Angela sucked in her breath at that piece of news. “Your parents don’t know you’re gay?”
“I’m still adjusting to the idea, myself.” Tom laid his hand on top of Gino’s and Angela’s. “Please, Mrs. Girardi, don’t say anything to my dad if you keep the appointment with him next week. We plan to go over when we leave here, but in case something changes, let me tell my parents in my own way.”
Pulling back her hand from the two men, she got up and began to move around the kitchen putting cookies on a plate and taking down cups. “Maybe by the time your parents find out, I’ll understand better.” Her bleak smile didn’t relay much promise of that happening.
“Nonna, what about you?” Gino focused on the elderly woman at the end of the table. “Have I brought shame to you, too?”
“Gino, I never said you brought shame to me.” Angela set the plate of cookies on the table with a loud plop and cast a glance at her mother.
“Maybe you didn’t say the words, Ma, but your actions scream them loud and clear.”
Angela hurried back to get the coffee without responding.
“No, grandson, I feel no shame. The path you have chosen has been a part of our people’s history longer than some religions.” Nonna’s claw-like hands reached out and snatched a cookie from the plate. “You must make the life you will be happy with.” A little smile played across the old woman’s lips. “I ask your mama if she thought all those Roman men used to spend time at those baths just to discuss politics.”
Isabella couldn’t believe the words from the old woman’s mouth. Her grandmother never said nice things to either her or Gino and here in less than an hour she’d spoken kind words to both of them, plus made a joke. And she didn’t express herself in broken English. The world was coming to an end. There could be no other explanation…or hell just froze over.
“Thank you, Nonna.” Gino patted the gnarled hand that didn’t contain a cookie and then sat up straighter in his chair. “Since we’re all together, with the exception of Pop, I want to let you know that Tom and I have decided to live together.”
When his eyes connected with Isabella’s she flashed him a thumbs up. They both turned to check their mother’s reaction to the news.
Angela sat with her eyes downcast, stirring her coffee. The only sound in the room was the hum of the refrigerator and when that stopped the quiet became stifling.
“I’ll tell your father.” Angela laid her spoon on the table and picked up her cup. “Yes, it will be best if I tell your father.”
Squaring her shoulders, she turned and faced her son’s lover. “Tom, you’re family now so I need to get some information from you. What size shirt do you wear and do you like boxers or briefs?”
Laughter at Angela’s questions relaxed the tension and the sun beams streaming through the window turned the kitchen into a world of light and shadows. The heaviness in Isabella’s heart returned now that she no longer focused on a family drama playing out in front of her.
A glance at the clock above the kitchen sink told her she also needed to get to work. Losing her job on top of her man would be the finishing touch to her day. “Thanks for the cookies, Ma.” She got up and kissed her mother on top of the head. “Best of luck to you two.” A wink across the table at the two men gave her seal of approval. “Nonna, see you later.” Isabella squeezed the old woman’s shoulder when she passed her on the way out.
“Bella, wait. I walk with you to the door.” The thin body pushed out of the chair and followed her granddaughter.
Great. Now the real Nonna has returned. At least I can discard the she’s been replaced by aliens theory. The old dread came flooding back at the thought of a conversation with her grandmother.
“We talk here.” Nonna stopped when they were out of hearing range of the others. “Bella, you sad today. Did something go wrong with your man?”
Shock coursed through her. How did the she know? Isabella looked at the bony hand that captured her arm. She couldn’t talk about this now. If she did, she’d end up in tears and give the gossips at the station plenty to speculate on when they got a gander at her red-rimmed eyes. Best to say nothing is wrong and get out as quickly as possible.
“It’s okay. You no have to tell me. I just want you to know I understand. Love can give both joy and pain.”
The sadness in her grandmother’s eyes was something she’d never noticed before. “You still miss Grandpa, don’t you?”
“Your grandpa was a good man. He did the best he could. We cared for each other in our way.” Nonna patted her arm and turned away.
Now that was strange, Isabella thought on her short walk to the subway. Why didn’t she feel her grandmother wasn’t talking about her deceased husband when she mentioned love? Who then? Her grandparents were married when Pia was a young girl. From all the stories, she heard at family gatherings, her family was very protective until they gave her over to her husband.
Nonna, you little devil, you. What are you not sharing?
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“Loki, I think the time has come for me to get to know Isabella’s family. If my son wishes to give up immortality for this woman, I need to know more about her.” The goddess blinked her eyes in an effort to stop the tears pooling in them.
“If you insist, my lady.” Loki bowed from the waist. He needed to delay this visit and give time for him to soften the way. For Sif to show up and announce herself as a goddess would get her laughed out of the Girardi’s home. “I will accompany you. Then again, possibly I should go first and lay the ground work for your arrival. My knowledge of the grandmother may help pave the way.”
“What are you saying here, Master of Tricks? How do you know the grandmother?” He noted the glint of suspicion when the goddess directed her gaze on him.
“It is of no importance, Beautiful One. Do not concern yourself.”
“I shall be the one to decide that. Come tell me of your acquaintance of this woman.” As always Sif arranged her gown, careful to smooth out the back when she sat to avoid wrinkles.
Not good, fool. She will demand details. Loki regretted his slip of tongue alluding to his information of the mortal’s family. Honesty was best here. If the golden beauty found out at a later time he withheld information or lied, all of his efforts to again win her trust would be for naught.
“Very well.” Loki took a seat and contemplated where to start. The beginning seemed the most logical place. “Remember when Zeus called a meeting of all the realms? Odin took me with him to the gathering and we stayed beyond the scheduled time.”
Sif nodded and leaned slightly forward.
Loki’s memories of how boring the powerful group was, even now gave him the urge to yawn. How Odin sat through as many of the dull meetings as he did still amazed the mischief maker. He looked up from his wool gathering to see Sif waiting patiently for him to continue.
When he finished his story he noted the look of disbelief on the goddess’s face. “So, you see how I can prepare the way for your arrival. I will remind Nonna Pia Bartolo Piccoli Girardi of her youthful indiscretion and let her speak with the family.”
Sif shook her head. “You expect me to believe Odin, in all his wisdom, still carries love in his heart for a mortal with whom he had a dalliance?”
“It was not exactly a dalliance. They never…well you know.” Why did he feel embarrassed to talk about sex in front of this fertility goddess? It was always so and now, more than ever since the subject involved her husband’s father. The only thing worse would have been discussing the minor wanderings of Thor on the rare occasion he strayed from the marital bed.
“Then I definitely do not believe your tale. Odin’s lusty appetite is well known in all the worlds. To think he would fall in love with a mortal and pursue her without satisfying his lust is not worthy of belief.” Sif stood and shook out her gown, letting the yards of silk fabric flow around her. “I am ready.”
Defeated, Loki nodded his preparedness. “I only ask that we
appear to the grandmother first and you let me open the conversation.”
“As you wish. Let us be gone.”
Watching the old woman sleeping in her chair, Sif could not imagine how this could be the great love of Odin’s life that Loki purported her to be. As if reading her thoughts, the Lord of Pranks handed the goddess a picture frame containing the smiling face of a beautiful young woman.
Realization dawned as she stared at the photo of a curvy body and dimpled cheeks laughing up at her. How could this picture of youth and beauty be the same wrinkled creature that snored softly from the chair? The aging mortals experienced brought tears to Sif’s eyes. This is what her son would be facing if he insisted on moving forward with his intentions of marriage. Not only would the woman he loved come to this, but so would her gorgeous son when he became a mortal.
“Wh…hmmph…Who there?” The old woman looked around in confusion.
“It is I, Pia Bartolo. That is the name you went by many years ago in Rome, is it not?” Loki’s eyebrows rose in question.
“How you know that? What you doing in my house?” Pia pushed up from the chair and stood eye to eye with him. “You get outta my home or I call the police.”
“I do not think so.” The grin he gave her fit into the satanic category and he laughed when she crossed herself in the Catholic manner.
“What you want, Evil One?”
“It is not what he wants, but I.” Sif stepped forward and smiled.
Taken aback by the appearance of another stranger in her home, Pia shuffled over to her chair and collapsed into the soft cushion again.
“I apologize for our unannounced arrival, but I feel it is important I get to know your family.” Tucking a lock of spun gold behind her ear, the goddess knelt beside the chair the old woman occupied. The older female watched her like a hawk, not saying a word.
“Here My Lady.” Loki offered the footstool to Sif that he’d located under a table.
He then perched on the arm of the chair on Pia’s other side and decided to enlighten the old woman. “Let me help you recall how we met. You may not remember me at all, I was only a bird in the sky, but I am sure you have not forgotten the man you called your Viking.”
The gasp emitted by the human told Sif that Loki accomplished his goal. So the Trickster had told her the truth, or at least some semblance of his version of truthfulness.
“No—no.” Pia clutched her heart with one hand. “Nobody, they know nothing about this.”
Concerned, the goddess reached over and took the limp hand lying in the human’s lap. The rapid heart rate she discovered at the pulse point told Sif how distressed the woman had become. “You have nothing to fear from us.” Using her powers, she sent soothing energy to calm down Pia’s speeding heartbeat.
Pia removed her hand from her heart and pressed the fingers against her trembling lips. “How did you find out?” she asked in Italian.
Switching to the lady’s native language presented no problem for Sif. “Loki is the Lord of Tricks and he is a friend of the deity known among your people as Odin. He will share with you what he knows.”
“The man…” The stern glance from Sif caused him to stop and start over, changing into the language of Pia’s homeland. “The man you encountered on the hillside in Rome was Odin, the chief divinity of the Norse kingdom of Asgard.”
“You are trying to trick me. He said his name was Huginn.” Pia sat up straighter in her chair and cast a disbelieving look at the impish looking man.
A smile played around Loki’s lips at the mention of one of Odin’s ravens and Sif stifled a sigh. So like her husband’s father to take the name of a pet on one of his wanderings in another world.
“No.” The Lord Jester’s lips twitched again. “He tricked you, even down to the patch he wore over his eye that you thought made him look like a pirate. The fact is, he has a blind eye and no matter what form he chooses to change into, the eye still does not see. He can only contain the glow of his good eye when he desires to not frighten someone.” Loki stepped away from the chair to the center of the room. “I too, have the ability to change forms. Do you remember this one?” Suddenly a falcon set on the floor where once the deity stood.
Half rising from her chair, Pia’s legs appeared to give out and she fell back with a plop. “You…you, no wonder Huginn…er…Odin watched as you circled above us each day. I did find a bird of prey following us through the hills to be strange.” She sighed and a look of sadness crossed her face. “But, I was young and foolish. I thought I was in love.”
“Ah, you were in love and so was Odin.” Loki changed forms and came to sit on the floor beside Pia’s chair.
“How can that be if what you tell me is true? I was just a young foolish mortal woman.”
“Not in his eyes. Or should I say not to his good eye.” He peered up at her with an impish grin.
Pia laughed and shook her head. “That seems so long ago and a dream.” She looked down at the wrinkled hands clasped in her lap and grimaced.
“Yes, but you’ve never stopped loving the golden Viking that you spent those happy hours exploring the hillsides with, have you?”
“No. I have kept him here.” She tapped her heart. “Even though he broke it. He sent me away to marry the man my parents selected. ‘I do not love you,’ he said.”
The pain of remembering played across Pia’s face and Sif’s tender nature ached for the woman. “He realized a marriage to another of your kind was best for you. A very unselfish act for one not prone to thinking of others if there is no benefit to him.” She squeezed the bony fingers. The agony the poor woman must have endured all these years in loving someone she thought didn’t love her. But that pain may have been minor compared to what might have been. Aging and the end of life were unavoidable in this world. Biting her lip again at the thought of what her son proposed to do, she held back the tears burning her eyes.
“My husband was a good man. That I could never love him the way he deserved was not his fault.” A single tear slid down Pia’s cheek, following a path of wrinkles. “He gave me five handsome sons and a beautiful daughter. What more should a woman want?”
“The love of her life.” Sif massaged the age spotted hand she again held in hers. “What female, whether she be mortal or immortal, does not wish for her true love?” She received that in Thor. Yes, the Thunder God could be stubborn at times and quick of temper, but she knew also how deeply he loved. Blessed, she was when he selected her.
“Tell me about your family,” the goddess encouraged her new friend.
“Why do you want to know about my family? They know nothing of my lost love, only that my parents arranged my marriage to their father.” Pia moved to stand and the deities both assisted in her in the effort, exchanging looks as they did so.
“Your granddaughter has a new man in her life, does she not?”
Sif nodded encouragement for Loki to continue.
“Yes, yes. You people know too much. I think this old woman is dreaming.” Pia shuffled toward the tiny kitchen. “I’m going to make espresso. You want some?” Not waiting for an answer, she proceeded with the preparations for the strong brew. “If you leave dirty cups then I guess I’ll know your visit isn’t a dream.”
“To answer your question on why we ask about your family,” Loki continued. “Does Galvin remind you of anyone?”
“You look better as a bird,” she muttered and pressed the button to start the machine. “Maybe you should stay that way and then you don’t ask so many dumb questions.”
Sif covered her laugh with a cough into her hand. She liked this feisty human. Having her in the family would be a source of great amusement and she could see making many trips into this world to share coffee and stories with her.
If Galvin did accomplish his goal of becoming mortal, visits here would be the only way she’d get to see her son as long as he…the lump in her throat choked her and she could no longer let her mind drift down that road.
&nb
sp; “Okay, Mister Smarty Pants, who do you, think Galvin reminds me of?” Pia placed a mug of brew in front of Loki with a thud, sloshing the contents over the sides.
Wiggling his eye brows at her, he grinned. “Guess.”
“Pia, our friend is playing games with you. You see, I am married to one of Odin’s sons and Galvin is from our marriage.”
Hooded eyes appraised her and Sif fought a sudden moment of discomfort under the close scrutiny.
“I see. He,” she scowled at Loki, “thinks I remember the man of my youth when I look at your son.”
“My son has many attributes of his grandfather as well as his father, Thor.”
“Maybe that is why I like him. He does not look so much like the man I remember, but there is something in the way he looks at me…a thing I do not see in the eyes of others.”
“Wisdom, maybe,” Loki muttered and took a quick sip of coffee. “Ouch, that is hot. I burned my tongue.”
“What. You expected a cup with steam coming off of to hold cold drink?” Pia shot him a look of disgust and Sif bit her cheek to hold back a giggle.
Turning her back on the sulking male, the old woman focused her attention to the goddess. “So, my Bella has made the same mistake I made. She has fallen in love with a god.” Her chin dropped to her chest.
“There is a difference.” Sif saw the gray head pop up and laughed. “My son wants to marry your granddaughter. That is why I came, to get to know more about the family of which he will become a member.” She smiled at the old woman and met her gaze.
Dark, deep-set eyes stared back, waiting for her to continue.
“You said you have five sons and a daughter. Who is the parent of Isabella?”
“My Angela.” Pride sounded in the simple statement and told Sif the daughter was her mother’s favorite.
“Do Angela and her husband have other children from their union?” Uncomfortable with the interrogation tactics that came out of her mouth, Sif worried she’d offend the woman with how she asked her questions. But Pia didn’t appear to notice.
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