Fairytales

by Cynthia Freeman

  “Right,” he said.

  Dominic thanked Andrew for his kindness and the men walked out into the parking area with the ladies behind them as the family followed. Leticia drove her Ford station wagon with Catherine, and the grandmothers along with Vincente, Dominic, the twins, Tory and Roberto went in Andrew’s large black Cadillac. Gina Maria begged to go with Tish and Dom … in her small car with the top down. Dom said to Gina Maria, “Honey, why don’t you go with Mama?”

  “No, Dom, I’d like to be with Tish and you … please?”

  “Look, tell you what…” Dom started to say. “No, Gina Maria’s coming with us … get in the middle.” Dom shot a glance at Tish, but she looked at Gina Maria, remembering when she was that age … how painful it was when her favorite and youngest uncle had gotten married. She felt positively sunk … secretly, she was so in love with him. Gina Maria was having confused thoughts, Tish knew.

  When they arrived at the hotel just ahead of the others, getting out of the car, Dom said, “Thanks a lot for the ride.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  Gina Maria said, “I loved it … this is such a beautiful city.”

  “I’m glad. That’s why I wanted you along.”

  “Thanks, Tish … you’re terrific.”

  “So are you … in fact, you’re one of my favorite people.”

  Gina Maria was about to say something, but instead Dom said, coming around to Tish’s side of the car, “We Rossis are like that… to know us is to love us …we grow on you.” He bent down and kissed her, then whispered in her ear, “And I’d love to.”

  “To what? I’m afraid to ask.”

  “To grow on you.”

  She smiled, narrowing one eye. “See you later … sexpot!” Laughing, she drove off.

  Turning into the circular driveway, Tish came to a halt in front of the sprawling southern Georgian mansion. Strange, she thought … you live in a house all your life and never think about how beautiful it is … or how much it means, or if you’ll miss it. Those times away at school didn’t count … I always knew I was coming home … but after next week, this will no longer be my home. Getting out of her car, she walked up the red brick path leading to the front veranda that ran the length of the house. Opening the front door, she stood in the enormous foyer and looked about her. How truly lovely this house was. That wide circular staircase. How many brides had walked down it since this house had been built in 1853? Andrew Stevens had inherited the house from his mother, who was a widow and failing in health when he carried Leticia over the threshold. For two years she almost willed herself to life to see her first grandchild born. With that accomplished, she died contentedly leaving Andrew and Leticia (whom she adored) a complete house filled with magnificent Victorian, Georgian and eighteenth-century antiques and paintings she had inherited from her parents. In the twenty-four years that Leticia had been mistress, the house remained much the same except for refurbishing. Tish walked into the enormous drawing room and looked out to the garden beyond the covered terrace. There was color everywhere bordering the expensive lawns. The pool sat cool and serenely blue among the profusion of bursting blooms, and down the wide brick path two tennis courts rested unoccupied. Like seeing it for the first time, today, everything looked especially enchanting. The oleanders, the hydrangeas and ferns that nestled among the huge oaks to shelter from the heat of a summer’s day were breathtaking. In the distance the sound of water sprinklers could be heard. What a lovely, sleepy, lazy sound, Tish thought. Although she had always known she’d be married in this house, suddenly, she was overcome by the reality. Of course, she’d miss it and only yesterday she’d glibly told Catherine … I have no qualms … and brushed off twenty-two years of her life, just like that. My goodness what was wrong with her? She did love Dom … didn’t she? Oh, come now, Tish, how can you ask anything so stupid. Suddenly for the first time in your life, you’re all grown up and maybe you’re having a few prenuptial jitters. Okay, as a psychology major, what’s so unusual about that? Getting married is a very serious business, or was it something Catherine had said that at the time Tish took lightly, but right now … standing here, she simply couldn’t sort out her feelings. Quickly, she went through the dining room to the kitchen where Jenny was finishing her pies. When she and James had come to work for Andrew’s mother, they were both young and newly married. After Mrs. Stevens died, they stayed on. Jenny was now fifty-five and James about the same age. She was as small and light complected as James was large and dark. Tish came up behind her, putting her arms around Jenny’s slim waist.

  She turned around, “Good Lord, Tish, am I glad to see you.”

  “Me, too,” Tish answered, kissing her on the cheek. “Oh, Jenny, it all smells so delicious.”

  “Feel like a glass of cold milk or somethin’, Tish?”

  “If I can have a piece of that pecan pie.”

  “Well, you just sit right down here.” As Jenny walked across the large kitchen to the refrigerator to get out the milk, she noticed Tish looking rather pensive. Coming back with a filled glass in her hand, she sat down across from Tish. “What’s wrong, baby?”

  Tish looked across and smiled wanly. “I don’t really know, Jenny.”

  “Don’t wrinkle your brow like that.”

  “Was I?”

  “Yes, you have a habit of frownin’ when you’re a little unhappy or ponderin’ … now, what’s wrong?”

  “I’m not unhappy … just frightened … and sort of suddenly.”

  “What are you frightened of?”

  “Making a good wife for Dom … being a good mother … cooking, taking care of a house … and I feel so … unequipped … it’s a little late for second-thoughts, but I can’t help it, Jenny.”

  “Listen to me, baby … just do what comes natural and you’ll be fine.”

  “I hope so … really I don’t know what’s wrong with me today.”

  “I think you do, Tish.”

  She paused for a long moment, sighed and answered, “Yes, I do … it’s knowing a part of my life that was so dear … is past … I didn’t know I’d feel this way, but coming home today was so strange.”

  “Nothin’ strange about it. Every bride that wants to make a success of her marriage feels that way.”

  “Were you, Jenny …?”

  “Was I? I was so scared, I thought I’d die, but I didn’t. Only one regret I got …”

  “What’s that?”

  “No children … that’s kinda sad for James and me, but you have lots and lots of babies … Tish.”

  “I’m going to try … I love you, Jenny.”

  “I love you, too, baby. Now, go on upstairs and take a nice, cool bath and I’ll bring up somethin’ cold to drink in a little while.”

  Tish was just getting into the tub when she heard her mother’s voice. With the towel draped around her, she called from the bannister above, “Mom, come on up. I want to talk to you.”

  “Okay, be up in a minute.”

  Going into the kitchen, Leticia dropped off a few last minute things Jenny needed, took out some cold lemonade, looked out of the open window and saw Andrew sitting under a shade tree. “Feel like a cold drink?”

  “Little later … thanks,” he answered, with his eyes closed.

  She smiled happily to see him so relaxed, a thing he knew little of. He could have gone into his father’s bank and there he would have known the quiet life instead of beating his rump off … but Leticia turned away, thinking maybe if he had, he wouldn’t be the man he was. She went upstairs to Tish’s room. Hearing the splash of water, she went into the bathroom, finding Tish lathering her arms with scented lemon soap. Taking a washcloth, she knelt down and washed Tish’s back.

  “Oh, that feels so good … you haven’t done that for a long time.”

  “Um … I know.”

  “How do you like them?”

  “The Rossis?”

  “Yes.”

  “They’re very nice … lovely family.”r />
  “And Mrs. Rossi?”

  “Well …”

  “You didn’t… I take it?”

  “I don’t know her. Of course …”

  “You usually have an instinct about people … I don’t think you cared too much for her.”

  “I’ll have to know her better, Tish.”

  “She was friendly enough, wasn’t she?”

  “Yes …”

  “Then why the reserved judgment?”

  “Because she’s going to be your mother-in-law and I think, in this case, I’ll wait.”

  “What were the outward impressions?”

  “The truth?”

  “Yes …”

  “Like a Christmas tree.”

  Tish laughed, then reflectively said, “When I met her, I had the same impression … as though she were trying too hard … but something happened on the plane today … I found myself feeling terribly sorry for her … there’s something so pathetic about her needing to be accepted … I don’t know what it is, but I find myself liking her.”

  “I’m happy to hear that … it’s important. You know, Tish, young people don’t believe it, but when they marry, contrary to some beliefs, they marry a family and if they like one another, the marriage is so much more simple … less complicated. In-law trouble can be very difficult.”

  Tish’s thoughts were suddenly filled with even more frightening questions than the ones she had revealed to Jenny. As Tish left the tub, Leticia noticed the beautiful violet eyes of her daughter grow dim. Following Tish into the bedroom, Leticia sat on the edge of the bed as Tish stretched out with her hands behind her head and looked at her mother.

  “What is it, dear?” Leticia asked, although she suspected she knew the uncertainties her child was feeling.

  For a long moment Tish remained silent, then softly said, “You know how much I love Dom?”

  “Yes.”

  “You also know there’s no one in the world I want to live my whole life with except him?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then why am I questioning myself like this?”

  “Because you know getting married is a very serious thing. If you were less in love, you wouldn’t be questioning yourself.”

  “Maybe … but at this moment, marriage seems like such an awesome thing.”

  Leticia laughed softly at the serious expression on her daughter’s face. Taking her hand, she said, smiling, “It’s not quite as awesome as all that… To be taken seriously … yes … but it can be the greatest joy and bring a woman the greatest fulfillment.”

  “Yet just a few moments ago you used the words like ‘More simple … less complicated.’ Is being married very complicated?”

  “It can be, but as in anything it depends.”

  “For instance?”

  “Well, to begin with, the first thing to consider are the people involved. Love is great and I’m all for it, but it takes two very mature, yielding, giving, intelligent people to learn how to keep it alive. It’s like my roses, they have to be nurtured or they won’t thrive.”

  “It’s pretty late in the game to begin asking all these questions and pretty stupid, I know … but that’s just the point… am I all or any of those things?”

  “Yes, you are … but one thing I feel every woman should know and understand and I don’t care what the feminist movement says … it takes a woman to make a marriage … of course, I’m not talking about world affairs or the role a woman should play in the labor market. I’m all for that kind of equality. What I’m saying is it’s up to a woman. That doesn’t mean she submerges her own self into her husband’s personality or that she becomes submissive and says yes to his slightest command. But if she learns to know her man … how to cope with him … not the one on page seventy-nine, chapter twenty-four, but hers, then she’s really a woman and being a woman is a very special thing … maybe that’s corny, but I believe if it’s marriage she wants, then it’s up to her to be smart enough to make it work.” She paused, then added, “And incidentally Tish, backing up on what we were saying about Mrs. Rossi a few minutes ago, I sense she’s a very lonely lady who needs a lot of love … love her, Tish, love her a whole lot and I have a feeling she’s got a lot to give back … just instinct I suppose but I have the feeling she feels left out somehow.”

  Tish put her arms around her mother. “I only hope that I’m your kind of a woman.”

  “You bet you are.”

  Tish smiled, “Mom, I love you so … and I can’t be too immature to have picked a mother like you, can I?”

  “I wasn’t so dumb either … look what I got.”

  Jenny knocked lightly at the open door with one hand while in the other she held a tray of lemonade and two glasses. “Interruptin’ anythin’?” she asked.

  “No, Jenny, come on in,” Leticia answered.

  Placing the tray down, she poured the pale yellow liquid into the glasses and handed one to her mistress and the other to her precious child.

  “Thank you, Jenny,” Tish said. Then she noticed Jenny as she looked down at her … there were tears in her eyes. She placed the glass on the nightstand, got up and put her arms around Jenny’s shoulders. “Jenny?”

  “Yes, baby?”

  All she could do was embrace her.

  Tish then took Jenny’s hand and led her to the other side of the bed across from Leticia, where she sat down with Jenny sitting near her. “Jenny, do you remember when you used to take me to your church some Sundays and after we’d go to Aunt May Belle’s for lunch … I’ll never forget those days or the time I slept there with you. It was James who taught me how to ride when I was five … in fact, he taught me how to drive a car.”

  “That’s right and if I lived through that, I can live through anythin’… Good lawd, I just knew they’d be bringin’ you both back on a stretcher … my, my, how I always worried about your growin’ up. And here you are, all past the measles, the chicken pox, the mumps and all the other things that happen when you’re gettin’ to be a person.” She shook her head. It all happened too quickly … life all seems so slow on the way up, but lookin’ backward is only yesterday. “Well, enough of all the ramblin’. Those new relatives of ours is gonna be here for dinner before we know it and I’m not even half done. Miss Leticia, James got the flowers cut so anytime you want to make your arrangements, I got the bowls in the flower room.” Getting up, she said, “Drink your lemonade while it’s still cold.”

  After Jenny left, Tish said, “I’m just filled with all sorts of wonderful memories today.”

  That’s what it’s all about … life … we have to first live it so that we can have the gift of that moment forever.” Getting up, she said, “Now, darling, I’ve got a lot of little things to do.”

  On her way out, Tish said, “Mom… ?”

  Leticia turned around, “Yes …?”

  “You’re terrific.”

  Leticia laughed, “Ha … that’s the understatement of the year.”

  Leticia Stevens had a very disturbing effect upon Catherine … she found it impossible to sleep after being at her home for dinner earlier last evening. It was four o’clock in the morning and she had not shut her eyes. She struggled with the idea that Leticia was everything she was not. There was a graciousness that was inherent in Leticia that she resented, making her feel inadequate … depressed. Catherine wrestled with the whys of what made her what she was. My, she was just all full of conflicting questions in the wee hours of this morning. Getting out of bed, she went quickly into the sitting room so as not to disturb Dominic, who slept so soundly in the twin bed separated from her by the nightstand. She wouldn’t for the world allow him to guess she was upset … or why. Look at him, sleeping without a care … Why was it that Andrew Stevens hadn’t made Dominic feel inferior? Imagine … Andrew, whose heritage had been guaranteed from birth … One had been born into elegant gentry, while the other had pulled himself up by the boot strings and found a place he belonged in … he’s achieved his goals and
was exactly where Andrew was—accepted. Apparently, one’s origins weren’t nearly as important any longer in the scheme of things as Catherine had once imagined. The world had changed since she was a young girl growing up… When family, the right kind, made all the difference. There was a time when Dr. Stevens would have never acknowledged Dominic as an equal… but from the way they had responded to one another, one would have believed they both had come on the scene from the same social class. My, oh my, how things had changed. Catherine was slowly having to realize the south was no longer the same … it had happened one day when that black girl refused to sit at the back of the bus. There were no more wops, were there? No more niggers? People became a little more cautious about saying things out loud. The signs that once had read “White” … “Black” were all gone. The world had changed and she hadn’t even been aware of it. Where had she been while it was all taking place? Where? Totally involved with her children … her home. Where was she when Dominic got away from her and found himself in the arms of Victoria Lang? The thought had come into her mind painfully … but quickly she turned the pages of memory to Leticia. This evening had been devastating for Catherine. No one could possibly have guessed how ill-at-ease she was sitting at that lady’s table, watching her … it was all so elegant, but with a simplicity. The china, the crystal, the silver, the monogrammed linen … all handed down from generations. You couldn’t buy that, could you? No money in the world bought one that kind of inner composure. After dinner while all the men retired to the library to discuss politics (knowing Dominic she was sure that would be the topic of conversation), the ladies sat amid the quiet elegance of the dimly-lit drawing room, talking about the wedding. Then Catherine’s eyes wandered to the picture album sitting on the large table. She got up and ran her hand over the lush, deep red velvet cover and read the brass plaque attached.

  “Tish, may I see this?” she asked, forcing a smile.

  “Would you like to?” Tish asked, getting up and handing it to Catherine. The two sat on the small settee and started from the beginning. Every important moment was recorded between the pages of that album … but when Catherine came to the picture of Tish’s debut with her father at her side, Catherine’s heart raced too rapidly. To all outward appearances she kept her inner composure intact, but inwardly, all the frustrations of her youth and rejection came back like a thunderbolt. No wonder Leticia and her daughter could feel the emotional security they had been privileged to in their lives … Junior League, the best schools, the best homes … the best people. Catherine’s angry jealousy was almost more than she could subdue. Quickly, she continued on with the rest of the pictures, scarcely seeing nor caring. In spite of the lavish Balenciaga gown she wore and the enormous square-cut diamond she had on her left hand, she still felt that awful feeling of inferiority. After all these years, the rebuff still burned. Oh, well, no one had everything, did they? You bet they didn’t. Soon Leticia Stevens would be left alone. Her only child would be married and living in California and what would she have? Her Junior League … president of the Garden Club … a big social lady in the community … the Gold Club? What the hell were they compared with what she had? Catherine Posata Rossi had seven children and she’d make sure she’d hold on to them … forever. Dom was definitely not going to open the law firm in Paris. She was going to make that perfectly clear to Dominic. They were her life … her Junior League … They were hers. Wearily, she glanced at the clock, it was five. Hidden thoughts could be exhausting. Good God, she had to get some sleep or she’d look dreadful this afternoon … and if she did nothing else, Catherine was going to make Atlanta, Georgia, and all of Leticia Stevens’ grand friends know that Miss Tish Stevens wasn’t marrying beneath her. Yes, siree, she was going to wow them this afternoon at the luncheon Leticia was giving at the Country Club at noon to introduce her and the other Rossi ladies to high society.