“Do I have a big ‘L’ on my forehead?” I teased.
“Turkey! No. I started to say maybe more mature, but now I’m not so sure!” Katie pushed me off the bed. “You may be a turkey, and tomorrow is turkey day, but we’ve got to get some food now.”
Chapter Sixty-three
Thanksgiving Break
Katie and I awoke early to a shawl-like fog draping down the hills. It felt like vacation. We shifted about slowly in the bed, blankets coddling us. We made instant cocoa with our heater.
“Mmm. I feel lazy,” Katie said.
I yawned. “You have plenty of time to loll about. I’m going to have to chat with my father before we leave.”
“Right, well, send your mom up when they arrive. She can help me pack.”
“Good idea. This is my final fear for the day, maybe for the year,” I said.
“That would be something.” Katie smirked.
“Hey!”
“Joking, sweetie.” She yawned and chuckled at the same time. “What’ll you tell him?”
“Don’t know. Besides, my mother must have told him the basics. She told him about Athena.”
“Yeah. I’ll help if you want.”
“Thanks, but let me do this one. Hey, there’s their car pulling up,” I said, glancing out the window.
“Break a leg! You know, your figurative leg, sweetie.”
****
My parents had arrived. I was a bit nervous, but I bounded down the stairs to meet them.
“Hey Mommy and Daddy.” I kissed my mother, who immediately said, “And Katie?”
“Upstairs. Go help her pack, Mommy.”
My mother disappeared as if by plan.
“Hi, Daddy.” I leaned in the window opened for his cigarette smoke.
“Hi, toots!” He pulled the unfiltered Raleigh from his lips and kissed me.
“You want to sit in the parlor?” I asked.
“How about you show me that pond?” My father had his arm around my shoulder as we walked down the gravel path leading to the stocked pond. “You have to bring me fishing here sometime. Nice brown trout.” He squatted on a stump and lit up another Raleigh. “I heard the good news that you’re staying.”
“Wow! News gets around. Sure, we could even ice fish.”
“Too cold for my blood. Doc called your mother yesterday. He said you helped to solve an important case.”
“Did he?”
“You know, toots…”
Uh oh, I thought, here it comes. I’d have to hear it sooner or later.
“You do know, don’t you…” I faltered.
Dammit, spit it out.
“I am so proud of you. Being up here, showing all those fancy pants you can hold your own.”
I fought back the tears and said in a quiet voice, “Thank you, Daddy.”
“Yup. You certainly hold your own. That’s a Mazzini for you. Your aunt, boy she was a tough one. Capotosta, a real thick head. But look at where it got her.”
“Yeah. Mommy said you taught her everything she knows,” I teased.
“Wait one minute, smarty pants.”
“Daddy, I love you.”
“Come here, toots. You’re okay in my book. Just don’t embarrass your mother. You know she wants people to think she’s the Queen of England.”
“Daddy.” I slapped him on the wrist.
“Before you go up to get your things, I wish you could have spoken up sooner. Authority or no, nobody’s going to blackmail my family! Putana!” My father spit out tobacco along with the curse.
“Daddy!”
“Now go and don’t tell your mother I’ve been teaching you Italian curses.”
****
Katie and my mom had packed my bag and were descending the front steps of Smythe, the same steps where Katie and I first saw the cloaked figure of Craney point in silence to our dorm.
Katie ran to my father and hugged him. He tipped his fedora and blushed.
The trunk was packed; the car was inching away along the ice-crunchy gravel. My mother immediately handed a bag of homemade chocolate chip cookies to Katie and me.
We sat munching in the backseat, both of us sporting stupid grins that leaked crumbs and brown smears all over our chins. We reached up to my parents, putting our hands on their shoulders to say, “Happy Thanksgiving.”
Katie and I sank all the way back, deep into the overstuffed Nash Rambler seats. We pressed our heads into the cushions and turned to look, that look, at each other. We mouthed, “I love you,” and in quiet voices said, “Happy Thanksgiving, Katie” and again, “Happy Thanksgiving, Pina!”
About the Author
Dolores grew up in Ozone Park, Queens, New York, where from the age of three she ventured away from this home on her own. While this first solo mission landed her in a nearby cathedral, her further ventures brought her to great physical and psychic distances from Ozone Park.
In addition to teaching foreign languages, and selling antiques, Dolores worked as a psychotherapist with children, teens, and couples and published reference books on lesbians and psychotherapy and child custody.
Dolores lives in Portland, OR and Borrego Springs, CA with her wife, Terrie, and Murphy, the rescue poodle, and Xander, the lynx point critic. She enjoys hiking and gardening with Terrie and Murphy and birding with Xander, from the safety of his indoor perch.
Other books by the author
Death and Love at the Old Summer Camp ISBN - 978-1-943353-77-4
For Pina, summer 1959 started off a boring drag, just like every other summer with her folks at Owl Lake Lodge in Maine. The only good thing was seeing Katie and hanging out with her in the creepy cabins of the old boys’ camp. But this summer, Katie seemed different, cuter. Pina didn’t have a clue why. Katie just somehow made her nervous – and excited.
Another thing rattling Pina’s nerves were her dreams; well, not exactly sleep dreams, but awake dreams. All fine and good, but they came from her dead Sicilian grandmother, and they told her things, crazy things, love things, like her and Katie falling in love things. They also showed her dead stuff, dead like a long-time dead from the camp dead.
So the summer heated up. And so did her feelings for Katie. Things got even hotter when Katie’s dad, Doc, and his very, very close, old camp friend, Joe, started hiding camp secrets about dead stuff – and other stuff.
How hot could Pina stand it? If she didn’t want to lose this one chance for a different kind of life, could she solve the murder – and clear Doc’s name? And would Katie have her and would Pina have herself?
Other books by Sapphire Books Publishing
The Dreamcatcher - ISBN - 978-1-943353-67-5
High school is rarely easy, especially for a tall, somewhat gangly Native American girl. Add a sprinkle of shyness, a dash of athletic prowess, an above-average IQ, and some bizarre history that places her in the guardianship of her aunt. Then normal high school life is only an illusion.
Kai Tiva faces an uphill struggle until she runs into Riley Beth James, the extroverted class cutie, at the principal’s office. Riley shows up for a newspaper interview, while Kai is summoned for punching out a classmate.
Riley is the attractive girl-next-door-type whom everyone likes. Though a fairly good student, an emerging choral star, and wildly popular, she knows she’ll never live up to her older sister. She makes up for it with bravery, kindness, and a brash can-do attitude.
Their odd matchup is strengthened by curiosity, compassion, humor, and all the drama of typical teenage life. But their experiences go beyond the normal teen angst; theirs is compounded by a curious attraction to each other, and an emerging, insidious danger related to mysterious death of Kai’s father.
Their emerging friendship is tested as they navigate this risky challenge. But the powerful bond forged between them has existed through past lives. The outcome this time will affect the next generation of Kai’s people.
In the Direction of the Sun - ISBN - 978-1-943353-65-1
&nbs
p; “The emotions flying between the two women who tell their story here is as dramatic as the Appalachian Trail and as tumultuous as the Atlantic Ocean. These natural elements are a perfect backdrop for the revelations of love which both repel and engage them.”
– Jewelle Gomez, author, The Gilda Stories
Steady and smart, Alex McKenzie is settled into a comfortable life in her beloved hometown of Stockbridge, MA. Everything Alex thought she knew about life and about herself changes the moment Cate Conrad blows into town like a warm breeze. Alex falls head over heels in love with the free-spirited artist and sailor but there’s one problem: Cate’s complicated past makes it impossible for her to open her heart completely and so she does what she’s always done—she runs away. Devastated, Alex tries to heal her heart by literally walking away from her life to hike the famed Appalachian Trail while Cate takes to the water. The unexpected turn of events shows Cate and Alex how fragile life is and how love is the all that really matters.
Lavender Dreams - ISBN - 978-1-943353-59-0
When Sarah Chase got on the ferry to Bainbridge Island, she left her lover, her job, and her past behind. She didn’t know that in the course of one day she would meet a woman who might be the girl of her dreams, change her career path, create a new family, and find herself in a fairytale mansion with two of the quirkiest little old ladies imaginable.
Razor’s Edge (American Yakuza) – ISBN – 978-1-943353-81-1
Luce Potter lives by a code of honor. Push her and she shoves back, harder. There’s only one problem: Luce has just found out that revenge is a knife that cuts both ways. Now that her lover Brooke has survived the attack on her life, Luce has only one thing on her mind, and his name is Frank. Unfortunately, someone walks into her life that she didn’t see coming.
Brooke Erickson has survived an attack so brutal it’s left a permanent scar on her soul. All she wants to do now is go home and finish recuperating with her lover, Luce Potter, by her side. An unexpected event puts Brooke at the head of the Yakuza family. Can she command the respect necessary to lead it through the crisis?
Luce and Brooke’s worlds are upending. Can each do what’s necessary to survive and return to a new normal?
Meet Me in The Middle – ISBN – 978-1-943353-63-7
Veterinarian Aislin O’Shea runs a busy clinic. She wasn’t looking for a relationship. She’d already had the perfect one. She certainly wasn’t attracted to fancy pants executive, Ms. Zane Whitman - she wasn’t her type.
Zane Whitman had it all. Stellar career, wealth, exclusive social circle, and models vying for her attention. Impulsive, emotionally charged Aislin was not her type.
Two women from the opposite side of the tracks.
Neither one expects meddling from an unexpected source on the Other side.
Neither one knows the train is coming.
Over There – ISBN – 978-1-943353-55-7
A gripping romance spanning two continents…
Ruth Carroway is twenty years old and has lived in the shadow of her older brother, Frank, for as long as she can remember. Independent and head-strong, she can’t wait to escape the confines of her small hometown in Indiana. On December 7, 1941, the events a world away at Pearl Harbor set into a motion a series of changes in Ruth’s life that she never could have imagined.
With Frank at war, but still the center of his family’s attention, Ruth itches to do something, anything. Moving out, she soon finds herself rooming with Lillian, a young newlywed whose husband is also at the front. Ruth blossoms when she realizes that, not only is she “one of those girls,” it appears Lillian is as well. The war seems non-existent for the two women in the throes of new love until a sudden turn in events becomes the catalyst for Ruth’s decision to volunteer for nursing duty.
Landing in war-torn London, Ruth is forced to grow up quickly as she is thrown into the chaos and brutality of World War II. Along the way, she meets Helene, a sexy, enigmatic French nurse, eager to introduce Ruth to the ways of the world, and Tess, an all-business English nurse who she finds herself drawn to immediately.
Ruth is no longer the same small town girl from Evansville, Indiana and she is now faced with impossible choices.
Will she make the right ones?
Love and Lechery at Albert Academy Page 24