Castigleone didn’t like to be called fat. 

 

Problem being there wasn’t many way around callin him fat.  Face the truth, wasn’t many ways around Castigleone.  Boy was big.  Hefty.  Rotund (which is another way of sayin fat without sayin fat).  Castigleone coming down the sidewalk, you bet he cleared a ton of space for hisself.  Don’t got to ask people to make way, they just do.  Got no choice.  Only other option bein that you stand your ground and Castigleone tromps over you and you end up an extra large wad of sticky somethin or other on the sidewalk that gonna adhere (mean stick to somethin) to the bottom of some fella or gal’s shoe.

 

Castigleone didn’t like to be called fat.

 

But I am here to tell you somethin, that boy was fat and there ain’t no two ways or nevermind about it. 

 

Fat.

 

An under that fat, he strong.

 

All that jello shakin all over the boy, that just hidin what he got underneath.  You could render that fat away (render means, in this context, like to melt somethin) (by the by, context means within the terms of which we are discussin at the moment.  Cuz render can mean other things in a different context and I don’t want to confuse no one.), so if you could render that fat away, what you’d get left over would look like a bull standin up on its hind legs like a well-trained dog. 

 

But all them muscles, they got Castigleone in trouble.

 

Time was, when he was a mite (mite is like a tiny insect kind of a thing), he didn’t have no fat on him at all.  An the thing to remember is, when I say he was a mite, I don’t mean his bigness, I mean his age.  He was plenty young, barely up to tyin his own shoe laces age, but he was already the kind of a boy who cast a shadow down the ground before him.  Case a shadow like you get when it’s early mornin or late afternoon and you turn your back to the sun and see how it stretches out ahead of you.  Imagine what it’ll be like when you all grown up, to be that tall.

 

Well Castigleone, he didn’t have to wait.  He was already as tall as that shadow, an the one he was castin was taller than any adult you know. 

 

A boy that size, wearin overalls, got a runny nose, draggin a stuffed penguin around with him everywhere he’s goin, well you just know he’s gonna draw hisself some bad trouble.

 

Some kinds of people, they ain’t happing in theys ownself. 

 

True.

 

Hard to see it, but that is truth.  People like that, they always lookin for reasons outside theys ownselves for why they ain’t happy on theys own.  Figure it got to be someone’s fault. 

 

Take offense at the drop of a hat a person like that.  Go around lookin for what it is makin them not happy.  Look around this world, spoilin for a fight with whoever it is they think responsible.

 

Castigleone, him an that penguin of his, they just catnip to people like that. (Catnip, it’s a flowering plant that a scientist would call Nepeta.  Part of a family it is, family called Lamiaceae.  Take some of that Nepeta and let a cat get at it an that cat gonna go wild and roll around an drool maybe and meow and want some more.  Then it gonna get bored and wander away till some time passes. Then it gonna go crazy all over again.)  So these people I’m talking about, that’s about how they behaved when they got sight of Castigleone.

 

Little boy, who ain’t little at all, so big people think he at least a teenager, build like a bull, with a stuffed penguin and a gapin grin on his face, mouth still full of baby teeth.

 

An here they comes, the bullies.  Fellas so unhappy in theys ownselves, they got to push someone else around to feel happy.  See Catigleone, his bigness, those muscles, it like an affront to theys unhappiness (affront is like an insult.)

 

So they start in, makin fun. 

 

“Wipe that snot offa your lip, boy.”

“Where you get them clothes, boy, the poor box?”

“What that you draggin, boy, that a teddy bear?  You too old for teddy bears.”

 

Castigleone, he don’t understand half of it.  But he get the tone.   Sound of those voices, he know theys givin him the business.  An bein a little boy, it plain upsets him.  Gets the tears to flowin.  Blubberin is what the child gets up to.  Cryin on the sidewalk.

 

Well, you talking catnip, that is some catnip for these fellas.  A big guy cryin, that’s about as much fun as theys can imagine.

 

Start circlin Castigleone.

 

“Crybaby.”

“What you cryin over, boy, you wet your pants?”

“Where’s your mama, boy, she gonna wipe your nose for you?”

“Hey, boy, gimme that!”

 

Oops, that a mistake that fella made, grabbin that penguin out from Castiglenoe’s hand.

 

Boy stops cryin.  Boy opens his mouth wide.  Boy pulls his arm back as far as he can.  And he swings it forward at the fella what took his penguin from him.

 

Heard people talk about someone goin all raggedy doll?  Means they fall jumbly on the ground without they got no nothin to hold them up.  Raggedy doll, it got no bones inside what to give it stiffness.  This fella what grabbed Castigleone’s stuffed penguin, he don’t go raggedy doll all at once.  What he do is fly through the air a ways, sail across the sidewalk, looks like he’s struggin against somethin as he fly, his arms an legs all kicky and swingy, like he don’t know yet how the ground got knocked out from under his feet.  Then he hit a wall.  A brick wall.  It had been a wood wall, a fence say, things might have turned out better for that fella.  He maybe would have just broke this an that.  Or probably not.  He might have broke a few less part, but he probably end up just the same way.  Way is was, the wall was brick.  He hit that wall, that’s when he went rageddy doll.

 

Sound was like a wet crunch.  Which is kinda like one of them paradoxes I explained to you before.  Wet crunch.  Things splattin an breakin at the same time.

 

He hit that wall high up, an then he flop all boneless onto the ground.

 

Them other fellas, ones was makin theysselves feel better bout things by pickin on Castigleone, they get lost in a hurry.

 

Castigleone, he don’t know what’s goin on.  He run over, grab up his penguin and hugs it to him.  Wipin snot an tears off on that poor sad ol penguin.  He don’t know what to make of that fella all raggedy doll an all.  He just stand there kickin at him an waitin for him to move.  Till some people come around and see the mess and starts to screamin.  Then he get scared an run on home.

 

Yep, there was some trouble.

 

Castigleone, he was bein raised up by his mom.  His dad was some fella she never knew to well.  Castigleone, when he was born, be was small and weak as a kitten.  She worried he might die of bein so small and fed him up. Fed him up an up an up.  Then she tried to stop feedin him up, but it didn’t seem to make no matter.  Whatever and however much she fed him, he got bigger.  Like sunlight and breathin an water was all it took to make that boy grow. Like he was a weed or somethin.

 

But now she was scared.  No of Castigleone, she loved that boy.  But she was scared what was gonna happed to him. 

 

So she did what she had to, an she sent him away.  Sent him away to her cousin in the city.  To live there, hidden in the city.  The only place where a boy that big might hide.  City is a place where ain’t no one gonna star at you, no matter who or what you may be.  People mind theys own business in the city.

 

So that’s where she sent her son.

 

Castigleone, he starts to think he done somethin wrong, somethin made his mom not love him no more.  Somethin bout the way he hurt that fella so bad.  He starts to hate how strong he is.  Hate them muscles.  He don’t want to look at em.  He don’t want people talkin about em.  He wants to hide em. 

 

So that’s what he does.

 

Boy starts eatin again.  Eats an eats.  Boy can grow on sun an air an water, an he’s eatin hotdogs an avocadoes (creamy green fruit that people think it a veggie because it’s green, but it’s got a pit which makes it a fruit) an cheese crackers an chick pot pie an asparagus (green veggie that makes you pee smell funny) an ossobuco an corn flakes an menudo (a spicy soup made from stomach from a pig or a cow or a goat or a sheep) an endive (like a kind of lettuce) an cheddar cheese an key lime pie an baba ghanoush (fancy mashed eggplant), an, his favorite, viccysoise (cold fish soup).

 

That when he get fat.  Though ain’t no one says it to him.

 

But that muscle, it don’t go away.  In fact, under all that fat, it gets stronger.  Haulin all that around?  Man, them muscles just gettin stronger an stronger.  That boy lost all that fat at once, he’d take one step on them strong legs that was used to carryin all that weight, and he’d just about lift off the ground, kick hisself into space, he would.

 

Truth.

 

So here’s Castigleone, which is what his name is in the Book of All Future Names, comin down the street, makin way, no one callin him fat, an he comes behind him his mom’s cousin, lettin Castigleone clear him a path. 

 

Cousin’s name is Bobo Link.

 

Uh-huh.  Startin to see it now, ain’t ya?  Things they come together a little if you wait.  Cuz trailin after Bobo is his two new apprentices, Munez Lautner and Petty Affair. 

 

We already know cuz I told you that Munez and Petty gonna someday be in the mob of Shadding Lyttle.  We already know cuz I told you that Storie Latier was already come to be the first of Shad’s mob.  An now let me tell you that the last of Shad’s mob was gonna be Castigleone. 

 

But what about Necrotic Culver an all that? 

 

An how does four plus Shad make up a mob when a mob is supposed to be a whole mess of people?

 

Let me tell you now, I just got them all in one place an introduced to you, so hang back an give some room an let me take a breath an we get down into what happened an got on caused all the trouble round here.

 

Truth.

 

-c

 

LOS ANGELES, August 8, 2008

 

Previously in The Book of All Future Names