He took a bite of one of the soft triangles, closed his eyes, and chewed, savoring the flavors of the sweet ham rubbed in hot spices. He hadn’t been an orphan who gobbled or hoarded; he was the opposite, moving slowly, as if to tempt anyone who shared a meal with him to take his food because it took him so long to eat it. It appeared he wasn’t interested in eating at all, but he was, he just never made his hunger obvious. Nicky accepted his portion and never asked for seconds. He felt sorry for people who didn’t know when to get up from the table.
As Nicky slowly sipped the sweet apple cider from the mason jar, he thought again about time. It had been on his mind a lot lately, when he’d realized that the years were flying by and taking him with them, as they’d taken his parents. At twenty-eight years old, Nicky had outlived both of them. Since his mother and father hadn’t been given the luxury of planning for a future and seeing their son grow up, Nicky decided to build his own life before it was too late.
It was time to set a wedding date with Teresa “Peachy” DePino, his fiancée of seven years. He had grown weary of the blistering looks from Peachy’s father when he casually put his arm around his daughter and her mother’s overly solicitous inquiries whenever he picked up his fiancée or dropped her off after a date. The extremes of hot and cold from her parents were giving Nicky a kind of South Philly fever that could only be broken by Father Schifalacqua signing them into the book at Our Lady of Loreto Church after a high nuptial mass.
Peachy had not pressed Nicky for a wedding date, but he knew how she felt about it. Whenever they went to Echo Lake for dinner and dancing, after she’d slurped down a couple of Mai Tai cocktails in coconut shells through a straw, she’d toy with the green plastic monkey decoration and wonder aloud about a home of her own with an artful aluminum C monogram on the screen door. She longed to collect the tiny paper umbrellas and circus animals that decorated her drinks and take them home to her children after a night out with their father, to show them that they were never far from her thoughts.
Nicky knew she had her dreams. But before he gave Peachy what she wanted most in life, he also knew he must come clean with her about where he spent his time when he wasn’t driving a cab for the Palazzinis. He had to. Honesty was the most important virtue to Nicky, not because he was intent on being good, but because the truth made life simple. He had seen what lies left unchallenged had done to his uncles, and he swore none of that would be visited on the family he would create with his own wife someday.
Dominic III tapped the horn lightly as he entered the garage below and Car No. 1 coasted into its spot. Nicky stood and looked out the office window and watched as his cousin opened the car door for his wife, who emerged from the cab with a bouquet of flowers.
“Elsa got her roses,” Nicky reported. “She ran out of them last night and was crying about it.”
Hortense shrugged. “Maybe she’s having another baby.”
“Or maybe she was crying because old man Sabetti didn’t remove all the thorns from the stems and she was stabbing herself into a stigmata.” Nicky watched as Dominic took Elsa’s hand. “Dominic and Elsa are still in love.”
“Those two are a good match.”
Dominic waved up to Nicky. “Ma’s making breakfast,” he called. “How do you want your eggs?”
“I’m good.” Nicky smiled and waved them off. He sat down at the desk and took a small bite of the pickle and another of the sandwich.
Hortense made a face. “Why don’t you go across the street and let Mrs. Palazzini fix you something proper to eat? There’s no reason to eat your lunch at breakfast.” She adjusted her posture to upright as she sat. Her desk was cluttered with small bits of paper, a stack of black leather ledgers, an adding machine, and, in the center, a telephone system, consisting of one deep burgundy receiver, a board with four buttons that flashed, a hold button, and another to hang up. Hortense was the only thing in the office that didn’t light up, and the only thing that moved. “You have the strangest eating habits. The rest of the Palazzini boys eat regular. Why don’t you?”
Nicky shrugged. “Maybe ’cause I’m a Castone.”
“You have an answer for everything. Tell me this.” She fed paper into the roller on the telegraph machine. “If you eat your sandwich at breakfast, what do you eat at lunchtime?”
“I don’t.”
“You don’t eat between six a.m. and six p.m.?”
Nicky nodded.
“That isn’t good for your organs.”
“Who says?”
“Everybody from your doctor to the men that run the United States Army. How did you win the war with such terrible eating habits?”
“Courage.”
“More like luck. Three meals a day. It’s what the body requires.”
“Not mine.”
“It’s not going to end well for you.”
“Don’t worry about me, Mrs. Mooney. It’s worse on the body to be pressured to submit to some arbitrary schedule than it is to deprive it of food on some general one.”
“You eat like you’re four years old. It’s time to eat like a man.”
“Maybe I need a wife to look after me.”
“You need something. That’s all I know.”
“Ever since Nino got married, the house is packed like a stuffed cabbage. And it’s only going to get tighter. Mabel is expecting, Elsa has little Dom, who will soon be walking, and any time now Lena will make an announcement. My cousins are replenishing the earth, and they need the space to do it.”
“Where will you go?”
“There’s a new development on Wharton Street. They built a whole city block of two-family houses. Real nice too. Two floors. Linoleum on the kitchen floor and wood parquet in the living room. Bay window in the front. You get a porch and a backyard and a basement. There’s a space in the street to park out front. ”
“But you don’t have a car.”
“Not yet. But I’ll get one.”
“And just where are you going to get the funds to purchase all of this?”
“I saved up. Aunt Jo banked my rent since I got back from the war. I’ve already got the down payment and I’m gonna get a loan from the bank for the rest. First National has a low rate for vets.”
“You don’t say.”
“Good deal, right?” Nicky said.
“Your Aunt Jo’s very smart, saving up that money for you. Not many aunts would start a house fund for a nephew.”
“She wasn’t saving it for me to move out, she was hoping I’d move Peachy in. But there’s no way Peachy would live with the Palazzinis. She’s an only child. Can’t see her living in the basement. She wants her own place.”
“So it’s all settled.”
“Once we set the date.”
“You’ve been engaged so long, that proposal almost turned from a promise into a pipe dream. You know, I’ve been wondering if it was ever going to happen.”
“Well, it will. Peachy DePino will be my wife. ”
“It’s none of my concern.”
“Your opinion matters to me, Mrs. Mooney.”
“Then take my advice. Keep your business and pleasure separate. Have you met Mr. Mooney?”
“Only once.”
“And that was an accident.”
“Because you keep your business and pleasure separate.” Nicky toasted Hortense with his apple cider before taking a sip.
“Now you’re learning. You would have never laid eyes on him if he hadn’t had to come and get me when I fainted that time. I’d probably still be lying on that greasy floor down there if it wasn’t for you.”