Leah pressed her palms together. “I asked Reese to make one, and he’s bringing it over later this afternoon. I’m certain Derrick will read me the riot after everyone leaves, but it will be worth it, because he’s not going to tell Reese to take it back.”
Cherie felt her stomach muscles tighten when Leah mentioned Reese’s name. This was the first time she was hearing that he’d been invited to come to Derrick’s house. But she shouldn’t be surprised, she realized, because, after all, they’d known him a lot longer than she had. Well, it looked as if her mother would meet Reese sooner than she’d planned.
* * *
The movie ended two hours later, and Cherie watched the reactions of her book club friends and was shocked to see that both were moved by the death of the Zoe Saldana character.
“Why did Graciela have to die?” Leah asked, sniffling as she pressed a tissue to her nose.
“I asked myself the same question,” Cherie said, “but I think it was because Joe Coughlin had to pay for his many sins.”
“Have you read the book?” Kayana questioned.
Cherie nodded. “Yes. And it reads like the movie.”
“What I don’t understand, Cherie,” Edwina said, “is why did Joe Coughlin call himself an outlaw rather than a gangster, because his behavior demonstrated he was indeed a gangster.”
“I think he believes he’s someone who lives outside the law or legal system, while a gangster is more a mobster and will commit a crime because he’s been ordered to do so. Jesse James, John Dillinger, and Bonnie and Clyde were outlaws, while Al Capone and John Gotti were gangsters.”
“I think it accurately portrayed race relations in the South during Prohibition, with the KKK’s resentment of Joe Coughlin living with a black woman,” Edwina remarked.
Leah nodded. “You’re right about that, Edwina. But what the writer did was portray all races equally as villains in the film. You had the Irish and Italian mobs, and the KKK. The police chief with the drug-addicted daughter turned evangelist was crooked, and the Cubans in Ybor were running speakeasies and selling illegal booze. Even the Boston police were on the take. And don’t forget Emma Gould, who was supposed to be Albert White’s girl while she was sleeping with Joe and then betrayed him.”
“She only betrayed him once Albert White discovered she was two-timing him,” Cherie explained.
Edwina shook her head. “I have to disagree with you, Cherie. Albert White knew Emma was sleeping with Joe all along. He was just waiting for a time to exact revenge. He planned to take Joe somewhere and kill him when Joe’s father and the police showed up. Of course, his father had to step aside and allow the police to beat him because he’d been involved in a bank robbery where they’d lost one of their own. And then later in the movie, when Joe discovers Emma isn’t dead, she tells him that Albert had put out a hit on her, but she managed to escape and flee to Florida. And although he was married to Graciela, I think he was really crushed when Emma told him that she’d never loved him, that he was just someone with whom to pass the time.”
“The male ego can be very fragile,” Leah drawled. “And I’m speaking from experience. Joe was so caught up with her so-called passion that he let the other, wrong head think for him. Sneaking around and making love in out-of-the-way places was heady for Joe when he knew he was sleeping with a gangster’s woman.”
“You’re right, Leah,” Cherie said. “He got what was coming to him when the cops cracked his head open to the white meat and then was sentenced to serve time in prison.”
Kayana laughed along with everyone at Cherie’s reference to white meat. “What’s the expression? A hard head makes for a soft behind. It was obvious Joe didn’t learn his lesson after he was paroled because he went from being an outlaw to a gangster. If I’d taught a course on deviant behavior, I would consider using this film.”
“Have you thought about teaching online courses?” Cherie asked Kayana.
“No. Number one, I don’t have the time, and secondly, I’m enjoying my life because it comes with so few responsibilities. I know what I have to do at the café, and when I come home, I get to enjoy my downtime with my husband.”
“It sounds as if you’re living the dream,” Cherie said.
“Right now, it feels as if I am. I don’t know why the critics panned the movie because it’s beautifully shot and in all probability is historically accurate.”
Cherie shared a smile with Kayana. “You’re right. Following the Great War, there were Irish, Italian, and Jewish gangs all vying for power and money. Which of the characters did you like best and least?”
“I liked Dion Bartolo,” Edwina stated, “because he had an infectious swagger that made you want to like him even though he was a cold-blooded killer.”
“I have to agree with your mother,” Kayana said. “It was hard to take your eyes off Dion because you never knew how he was going to react. I thought the character of Digger Pescatore was the opposite of his mobbed-up father, Maso Pescatore. He was silly, tried too hard to come across as tough, and failed miserably. Maso knew his boy was a joke, and that’s why they called him Digger; the only thing he was good for was digging graves to bury their enemies.”
Leah pushed her wavy hair behind one ear. “I liked Graciela. She was the only one in the film who came close to possessing a redeeming quality. She knew her brother and Joe had amassed their wealth illegally, yet she wanted to use the money to set up homes for abandoned women and children.”
“But isn’t it ironic that she was the only one doing good deeds, and she had to die?” Cherie asked. “Meanwhile, the man she’d married was an outright killer and the one responsible for turning the chief’s daughter on to heroin when she went to Hollywood for her screen test, in order to blackmail her father into lending his support for him to put up a casino. He lives to raise their son, while his wife is shot to death by the very man he’d blackmailed.”
“That’s called karma, Cherie,” Leah said with a wide grin. “What goes around comes around. I’m glad you recommended this film because I can’t wait to read the book. I know we could go on for hours critiquing it, but I think I smell grilling meat, so I suggest we close this meeting and eat.”
* * *
Cherie returned to the house to find Graeme, Derrick, and Reese in the family room watching a basketball game. Reese stood, along with the other two men. She saw him staring at her mother.
Reaching for Edwina’s hand, she waited for Reese’s approach. “Mom, this the man I’ve been telling you about. Reese, my mother, Edwina Thompson.”
