by S. W. Frank
Alfonzo chuckled. Anita dutifully led Giuseppe’s driver up the wide circular staircase to the guest bedroom as Alfonzo peeked inside the bag. “Come on, nothing for me?”
“I have your present right here!” He balled up his fists and they boxed, throwing jabs, moving around the large room, avoiding the playpen and Allie who entered from who-knows-where straight into the fray.
“I wanna fight…I wanna fight!”
Both men stopped to look down at the little runt. She had her small fists clenched like a pro boxer and went straight for Giuseppe’s groin. He snatched her off her feet and she squealed while punching at his face and he laughed, “You do not get to fight. You may injure someone.”
She kicked him in the chest and he chastised Alfonzo, “More dolls for this one. She likes hitting too much.” He brought the girl’s face to his and gave Allie his mean stare, “Do not fight, leave that to the boys. I will have to kill anyone who touches your pretty face, capisce?”
“Whoa Allie don’t listen to Uncle Geo. Nobody’s killing anybody, alright?”
“What’s killing?”
Alfonzo glared at Giuseppe, “See what you started?”
Giuseppe tucked the girl under his arm like a football, “Me? No cugino, you said the word last. Right Allie?”
“I don’t know,” she answered.
“That’s right sweetie, deny everything. Never tell on papa.” Alfonzo smiled taking her from Giuseppe and setting her free. “Go see if Uncle Geo has a surprise for you in the bag.”
Once the boisterous greeting was over and the kids were upstairs enjoying their new video games and toys, the brothers sat down to beer and conversation.
Peace.
“So where’s you know who?” Giuseppe inquired.
“You mean Selange; she has a name you know?”
“Who else is there?”
“She’s gone to fetch Shanda from the airport.”
Giuseppe sat forward at the mention of Shanda’s name. “She is coming here?”
“Yep.”
“Is she still mad at me?”
“Who knows.”
“Has she mentioned me?”
Alfonzo laughed, “Is someone Shanda whipped from one fuck?”
“Ah shut-up!”
“You know you still owe me for the bed.”
“It was cheap. It was time for a new one.”
“It was a custom-made bed Geo and those aren’t cheap.”
“Then you were robbed.” Giuseppe smiled and slapped his younger brother on the head. “Now stop whining and write it off as a loss on your tax return. Put it under business expenses.”
“What?” Alfonzo asked bobbing out of the way of another one of Giuseppe’s strikes.
“The adult entertainment business you have.”
“You’re an ass.”
“Thank you.” Giuseppe answered then tossed an arm over the back of the sofa as he reclined, “How are you coping with your mother and Bruno’s hot romance?”
Alfonzo’s nostrils flared, “Don’t remind me. I promised to keep my nose out of it…by the way…how’s things with you and your mom?”
“Ah,” Giuseppe waved his hand as he watched the babies in the playpen trying to crawl and smiled at their clumsiness, “She is my mother. I will always love her, besides her cooking can never be replaced.”
“That’s the thought of all loving sons.”
Anita and the nanny came to collect the babies and left the men to talk. Time elapsed during their light-heated discussion on sports and trivialities. It was good to have Giuseppe around. Alfonzo admitted it was rather cool having an older brother to kick it with. In their discussion he told Giuseppe, “I asked Selange to marry me and I’d be honored if you’ll be my best man. How about it?”
“You like punishment.” Giuseppe laughed, “I guess the first time wasn’t torturous enough. Ah, but then again I wasn’t there. Hmm…best man…to my brother. Yes, I can do that, but if she gets cold feet and tries to run can I shoot her in the leg?”
“Hell no, I’m beginning to think you’re fucking crazy Geo?”
“If I am it may run in our famiglia fratellino!”
****
Selange’s smile reached her eyes when Shanda appeared from the crowd. God, it was great to see the woman, they had a lot to catch up on. She moved forward followed by the two shadows and as Selange drew near she realized something was wrong. Shanda’s reception was lukewarm. No shrieks as usual, none of the theatrics of the woman she’d known half her life. In fact she looked sad, unlike Shanda. Totally, not the woman usually full of life.
“Hi Selange.”
“Hey, did something happen?”
One of the bodyguards went to relieve Shanda of her singular luggage and she declined. No…this was not Shanda. One carry-on and refusing to let a guy do grunge work. No…there’s a problem was the assessment.
Shanda looked around but didn’t move, “I’m not staying. I just came to tell you in person. I didn’t want to waste the ticket. I have to get back to New York.”
“Why, are you all right, is the family okay?”
“They’re fine. I’m not feeling well.”
“If you’re sick you should have called instead of flying here. We could’ve talked on the phone.”
“No, I hadn’t seen you in a while. I wanted to say hi face-to-face.”
There was tension. An uneasy feeling seeping through Selange’s bones. Why? Alfonzo always talked about his gut…swore by his instinct and Selange’s sent her mixed messages. It told her, this is about Giuseppe, she doesn’t want to confront him, then it whispered it’s about Alfonzo, she’s still mad at him…no…me. She had second thoughts about coming.
They stood there, in the same terminal where they met on numerous occasions and acted like teenage girls. Today was different; she felt it in the air. They were two women, going on a different path.
Shanda frowned, her friend was happy with Alfonzo. She saw the difference in Selange and smiled. Wow, if the hoodrat bitches who bullied her in school could only see her now.
Shanda’s mouth twitched. Back in the day she watched Selange suffer the abuse from envious girls. Damn, they hated her and she hadn’t done anything to anybody. She was pretty, that was her crime and a nerd. On time every day, sitting in class, reading, always in those books was her offenses. The girls really fucked with her in school. They tossed crinkled papers at her, gossiped and spread horrible rumors about her, called her the teacher’s pet and all types of shit.
Selange was an individual who never faked it to fit in. She was focused and studious, loved poetry and music, opera and classical stuff. They didn’t get her. The girls didn’t understand she was the real one. They were grimy, jealous, hoochie bitches who found fault in anything different. Hey, but Selange held her head up, aced school and those nasty girls became nastier women. They’re out there, every day Shanda comes in contact with them. They’re the gossips, walking around with comments like, “Look at her, she think she all that.”
They try to tear down a positive spirit, because their negative and vile people. They hate on their sisters because they hate themselves. She got out their clique, and when she got to know Selange, the girl was the funniest, smartest down to earth person she ever met. She was also a damn good friend. She didn’t do the low-down shit that her other friends did, like sleeping with her boyfriend and talking shit behind her back. No, that girl stayed solid and when she opened her mouth it wasn’t to bad-mouth anybody, it was to inspire. Now how fucking real is that?
Shanda could feel the burning in her eyes. Selange chose to distance herself from women to protect against their mean temperament. Women were the cruelest to each other and it’s a goddamn shame when they needed support in a world with disturbed and abusive men.
Alfonzo was good for Selange. Yep, he loved the shit out of the woman which made up for
the years Selange went it alone. Selange would never tell Alfonzo about how rough school had been. She’d bottle it in because she wouldn’t want to burden anybody.
Fuck her father and the FEDS. She was taking all the money she saved, which was a whole bunch thanks to the woman standing in front of her with the sad face. Selange would be fine. She had fire in her soul. She wasn’t the girl in class anymore, she was the teacher and Shanda got the lesson. It was time for her to stop living inside the lines and break free from her father’s hold.
“Remember back in Brooklyn when we used to hang-out on the benches and talk about everything life…the future…everything?”
“Yes.” Selange sighed. Her eyes roving over her friends face.
“You were always the optimist, the one who’d say, people can change their circumstances. Many are just too scared or lazy to try, remember that?”
“Shanda, seriously what’s going on?”
“I’m trying to tell you girl…I’m trying to say…I love you for everything. For putting up with my shit. Girl you’re the best friend any woman can have for real!”
“Talk to me Shanda, please let’s go somewhere private. I’m here for you. Whatever I can do, I’ll do it for you.”
Shanda suddenly hugged Selange, catching her off guard and whispered in her ear. “I know and I love you, we’re BK, do or die. But, I can’t lean on you anymore. I have to find Shanda. Take care of the kids…do you hear me?”
Then before Selange could breathe an answer or ask a question in response, Shanda hurried away. She rushed through the crowd leaving Selange standing there in shock.
Confused.
Angry.
Disappointed.
Selange was saddened beyond belief by the abandonment, because Shanda was more like a sister than a friend.
Another loss.
And it hurt because she didn’t understand.
How do you walk away from a sister-friend because of a man?
A tear dripped and she steeled. Thank goodness for her children and Alfonzo, at least they were real.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Alfonzo and Giuseppe were on the lawn kicking around a soccer ball with Sal when the car rolled through the security gates. It halted in the front of the house and Selange emerged alone and ran inside. He kicked the ball to Geo, “I’ll be back, let me go find out what’s up.”
Giuseppe nodded, he was looking forward to seeing Shanda, but apparently, she got cold feet. He didn’t need a runner. He would not chase a woman. If Shanda fled, so be it, he’d let her flee.
Alfonzo found Selange upstairs in the study. She sat behind the desk opening her laptop. She looked in his direction and he could tell she was angry and hurt. She hadn’t mastered the blank expression. Chica couldn’t hide her emotions. He could always read her face, even when her lips wanted to lie. If he was the cause of the dissension between friends then it must’ve been a weak ass friendship from the start.
Years of a solid relationship shouldn’t dissolve into quicksand because somebody throws a little water on it. Shanda was the selfish type, and she hadn’t changed a bit. He stroked his chin. “So, no Shanda, why’s that?”
“I don’t know,” she pout like Allie. “I get there and she gives me this lame excuse about being sick and she came to say hi because she didn’t want to waste the plane ticket.”
“Yeah, that’s weak,” he said crossing the distance and peering down as she typed in her password. “You’re pretty pissed, huh babe?”
“To hell with it.”
“I apologize if I had anything to do with it.”
“Alfonzo, there’s something else going on. Shanda wasn’t herself. It might have something to do with Geo. She’s pregnant and she thinks it’s his.”
Alfonzo scoffed, “You gotta’ be kidding, mujer, right?”
“I’m not.”
“Babe, shit. Now I wish I didn’t know because it puts me in a bad spot. Geo’s my brother.”
“That’s why I’m angry. I’m in a bad spot, too. I thought she was coming here to talk to Geo and have him agree to a paternity test but then she bounced, now what do I do?”
He shook his head. The news was a shocker. Shanda and Giuseppe possibly having a kid, ah man, God help their offspring. Look at what a lawyer and a killer spawned in that one Aaron. Giuseppe’s a nut and Shanda, equally ridiculous. A killer clown is likely the result. Two fucked up people having a kid is a goddamn nightmare!
“Damn, Geo’s going to go hard when he finds out.” Alfonzo blew air, “All right babe, I’ll handle my big bro. Fuck it!” She typed furiously and he switched gears to ask, “Are you working?”
“No I’m checking my midterm grades.”
“You passed.”
“How do you know?”
“One thing I know about you is you’re smart,” he said and turned to leave but bumped his knee on the edge of the hard desk. “Ah, shit!”
He rubbed at it and she frowned. “You okay?” she asked with concern.
“I’ll live.”
He walked out grunting and she turned her attention to the screen.
Critical Theory –A
Elementary School Science: Content & Pedagogy –A+
Facilitating the Arts in the Classroom –A
Elementary School Social Studies: Content & Pedagogy –A
She smiled and let out a celebratory shout, “Alfonzo I passed. I passed!’
He hadn’t traveled far because his head appeared in the doorway. He laughed and winked, “Told you. I’m marrying a smart-ass chica!”
****
A few days before Thanksgiving Maria prepared to leave for Bayamón. The entire family was converging at Alfonzo’s to celebrate. The renovations were complete and the spacious home of her son is where the Diaz’ agreed to gather. When Alfonzo proposed the idea she was happy, ecstatic in fact that he’d finally come to terms with her and Bruno and began to act like a loving son. Of course, she invited Bruno; Italians did not celebrate the American and Canadian holiday. Having him there to meet the entire family was very important to her. Bruno had become a very special person in her life.
He traveled to New York regularly and only weeks ago invited her to his lavish mansion in Italy. The apprehension to go was replaced when he arrived to collect her. He brought another lavish bouquet of flowers, joked with Carmen and her sister encouraged her to go.
She’s glad she did. The week spent with Bruno was unlike anything she experienced before. Helicopter rides to Milan for the opera, introduction to his influential friends and strolls through his immaculate garden were the scenes within a romance book.
The overwhelming calm being with Bruno wasn’t anything she felt before, or that she remembered. The sweet man assembled his entire family at the home on the last day of her visit for a special dinner in her honor.
“New beginnings,” he toasted and his sons and daughter Bianca raised their fluted glasses in acknowledgment.
“To Maria and to my father, may they find joy and love in friendship. Salute!” His eldest son exclaimed and Maria blushed.
It was the grandchildren who giggled at her embarrassment and she thought how similar they were to her family, except their manners were more refined. The Diaz’ cursed too much, drank and was a raucous bunch in comparison, but they were family and she
loved them despite their irksome ways!
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
The day preparing for the convergence of the Diaz’ kept Selange busy. The spare bedrooms were given new drapes, and toiletries were stocked as instructed. Selange thanked Anita as she peeked in the large pantry where the woman and the housekeeper were stacking food items on the shelves. She had recently spoken to Amelda and hearing the woman’s fear over natural infant things made Selange laugh, before sharing some vital parenting tips. They promised to get together and the sting of not having her best friend to talk to anymore lessened.
She tried not to think about Shanda. Calls to her cell went unanswered and she gave up trying to reach out to her friend. Giuseppe of course, didn’t take the news well and fumed like a madman then flew out to New York. Shanda, the frightened heffa moved and didn’t leave a forwarding address and this set Giuseppe off. He had men searching the entire city for the woman and went so far as have them staked outside her brother and parents’ home. But, Shanda was gone. Vanished in thin air and the cryptic words at the airport rung over and over like the chime of a church bell in Selange’s head. “You were always the optimist, the one who’d say, people can change their circumstances. Many are just too scared or lazy to try…”
That was Shanda’s good-bye. Perhaps she couldn’t do it, have a child with someone in the mafia and feared her father’s reaction and decided to leave. Goodness, Selange wished her friend would have stayed to face things instead of running. What if Giuseppe isn’t the father, how would she know unless they took the test?
Selange knew first-hand about it; she’d made a similar mistake not long ago.
After leaving the pantry she climbed the stairs to the living-room and walked to the patio doors. They were beautiful, stain glass in appearance but fortified with molten steel. She slid them back and let the flowery scent of the new landscaped garden drift inside the home. Alfonzo went crazy upping the security on this place and what he hadn’t thought of initially had become part of the entire estate. The aerial detector, that was the most costly because it was linked to PR’s satellite, military channels and the FAA. Anything upon approach he’d know and identify as friend or foe.
