampum, red skin, from round these parts.
BRUNO: Like that Cochise?
PINKY: Yep.
BRUNO: Her maka da sauce?
PINKY: Who?
BRUNO: You wife.
PINKY: What sauce?
BRUNO: Pasta, you put on.
PINKY: Oh, sure.
BRUNO: Gotta any bambino?
PINKY: What’s that?
BRUNO: Kids.
PINKY: No kids, but I got a stock car, race around dirt tracks, county fairs and stuff.
BRUNO: No shootin¼ you kina small, young, work on farm, gotta sfere di acciaio?
PINKY: What’s that?
BRUNO: (grabbing his crotch) Balls.
PINKY: (smiling) Damn tootin, big ones.
The interview concluded, Pinky hired on the spot, with Bruno’s permission, towed (behind his green Studebaker pickup truck) his one-bedroom Airstream trailer and parked it on a piece of land next to the farm bunk house. Bruno also allowed Pinky to park his pink 1930 Studebaker stock car (# 37) in the main barn.
Pinky soon becomes known around the farm as Uncle Pinky. Pinky’s wife, Jane–six feet tall, medium build, pimply complexion–is affectionately called Aunt Jane. From the first day she begins helping Josephine with household choirs, cleaning, cooking, washing clothes.
Pinky’s farm work marginal, his first love racing stock cars, every chance, he takes off to race his #37 Studebaker on dirt tracks at county fairs. Known around race tracks for his quick temper and aggressive fish-tail driving, his nickname is Fish. His dream is to one day win the Ind 500. Most annoying to Bruno, when plowing fields Pinky hot-rods the farm tractor which results in crooked furrows
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