Dante surprised me today when he asked if I wanted to meet his dad. I know his dad is locked up in prison two hours away from here. I spoke to the man for a brief moment on the phone once. He sounds nice enough. Maybe a little intimidating.
Or maybe I'm intimidated because the thought of walking into a prison frightens me a little bit. I don't know what exactly I fear. I know they don't let inmates roam around freely, so I doubt I'm in danger. Then again, didn't Dante get stabbed because the prison system was paid off to do a 'hit' or whatever the heck it is.
Maybe I just feel out of my element the same way I had when I first agreed to work at a gentlemen's club. I remember being scared to even meet the dancers because I didn't know what to expect. I was embarrassed in my own way.
Still, I thought it was nice that Dante wanted me to know his father. Dante is honestly my best friend now, and I know he wishes I could have met his brother, which I can't. And I know his mother is never around. Really, all he has is his father and even he is mostly unavailable to him.
I decided I wanted to meet the man who is so important to my best friend. I'm nervous about how things work inside the prison, but on our two hour drive up there I had Dante explain it to me.
I definitely felt a little better knowing we wouldn't be going into a common area where other visitors are there to see their loved ones locked away. We would be isolated which helps ease some of my nerves.
I thought of the most silly things when deciding I would go. I asked Dante what one wears to jail. He found that to be very funny. He told me, "Well, pops is gonna be in a jumpsuit, so you don't have to get fancy on his behalf."
I guess it is a silly question. I do like making good first impressions though, so I put thought into my appearance.
"You know, my brother and I used to take this long drive up to see our dad so many times when he first got pinched. Dario always had his music blaring" Dante glanced between me and the road when he started speaking of his brother. "What kind of music? Let's put some on" I encouraged him.
He laughed and I didn't know why until he said, "It's rap music, Kitten. I highly doubt you'll approve." I shrugged, "I know some rap." His head did a double take.
"I doubt it's what Dario used to listen to" he chuckled again. "Oh hush, put something on. Go ahead" I waved for him to grab his phone.
He connects it to the bluetooth in his car to play his music. Dante swiped a hand down his face to hide his smirk, but he agreed and told me to pull up a specific playlist he has. It's actually labeled as 'Dario' which tugged at my heart strings.
"Shuffle something. Doesn't matter" he waved for me to press play. When I did, Dante made sure to switch the volume up. He started rolling down all the windows, which started to whip my hair around. I squealed and tried holding it in place, but gave up after a second and just laughed when my hair started to fly wildly with the force of the wind.
"Remember this music was from 5+ years ago" Dante shouted over the start of the song. That's about how long Dario passed away. 5 years ago. Dante was only 23 years old and Dario was 25 years old when he was killed.
When the beat started up the car was already filled with base. It was the kind of beat that actually makes you bob along. I had no idea what the song was or who sang it, but it was fun watching Dante start rapping along and doing little hand gestures like the gangster he really is. When it got to a specific part Dante started shoving me along to the beat singing,
"Take it easy, baby, middle of summer, I'm freezin', baby.
Don't leave me, baby,
Just drop to your knees and please me, baby.."
I stuck my hand out of the window and let it follow the natural wave of the fast moving air, since Dante was cruising quickly down this long highway. I could totally imagine Dante and Dario in this exact moment five years ago, with this exact song. I was having fun living in this memory with him.
"You get the bag and fumble it,
I get the bag and flip it and tumble it (yeah)
Straight out the lot, 300 cash,
And the car came with a blunt in it (yeah)
Lil mama a thot, and she got ass,
And she gon' fuck up a bag,
Pull up to the spot, livin' too fast (yeah)
Droppin' the dope in the stash."
A realization came over me while I watched Dante really rap out the lyrics. "Oh my gosh...this is your actual life" I laughed. Flipping drugs, making money, hooking up with hot girls...no wonder why they love it. Guns and money...Dante earned the right to sing these songs. He's actually a gangster. He's a 'Made man'.
-
Dante told me to leave all my belongings in the car aside from my ID. I was starting to get nervous again. I had almost forgotten why I was in the car in the first place, after I started having fun with the music on the drive up.
Now that I see the tall wired fences and barred windows I remember. You can't even walk inside until you've been through a metal detector and searched if need be. You go to a window and give your ID to sign in. Already the faded colored cinder block walls feel dreary. There are a few rows of seating like a waiting room and there are people from all walks of life who occupy them.
Family, friends, loved ones all here to see someone special to them who's behind bars, and for how long...it varies. For Dante this is his forever life. His father will never be freed. I can't imagine.
I felt Dante's hand come down on my shoulder in a silent reassurance that I'm alright. I guess I must have been wearing a worried expression of some kind. My eyes had been darting around taking in everything. Seeing the small children and infants in their mothers arms, it broke my heart. I motioned to go sit down and wait, but Dante's hand redirected me.
"We don't wait" was all he said about that. Special treatment I guess. I should have known. It's the same reason why we don't have to go into the general visitors area.
We were ushered into a small room where the barred door shut behind us. You wait a moment until a buzzer sounds and the other set of doors open for you. There are guards everywhere, of course. One of the guards seemed to know Dante already. He nodded to him and shifted his eyes down to see who I was.
I felt them linger on me, but when Dante stepped forward it was like the man snapped out of it, and quickly escorted us to a private room.
The anticipation was building inside me. I'm so curious to meet this man. When the door opened I could see someone was already inside. Dante stepped in first, but waved for me to come in after him. The door shut behind us, but no guard was inside.
My eyes settled on a man in a beige jumpsuit. His hair was combed back and honestly he instantly reminded me of Dante, only older and slightly heftier. When he stood I saw they were the same height too. A grin split across the man's face and it's somewhat crooked just like his sons. It's uncanny.
"Well, well, who do we have here?" The man stepped forward to greet me. It's silly to fear the man, but subconsciously I was a bit skittish with knowing I was about to shake hands with a known, arrested, and prosecuted criminal.
I know there were lingering murder charges on Mario Revello, but then again, I've come to realize all of us have blood on our hands. So who am I to fear him?
"Um, hello, Mr. Revello. I'm Kat" I introduced myself. Recognition came over his face by the name. We spoke on the phone not so long ago. "Kat, hello, call me Mario, sweetheart. This is a nice surprise" his dark eyes shifted up to his son.
"Yeah, I figured Kitten could keep me company on the ride up, and come meet ya, pops" Dante stepped forward and shook hands with his father too. Not a hugger, I suppose.
I wish he was though. It would be nice to have father and son embrace. I like to see Dante being loved. I don't think he's seen enough of it in his lifetime.
When Dante told me to go ahead and sit down I saw Mario take a thin comb out of his pocket. He swiped his hair back really quickly. Mario plopped in the chair across from us and leaned back the way his son was doing right beside me.
"Business or pleasure?" Mario asked his son. I side eyed him to see his answer to that. I knew the answer was both when Dante switched over to Italian. That always means they don't want me to understand what they're saying.
Still I watched the two of them interact to see if I could pick up on any social cues. I can read expressions and sometimes I piece things together. Mostly, I just know there's something going on or else they wouldn't care if I overheard. That makes me nervous.
Did Dante even want me to meet his father or was this a means to some end? I wanted to ask, but maybe not in front of Mr. Revello. My attention went to him when I saw he suddenly looked angry. He snorted and shook his head about something.
When his eyes shifted to me just after I almost wondered if this was about me? Not me, but about my neighbor Rylee. Last I heard about him, Dante told me to leave things alone for now. Then again, what would Mario Revello have to do with that? It's probably about something else. I'm just reaching.
Both men cleared their throats and smoothed themselves over to indicate their side discussion was probably over. Sure enough, Mario turned his attention towards me and gave me his crooked grin again. Interesting.
"So, you're Renzo's girl, huh?" He put two and two together. He first knew me as Dante's friend, but then he was told I was also in connection with Renzo. Am I his girlfriend though? I looked at Dante who pressed his lips together. I wasn't about to expose my drama with Renzo to his uncle, so I said, "Yes."
"How'd that crazy bastard snag such a sweetheart?" He chuckled at the dig at his nephew. "Long story" I muttered to myself, which got him to laugh again. "We're lucky to have Kitten. She isn't in the Life, so it was a, uh, shock to her" Dante rubbed his neck while recalling that unstable time in all our relationships.
"We aren't so bad" Mario waved it off as nothing. He's in prison for life...not so bad?
Mario Revello started asking me innocent questions to get to know me a little bit. Simple things like where I was from, about my family, and how I ended up meeting his son. The first time I saw Dante was the night that disgusting man masturbated in front of me when I was asked to be a shot girl at the gentlemen's club.
He was in Renzo's office when Renzo beat the crap out of the man and dragged me upstairs. Renzo had been so furious, but Rocco and Dante kept out of it. After that it was minor encounters like when he drove me and Val to the emergency room, when he bought me groceries that Renzo sent him to get.
I don't know when we got so close, but we did, and rather quickly.
When there was a knock on the door behind us I guess that was the signal that time was up. The room we'd been in this whole time was so plain. White cinder block walls, the table, and ugly orange plastic chairs. One round clock was high up on the wall and a camera in the corner. That's it. "It's time to go, Kitten" Dante stood and helped me pull out my chair.
Mario stood with us and gave me a hug this time which surprised me. "Nice meeting you, honey. You're a good girl. I can tell. Take care of my boy, will ya?" He asked me. I nodded with confidence that I would.
When father and son came together to say goodbye his father just patted Dante on the back. "Put flowers down for your brother, will ya?" He asked him. "Will do, pops" Dante nodded like this was commonplace.
That's one thing I've never done with Dante before. He's never mentioned his brother's grave to me. How often does he visit? I don't know. But something tells me that he does it pretty often.