“Okay.” Roger snapped out of his daydream, stood, but stopped and turned. “One thing, Ben. You said this was predictable, the shock and emotion. That this was the first step of grief.”
“And?” Ben chewed on his thumbnail. Why didn’t Jess take that flight? On the TV, an image of the candlelight vigil in the rain at St. Peters’s Square at the Vatican. Over a million people.
“What’s the next step?”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.” Ben looked Roger in the eye. “The next stage is anger.”
16
ROME, ITALY
“ANGELA POLIDORO,” JESS yelled into the intercom. “Amici di Angela.”
“No, appartamento trecento,” crackled the reply. “No Angela.”
“Please, buzz us in,” Jess pleaded. “We’re stuck outside.”
They hung up.
Jess cursed in frustration. It was dark out. Rain hammered onto the cobblestones in a downpour. A river flowed down the middle of the alley, plastic bottles and papers from the garbage piles clogging a drain in the middle. They buzzed all the apartments. Nobody would let them in. Jess tried to explain, but they spoke no English, and her Italian wasn’t good enough to charm her way past their suspicions.
“Sit down for a second,” Celeste urged. She found wooden packing crates around the corner and arranged them, upended, under a small awning next to the apartment entrance. It offered some shelter.
Shivering, Jess took Celeste’s offered hand and hopped over to sit. They huddled together. Jess wore only a thin tank top and jeans. Celeste offered her soaked sweater, but Jess refused, told her to keep it.
“We can’t stay here, we’ll freeze to death.” Jess’s teeth chattered. Clenching her jaw to stop it, she wrapped her arms tight around herself. It had to be past ten. No shops were open. Reaching down, she rubbed the stump of her leg. Not used to being exposed, the cold and wet made it ache.
Celeste put an arm around her daughter and laughed. “You wanted some bonding time…”
Jess gritted her teeth, but despite herself, laughed as well. “Not quite what I had in mind.”
“I know. Come on, let’s think.”
That was just like her mother. Jess wanted to kick and scream, find someone to take her frustration out on, but Celeste was more cerebral. She said Jess was hot-headed like her grandfather, Giancarlo. “We need to get in touch with Dad, that’s what we need to do.”
“No, what we need to do is take care of you,” Celeste said, her voice low and soothing. “Get you some crutches, maybe a replacement.”
Jess pulled away. She hated feeling like a cripple. She didn’t need anyone’s help.
“Baby, come on.” Celeste gently pulled her back. “I’m your mother.”
Jess relaxed her shoulders and leaned back into Celeste. She was right. Without her prosthetic, without even crutches, she was a liability. The humiliation. Worse, she couldn’t protect her mother; not even herself. “There’s a hospital just across the river,” she sighed. “Maybe we can get a taxi there. I’m sure we could stay the night.”
Celeste smiled and squeezed Jess harder. “See, that wasn’t so hard, was it?”
“No.” Jess flashed a tiny smile and wiped her soaked, long blond hair from her eyes.
“And where could we get a taxi?”
“Three blocks on the other side of the Piazza, there’s a main road.” Jess straightened up. “And there’s a pay phone at the bottom of the square.”
“We can call the police.”
If they got to a police station, maybe they could call Darmstadt. “And we could get to the American Embassy.” It wasn’t far, half an hour walk from where they sat. Jess went there to renew her passport a few weeks ago.
A block away to her left, another group of people huddled. Homeless. Surrounded by piles of shopping bags and blankets. What Jess would give for one of those blankets. Glancing right, a shape came out of the dark rain, two people walking.
“Hello?” Celeste stood. “Please, can you help us?” She took two steps toward the people, stepped out into the pouring rain.
It was a man and a woman, tight together under an umbrella.
“We have an emergency.” Celeste reached toward the man.
He shied away, exclaimed, “Ehi! Non mi tocchi!” his body language screaming, Get away. They hurried off and disappeared back into the fog of the rain.
Jess stood, balancing with one hand against the wall. “Mom, don’t beg. Come on, let’s go.” One of the homeless people, a young woman, came closer and stared at them. Jess stared back at the woman, then looked away.