“Doubts.”
“I had one this morning when I was shaving. You’re going to have those,” Uncle Dom said with authority. “I get doubts all the time. They tumble over one another inside me like Chinese acrobats. I get so worked up, I think I’m having a series of mini-strokes.”
Elsa returned with the jelly roll. She placed it on the table and began slicing it, placing the pieces on the dessert plates and passing them around the table. Mabel reached for the wooden nut bowl on the server. She placed it in the center of the table. The men began to reach for handfuls of nuts in their shells as Mabel handed out the nutcrackers.
“Maybe it’s that strange funeral you attended. Maybe you shouldn’t have gone,” Lena suggested. “It sent you careening down a path.”
“Maybe.”
“Don’t do anything rash.” Mabel reached across the table, stabbed the last bite of Gio’s meatball off his plate, and ate it. “Sleep on it.” Mabel cleared the last of the dinner dishes.
“I will.” Nicky had stayed with Peachy for a reason, one greater than love. He believed that she was the right girl for him. But with all that had changed in his life, was she still the right girl? He wasn’t so sure.
“Promise me you won’t be hasty,” Aunt Jo implored.
“Ma doesn’t want you to break it off with Peachy because she already got the dishes from the bank,” Dominic said, cracking a filbert with the silver nutcracker before popping the meat of it into his mouth.
“What dishes?” Nicky was confused.
“They’re a surprise,” Aunt Jo confirmed.
“How can they be a surprise when you get them for everybody?” Nino asked her.
“Those dishes from the bank are free.” Gio poured himself a cup of coffee.
“They were?” Mabel was surprised.
“You and your big mouth,” Jo chided her middle son. “Okay, Elsa, Mabel, and you too, Lena—I gave you each a set of dishes when you got married. I save up and get them at the bank.”
“With stamps,” Nino added.
“They’re good dishes.” Lena cared about all wedding rituals, including this display of gifts in the bride’s family home after the ceremony. “They were the hit of my bridal shower.”
“I thought so too. Of course, I got a set for Nicky and Peachy. They’re in the basement. They’re white with a daisy chain on the border.”
“Very cheery for everyday. Ours are blue with cornflowers on the edge. If we ever get our own place,” Lena said wistfully.
“So give the daisy dishes to somebody else,” Uncle Dom said impatiently. “Or save them for when Nicky does get married to another girl he likes. Why are we going round and round about a box of free dishes from the bank?”
“I don’t care about the dishes,” Aunt Jo said. She spaced her silverware next to her plate evenly. “I care about Peachy. The DePinos have been through enough. Some of the family on his side were sent to New Mexico and put in an internment camp during the war. They rounded up the Italians in New Haven without an explanation. That’s how the DePinos ended up here in the first place.”
“I didn’t know they were seeking asylum.” Mabel cracked a walnut.
“Not exactly. Al got a job here shortly before the war.”
“Any Italian with a boat was suspect. The DePinos had a skiff,” Dom confirmed. “What they did to our people.”
“Pop, not for nothing, but Italy was on the wrong side of the war.” Mabel poured herself a cup of coffee.
“That didn’t give them the right to round us up in America.”
“This is another slap in the face to that family. Another disappointment. First they’re estranged from their family because of the war, and now they lose Nicky. What did they do to deserve all this agita? They’re good people.”
Elsa took the baby from her mother-in-law and returned to the kitchen.
“Ma. Watch it, would you?” Dominic followed his wife out.
“Must I never mention the war ever again in this house?” Jo threw her hands in the air.
“No,” Gio and Nino said in unison.
“I’m sorry. Nicky, I wish you’d reconsider. You’re not thinking straight. I don’t think you’re well. You’re pale. Maybe you have anemia. Your iron could be low. You’re tired,” Jo reasoned.
“Maybe he’s tired of Peachy.” Dom sampled the jelly roll.
“It’s not that, Uncle Dom.”
“Then why would you break it off?” Gio asked.
“Seven years—that’s about the limit,” Uncle Dom said with authority.
“What does that mean, Pop?” Mabel said defensively.
“It means what it means.” Dom banged the table.
“It’s not as if it was a true seven-year period,” Aunt Jo argued. “Nicky wasn’t here for half of it. Peachy went to business college in Albany for some of it—he went into the army. When you add it all up, they’re practically a new couple, right?”
“He shouldn’t marry Peachy if he isn’t one hundred percent sure he wants to—he’ll be miserable and that will make her unhappy and it will be a disaster.” Lena stood up and put her hands on Nicky’s shoulders. “I’m with you, Nicky. Do the right thing and the right thing will hold you in good stead. We need more cream for the coffee.” She went into the kitchen.
“Peachy will kill herself,” Mabel said as she picked at the jelly roll. “I have no personal interest in this because I am not in the wedding party. As an expectant mother-to-be, I’m in a pew with the general guests. I won’t be asked to bring up the gifts at Offertory. Nothing. I’ll be a face in the crowd with the rest of the onlookers until you see me at the reception parked behind a potted plant getting everybody’s John Hancock in the guest book before they go into the hall. But I know a little bit about the DePinos, and they’ve been saving crates of champagne since the Spanish Civil War for this wedding reception, and they will show up over here with bayonets when Nicky breaks it off.”
“Mabel. Don’t pile on,” Gio said softly.
“Who’s piling? It’s the truth. You can’t yank a girl along for seven years and then cut the rope and leave her drifting out to sea like an old dinghy. Pirates do that, and if they’re caught they have to walk the plank. Time is valuable. It has worth. Therefore when you squander someone’s time, particularly a woman’s, it’s stealing. You steal her youth, you might as well steal her car.”
“You’re just making Nicky feel worse,” Gio said tersely.
“He’s doing the severing!” Mabel raised her voice.
“He doesn’t love her!” Gio yelled.
“He doesn’t know what he wants!” Mabel yelled louder.
“He doesn’t want her!” Gio stood.
“He needs to grow up!” Mabel stood and leaned across the dining room table.
“He is a grown-up!” Gio stood, banged the table, and sat down.
“A man doesn’t flail on the important decisions! He nails down the important things and does not falter! Right, Ma?”