James F. Celestino

Life is a Tightrope James F. Celestino

The call came in at 3:30 in the afternoon. Three blocks away in the poor section of Little Italy was a very sick man covered with blood, barely conscious and with three gaping holes in his body. The Doctor arrived with his ten year-old nephew Henry, who sat in the kitchen while his uncle examined the patient. The holes were bullet holes and the man's wife refused to call the police or an ambulance. The doctor, who at one time had wanted to become a priest, had a dilemma. To refuse to treat the patient would result in the man's death. The wife offered the Doctor a deal. Henry received his first lesson in dirty politics.