Bella Fortuna

by Rosanna Chiofalo

  Whenever Olivia went to Raquel’s apartment, she liked to imagine that she was the one living on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Though she had lived in Manhattan when she first came over from Italy, the Lower East Side paled in comparison to Raquel’s affluent, exclusive neighborhood. Even the dogs looked rich by the way they carried themselves. Olivia loved watching all the different breeds of dogs traipsing their way through the streets alongside their owners.

  Raquel had given Olivia a key to her apartment when she had found the lump in her breast. Olivia was free to use the apartment whenever Raquel was out of town, and she needed to rest before going back to Queens after one of her doctor’s appointments. Olivia had never used the key, considering it a privilege she must only take advantage of in dire circumstances. And this meeting with Salvatore was certainly a dire situation.

  She sighed as she reached Raquel’s pre-war building. A man was exiting the building as Olivia was inserting the key into the front door. She gave him a nervous smile. Surely he’d know she wasn’t one of the residents and would question why she had a key. But the man returned her smile and held the door open for her.

  Olivia pushed the elevator button and waited for it to descend. She looked through the glass doors of the front entrance, seeing if Salvatore had arrived. The elevator reached the first floor. Olivia opened the door of the elevator and stepped inside, pushing the sixth-floor button. She felt again the constriction that had been in her chest when she exited the subway station. Gripping her black patent-leather purse tightly, she struggled to take a deep breath as she got off the elevator. Rounding the corridor where Raquel’s apartment was situated, she almost screamed when she saw Salvatore leaning against the wall.

  “Sei arrivato gia.”

  “Si, si. I’m sorry. I was worried about being late and took an earlier train in from Long Island just in case there were problems with the train.”

  “How long have you been waiting?”

  “About fifteen minutes. Not too long. Don’t worry.”

  Olivia nodded her head, suddenly feeling very self-conscious. She looked for the gold key that was for the apartment and inserted it into the top lock of the door. Her hand was shaking. She hoped Salvatore hadn’t noticed. After unlocking the top lock, she then unlocked the second lock and pushed the door open. Mr. Magoo, Raquel’s dog, was waiting behind the door and gave a bark of delight when he saw Olivia. Raquel had assured Olivia that Mr. Magoo would not harass Salvatore. True to Raquel’s word, Mr. Magoo only gave Salvatore a cursory sniff of his pants leg before returning his attention once again to Olivia.

  She reached into her purse and took out a Ziploc bag containing Mr. Magoo’s favorite Palline di Limone cookies. She held one out as Mr. Magoo quickly snatched it with his mouth and seemed to swallow it whole, waiting for the next one.

  “Ha, ha! The dog knows good Italian baking.”

  Olivia smiled. “Yes, my friend Raquel is very strict with Mr. Magoo’s diet, but she lets me spoil him whenever I visit.”

  Olivia put out two more cookies by Mr. Magoo’s bowl and saved the rest for later. She didn’t want the dog to eat too much at once and then get sick.

  “Make yourself comfortable. Can I get you something to drink?”

  “Just a glass of water. Grazie.”

  This was the first time Olivia had been alone in Raquel’s apartment. She liked how it felt and again imagined that she owned this apartment. She knew where everything was from all the times she’d visited Raquel or had stayed overnight. Raquel always kept a pitcher of filtered water in her refrigerator. She poured two glasses of water for both Salvatore and herself. She then opened the produce drawer in the fridge and took out a small, sickly-looking lemon. She mentally shook her head. The produce in Manhattan was not of the same quality Olivia was accustomed to getting in the fruit stores of Astoria, but it would have to do. She cut two wedges and squeezed the juice into their water. She began to carry the glasses over when she spotted the Ziploc bag of Palline di Limone cookies she’d left on the kitchen counter to give to Mr. Magoo later. She paused and glanced at Salvatore. He was looking at the photos on Raquel’s bookshelf. Olivia walked over to the kitchen cupboards and took out a small plate. She took a few of Mr. Magoo’s cookies and placed them on the plate. Mr. Magoo looked up at Olivia as if he knew she was stealing from his stash of goodies.

  “Don’t worry. There are plenty left for you,” she whispered to Mr. Magoo.

  She placed the plate of cookies on the coffee table.

  “Ecco.”

  Salvatore smiled, looking into Olivia’s eyes, but she quickly glanced away. She sat down in the armchair opposite the couch Salvatore was now seating himself on.

  He took a bite out of a cookie.

  “Ahhh. The burst of lemon in these biscotti complements the lemon water. Perfetto!”

  “Grazie. A shot of limoncello would have suited the cookies better.”

  “Vero, but we must make do with what we have.”

  Again, Salvatore caught Olivia’s glance, and again, she darted her eyes away.

  “So, Sera. Tell me about your life since we last saw each other.”

  Olivia shrugged her shoulders. “I met Nicola, my husband. We got married, came over to America, and I had my three daughters. Nicola got cancer when my daughters were just teenagers. He died about a year after his diagnosis. My daughters and I own the wedding dress boutique.”

  Salvatore looked grim.

  “Mi dispiacio per tuo marito.”

  “Grazie. It was very hard losing Nicola, especially on the girls, but we have managed through God’s grace. He was a good man.”

  “I’m sure he was. Your daughter, who was at the shop the other day, seemed like a very fine young woman. You and your husband did a wonderful job of raising her, and I’m sure your other daughters are just as wonderful.”

  “Grazie. Francesca, your niece, seemed like a lovely woman, too. Losing both of her parents must have been so difficult for her. I can see how much she cares about you and respects you.”

  Salvatore’s eyes lit up at the mention of Francesca, and as he talked about her, his whole face became animated.

  “She’s like the child I never had. I am very blessed that I have her.”

  Olivia nodded her head and smiled. She noticed Salvatore was lightly tapping his foot against the coffee table’s leg. He was doing it softly so that no sound was made. She then realized she was swinging her leg, which was crossed over her other leg. At least she wasn’t the only one with the jitters. The silence continued for another minute. Impatient, Olivia decided to just cut to what she’d been longing to know.

  “So what happened to you all those years ago? I thought you were dead.”

  Olivia couldn’t resist saying the last sentence with sarcasm. Her notorious temper was beginning to flare.

  Salvatore’s face turned as white as Mr. Magoo’s pristine furry coat. Squinting his eyes as if in pain, he stood up and walked over to the windows in Raquel’s living room. He placed his arms behind his back, interlacing his hands. Pacing to and fro, Salvatore looked down at the Persian carpet that cloaked the hardwood floors, but Olivia was certain he wasn’t noticing the intricate weave of the carpet.

  “The story is very long, Sera.”

  “We have time. My friend told me I could have her apartment for as long as I needed it. She won’t be returning until I call her to tell her we’re finished with our discussion.”

  Salvatore nodded his head.

  “The first thing I want you to know, Sera, is that I loved you very much. That summer we spent together was the best of my life. I swear to God, and I never swear to God.”

  “Then why were you so set on going to Virginia? And don’t tell me it was because of the work at the coal mines.”

  “Sera, you know I was trying to make some money so that we could build a life together. I had nothing to offer you but the failing cotton farm I had inherited from my deceased father. As I told you back then, I jus
t wanted to work a few months in Virginia to save money to buy a trattoria and a small house after we got married. You have to believe that.”

  “It would be easier for me to believe that if you had come back and married me as you had promised to. But instead you disappeared. Since both of your parents were dead, and your sister was already living in America, I had no one to ask if they’d heard from you. Your friend Matteo told me you had an aunt who lived in Palermo, so one day I took the train out there to see if perhaps she knew something. But of course, she didn’t. She said the two of you were never close.”

  “Yes, that is true. She was my father’s sister, and there was some bad blood between them, something to do with the inheritance of the cotton farm. I was closer to my mother’s family, but as you know, they are all in Siracusa. And after my mother died, eventually the contact between them and my father and me was very little. They knew that I had gone to Virginia, and when they no longer heard from me, they thought that I had decided to stay there and make a life for myself just as my brother, Andrea, had done. I know this because, a few years ago, I traveled to Sicily and went to visit them.”

  “So they were right. You did decide to stay in Virginia.”

  “But not because I wanted to, Sera. There was an accident—in the coal mines. One day when I was excavating with the other miners, the mine collapsed.”

  “Yes, that is one fact about your time in Virginia that I know about. You see, Salvatore, after not receiving any communication from you in over a month, the thought occurred to me that perhaps something had happened to you in the mines. After much investigating, my father learned that the mine where you had been working collapsed. But he told me that there were no survivors.”

  “He must have learned of the mine collapse within the first few days after the accident when they thought there were no survivors. But after five days, when they were able to reach the area where the mine gave out, they discovered one of the other miners and me alive. I was unconscious when they found me and did not wake up until a week later.”

  “I’m so sorry, Salvatore. It must have been horrible.”

  Olivia regretted her earlier stern tone with him.

  “Well, it would have been more horrible if I had not lost consciousness, like the other surviving miner. He told me after we were rescued that he wished he were unconscious like me so he wouldn’t have to wonder each day if that was the day he was going to die alone in those mines.”

  “So why didn’t you call me after the accident to tell me you were alive, Salvatore?”

  “I lost my memory, Sera. All I could remember was my name. I didn’t even remember that I was in America. The doctors assured me the memory loss would be temporary. But for six agonizing months, I worked hard to try to puzzle together the lost fragments of my memory.”

  Olivia was crying. They were both tears of sadness for all that Salvatore had endured, but they were also tears of relief. For all these years, she’d thought that either Salvatore had died or he had abandoned her. Something in her would not believe that he was really dead when her father had given her the news of the coal mine collapse. So she had chosen to believe instead that Salvatore had willingly left her. Perhaps he had met another woman in Virginia, or the thought of returning to Sicily, where there was no assurance of work, was too much for him to bear after having regular work in America.

  Salvatore gave his handkerchief to Olivia.

  “Non piangere, Sera.”

  “I never believed you were really dead. I had moments when I would try to convince myself it was true, but my heart told me you were still alive. Even though my father told me the mine that had collapsed was the mine where you had been working, I made up a million excuses: you hadn’t gone in to work that day; my father was given the wrong information and you worked at a different mine; you’d quit working at the mine and had decided to stay in America and find some other work; you had returned to Sicily but did not choose to find me or were living in another region; you had met another woman. Every day, I thought of a new excuse. My family was so worried about me. I hardly ate or went out with my sisters or my friends. I wouldn’t even go to church or to my choir rehearsals.”

  “Sera, I did come back to Sicily. Once my memory was fully restored, I remembered you. Yours was actually one of the first faces I remembered. I kept seeing your face, but I could not put a name to the face or place where I had seen you. But as my memory slowly came back, your face kept haunting me. And when I knew who you were and remembered that you were waiting for me back home, I immediately returned to Sicily. I went to Matteo’s house first. I was nervous about seeing you again, especially since I knew so much time had passed since you’d last heard from me. I wanted to know what to expect when I found you. Matteo told me you’d gotten married and had moved to America.”

  “You did keep your promise after all, then.”

  Olivia was still crying but could not look up into Salvatore’s face. Guilt washed over her. She had not kept the vigil long enough for him even though she’d sensed he was alive.

  Salvatore tipped Olivia’s chin up, forcing her to look into his eyes.

  “I never forgot you, Sera. Why do you think I never married?”

  Olivia didn’t know what to say. This poor man had almost lost his life thousands of miles away from home, only to wake up and have no memory of who he was. Then he returned home to his country only to discover the woman he’d loved had married someone else.

  “I’m sorry, Salvatore. I’m so sorry.”

  “For what, Sera?”

  “For everything. I had no right to be mad at you before.”

  “You thought I’d abandoned you. Of course you had every right to be mad.”

  “So why aren’t you mad at me then? I abandoned you.”

  “Sera, sei pazza! Stop talking so crazy! You were told I was dead. I would not expect you to wait for a ghost!”

  “But I told you. I never really believed you were dead. I should have listened to myself instead of giving in to the pressure of my family and friends telling me that I needed to move forward with my life.”

  “Sera, listen to me. Everything happened the way it was supposed to happen. I don’t know why. Only God knows. For some reason, we were not meant to be together at that time. But we have had good lives in spite of losing each other. You met a wonderful man. Matteo assured me Nicola was a fine man who would do right by you. My other friends who either knew Nicola or knew of him through our townspeople also told me about his loyal, good character. You had three beautiful daughters with him and began a new and, from what I have heard, very prosperous business. Do not be sorry about all the blessings that you have had.”

  Salvatore patted Olivia’s hand.

  “Believe me, I have gone over in my mind how my life would have been different had I not gone to Virginia and just stayed with you in Sicily. But now I can’t picture my life being any different from the way it is. And that is because of Francesca. I returned to America after discovering that you were married. I rented the upstairs apartment in the two-family house my sister owned on Long Island. If I had stayed in Sicily, I don’t know if I would have received custody of Francesca after my sister and her husband died. She might have gone to her father’s brother. But he was only twenty-three and not ready to take on the responsibilities of a young child. Besides, Francesca knew me from the moment she was born, and my living in the apartment above them already made me a member of her immediate family. She was accustomed to always having me around.”

  “So you have been happy even though you never married?”

  “Yes. Francesca has given me so much to be grateful for.”

  “So I can’t believe there was never any special woman since me.”

  Olivia felt her face warming up. She shouldn’t have asked such an intimate question.

  “There were a few nice women who were my companions. I almost came close to marriage, but none of them was special enough for me to want to marry her. I also had
to take into consideration Francesca, and not all of those women were too happy about inheriting a child along with a husband.”

  Olivia nodded in understanding. She suddenly realized just how much Salvatore had sacrificed for his niece. She wasn’t surprised. The young man she had known and fallen in love with in Sicily was very generous. She was glad to hear that he hadn’t changed.

  “How about you? Is there another man in your life?”

  Olivia’s face returned to the crimson color it had been a moment ago, only this time it felt like she was going to catch on fire.

  “Of course not. How could you ask such a question?”

  “I’m sorry, Sera. I did not mean to offend you. You are still an attractive woman.”

  This time it was Salvatore whose glance quickly shifted in another direction when Olivia looked at him in surprise.

  “I’m sorry. I should not have gotten upset. What I meant to say is that I do not intend to get married again. Nicola was my husband. I will remain loyal to him and his memory.”

  Salvatore nodded his head, but Olivia saw a pained look in his eyes. She mentally chided herself. He was probably thinking that she could remain loyal to the memory of her dead husband, but was not able to remain loyal to the memory of her first love.

  “I want you to know, Salvatore, that I met Nicola two years after I’d heard that you were dead. We were married . . .”

  “Six months later. I know. Matteo told me.”

  Salvatore and Olivia looked into each other’s eyes, and this time, neither looked away. “Life is strange—and can be cruel.”

  “Yes, Sera. But it can also be very wonderful. Look, here we are together again after all these years. Who would have ever thought it?”