The Buzz Boys

Edward Izzi

Description

Chicago Attorney Robert Mazzara has just been informed of the suicide death of his childhood friend, Marco Pezza. The two of them grew up together in a small suburb in Chicago during the turbulent sixties and seventies, when the issues of household violence were seldom ever addressed. Along with their best friends, Petey Rodriguez, Billy Kozar and Johnny Orozco, they all experienced the coming-of-age events that all young boys go through during grade school and high school, with one exception: They were all survivors of severe physical and sexual child abuse. As they all grow up into young adults, the demons of their past, along with their abusive fathers, play a significant part on each and every one of their young lives. They all grow up coping with their horrific childhoods, their violent fathers, and the long-term impact it has taken throughout their adulthood. Mazzara reflects on all of the tragic encounters and events that occurred during the last fifty years, culminating with his best friend's suicide. He realizes that he is now...the only one left. Once upon a time, a long time ago, Robby and Marco, along with Petey, Billy and Johnny...were once called 'The Buzz Boys'.

Sujets

• Policier & Thriller
• Thriller
• Psychological
• Thrillers
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: eBookIt.com
• Date de parution: 26 juin 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9798744833398
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

The
Buzz
Boys
 
A Novel
 
 
By
Edward Izzi
 
 
 
 
The Buzz Boys
 
Copyright © 2021 by Cassino Publishing, Inc.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from the author.
 
ISBN 979-874-48333986
Contents
Author’s Disclaimer
About the Author
CHAPTER ONE
The Dante Alighieri Club – October 2019
CHAPTER TWO
A Successful Attorney
CHAPTER THREE
Cortland Avenue - 1965
CHAPTER FOUR
The Playground – 1966
CHAPTER FIVE
Grandparent’s Death - 1967
CHAPTER SIX
Undrinkable Garbage - 1969
CHAPTER SEVEN
Grade School Fight - 1970
CHAPTER EIGHT
The Suzie-Q
CHAPTER NINE
Marco’s Childhood - 1971
CHAPTER TEN
The Baseball Team-1972
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Praying For Karma - 1973
CHAPTER TWELVE
Marco’s Little Sister- 1973
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Shop Class - 1975
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The Junior Prom - 1976
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Senior Year -1977
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Loss of A Brother - 1978
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
A Fishing Trip - 1983
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Top of the Hancock - 1988
CHAPTER NINETEEN
You’re Superman
CHAPTER TWENTY
A Grand Wedding - 1989
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Starting A Family - 1990
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Cook County Jail - 1991
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Murder One
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
A Murder Trial-1992
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
A Jail Cell Murder-1994
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
The Death of Elvis - 1999
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
My Father’s Death - 2004
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Dr. John Orozco - 2005
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
A Lonely Funeral-2007
CHAPTER THIRTY
Death of an Angel - 2010
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
The Sandbar Inn- Summer, 2010
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
The Ludington Lighthouse – Summer 2010
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Sixtieth Birthday- July 2019
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Funeral for A Friend -October 2019
CHAPTER-THIRTY-FIVE
Auld Lang Syne- New Year’s Eve, 2019
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Winning Demons
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Dressed For a Funeral -January 2020
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
A Buzz Boy Forever-February 2020
MORE GREAT BOOKS BY CRIME NOVELIST EDWARD IZZI:
 
 
 
 
 
Author’s Disclaimer
 
This book, “ The Buzz Boys, ” is a complete work of fiction. All names, characters, businesses, places, events, references, and incidents are either the products of the author ’ s imagination or used in a fictitious manner to tell the story. Any references to real-life characters or incidents are used purely as a fictional means of reciting a narrative for enjoyment purposes only.
The author makes no claims of any real-life inferences or actual events other than to recite a fabricated story with a fictitious plot. Any resemblance to natural persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental or used for entertainment purposes.

About the Author
Edward Izzi is a native of Detroit, Michigan, and is a Certified Public Accountant with a successful accounting firm in suburban Chicago, Illinois. He is the father of four grown children and one all-too grown-up granddaughter, Brianna.

He currently lives in Chicago and will always be a ‘ Buzz Boy. ’
 
For Ernest Izzi

My uncle, my ‘ big brother ’ and my best friend.
For a Buzz Boy, who never lost faith.
Thanks for your unconditional love.
 
You are forever missed.
 
“Quando arrivano i demoni, la morte segue sempre.”
 
When the demons come, death always follows.
 
A Roman Proverb.
 
CHAPTER ONE
The Dante Alighieri Club – October 2019
 
It was a warm, autumn evening at the Dante Alighieri Club as several older men played in an intense bocce ball tournament. The club in Franklin Park had several bocce courts with tournament-style courtyards that were ideal for bocce contests. There were four long bocce courts that were thirteen feet wide and one hundred feet long, following bocce ball legal court dimensions.
The older men who usually played there had promptly begun their tournament at five o ’ clock. Each team was starting out by throwing out the little ball, or the yellow ‘ piccola palla ’ out in the middle of the bocce court, with the red and green balls trying to throw and get closest to the little ball. Each bocce ball is 4.2 inches in diameter and 5.5 ounces each, and the bocce balls are uniquely made with an indented strip around each ball to assist the player with their grip.
One of those men playing was an eighty-three-year-old, retired Local 150 equipment operator who lived in Elmwood Park, a suburb of Chicago not far from the bocce club.
Vincenzo ‘ Papa Enzo ’ Pezza was pretty proficient at playing bocce, having started playing as a young boy in Altavilla Milicia, a coastal town about a half-hour south of Palermo, Sicily.
At the age of eighty-three, one would say that Pezza looked great for his age. Besides playing bocce with his friends four times a week, he played cards a few times a week at the local Italian social club on Diversey Avenue. Pezza was also very fit for his age, walking seven miles every day around his neighborhood at 6:00 am every morning. Other than high cholesterol medication, he was extremely healthy. When the weather was inclement, he had a membership to the local park district at Elmwood Park, where he did his exercise on a treadmill. For an older man, he was in good shape. At five feet, six inches tall, he was a lean 150 pounds and still had a full head of white, gray hair. At first glance, one would think that he was in his early sixties, and he prided himself on his seasoned good looks.
‘ Papa Enzo ’ Pezza was a widower and had three adult children whom he was estranged with for one reason or the other. He had a daughter and two sons that he hadn ’ t spoken with for several years. Enzo had his selfish motives.
They were always asking him for money , he always said. They were always accusing him of one reason or another of making their lives extremely uncomfortable.
It was no secret that Papa Enzo was not a kind, loving father and husband to his family. He was a difficult man to understand and get along with, and everyone at the bocce club was very familiar with his loud, ferocious temper. Pezza was highly opinionated and very judgmental. He took issue with everyone who had a different belief, whether it was sports, religion, or politics.
He played bocce with three of his ‘ paesani, ’ and after several hours of intense play, finished the tournament in third place. Papa Enzo hung around with his friends at the bar inside the club, enjoying a few more Peroni beers until almost ten o ’ clock. He then said goodbye to his friends and walked outside of the club to his car in the parking lot.
As he remotely unlocked his older model Buick Skylark, he heard a familiar voice calling him.
“ Pop, ” the voice shouted.
It was his estranged son, Marco, calling him from behind.
Marco and his father had not talked to one another in several years for different reasons, and Papa Enzo was rather shocked to suddenly see him in the parking lot of the Dante Alighieri Club.
“ Marco? ” the old man surprisingly said.
“ What are you doing here? ”
“ Get into the car, Pop. We need to talk. ”
Papa Enzo looked at his son for several long moments, wondering what it was that his son wanted at such a late hour. He had always asked him for money in the past.
The two of them then got into his Buick, with the old man sitting in the driver ’ s seat and his son Marco sitting directly behind him in the back seat of the car.
“ If you ’ re here to ask me for money again, my answer to you will never change. The answer is still no, ” Papa Enzo defiantly said in a stern voice.
Enzo spoke with a slight Italian accent but made his point very clear to his oldest son, who had asked him for money several times before. Marco ’ s lifetime troubles, tormented upbringing, and psychological issues had all come to a head-on that evening. Marco Pezza was a very angry man who had come to the end of his proverbial rope.
“ Why are you sitting in the back seat, ” he asked his son.
Marco didn ’ t say a word to his father at that moment. He grabbed his father ’ s keys away from him, making sure that the two of them were locked inside. He then took out his Apple iPhone and dialed 9-1-1.
“ Franklin Park Police, ” the dispatcher answered.
“ Yes … I would like to report a double murder, please. ”
A silent moment.
“ There are two dead bodies inside of a Buick Skylark, mine and my father ’ s, parked on the north side of the parking lot of the Dante Alighieri Club. Thank you. ”
Marco then abruptly pushed the ‘ End ’ button of his Apple iPhone.
Papa Enzo was still confused, trying to look over his shoulder to his oldest son, sitting in the back seat. The old man was almost incoherent, not understanding what was about to happen. At that moment, Marco withdrew his 9mm Beretta 92 pistol and jammed it hard against his father ’ s head.
“ For all the times you beat up Anthony and Rosaria, for all the times you beat up Mom, driving her to her death … . ” Marco loudly exclaimed.
“ You made her crazy, Pop. You made her sick. You fucking killed her! ” he loudly accused his estranged father.
“ What the hell are you talking about, ” the old man loudly protested.
“ For all the times you made me bleed, for every black eye, every welt across my back, for every belt beating you ever gave me …”
The old Sicilian just sat there, silent.
“ For all the fucking times you pulled my pants down and fucking molested me when I was a little boy, years ago when Mom wasn ’ t home …”
Another silent moment.
“ For the time that you fucking raped Rosaria when she was a little girl …”
“ For every time that you fucking made us cry …”
Papa Enzo was now shaking, and he began to urinate all over himself in the front seat of his car.
“ I ’ m now going to send you where you fucking belong, you rotten bastard. ”
“ For ruining my fucking life … I have dreamed of splattering your fu