The Godfather

 “The Godfather” By Mario Puzo
 
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forbidden to take food from midnight on before receiving Holy Communion. That had 
been a long time ago, but Mama Corleone never trusted her after that and always 
checked. “You feel all right?” the old woman asked. 
“Yes,” Kay said. 
The church was small and desolate in the early morning sunlight. Its stained-glass 
windows shielded the interior from heat, it would be cool there, a place to rest. Kay 
helped her mother-in-law up the white stone steps and then let her go before her. The 
old woman preferred a pew up front, close to the altar. Kay waited on the steps for an 
extra minute. She was always reluctant at this last moment, always a little fearful. 
Finally she entered the cool darkness. She took the holy water on her fingertips and 
made the sign of the cross, fleetingly touched her wet fingertips to her parched lips. 
Candles flickered redly before the saints, the Christ on his cross. Kay genuflected before 
entering her row and then knelt on the hard wooden rail of the pew to wait for her call to 
Communion. She bowed her head as if she were praying, but she was not quite ready 
for that. 
* * *
It was only here in these dim, vaulted churches that she allowed herself to think about 
her husband’s other life. About that terrible night a year ago when he had deliberately 
used all their trust and love in each other to make her believe his lie that he had not 
killed his sister’s husband. 
She had left him because of that lie, not because of the deed. The next morning she had 
taken the children away with her to her parents’ house in New Hampshire. Without a 
word to anyone, without really knowing what action she meant to take. Michael had 
immediately understood. He had called her the first day and then left her alone. It was a 
week before the limousine from New York pulled up in front of her house with Tom 
Hagen. 
She had spent a long terrible afternoon with Tom Hagen, the most terrible afternoon of 
her life. They had gone for a walk in the woods outside her little town and Hagen had 
not been gentle. 
Kay had made the mistake of trying to be cruelly flippant, a role to which she was not 
suited. “Did Mike send you up here to threaten me?” she asked. “I expected to see 
some of the ‘boys’ get out of the car with their machine guns to make me go back.” 

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