Grey Side of Town

By cookiejar

Grey Side delves into an underworld dynasty, where loyalty binds and secrets suffocate. Meet the patriarch Vincent, whose iron grip loosens in the autumn of his days. Julian, the heir whose soul yearns for a life beyond the family's legacy. And Clara, the widow whose silent strength becomes her greatest asset. 

 

Their struggles, told through verse and vignettes, are those of a family desperate to untangle its name from the web of silent deals and murky truths. Grey Side is an odyssey through the veiled corridors of a crime family's quest for redemption, where poetic justice and the weight of legacy converge.

• Language: English
• Publisher: cookiejar
• Release date: Jun 11, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224142828

Book preview

Scene 1

Echoed Aloud

The bakery was never simply a bakery. It was a front for the family business. The kind that kept law and order by becoming the law and giving the orders. Granddad was the heart of it all, and he knew how to make dough.

Granddad is Vincent Kaspar. Vinnie, the aging patriarch of the Kaspar family lives a life of regret and nostalgia for a time when honour among thieves was the code. Grandson is Julian, heir apparent to the Kaspar enterprise, whose youth contrasts with an old soul.

As the scene opens, Julian lays out sketches of how the bakery might transform into a bistro, gesturing around the room where classical music would blend with high notes of coffee.

Julian

Grand-dad bakes bread as his father did, with an old world recipe. He brought it across to a younger land, like loaves across the sea.

Despite the war his bakery never closed, though grand-dad lost a son. Nor did the venue change decor, looking more like a museum.

Turn the ol’ shoppe into a bistro, I offered to grandpa’s ear. Let’s let music and fresh java brew, pump life into stale air.

Grand-dad stood and raised a cup, the gesture of two fathers proud. Love you son, he whispered—love you too, I echoed aloud.

Scene 2

Grey Side of Town

Let me put you in the passenger seat of a spotless classic. That’s Damien at the wheel, his ride, but introductions in a moment. Let’s set the scene.

The sun slides behind the skyline, casting the city in muted afternoon hues. Driving north, the industrial pound fades into the gentle pulse of the suburbs. It’s a pleasant valley façade for the underlying debts and the fear of uncertainty. Life runs smoothly when everyone knows their place and keeps to their lane.

Those who do not might find themselves cruising through life one moment, only to watch their tail lights slip into the shadows. Damien ‘The Lion’ Lyon, the forceful muscle of the family enterprise, has directed more than one soul to the grey side.

Damien

Morning around town is well lit and noisy for it. But there’s a stretch in the afternoon where, lulled to think the road unrolls forever, leaned back paying not so much mind, you find yourself on the grey side of town.

Where mom-and-pops lock up toward early bedtime for the newborn and old worn. Where a street lamp elongates the shadow of a dog, relieved on the neighbour’s lawn, bounding up to a private warm.

Your cruiser feels tire-heavy turning arcs around family streets. Over chalk outlines of hop-scotch, under wavering chimney vapours.

Past dinner dioramas and autumn leaves, un-raked because of that damn dog. Not that anybody keeps score—not that he doesn’t.

The playlist for such a silver evening is industrial and distant. Most birds are wise to let the occasional train whistle speak for them or a child’s swing weep solo in the breeze.

You hear the crunch of your tires despite the absence of gravel and drive on. And at some intersection stand in the street, in the dim, watching your cruiser slip into the shadows until you are tail-lights.

Scene 3

Fire Hydrant

We have the aging patriarch, the heir apparent, and the enforcer. Let’s introduce a younger member, less involved. Nathan is eleven, and he’s