Short Story: The Tale of the Man-Eater
by O'Keefe The infamous mob boss Jerry Macaroni had sent one of his associates, whose name we only know as Slick, to canoodle the mayor into letting the boss’ second hand, Jimmy Glutenfry, walk out of the city slammer. The Times criticized Jimmy, pal of the boss, rather heavily, going so far as to call him a ‘man-eater’; a colloquial term used on the street for Macaroni’s mobsters, due to their rather violent attitude. “Leave it to the press to slangify English,” Jerry Macaroni conveyed to his left foot man Slick, who dutifully went about his business. It started out as a rather cordial event. The mayor was reading the Times while going to the bathroom in a public setting when he heard from the other stall, “Hey, mayor. That you?” The mayor, thinking he was talking to some other mayor, at first ignored him. But he asked again. “Hey, you with the light-up sneakers!” And an ominous foot came out from under the neighboring stall and hit the mayor’s shoes, causing them to fl...