Francis "SUMO" Sudano

[ColinB_new]

[konzakonza]

1 hour ago, ColinB_new said:

nice car pal

[ColinB_new]

[ColinB_new]

[ColinB_new]

[ColinB_new]

Sudano's background in detail.

 

 

 

 

2006 – Sudano family home, Jefferson

 

 

“FRANCIS, GEDDUP. NOW!”

Francis rolls over in the sheets, a meek groan escapes his teenage jowls, which already sag with the curse of obesity.

Michael Sudano trudges up the stairs of the modest Sudano family home and shoves the door hard. The force reminds Francis of last night’s episode of COPS, in particular a scene where a SWAT team smash their way into a barricaded home. Just like the victim on the TV the night prior, hiding from her captor in a closet, Francis hides from his father in his bed.

 

“Francis Sudano, may the Lord help if you don’t get your ass up now.”

“Just cause you’re failing grades doesn’t mean you’re gonna fail me and your mother.”

“Get the fuck up, NOW, and get dressed. I’m taking you to school.”

 

Eventually, Francis rises from the depths of his slumber and moans and groans his way to his feet. Only 16 but already a big boy, he dresses himself in a loose-fitting t-shirt and jeans, all generic and bought in dollar store outlets. His fashion sense is non-existent and his wardrobe Is decked out in the cheapest of garments. His family aren’t living in poverty but they’re not going on any European vacations either.

At the kitchen table, conversation between his two younger sisters and his mother is in full flight. Mary, the youngest at 8 years old, is all fired up and ready for a school trip to a museum in San Fierro. It’s a rare expedition for the bright and blue-eyed child and she’s rearing to go. Her counterpart and eldest sister, Rose, is just on the cusp of womanhood at 11 years old and filled with teenage angst. She fires witty remarks back at Mary, jealousy coating her high-pitched voice. Michael, the patriarch of the family, was only recently promoted and during Rose’s early school days, they could not afford luxuries such as school trips. Even with the promotion, Michael and Lilly Sudano had to be frugal in their spending to afford the school trip’s fees but their youngest was the light of their lives and worth scraping the bottom of the butter box for.

Francis eats a similar breakfast to his father, bacon, sausages, eggs, hashbrown all cooked and caked in oil and grease. As Lilly often reminds Francis: Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. In typical Sudano fashion, Lilly doesn’t hold back on the food. She plumps all her children as best as she can with what she has. Coffee and toast on the side tops it all off and, in a half-hour, the three Sudano kids are packed into a 15-year-old saloon and on the way to their respective schools.

In the car, the conversation was much the same between the sisters. They kept it up the whole way until Michael pulled the car over at an elementary school and saw his two daughters off to class, leaving both with a massive hug and a kiss on top of their heads. He truly doted on his children.

With Francis, however, he showed it in a different way.

 

As soon as the pair were alone in the car and on the way to Jefferson High, Michael let rip with a torrent of both fatherly love and verbal abuse. A typical showing of Italian-American parenting, where father berates son with the thought that maybe, he’ll find hope or motivation from the litany of accusations, disappointing comparisons and anecdotes to how tough his own upbringing was.

 

 

Two years later…

 

 

2008 – Jefferson, St. Lawrence of Brindisi Catholic Church

 

 

 

Behind the altar, an 18-year-old Francis stands proudly but teary-eyed and recites a well thought out eulogy that bids farewell to a father that he both hated and loved dearly. The pews are lined, from the back of the church to the front with all sorts of characters. All types, all colours and all variations of people filled the church up to see Michael Sudano off. Taken too young, at only 54 with a massive heart attack, he was truly loved by all that knew him. A man of conviction but also a man of charity. He worked as a banksman for crane operators on the docks for 15 years and before that, in the crane himself for a prior 20 years. In that time, many grew fond of him in the industry and many more in his locale loved him for his big heart and warm, welcoming attitude. He held no prejudices and gave equally to all – As Francis himself said that day: “A man that could truly never be replaced.”

In the front row, the two Sudano sisters sat alongside their mother, all three utterly broken from the inside at the loss of their father and husband. Lilly, stricken with grief had barely muttered four words since his passing. Mary and Rose had done nothing but cry, and cry, and cry. Francis felt only numbness up until he uttered the eulogy that sent his father away and brought only heart-wrenching pain and guilt at not living up to his father’s standards.

They were now a family of only four – Francis never met his grandparents and never would, they both were taken tragically in a pile-up on Interstate 43 while returning from a vacation. Francis very quickly became the sole provided for his mother and two sisters. It suddenly dawned on him how essential his father’s lessons about completing education and doing well in college were now out of reach. He had worked a dead-end job for the last 18 months, stacking shelves in the local mart and that was not going to pay the bills. Hindsight can be a real bitch, Francis later reminded himself when he weighed up his options.

In the coming years, family life became unrecognizable to Francis.

What used to be a loving, happy home, soon turned to a meat grinder where he and his mother fought tooth and nail in back-breaking jobs just to keep their heads above water. The economy tanked in late 2007 and the decline nearly decimated the family all the way through until the eventual release from recession in late 2009. His sisters grew up too fast, too young. The eldest, Rose, was pregnant by a much older boy before she was 16 and was soon removed from the family home. Lilly could not afford a child on top of Mary’s growing education bills. As it always was, Mary was still Lilly’s light at the end of the tunnel. The youngest of the Sudano family, she was rearing up to be an extremely intelligent and mature young girl. She took her studies seriously, learning from the mistakes of her older brother and the ignorance of her mother. She was not ungrateful, while Francis and Lilly worked two and three jobs each, she maintained the home. After school, she came home, studied, cleaned and cooked. It was no life for a 14-year-old but she knew where she wanted to be and more important of all: where she didn’t want to end up.

 

2012 – Rosie’s Bar & Grill, Verona Beach

 

 

A looming figure in muted colours stands before a double door, partially blocking the view inside a venue that is bustling with people and activity. Francis Sudano, standing at 6’2” and weighing a whopping 340lbs stands guard outside the door of a grill and bar establishment not far from the boardwalk. He’s been bouncing doors for the last 2 years and feels he’s finally found his calling. The work pays well and the extra gigs on the side for cash has eliminated the need for working a second or third job. His massive frame gives most tipsy young folk a second thought to starting trouble and being that the bar is in a tourist-rich area, he rarely sees trouble.

A gaggle of three ladies spill out from behind Francis out onto the street to enjoy cool air with their cigarettes. Cocktails in hand, skirts too high for proud fathers and rosy cheeks from the alcohol, they slide past Francis and coo at him, striking up the usual weekend flirting with the immovable doorman.

 

 

[...]

 

 

(This is a work in progress)

Edited July 3 by ColinB_new

[ColinB_new]

[ColinB_new]

[ColinB_new]