“A little after twelve. We were home a little after one-thirty because of the car trouble. About fifteen minutes before you came home.”
“I heard them come in,” Mary lied, “right before you.”
Well, Old Pete said to himself, that didn’t give them much time. Besides it was their first night out together. And she was no tramp.
“I gotta go,” Old Pete said.
“You driving?” Nick asked. “I have to go to Foster and see about the car. Then I’ll be home, Mother, if you need any help.”
“I don’t think I’ll need you today, Nick. You know what an organizer I am. Of course there’ll be the family dinner here, tonight. For the bride and groom. You know about that, don t you?”
“No. I didn’t know about it,” Nick said, knowing that this dinner wasn’t one he could very well get out of and thinking he would have to change his date with Nora until later.
“Come on, son, we’ll take the train together. You can get oft Foster and grab a bus down to near Sheridan. Come on. It’s been a long time since we took the train together.”
“That’s the way I like to see father and son.” Mary said.
“All right, Dad,” Nick said. “I’ll hurry and finish eating.”
“Now don’t you rush, Nick,” Mary said. “After all you’ve been through you should be careful of what and how you eat.”
On the train, Old Pete talked quite a bit about business and about how much the wedding was going to cost him and how he hoped that as soon as all this disruption the wedding had caused was over that Nick would start down at the office. Really, Old Pete needed him very bad. And strictly, confidentially, he was real worried about his partners the Stratos brothers. He also told Nick, strictly confidentially, that he had had lunch with Pierro a few days before and he wouldn’t be surprised if Pierro wasn’t going to ask Marci Preston to marry him, which came as quite a surprise to Nick. In fact. Old Pete said, Marci was the only outsider, outside of Pat of course, who was coming to the family dinner for the bride and groom tonight. Then Old Pete expressed considerable concern about the groom, Sophia’s husband to be. He, Old Pete, had had a long talk with him and the fellow had some crazy ideas about going into politics in Baltimore. “Jesus,” Old Pete said, “I can understand a man going into politics after he’s established himself. You get the right job then and you could become rich in a few years. But, for Christ’s sake, he hadn’t even begun to practice as yet. What was the use him going to Harvard all those years just to try and get some small time political job. I tell you, Nick, the war has made this younger generation crazy. Ca-ra-zy.”
Nick got off at Foster. He had to wait over an hour for the car, then drove home. He called Nora and told her that he would be tied up until late because of the family dinner for the bride and groom, would she mind if they made it later that night. Say around eleven-thirty or twelve. She said she wasn’t feeling too well anyhow and thought they’d best call the whole thing off; she didn’t want to stay up too late and not look nice for him for the wedding. She was very logical, and very sweet, and very sincere on the phone and there wasn’t very much he could do except agree with her.
He went to the beach and later Yvonne and Pat joined him there. They spent most of the day on the beach. The dinner was set for eight that night, cocktails at seven. The bride and groom arrived with the groom’s mother and father who were very old-world Greek and spoke hardly any English. Then the best man and his wife, and the matron of honor arrived together. Nick was talking to Pat over in one corner of the room much to the delight of Old Pete and much to the delight of Pat’s father, Old John Rakis. The last ones to arrive were Pierro and Marci, of course. Nick would have bet his whole nine thousand they would be last as soon as he had heard that Marci was coming with Pierro. Well, not nine thousand anymore. Not with the expenses for the trip and the purchase of the island. More like seventy five hundred, he thought.
Pierro, obviously rather ashamed of the immigrant appearance of the mother and father of the groom-to-be, and the fact that they hardly spoke any English, drifted over to near where Nick and Pat were chatting.
“Well, how’s the fair-haired boy of the Strattons?” Nick greeted Pierro, extending his hand. They shook and Nick said hello to Marci. Pat had already met them at a cocktail party earlier in the week, and was especially fond of Marci, and impressed by the brilliant record that Pierro had made in school.
“I hope you had a nice trip,” Pierro said to Nick politely.
“We had a hell of a trip,” Nick said. He said hell purposely, toughly, knowing that if he talked and acted crudely it would penetrate that innate sense of snobbery that bothered him so. “We fished a lot. And got a lot. And didn’t drink too much. And went to Palm Beach for two days. I’ll tell you about Palm Beach sometime when we’re alone,” he said throwing it in the best way he could.
Marci was not thrown. “I love Palm Beach,” she said.
“Well, I don’t really know too much about Palm Beach itself,” Nick said. “I mean I know the clubs over there at night. My activities usually centered around West Palm. You look wonderful, Marci. When do you go on the road?”
“I’m not sure I’m going now. Father’s been rather ill lately and I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get away. I should know next week.”
“Will you miss it?” Nick asked.
“I don’t know. It’s an outlet in many ways,” she said. “Have you heard Pat sing?” Marci asked Nick. “She’s the one who ought to be on the stage.”
“It’s terrible,” Pierro said, “to think your father won’t let you exercise your talent.”
“I don’t mind being home with my father,” Pat said. “After all, he’s old and all alone.”
“Yes,” Pierro said in a meditative way, “but nevertheless no one, your family especially, should interfere with your work. If your work is your happiness. They couldn’t possibly love you if they did.”
“There are different ways to love,” Pat said. “I don’t think love is a very considerate thing to begin with. It’s possessive.”
Nick looked at her.
“You’ve been in love so young?” Pierro asked, in that superior way of his.
Nick wanted to belt him right then and there. “Sometimes you’re pretty crude yourself, Pierro,” Nick said. “That’s a hell of a question to ask a young lady. Anyone, for that matter.”
“I wasn’t prying,” Pierro said. “But after all, when you make a statement on such a complex subject you wonder what the basis of it is.”
It (love) was possessive all right. Pat knew that ever since she had been out with Nick. She wanted Nick and didn’t want anyone else to have any of him. She wanted him for her. She even found herself quite jealous of Yvonne at the beach this afternoon. The sudden jealousy had horrified her at first. Jealous of his own sister.
Nick was not at all impressed with the groom-to-be, except for the fact that he had been quite a football player. They talked about football for a while. He was a very big man, at least six-four and dark with a large nose.
Old John Rakis, Pat’s father, was very nicely drunk by the time dinner was over and Old Pete suggested that Pat and Nick drive him back to the Edgewater where he was staying. He had, before he suggested this, gone out into the kitchen and told Yvonne that she was not to go even if Nick and Pat asked her.
They drove him back to his hotel. He was very friendly with Nick. He said that he felt Nick was like his own son and invited them inside for a drink. Nick didn’t want to go up to his room but suggested they have a drink at the bar, which was fine with him. He was really quite drunk and kept on patting his daughter and saying how wonderful and sweet she was, no one had a daughter like her, and that he would kill anyone who did anything to hurt her. And said how much he would like to have a son and ordered another drink even though Nick objected. When they were done with that Nick and Pat walked him to the elevator and left.
He drove straight to the Winnetka beach. He parked by the e
dge of the cliff in front of the beach walk and talked to her and they listened to music on the car radio and he held her close. After a while the park policeman came around with his flashlight. Nick got out and talked to him for a few moments. His name was Smitty and Nick had known him ever since he was very small. Smitty said it would be all right for Nick to leave the car there and take a walk on the beach. Nick slipped him two dollars and told him to buy himself a drink.
They went down on the beach. It was a still, warm night with a full moon now and the lake was flat calm except for a few swells a little way out. They waded in the shallows, then they walked far back to where the cliff edge met the beach and sat down in the sand. It was the same thing as the night before. But she told him how she was in love with him and wanted him but was somehow afraid and afraid, if she did, he would lose all respect for her. Once they begin to speak about it that way it was all over, Nick knew. So they went home and he kissed her goodnight very tenderly, feeling really very sorry for her, feeling really she was more a child than she had even at first appeared and trying to tell himself that it was only a little school-girl crush on her part, but something else telling him that it was more than that with her, in spite of her age, and this disturbed him greatly. He could not sleep. He read from midnight until four in the morning. When he went to sleep finally he went easily, without knowing it, the light on and the book in his hand.
Nick slept late. The wedding was set for four at the Saint James Greek Orthodox Church, the bishop himself presiding. The house was bustling when he awoke and he went down and fixed himself some toast and coffee. The phone rang continuously and Mary was trying to get Sophia organized enough so that they could get down to their suite at the Edgewater, which was not far from the church, and where Sophia would dress. It was a very warm day and when Nick caught his mother between phone calls he asked her if there was anything he could do. She said the best thing he could do would be to get out of the house, preparing the bride was woman’s work, which was fine with him. He went to the beach. As he came down the walk to the beach he noticed Ellen sitting with several other girls and skirted around them and went far up the beach swimming and walking. When he came back she was gone and he went home. It was after three and there was no one there except the maid. It felt strange and peaceful in the house all alone. The trees stood tall around the big house and the house was cool from the shade and after the beach. He sat down by the big stone fireplace in his swimming trunks marveling at how really peaceful it seemed here in his own home alone. Then he decided he had better start to get dressed to go pick up Nora. He gave her a call intending to tell her to be sure and be ready on time, that though the invitations said four the wedding would start no later than four fifteen.
“Nick,” she said over the phone in that endearing way she had. “Would you mind if I didn’t go to the church with you? I’ve been thinking about it. I don’t know your family. Or any of those people for that matter, and I’m afraid I’d feel rather uncomfortable.”
“You’re really welcome, Nora. I’ve been telling my family all about you.”
“Please, Nick,” she asked. “You know I get so nervous sometimes. You can pick me up right after the ceremony. I’ll be much better company if you pick me up afterwards. I do want us to have lots of fun tonight.”
Nick understood. After all, she wasn’t Greek, didn’t understand Greek, didn’t know anyone (he thought) outside himself who would be there. Besides, maybe she didn’t want to go into an Orthodox church. Lots of Catholics were that way about going into another church. “Sure, Nora, I understand.”
“The orchid’s beautiful, Nick. I think it’s the most beautiful flower I’ve ever had.” He noticed the relief in her voice.
“I’ll be there around five-thirty then. I’m sorry you’re not coming. But I do understand.”
“I knew you would, Nick. I’ll see you then.”
“You feel all right?”
“Fine. And you?”
“I’ll show you how I feel, later.”
“I’ll like that Nick. I’ll like that very much. I’ve missed you, Nick,” she said and there was that strange turbulence in her voice that made his breathing come suddenly heavier and he felt flesh bumps on his arms.
They said goodbye and he stood there for a moment next to the telephone thinking about her, about the way she was.
He dressed and went down to the church. It was very warm in the church and he managed to get a seat at the very end of the pew on the bride’s side, right near a side door. The church was full of incense and very crowded. Everyone, almost three hundred and fifty, who had been invited to the church were invited to the reception at the Grand Ballroom of the Edgewater Beach Hotel.
The choir came in first all dressed in black and holding white candles; then came the four young novices in their black robes holding larger candles; then came four priests robed in white and gold brocade spraying incense, and following them at a respectable distance came the tall bearded bishop with his jeweled crown and his tall staff, stately, well over six feet, wide shouldered, with bright sweet eyes and a roughhewn, yet kindly, face, chanting as he proceeded up the aisle. Then the chorus began to chant a Greek chant and then those in the procession took their proper places on the altar and after a few minutes’ wait, during which one of the older guests fainted (undoubtedly due to the added heat caused by the candles) came Old Pete proudly in his morning suit with the neat little pearl in the center of his gray-black cravat, looking for all the world like some distinguished banker, the bride on his arm, and Old Pete misty eyed with pride and joy and the fact that he, a once penniless immigrant, was giving such a wedding as this.
Nick thought the ceremony was beautiful as he had always thought all Greek Orthodox wedding ceremonies were. It was not a solemn ceremony like most. The bridal party danced around the bishop in a dance of joy and happiness, the bride and groom holding olive leaves over each other’s heads. Mary cried continuously all during the ceremony as did Pierro’s and Sophia’s old bent-from-arthritis-mother whom Mary had dressed immaculately and dignifiedly in a simple gray long dress with a gray hat to match. It was the first time, Nick remembered, since her husband had died that he had seen her dressed in anything but black. God, he thought, that was over fifteen years ago at least.
Nick looked around and saw that quite a few of the older Greeks were crying, as was the custom, and once caught Pat’s eye and she smiled that sweet innocent smile at him and he smiled back feeling again a fatherly sort of compassion toward her. Right before the ceremony ended he slipped out the side door and went to his car and started for Nora’s. He wondered if he could get his gabardines pressed quickly somewhere before they went to the reception.
Nora was all made up but not dressed when he got there. He was sticky, sweaty, and only kissed her lightly clean and fresh as she was. She called the doorman to come quick and get his suit and took off his major’s leaves and branch insignia while he showered. Then she put on her iron and pressed his shirt.
Her pressing his shirt suddenly gave him that very homey, married feeling he had had here the first time they had ever had breakfast together, the first time he had ever had the feeling. He looked up at the oil painting of her on the wall, wondering again what was wrong with it, what there was that seem distorted to him.
“Put this board away, will you, Nick?” she said, very wifely, making him feel homier still. “I’ll make you a drink. What’ll it be?”
“Gin and anything.”
“I think I’ll drink gin, too. I had a martini already.”
“I thought you had a drink,” he said, putting the ironing board into the closet. “I mean I thought I smelled it. Feeling better?”
“Much.”
“Come here and let me kiss you.”
“That wasn’t very much of a kiss you gave me when you came in,” she smiled.
“I was dirty.”
“I liked the way you smelled.”
“I forgot who you were,�
�� he said by way of compliment.
“So quickly?”
“If you knew what I thought about sometimes.”
“I wish I did know,” she said.
“I think we ought to be late for the reception.”
“It’s your party, Nickie. I’m in no hurry.” She brought his drink over and handed it to him and reached up and kissed him on the ear. He put his arm around her and led her toward the bedroom.
The receiving line was still intact when they arrived at the Edgewater. As they went down the line Nick introduced Nora. Then, suddenly, Old Pete saw her. Instantly he went partially gray and Nora knew the Old Man had recognized her as she had thought he would. Nick wondered what was wrong with his father. Wondered if he was angry because Nick was so late.
“Sorry I’m late, Dad,” Nick said as he shook hands and kissed his father as was the custom, “but Nora couldn’t make the wedding and I had to go down and pick her up after church.”
Old Pete’s hand shook but he forced an awkward smile which Nick knew was a forced smile.
“I’ll see you later,” Old Pete whispered to Nick and turned and half-smiled at Nora, thinking what an ass Nick was making out of him, his own son bringing a common low whore to his own father’s wedding reception, about the most elegant wedding reception ever thrown by any Greek in America. Jesus, what would Lou Duck think when he saw her with Nick? Lou had been with her a lot. Christ, Nick couldn’t be that goddamn dumb not to know she wasn’t a common whore! Jesus Christ, if this ever gets out, he thought smiling and shaking hands with someone, I’ll be the laughing stock of the town. And how the hell I’m gonna tell him I know she’s a whore?
You don’t suppose she told Nick about me? he asked himself. He was sweating profusely now and turned to Mary and said he would be back in a minute all this standing and shaking of hands had made him a little shaky. Mary could see he was gray and told him to get himself a brandy, she would carry on. Jesus, Old Pete said to himself, Jesus but Nick wouldn’t do that deliberately. As he started toward the bar he noticed Nick and Nora standing and talking with the bishop. Christ, Old Pete said to himself, Christ, Lord God, what did I ever do to deserve this? Every time that kid gets around something he blows it up, ruins it! Certainly he couldn’t possibly know she was a cheap common call broad and then take her over and introduce her to the bishop. Even Nick wouldn’t do that, would he? Not unless, Oh God, Oh Lord God, you don’t suppose some old woman put the evil eye on him when he was fighting in Greece. There must be a lot of people around my home town envy my success. In spite of what I’ve done for them, that’s the way people were.
Go Naked In The World Page 40