Fairytales

by Cynthia Freeman

  “Hi…” he said, kissing his mother. “Hi, Papa … boy, is it cold out.”

  “Yes … but it’s mighty warm in here.” She smiled.

  As Dominic looked at Catherine, the reality of his decision suddenly was like being hit in the gut by a sledgehammer. He still had to face Victoria. Indecision had always been difficult for him, but this … he had to be alone. Getting up he excused himself and said good night. Going to his room he shut the door quietly and stood against it, staring up at the ceiling. He walked to the window, flung it open and breathed the cold, raw night air. Turning abruptly away he stared at the telephone. Quickly he went to the bed, sat on the edge and clutched his hand over the receiver without picking it up. Looking at the silent phone he said, as though his thoughts could be transmitted, “Victoria, I’m sacrificing you as surely as anything was ever sacrificed before. I feel hollow and empty and selfish. I despise myself for abandoning you. I can’t even excuse the fact that I’m doing it for my children but everything seems to be mine, and me. But what about you and the rest of your life? You’ve given me so much, and what am I leaving you with? Nothing. The last two weeks have seemed like a whole lifetime without you. What’s the rest of my life going to be like without you … Again, me … my … mine. He put his head in his hands and gave up to the tears.

  9

  THE DAY OF THEIR arrival held more excitement for the Rossis than they had ever known. The children were at the airport with flowers for Mama, and for Papa, the display was more than he could believe. Catherine had called and told her mother Dominic was coming home to stay. And Mama said I told you so and Catherine said Mama, you were right. There was no mention of love, Mama, but Dominic was coming home … and in time … time was the healer of all things. The other woman? Well, nothing was mentioned about her, but Catherine said she knew it was over … just as Mama knew the day Daddy was through.

  But it wasn’t quite so simple for Dominic as he sat through the special dinner prepared for their homecoming. Catherine sat at one end, observing Dominic … noticing he ate very little while the excited conversation went on around him. The children all sat in awe of Roberto … what he had done … where he had been … what he had seen. During dinner, mother and daughter glanced at each other. Mama’s eyes saying, see, Catherine, I told you … just wait. And Catherine’s eyes responded, you’re just about the smartest lady in the world, Mama. After dinner, Dominic left, saying he had some important business to attend to and Catherine said, of course, Dominic, and Mama smiled, knowing where the business was that took Dominic.

  An impatient Victoria waited for Dominic who had sent a cable earlier. When he opened the door, she was into his arms, kissing him again and again. “It’s been a hundred years, darling,” she said.

  “More than that,” he said, holding her tight.

  Breathlessly she took him by the hand, “Come, sit down while I get a drink, then you’ll tell me everything.”

  He sat down wearily.

  “I can’t believe you’re back.”

  He shook his head, “I’m back alright.”

  Looking at him, she said, “You look so tired … here, darling, take this.”

  When she’d handed him the drink, he said, “Play ‘Clair de Lune.’”

  “‘Clair de Lune’?” she asked slowly.

  “Please?”

  “All right.” Putting on the record, she sensed something was simply not the same, “What is it, Dominic … you seem more than just tired.”

  He sipped … How did he begin? “I am more than just tired … I’m sick … like you feel when someone’s just died …”

  Shaken, she sat quietly. After a long silence, she said, “Someone has … me.”

  He closed his eyes and drew her to him, “Oh, God, Victoria, I knew it was going to be difficult, but nothing like this.”

  Holding him to her, she said, “Dominic, my poor Dominic, I really knew someday it would happen, but in spite of that one is never really prepared.

  “There isn’t anything to say, is there?” Victoria asked, shocked at her own composure. Later, she knew she’d break things, scream in the silent rooms, but now she sat quietly trying to comfort Dominic, knowing what this decision had cost him. What good would it be to ask the reasons. “Dominic, I love you.”

  “Only God knows how I love you.”

  “We both know, God and I … now, look at me. You’ve given me a gift for the rest of my life. Don’t you know that? I once told you memories were also souvenirs to hold on to and when I long for you, as I will, I’ll try very hard to remember what we had between us. They wouldn’t be you, but in time I’ll be able to take out the pictures and look at them and remember.”

  “And I’ll remember all my life without the pictures that I’ve given up the greatest treasure a man could ever have possessed.” They sat silently, now, in each other’s embrace. There was nothing more to say … it had all been said in the nuances of touch. She would make sure that when he came for his things, she would not be here … but for this last time, she would think of nothing else but that she was in his arms.

  Dominic’s only reprieve from thought in the painful months after his affair with Victoria had ended, was June … it was a time for great elation … a time for pride … a time for joy. Dom was graduating and the Rossi household was in a frenzy of excitement. Not only was the entire family getting ready to attend his graduation, but there was another reason for rejoicing … Dom was engaged to the daughter of a most illustrious and famous thoracic surgeon, Dr. Andrew Stevens from Atlanta, Georgia. The family had not as yet met Tish, but from her picture as well as her voice on the telephone, it was almost as though they knew her. Catherine was elated that Dom had chosen a girl from the south with whom she felt an immediate rapport … until she found out that Tish was not Catholic. The fact that Tish was not Italian was a thing Catherine could not alter, but, hopefully, Catholic, she could do something about. When Dom had come home during his last midterm break for a few days, Catherine spoke to him at great length. “I know we’re gonna love her as our very own and more so because you love her, but one thing I’m gonna have to insist upon, Dom, is that she become Catholic.”

  “Look, Mama, Tish and I have discussed this at great length and she will not become Catholic.”

  “I’m real sorry to hear that because I want my grandchildren to be.”

  “Mama, I love and respect you … but you’ve got to understand that Tish and I have to work this out our own way.”

  “I also respect your position and I’ve gone along in spite of the fact that all my life I dreamed when my sons married, they’d have the feelin’ in their hearts to marry Italian girls. Well, I’ve been willin’ to overlook that, but I cannot in all honesty give my blessin’ to a marriage where my future issues will not be Catholic.”

  “Mama,” Dom laughed at the incredulity, “I think you’re forgetting this is a different era and as much as I’d love everything to be to your liking, there’s one thing you’ve got to understand … the decision to marry Tish is mine.”

  Catherine was taken aback. “Am I to understand that my wishes mean nothin’?”

  “In this case, Mama … yes.”

  “Well, I must say, Dom, you surprise me very much in view of the way you were brought up. The trainin’ you were taught and given … I’m shocked to learn that my blessin’ means so little and the decisions are all yours …”

  “Mama, for God’s sake, I love Tish. Why are you making such a big thing out of this?”

  “Because I don’t think a marriage can be a happy one when people don’t have the same beliefs.”

  Dom sighed. What the hell did she want from him … There he was, marrying one of the most desirable and eligible girls to graduate from Vassar, who could have had her pick of anyone, and she had fallen in love with him. “Mama, let me tell you something.”

  “Yes, Dom,” she said coolly. “What do you want to say?”

  “That Tish’s family weren’t a
ll choked up over the fact that I’m a Catholic Italian, but they didn’t make a great big brouhaha over this … they’re intelligent people who want their daughter to be happy.”

  “And you’re sayin’ I’m not?”

  “I’m saying you’re making an issue out of something that shouldn’t be.”

  “Well, I resent that remark … I resent it very much because I want the same for you … to be happy and I’m entitled to my feelin’ that religion is a very important thing for children.”

  “My children will be raised with religion.”

  “What kind? Baptist?”

  “No. Mama, for Christ’s sake, Tish happens to be Protestant—”

  “Are you gonna become one of them?”

  Dom had reached the end. “I’m going to work this out with Tish,” he said, angrily, leaving the room and slamming the door behind him.

  That evening, after dinner, Dom sat in the study, unhappily telling his father about the problem he was having with his mother … The whole thing had made him so unhappy and he was going to cut short his stay, in fact, he was leaving first thing in the morning.

  “Catherine, I’m warning you, for your own good … don’t interfere in this thing with Dom,” Dominic said, lying in bed as Catherine undressed.

  She turned around and faced him … “Let me understand this … you’re warnin’ me not to interfere … well, Dominic, I think it’s my duty as a mother to try and advise my son that he might be makin’ a mistake. Is that so bad?”

  “In this case … yes.”

  Shocked, she said, “Well, Dominic, you’re full of surprises. You who’s been raised so devoutly, not to take a stand alongside of me.”

  “Not in this case because Dom has the right to make his own choice.”

  “Funny thing, you didn’t think Roberto had a right to make a choice when he wanted to go to Florence.”

  “Well, this is a little different. He was sixteen. Dom’s a man. Listen, Catherine, and listen well. If you press this issue with Dom, you’re going to lose him and if that’s what you want, then continue. I don’t know what the hell you want… here he is marrying a fine girl from an old and distinguished family and you’re not satisfied.”

  “Well, we’re not so undistinguished. My family and I are fourth generation Southern born. My great-grandmother was from a fine, distinguished family. My heritage is pretty fine, I’d say.”

  “But mine’s not. My father came from a fine old Sicilian family of dirt fanners … so don’t throw your heritage around or you’ll lose the ball game … now take my advice … drop it … be proud and happy that one of your sons made the big league in the society department.”

  That night Catherine lay in the dark thinking things over … maybe, just maybe there was another way. For heaven’s sake, why was she getting herself into such a stew … Dom wasn’t even married yet, much less having babies … when they were married, Catherine felt sure that she and Tish would become very good friends … buying lots and lots of expensive presents also made one very receptive to suggestions … not that Tish Stevens needed anything from the Rossis … but look, human nature being what it was, never had enough … and dangling a few baubles in front of someone’s eyes didn’t hurt the cause. Her grandchildren would be Catholic if she went about it in the right way… patience, my dear, as Mama would say. With those happy thoughts, Catherine fell asleep.

  The next morning she was in Dom’s room looking down at him asleep. Sitting on the edge of his bed, she tapped him gently on the shoulder. Rubbing his eyes, he opened them … his voice deep from having been awakened, he said, “Hi…”

  “Dom, I hope you’ll forgive me for wakin’ you up, but I’ve been burstin’ with somethin’ to say.”

  Sitting up, he thought, oh boy, here we go again … “Yeah …?”

  “Dom, darlin’, I lay awake half the night, knowin’ I had offended you by presumin’ too much … I wish to apologize. You and Tish have a right to your own lives.”

  Dom smiled and kissed her on the cheek. “I’m happy you feel that way, Mama … I didn’t want to leave with any hard feelings. I love you and I never want you to be upset.”

  “Well, my goodness, it’s not possible to never be upset… but I thank you for the consideration … the trouble I guess is that mamas forget their children grow up … same as Grandma treatin’ me like I was still a little girl … but I sort of like it and I always take her advice … not for one minute meanin’ you should do the same, I hasten to say.”

  “You’re great, Mama, really you are.”

  “Thank you, Dom … it’s always nice to hear you’re loved … now, any time you’re ready, come on down for breakfast. There’s so many things I want to ask about.”

  “Okay. I’ll be down in a little while.”

  The day was hot, the air was filled with the kind of emotion that only such an occasion could evoke in parents when they saw their child grown to manhood, and now all the happy, carefree years were left behind and only the future, unknown, was before all the young men receiving their diplomas. Catherine wept, and Dominic remembered his youth … the years he had spent here in this very place, never dreaming at the time he would be sitting where his father had once sat, watching his son go through the same ceremony.

  The feelings of each generation reacted the same. The pride … the enormous pride Dominic felt at this moment he knew was only an extension of what his father had known that day so long ago. He had been the same age as his son Dom … twenty-three when he graduated and how strange when he thought about how alike the patterns of their lives were. Dom, too, was getting married. Stranger even still, to a southern girl. For one brief moment, although the day was hot, he felt peculiarly chilled. But he refused to lean on the coincidence, knowing that was all it was. His mind moved on rapidly to another thought … thank you, Victoria, for all you have given me … perhaps if you said the right things, or maybe … thank you, my dearest … you knew it was right and it is. Dominic was brought up sharply as he heard … Dominic Rossi Jr…. Dominic Sr.’s heart raced a little faster as he turned around and smiled at his mother who sat in back of him, then caught a glimpse of Mama Posata shaking her head in admiration. Catherine clasped his hand in hers. They looked at each other, then to the platform below as the tears streamed down their cheeks.

  The windows of the Georgian buildings reflected as they had for some three-hundred years on the milling crowd in Harvard Yard. Graduation caps were tossed in midair … parents embraced their sons … sweethearts kissed … brothers shook hands … flashbulbs blurred the eye and another day of memories would be stored away to be taken out, perhaps a generation later…

  Dom heard his name being called dimly above the excited voices around him. He turned and saw Tish coming quickly toward him, waving her hand. He ran to meet her, and soon she was in his arms, saying breathlessly, “Dom … oh, Dom, I was so proud of you, you’re beautiful.”

  Kissing her over and over again, he was unaware that the family was standing in front of them. Catherine felt put out as she observed Tish in her son’s arms, a place she felt, as a mother, should have been her prerogative to first bestow her blessings, but she assumed the posture of the loving, devoted mother as she pushed the feelings aside.

  Forcing a smile, she said, “Well, Dom, there’ll be plenty of time for that … your family is waitin’ to congratulate you.”

  Releasing himself from Tish, he turned and saw his mother. She kissed and held him to her, tightly. This was her son, her possession, her first born for which she suffered the pain of childbirth and had poured herself into the making of a man only to relinquish him to another woman who would become the center of his life. It didn’t seem quite fair … now did it? The thoughts were swift, if not dismissed. She said with tears of a loss she could not quite accept, “Well, Dom, you made us all proud. I guess all the effort was worth it … yes, indeed, you made us all very proud.”

  Something in his mother’s voice made him swallow the ha
rd lump in his throat for all the years of his childhood and all the years of her devotion to her children. “Thank you, Mama, I hope I’ll always justify that feeling.”

  “You will.”

  Now Dominic took his son by the shoulders as their eyes met. Everything Dominic felt was spoken more eloquently in that one moment than words could possibly have said. That deep and brief poignant exchange was broken as Dominic finally said, “I doubt if there was a father here today that was more proud and happy than I. I thank God you’re my son. Congratulations.”

  “Thank you, Papa,” Dom answered softly, as his father turned away to wipe the tears from his eyes. Then suddenly everyone was talking at one time … how well Dom had done … how happy they were … the grandmothers … the brothers … Gina Maria. Tish had been standing by, watching. What a marvelous thing to have such a family. Such love … and now she would be part of them … the feeling was filled with such joy. What a lucky woman Mrs. Rossi was. Tish knew at that moment how important a large family was and she was going to know the blessings of that experience one day.

  Reverently, Dom took Tish’s hand in his and introduced her to his family. She was more than her picture revealed … exquisitely slim with tawny, golden hair … the color of a lovely sunrise. Her violet eyes were fringed with dark lashes … her skin was the same as fine porcelain. She wore no makeup … only the most delicate tint of pink-peach which outlined the perfectly formed lips. Proudly, Dom said, “Tish, this is my mother and father.”

  She extended both her hands to Catherine. “I can understand why Dom speaks of you so glowingly.”

  “Well, he’s said some pretty glowin’ things about you, to be sure,” Catherine laughed.

  Then Tish turned to Dominic, “And you, Mr. Rossi, what a pleasure it is to finally meet you.”

  “This is the second time today I’ve been overwhelmed. Dom, you didn’t do her justice.”

  Beaming, Dom answered, “Nothing could, except to see her.”

  Tish smiled, “… You’re just prejudiced.”