Gina Maria and Sergio sat together on the settee in Catherine’s room, as she reclined fully dressed against the pillows, propped up in bed. After the salutations were out of the way, Catherine began, “You asked me before why I didn’t go home … well, it’s simple. I want your father to leave my house and I want you to tell him.”
“Why, Mama … why?”
“Because I can’t face him … and not out of fear.”
“What has he done so dreadful,” Sergio spoke up, “he is a man who has suffered painfully in your absence.”
“Has he really?”
“Yes, he has asked over and over why you became so angry … he does not know in what way he offended you.”
“Oh, doesn’t he?” Catherine said. “That’s just the point … he’s so busy with his own affairs, he doesn’t know I exist.”
Sergio was not an American so it was impossible to understand how a woman could run off and abandon her husband and children. What she had done, he considered absolutely unforgivable. But he was in no position to go against her since he felt his obligation to her keenly. It was Catherine who had insisted Dominic buy the travel agencies. It was Catherine who purchased the house for Gina Maria and furnished it while they were in Italy on their honeymoon for three months. Catherine gave so much, it became virtually impossible not to surrender one’s self. He loved Gina Maria and he also loved his life, but it took a strength he did not have to reject the keys to the kingdom when they’d been handed to him … and Catherine always pulled the strings not only with him, but with all her children … and the string could be cut at any time. It was very fragile. One never knew. Guardedly, Sergio said, “But now, Papa is very much aware you exist. I think you should go home and find out.”
“You sound like you’re favoring him, Sergio, and I don’t think that’s bein’ very grateful,” she said.
Gina Maria took the initiative. “Mama, please listen … we’re at a loss to know exactly the reasons you found it necessary to go into hiding, but since you did, then you must go home and face Papa,” she said, her face set and strong. This was an attitude Catherine rarely saw in her daughter. But she did not delude herself … if Gina Maria were forced into a position, it would be with Dominic against her … and Catherine’s daughter represented a loss she knew she could not endure … sons were sons. They now belonged to their wives, but a daughter always belonged to her mother. Catherine listened quietly as Gina Maria continued, “I refuse to take sides against my parents … I don’t think you really want me to … I’m not going to say who’s right or who’s wrong but I am going to remind you that once when you and Papa were not together, Papa came home and faced you for all our sakes … and, Mama, I think you should be equal to that … now, go home … resolve what must be resolved … whether Papa’s in the house or out, you’re going to have to talk this out. You may not like the position, but the whole country is waiting to hear what happened to you because you have made yourself a public person and the responsibility of that falls upon you to explain. Papa is in the public eye and his situation is untenable. I love you both, but, Mama, you started something and you must finish it.”
Catherine looked at Gina Maria intently, knowing in her heart she was standing in judgment.
“Gina Maria’s right, Mama … it’s the only way,” Sergio said, pleadingly.
“You think so … do you?” Catherine asked without rancor.
“Yes, Mama … if you decide to take her advice, we will drive you … now … please.”
“Alright… get my coat, Gina Maria, while I call to have my bags brought down … the backstairs. That’s the way I came in … Now, onward christian soldiers!”
Fortified with the boldness of a Carrie Nation, Catherine strode up the wide marble stairs to Dominic’s room. Without knocking, she flung open the door and found a Dominic who looked like he had turned to stone, staring at her as she stood with her hands poised on her hips, waiting for Dominic to make the first overture. She would know how to deal with him no matter which way he decided to pursue the subject. Pacing back and forth, trying with all his might not to give in to his desire to strike her … he continued to pace; at this moment his desire was so great it would have taken very little to incite him. The wrong word … the magic word … would have set him off into a rage of uncontrolled violence. He could see it now in large, black headlines: “Senator Strangles Wife.” Finally he stopped short, stood very close to her. “Why have you done this to me … ?”
“To you! Who the hell do you think you are? The head of the world … So you’re running for senator and what does that make me? I’m a person … your wife, and damn you I’m gonna be treated like a person or you and I are finished … you hear?” she struck back, feeling his hot breath on her face. She stood her ground, looking him square in the eye.
Through clenched teeth, he asked, “How could you have put your family … your children whom you’re supposed to love so much … through that kind of hell, not knowing if you were alive or dead … did that ever occur to you? Or what this little donnybrook would mean to my chances? I may lose because of you.”
“To the first question, the answer is yes … it did occur to me and I thought a little anxiety won’t hurt them a bit… they’d appreciate me as a mother a little more for all my sacrificin’ through the years … as for you, I honestly didn’t give a damn about your chances … not after the way you treated me in Santa Barbara. I felt like a puppet… like a discard.”
“Okay, what did I do to you that made you feel justified to go into hiding without a word, allowing us to believe you were kidnapped … dead … God knows what?”
“You really want to know? Okay, I’ll tell you. You’ve gotten so impressed with your own importance … you forgot I existed … you’re so pompous and self-inflated with all the attention, the adulation you’ve received, you don’t need anyone unless they’re useful to you and your cause … and I got fed up with bein’ manipulated.”
“When did I ever do that… ?”
“When! You didn’t even have the common courtesy to see to it that I was sittin’ alongside of you where I belonged … didn’t you wonder where I was? … There I go, still askin’ those stupid questions. When am I gonna learn … ? The least you could have done was to make me feel that maybe in some way I was worthy of a little acknowledgment. Goddamn it, Dominic, I’m your wife.”
“And for that you had to go to such measures … I think what you did was unforgivable.”
“Sorry … Mr. Rossi … strong medicine was in order, and I gave it to you.”
“And you didn’t think you could have come to me in the privacy of our room and said, ‘Look, Dominic, you offended me and I’m sick of being ignored and I’m going away by myself for a while,’ if you felt that offended … no, instead you’re going to make me look like a horse’s ass in front of the world … how the hell do I explain this … you’ve embarrassed me to the point I’ve no idea how I’m going to explain this—”
“Really? Imagine, anyone embarrassin’ you at a time such as this. But you know somethin’ … I did what I bet every politician’s wife since Martha Washington has been wantin’ to do for a long, long time now but maybe never had the guts. You bet I wanted a little attention … I played second fiddle to another woman for a while and that’s been a little hard to take for a long time.”
“But to have left without a word …”
“Why didn’t you look for me if you were worried about what this was gonna do to your campaign … that’s really what you were concerned about … wasn’t it?”
“What do you think I was doing, and not for that reason, but because of—”
“Dominic… I was gone two weeks and the police couldn’t find me? Well, in that case, I think you got a lousy department … I was smarter than that when you were carryin’ on with your lady love. I found out where to look … I hired a private detective … didn’t that occur to you?”
“Yes …”
“Th
en why didn’t you?”
“Because we wanted as little attention called to this as possible, not only for our sakes, but for yours …”
“Sure you did,” she said, bitingly, “you were afraid that just in the event I wasn’t kidnapped or God knows what, I’d have to come home and explain where I’ve been and what forced me to take a hike for myself … isn’t that just about the long and short of it? Well, I’m ready to meet the press and when I get through, we’re either gonna be together in this or you and me is through … as they say down south.”
Dominic paced the floor once again. Now, what did he do? He was going to come out the heavy. One thing he knew, he’d have to apologize to her. He stopped pacing and quietly said, “Alright, Catherine, I’ll pull out of the race. There’s no other way. That’s what you want… that’s why you did this.”
“Wrong … I had a lot of time to do some tall thinkin’. At first I didn’t want you to run, but now I do … but under these conditions, I’m gonna be Madam Senator … not the Senator’s wife … I’m not a Nancy Reagan, grinnin’ and smilin’ behind her husband. I’m gonna have my say when I feel like sayin’ it … No more bein’ pushed into the backroom and forgotten until election night when you need me standin’ up there smilin’ like a robot.”
“But you never wanted to participate.”
“Well, now I do, but as an equal. I’ve changed, that’s a woman’s prerogative … and I want my fair share. I’m gonna be someone and somebody. No more of this sittin’ in the shadows.”
“But you hated politics before. Why now … why the sudden about-face?”
“I just got through tellin’ you … I’ve changed. The idea of bein’ Madam Senator suddenly appeals to me … I underwent a big fat change durin’ my stay at the Farm. Did a lot of thinkin’ and my thinkin’ made me realize that I could become a leader in a new kinda cause. A cause that would liberate a lot of political wives who are just as fed up as I am, but have been too timid to say so … it would destroy the images of their lovin’ husbands …”
Dominic began to sweat, afraid to ask … afraid not to. Finally, softly and controlled, he asked, “What do you plan to do?”
“Do … ? I’m gonna let it all hang out … as the sayin’ goes … now you call a news conference for tomorrow. I don’t know if I’ll photograph as well as Mrs. Alioto did at hers, but I’m gonna do the best with what I’ve got.”
“Catherine, for God’s sake, let’s discuss this sensibly and make some kind of a plan … an explanation …”
“No, sir, Dominic … darlin’ … we’re gonna tell it as it is … and now, I’m goin’ to bed … sweet dreams … see you at the press conference in the mornin’ … Sleep well,” she said, walking out of the room, slamming the door behind her.
While a victorious Catherine prepared for bed and a restful night’s sleep (so she would look her radiant best when meeting the press in the morning), a frightened Dominic was on the phone half the night conferring with his key men, as well as Dom.
“What are we going to say? How are we going to get around this?”
“Jesus, Dominic, we really got ourselves one hell of a problem,” his campaign manager, Ricci, answered.
“You’re telling me … she’s so damned unpredictable …”
“You must have tried to make her understand how crucial this could be to the election?”
“I tried, but winning a case with your spouse, mostly I’ve learned you lose the big issues … it’s not like trying a case in court, and I at least realized to push her too hard at that moment would only make her more adamant… it could be the kiss of death … like sending me the black hand and kissing me on both cheeks …”
“Okay, let’s cool it for a minute … calm down and think rationally … what exactly did she say she was going to do?”
“She said, ‘I’m gonna let it all hang out’…”
“Okay … listen to me, Dominic. She was just sounding off. Now … later this morning, at breakfast, sit down quietly and reason this out with her … explain that perhaps she isn’t aware of the situation being so crucial, what the repercussions of her showing any hostility in front of the press would be for the election … that millions of people are going to be listening to what she has to say.”
“Sure … you don’t know her like I do—”
“Maybe not, but I know enough about women … she’s a smart woman, Dominic, and knows enough about politics … knows that something like this could ruin your chances … the speculation would be, if you can’t control your domestic affairs, how the hell can you represent a state …”
“She’s not thinking logically … but if she were? That still would leave us with having to explain what the hell happened to her for two weeks, and why none of us reported it in the beginning.”
“Fine … think of a good excuse … that she was under pressure … not quite responsible for her actions … that she found—”
“Let me interrupt. First of all, she’s not going to put herself into a position of looking like some kind of a ding-a-ling. Or that she had a sudden case of amnesia. Besides, you know no one’s going to buy that.”
“I still contend that after a good night’s rest, a little sweet talk will change her mind. The most important thing is to get together on a story … alert the kids … stick to it and maybe this might not turn out too badly after all.”
“I’ll try.”
“You’ve got to. There’s too much at stake … now, get some rest, Dominic, you’ve got your work cut out for you.” Hanging up and turning off the bedside lamp, Ricci said to his wife at four in the morning, “Laura … ? I’m damned glad Dominic uses an electric razor.”
“How’d you sleep last night… ?” Catherine asked cheerfully.
“I didn’t.”
“Oh? Well, you look fine, Dominic. That’s one thing I admire about you, the ability to look so rested even with very little sleep. Now, take me, I need my eight solid hours.”
He was scarcely listening … his mind was on much more pressing problems. “Catherine?” he said evenly, sure his pulse was at least 110.
“Yes, Dominic?”
“I want to speak to you as my wife … as my friend.”
She smiled. “Yes, Dominic …”
“I’ve done nothing but think about our relationship … our lives together. I’ve tried to see what might have triggered off your indignation and—”
“That’s one step forward for mankind … or should I say womankind?”
Keep the temperature down to a normal 98.6, Dominic cautioned himself. “That’s a pretty profound way of putting it.”
“Oh, you think I’m profound … do you, Dominic?”
“Sometimes, yes, I do, Catherine.”
“That’s really grovelling … you want that election so much, you’d promise me the Brooklyn Bridge. Well, I swear, that’s the nicest thing you’ve said to me ever since I can remember … Dominic.”
“Catherine, you and I must discuss this press conference … what you’re to say is …”
“Dominic, I’ve already decided how I’m gonna handle my first press conference. You’re not gonna put the words in my mouth.”
Getting up from the table, he paced the floor with his hands clenched inside his trouser pockets. Stay cool … or you’re going to be cut and quartered … Once again, he sat down opposite her. Taking in a breath, he began again. “Look, Catherine, I’m begging you, pleading with you, let’s try to make this situation as painless as possible with as little sensationalism as possible … they’re going to cut me to ribbons, don’t you understand?”
“I surely do.”
“Then can’t you and I come up with a plausible excuse about why you … retreated for a little while?”
“Then surfaced like Aimee Semple MacPherson did when she emerged out of the sea in Carmel about forty years ago … ?”
“Please, Catherine … please let’s be mature sensible people—”
“Sensible ma
ture people? Why weren’t you those things when you left me sittin’ there like some kind of a rejected gland?”
“I realize now how much I offended you, but for God’s sake, Catherine … I apologize … It was thoughtless and you had a right to be angry, but I have been under a strain and I simply overlooked it … can’t you understand that?”
“And can’t you understand that it wasn’t only that slight that forced me to do what I did. Look, Dominic, who knows you better than I? For thirty-two years I’ve been your wife … for better or worse … but the fact is … you don’t listen … you’re a man of action, that’s what you understand, so I acted.”
“Couldn’t you have tried to talk to me?”
“What the hell do you think I’ve been doing all these years? Why do you think I opened that crazy store which I need like a hole in the head … How come you’re so smart that you couldn’t even get the message … ? I’ve been sendin’ up smoke signals for years now, but you couldn’t read them because you were too preoccupied with you. For years I wanted your love … I begged you to find time for me … for us … but your damned ambition … you know what our problem has been? You should have been married to an old-world Sicilian lady only too happy to sit back and never ask, ‘When you comin’ home,’ and then you’d have a perfect mate. And now, you want me to make up some kind of a cock-and-bull story I went off my rocker temporarily so that you can come out of this smellin’ like a rose? Well, I am not about to do that, not even to become Madam Senator, much as I’d like it.”
Dominic got up once again, his face pale and paced the floor. Turning around, he asked, “I’m really confused … why your sudden interest in politics … I’m happy that finally you are … but I can’t quite put the pieces together … you want to be Madam Senator, but you also want to ruin my chances, and along with them, yours. You can’t have both, you know.”
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