On Joeann’s birthday, Steven came over “asking for the gift.”
“I told him I didn’t know what the hell he is talking about, what gift?
“He told me it was under my bed.”
Sure enough, the gift was under my bed. Either way, I’m not missing tonight’s party.
Robert said, “he was going to get the Soldiers involved they have tapes on everything.”
Alice, tonight you must go home with us. You can sleep with Gloria, said Grandma. Also, Gloria, please help with her bath, fix her hair and make-up. There is a dress laying on her bed.
Chapter Thirty-One
The Engagement Party
This engagement party was a Royal affair with four Princesses, Alice, Gloria, Sarah, and Joeann, four Princes Robert, Billy, Tony, and Steven. The people at the party were notable Brooklynites, including gangsters, politicians, vendors and business owners. The Royal family and Court were in chaos and unable to attend the party.
The pleasant surprise was Queen Elizabeth showed up. She wouldn’t miss the Prince and Princess engagement no manner what. Just to see Alice’s face as Robert’s proposed to her would be precious. The family was sitting at a large round table with the center of attending beginning on the engagement couples. The four girls all in tears were holding each other the young men were having a problem proposing and with the first dance coming up it was a mess. Elizabeth straightens the mess out by taking each male’s hand and giving it to his partner and told them not to let go. The Grandmas Lily and Marie were bawling about their babies and the backyard, and putting them to sleep, and now they were getting married.
Each of the tables was overflowing with Italian appetizers, including individual bites of prosciutto sandwiches, charred ricotta in individual cups of fried ‘Buffalo’ cheese. Thinly sliced prosciutto wrapped around chilled marinated asparagus. Also, roasted red peppers and anchovies, marinated with Sicilian olive oil and aged balsamic vinegar, hot green peppers and, black olives stuffed with crab. Chips of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese impressed with pine nuts, shrimp scampi, with clarified garlic butter and lemon, Freddie’s Italian crusted hard bread.
Bottles of champagne were opened and put on each tale, for the toasts.
We are not done yet. As an entrée: there was pizza and pasta. Freddy DeVan was famous for his pizzas. He made the dough each day; he used a starter batch from the prior day (like sourdough). The recipe for the bread came out of Naples, also, the Iron Pizza oven. Buffalo Mozzarella and Plum Tomatoes sauce covered the top of the pizzas. It then went into a 1000-degree furnace for a few minutes. They added a little of Parmigiana-Reggiano along with a dash of red pepper to the pizza, while it was on its way to the table.
Each table received two large bowls of steaming hot pasta. Dishes and utensils were waiting for use. One pot held a red sauce with meatballs and sausage the other bowl contained fresh clams with olive oil and sautéed garlic.
The crowd favorite was and always will be the waiter severed, open bar.
We sat down, the guys and girls couldn’t wait to order ‘Seven & Sevens.’ Everyone in Brooklyn did three things in the Fifty’s; drink (Seven & Sevens), gamble, and fight. I can’t remember the fourth thing.
Alice looked incredible; her long black hair was put up in a beehive style, her makeup was knock down get out of my way sizzling. She was wearing a sharp looking black cocktail dress, with a white half-slip showing. Alice had on shiny black high heels and the most fabulous smile since the one who gave out the apples.
Grandma came running over and pulled down her dress while complaining that she was growing every day.
I put a gold necklace with a cross on her neck and kissed her.
The party got started with a toast giving by Alice’s Father. He said I am the happiest man in Brooklyn, my daughter Alice and my two Sons Tony, and Steven are getting married, Period.
Everyone in the crowd stood up, clapped and cheered. The guest included notable Brooklynites, including gangsters, politicians, and celebrities’
There were three tables for personal friends, including St. Lucius’s Priests and Nuns and students.
Alice was on cloud nine with all the gifts, hugs, and kisses she received.
Chapter Thirty-One
Military
Robert and Alice are on their way to ‘Fort Barlow.’ Their pickup truck’s lights bounce off a wall of solid fog. The only evidence is proving the vehicle was moving on the odometer.
The vehicle and its occupants appeared to be in a movie projector, with the film looping the same scene.
Since the odometer pointed to the number sixty, the young man knew they still moved forward.
He had driven this vehicle with its attached ‘Air Stream,’ from the Country of ‘Brooklyn,’ to the middle of the ‘Allegheny Mountains, West Virginia.’ They entered the United States at the ‘Staten Island’ border after getting off the Carl Furillo bridge (A/K/A Verrazano). Their passports (Embossed Brooklyn ‘Dodgers’ baseball cards) with some cash passed to border agents they entered the United States.
The couple was on their way to an obscure Military Base, named ‘Fort Barlow.’ According to the Soldiers, they were a few hundred miles from their destination. They said the ‘Fort’ was in a valley surrounded by a chain of Mountains. This mysterious Base had no Plane, train or bus service. The only entrance and exit were an ancient dirt road.
The United States Defense Department drafted Robert and Alice to the ‘Special Defense Force.’
It would have been stupid for ‘The Country of Brooklyn’ to have their own Armed Forces. This small new nation only has 300,000 thousand residents. Its military force consists of one tank, which is cemented in place across from a library.
Instead under the leadership of their President ‘Jackie Robinson,’ they found a solution. Both nations approved the Harold ‘Pee Wee’ Reese Treaty and signed it in 1952. Under these accords, all Brooklyn citizens, men, and women must register for ‘Selected Service,’ with the United States of America, before the age of nineteen, in exchange for the latter’s Armed Forces protection.
The two young people had a month to report to Training. The news was no surprise they have already been training and living off and on with the Soldiers. Their mind-reading abilities have made them significant assets for any army.
“At a lunch stop, the young woman reviewed the long list of requirements for graduation from the Soldier’s basic training course. When Alice got to the section where one must jump out of a plane and glide to the ground, without a paratrooper; she told her boyfriend they would have to throw my ass out of the aircraft. She then punched (Fake) him in the head, knocking him to the ground, as Alice demanded that she not only have her bathroom and sleeping quarters but also, she has a higher rank than him.”
“Robert said she would have to shower with the other trainees and that everyone slept in the same room. Hearing this, the girl bent down and knocked him down with one punch, again.”
Back on the road, he turned on the radio, because the girl had stopped talking to him which meant she either was sleeping or fell out of the pickup truck. But she had to be close because she still had two of her fingers wrapped around one of his belt loops. It was a habit she picked up when she was a baby.
The young woman started this trip sitting as far away from him as possible. She was leaning against the right-side door, but he knew after she fell asleep, she would move towards him. He would wait until she was next to him and then he would put his arm around her, pull her as close as he could while trying to squeeze a sight out of her.
The girl was wearing a bright scarf over her head. The wrap was trying to hold back a pitch-black horde of hair, but it lost its battle, and the hair spilled out over her shoulders and down her back. She was sleeping with a face full of dreams; it now covered with her long black hair. She didn’t care because she was lying next to and on
her man. When she was out of sleep, she would wake, look at him and whisper, you’re a pig, Robert.
The fog machine left as the truck drove up an over a short steep hill and around a rising bend. At the top of the foothill, there was a scenic parking area off to the right of the road. Robert pulled over and stopped. He told her they would fill-up at a ‘Service Station’ located right below. Also, if she wanted, they could stay over.
The boy and the girl got out to look around. In front of them stood a broad pastoral valley packed full of small homes and a few churches. It was getting dark, some of the windows in the houses were flickered light or were they sending a signal to their loved ones to get home? Smoke was bullying its way out of a few chimneys, also, shouting it’s time to come back for dinner.
The dirt road ran around the basin and out back into the incoming mountains, it looked like an endless trail with no beginning and no end, going back centuries.
The couple got back into the pickup and drove around the hill dragging the airstream. They stopped at a new looking petrol depot which stood by itself on the side of the road, with Schaefer beer and Lucky Strike signs decorated the station. Rows of similar stoned homes stood behind it.
A middle-aged woman followed by two young children ran out of the small station to greet them. The pickup truck, with its odd-looking trailer, made a hell of a lot of noise as it pulled in.
‘Nit and Wit’ were the first ones out of the trailer, they kissed the ground and thank ‘God’ for their safe landing. Lily Kemble (Dog) jumped out and went over to where a group of rabbits was chasing each other. With all the noise and excitement, a small group of people, made up of women, children, and pets came running to see what was going on.
The pickup truck’s door made a sharp piercing sound as it was being torn open. Alice Marie Devan Lover stepped out of the vehicle lifted her arms to the sky in a stretch, inhaled and breathe in the fresh air. She looked down and found around twenty people on their knees, and their heads bowed.
Alice turned and said ‘Honey Jerk’ we have visitors.
Robert walked around the pickup and said, please stand up. She, not a queen, she only a Princess and my ex-girlfriend, and ducked to get away from her swing.
He ran away, Alice was right behind him, hearing laughter behind her. She stopped, turned around and a bunched of kids, and all sort of pets knocked her to the ground, she laughed. Alice sat up and threw the children, with a shout of glee to Robert who held them up, one at a time, as high as he could (Robert was about seven feet tall) then handed the child to one of the many waiting teenagers.
They left Alice with a baby goat on her lap and a small girl attached to her leg. She stood up gave the goat to “Nit,” and pulled the remaining child off one of her long legs and gather it into her arms. She left the child there because she could feel the heat coming out of its body.
She carried the child next to her chest because Alice knew the baby had a fever. Alice asked the woman who was running the service station “if she would take her to the child’s mother?”
The lady said my name is “Trudy, this my daughter Isabell.” It is our turn to run the station. Most of the business come from the town for snacks, cigarettes, and beer. There is little traffic here just trucks carrying supplies to the Fort.
Alice and Trudy took the sick child home. While Robert played with the children acting like he was “Frankenstein taking big steps with his arms straight out while saying “I’m going to get you.” Nit and Wit were so scared they hid under ‘The Reporter’s and Sally’s bed. The Reporter pulled them out and threw them into Robert’s arms.”
Alice could hear the screaming a mile away, while she examines the sick child’s mother. It was concluded that the mother and her daughter had the flu. Alice had both patients removed to the Airstream to be checked out again. Sally will take care of the Mother and child, and as soon as they stop screaming, Nit and Wit will help.
The mother was waiting for her husband to come home and take them to the doctor. She said, “I talked to him last night he should be in by tomorrow, and we all can go to Fort Barlow.”
Alice said, you are coming with me Dear we will be at the Fort tomorrow afternoon. Your husband can meet you there. We have medication for you and your daughter, which you need right now.
Everybody moved on to the trailer where Sally and the ‘Reporter’ greeted them as if they were Queens. Alice examined the two ladies. She said, ‘Yes’ they do have the flu, but it is not contagious. The Princess gave them each a flu shot. She said Jeannie could walk around with us, and she turned the baby over to her two maids. The child laughed all night with the two nut cases as nurses.
The little village was lovely. It looked like Ireland in the Spring. There were homes as far as you could see. Each one had a truck farm, a few apple trees, farm animals, everything was clean. There were about fifty log cabins of different sizes and shapes where they were. Three or four church structures were stuck in various places.
A large Meeting Hall located in the center of the town, with a gin mill attached, seemed to hold the place together. It contained the water and utility department. And a post office. There was an empty room with the name ‘Queen Elizabeth’ on the door. There was no hospital, doctors, drug stores or police department in the in this large colony. There was no one in charge. A small committee was working on developing a school system, but the upcoming war was holding things off.
These homes were built for the Soldiers and their families. Each family took turns covering the station. All the active Soldiers, men, and women were on duty; some even were traveling with Alice and Robert (About 100) during their trip to Fort Barlow.
The town was overwhelmed with small baby animals; it looks like a large open aired ‘Petting Zoo.’
Alice wanted to meet the Soldiers’ families, so the group from Brooklyn settled in the Meeting Hall. ‘Nit and Wit’ and some teenagers carried and or dragged their stuff from the pickup truck and ‘Air Stream’ trailer into the hall.
They instructed Robert (By Alice) to prepare spaghetti for all. They placed a couple of bottles of red wine along with a keg of ‘Schafer’ beer on a table near the door, along with wine glasses and chilled beer mugs.
The townsfolk brought the making for an outstanding salad, with fresh ingredients: Roman lettuce and the firm bite of celery, minced sweet onions, covered with bright thin sliced tomatoes, hot radishes, and new green olives.
The salad was given the breath of life by a dressing of garlic, parsley, olive oil, and aged vinegar. Shakers of salt and black pepper were waiting on the tables. Plates of thinly sliced Prosciutto, along with Parmigiana and Pecorino cheese were protecting the massive salad bowl. Loaves of homemade bread were placed in large baskets. An Irish made butter seemed to be the hit of the night. A couple of ladies decided that theirs’s were better and approached the Princess in one in authority to make a decision. During this event, the communications between the Robert and Alice was terrific, it was controlled by the Princess, and there was no debate since she was under her dad and mom Sandra the 4th was the one in charge, her husband King, John was second and my ar the most admired Princess was Alice. They decided to take over this long now, and during their speech, they plan to straighten things out. Alice was in shock this was the first time
Simple pasta made with crushed fresh tomatoes cooked in a red meat gravy, with various Italian spices were served at each table by the Reporter and Sally. The pasta used was a thin ‘Paramount’ noodle made and brought from Brooklyn. They cooked the ‘Pasta’ ‘Ala Dente’ and brought it out steaming hot.
During dinner and after, Alice sat in an armchair, taking and listening to the village women, who sat in chairs around her. It surprised her to hear a few local families are moving to a country named ‘Brooklyn’ to join their husbands.
At first, the village women thought Alice was just a big, gorgeous, female goofball. Bu
t, after being with her, listening to her, and talking to her they knew she was a real Princess, and Robert was her knight.
The women with a child or two in their hands asked Alice a million questions. She answered as many as she could. But Alice also, talked to the women about girl stuff like do you think Robert is hot? Or did the ladies here ever wear lipstick or makeup or go out dancing? The answer was yes.
They said Robert was lucky. Alice told them she would put on a new shorty nightgown for him tonight. Everyone gasps and then laughed.
The women, without realizing it could not stop talking to Alice. They told her everything about their lives. The good things, their dreams, and wishes, and wants and their needs.
Some women and children in attendance were, Soldiers themselves being reborn from the past for a second chance. They had no idea what the future would bring to them? That is until Alice and Robert appeared. Now they could see a chance of a healthy future for their families, and now they understood why the Soldiers loved these two Gods.
The second chance people didn’t have to say anything, about their past to Alice because she knew.
They passed all relevant information to Robert. Meanwhile, he was getting drunk with the men from the town in a packed ‘pub.’ He spent the night answering questions concerning his battles in the ring. After a while, they demanded to see him in his very tiny fighting shorts. Robert thought was an excellent idea, he ran off to the ‘Air Stream,’ found them, put them on and was off to show Alice before returning to the ‘Pub.’ As he approached the ladies with Alice’s back to him, the surrounding ladies looked shocked turned the heads and put their hands over their children’s eyes, not all the ladies looked away.
Alice asked as she was turning red what is he wearing?
One woman said, “He naked.”
Another said no that’s his fighting pants. I saw them on television. My husband got me a pair for Christmas.
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