by Jolie Damman
Rita seemed like she didn’t know what to do with her interlaced fingers. I knew what was going on in her mind. She wanted to ask so many questions, but decided not to.
For now, anyway.
Alide opened that same cute smile and sat down beside me. “He’s okay. Sometimes, he worries me, but as long as I have the waitress job, he will be fine.”
I jerked my head to her, seeming agitated. “If there’s something going on, something you need my help with, you can tell me.”
And I regretted my choice of words immediately after.
Yes, I should have made that question, but not in that manner.
I sounded too desperate, and even Rita grasped that, because she immediately darted to the outside of the house, where she lit up a cigarette and began to smoke.
She shook her head. “It’s nothing, really.”
I could see she was struggling with something, though, and I didn’t feel like dropping the subject.
Out of instinct, I grabbed her hand. It felt warm – very warm – and so soft. It was like something intended for the Gods only.
I knew I shouldn’t be doing this, but I didn’t jerk my hand back. Doing this felt right.
And hey, it wasn’t like I was telling her about the marriage or something like that.
“I can see he’s struggling with something. He looks ill and weak. I can pay for his treatment,” I insisted.
Her eyes shot wide and then she withdrew her hand in an instant. Fuck. I made another mistake. Another woman who’s going to despise me for the rest of her life is born.
She shook her head and looked away. “It’s nothing, really. You don’t need to worry about him.”
“I know you care about him, but I also know how poor you are. You can’t pay for his treatment, and you helped me. That man could have killed me, but you were there to risk yourself for me. That’s something I can’t forget.”
She looked at me like she couldn’t believe the words that just came out of my mouth.
And to be honest, neither did I.
However, I knew that this was the right thing to do.
She exhaled. “I don’t really know what’s going on with him. He coughs. Most of the time, there’s no blood involved, but other times, he coughs it out too.”
When Alide turned her head to me, she was shedding tears. “And I don’t know what else I can do to help him now.”
It was as if she was defying science, but in her crying, she looked even more stunning.
Even more picturesque.
And I caught myself looking at her like an idiot.
I was falling in love with her and I couldn’t influence anything of that. It was like falling into a black hole.
I patted her shoulder. “Say no more. Tomorrow evening, come with me. I’m taking you two to the hospital, and he’s going to get the best treatment possible.”
She stood up from the couch in a flash. “No. Thank you, but it’s too much. I can’t accept it.”
In light of what was occurring, I was glad Rita was outside.
I stood up and grunted. My body was hurting so much.
I pulled her to me and hugged her. I let my head rest on top of hers. “It’s nothing. You wouldn’t be taking advantage of me. I’m the one making this decision.”
She looked at me with wide eyes, like she couldn’t believe what she had just heard. Likewise, I also couldn’t believe any of this. And yet, I was more than certain I was doing the right thing.
I was telling her it’s fine. I could do this, and then… We would see what would happen.
I felt bad for Luca, and this was a good chance to make the marriage more palatable.
Maybe I could think of it as a way to show her I wasn’t such a bad man after all.
In a moment, her eyes locked with mine and her hands grabbed mine.
“I’m going to forever be grateful to you.”
And I knew she was going to be.
✽ ✽ ✽
People perambulated in the waiting room. Some were sitting on their white benches, their faces either expressions of depression or confusion.
Why is she ill?
Why is he here and not at home with me?
I could almost hear them asking that.
I was also waiting here, with them. Alide was with me, sitting beside me. I couldn’t stop thinking about her smell. We talked so much. She told me what her life was like.
It was brutal.
She grew up without a dad.
And I began to realize why my father was so intent on making me marry her.
More than anything, she needed someone to keep her family safe.
Her Rita friend wouldn’t be with us for much longer. Not only was she a heavy smoker, but she also couldn’t stop eating fast food and other fat-heavy meals.
Alide’s hand was holding mine on top of her thigh. Just like that, we had grown closer together in a matter of days.
The ball of snow rolled down the hill, and now it was uncontrollable.
I knew where this was leading to, and I didn’t know what to think of it anymore. Just one thing was important to me now, and that was making sure Luca was going to come out of this well.
I had no idea what he had, but this was the best fucking hospital in New York City.
If it had a cure, I was going to pay for it.
And I knew how expensive hospitals here were. However, the fee didn’t matter.
That was fine, though. For her, right now, I felt like paying anything and everything. To see the gleam of happiness in her eyes again, I was willing to spend all the savings I had.
And I had regarded her as nothing to me once. That felt like a long time ago.
As she held my hand, I couldn’t help but feel how soft hers was. Her fingers brushed mine every so often. She was looking without purpose on the floor, and her face was a painting of pain. I caressed her hand back. I couldn’t let her think she was alone.
She wasn’t.
I was here, for her.
“You think he’s going to be alright?” She finally asked. This whole time she didn’t say anything.
I squeezed her hand slightly. “Yeah, he’ll be. He’s a brave boy and he has the best sister in the world.”
She chuckled. “I could have been better. I wasn’t there enough for him.”
“Hey, it’s okay. You did your best.”
She sighed and sat up straight on the bench. “My best wasn’t enough.”
A moment of silence while I weighed what to tell her. I needed to let her know she wasn’t alone here.
“This is the best treatment he can have. If there’s a cure, he will be okay.”
“I hope so,” she said before turning her head and locking her eyes with mine.
We were growing closer together, and I could only hope what this meant for me. Were we going to marry? Would she be happy with me?
So many questions, and so few answers as well…
I felt like giving her a kiss of comfort right now, but that’s when the doctor stepped into the room and ushered us to follow him. Some of the parents and friends in the waiting room lowered their heads in disappointment. They thought he had come here for them.
We followed him, and he led us to his office.
It was as sterile as everything else in the hospital. There was no speck of dust in it, and it was so brightly white it made me feel like I was going blind or something like that.
He sat behind his desk and gestured for us to sit down, which we did.
Alide had no idea what to do with her hands, so she kept interlacing her fingers.
The doctor cleared his throat. “Luca Mazzanti will be alright.” Her head snapped to me, eyes gleaming with pure joy. “That’s the first thing you should know.”
His voice was somewhat unsympathetic, but I could feel he was enjoying this.
He had more good news for us, it seemed.
Alide could have squealed out of pure joy if she wasn’t in this hospital.
<
br /> “He’s okay right now and will continue to have a happy life. There is one thing you need to know, though, and it might cost you a lot.”
“Anything, doctor. I can pay for everything,” I piped up.
He glanced at me, nodded, and returned his attention to Luca’s sister.
“He has a condition,” he orated, and then explained what it was called, but it went over my head. To be honest, I didn’t care about the name of it. “He will need to continue taking his pills for the rest of his life. There is no way to cure it. That’s… the bad news I have for you.”
His eyes were locked with Alide’s, and I knew she couldn’t take her eyes off him.
She needed to listen to every detail.
Everything mattered to her right now.
Alide glimpsed at me and returned her attention to him. “As long as he’s happy and healthy, I’ll be happy too.”
The doctor nodded and cleared his throat again. “He will need to take some extra medicine too. It shouldn’t be too expensive, and it will help him a lot.”
A moment of silence before he continued, “He will just have to live with it for the rest of his life, and for the most part, he won’t even be bothered by it. Once he has the medicine I’ll be prescribing shortly, he will feel much better and happier.”
That’s good, I thought.
The little boy looked so depressed the few hours I got to know him.
The doctor then covered some things, and Alide and I proceeded out of his office.
Luca was going to stay here for a while longer, under observation.
He did assure us many times he would be okay, and so, we had nothing to worry about.
We walked to the patio. A restaurant, tables and chairs made of wood decorated it. Some people were already here, and more were coming. We cogitated having a bite to eat.
And just as I said before, I was going to pay for it as well.
Alide looked so uncomfortable in front of me, and I wished I could hug and kiss her right now.
“Thank you so much for all this, Angelo. I don’t know how I can repay you, if I’ll ever be able to.”
I looked for her hand and caressed it. “No need for that. Saving a boy’s life is the least I could have done.”
“It still isn’t right. I should be able to provide for him by myself.”
In a flash, I settled my hand on her chin before I could even comprehend what doing that meant.
Too late for that now.
Her eyes locked with mine again.
The patio stilled.
I couldn’t care about the people here anymore.
Her eyes trembled, and I thought about kissing her. I needed to do it, but I felt it would be too sudden, and I hadn’t even told her anything about the wedding.
Did it even matter right now?
Very much so.
“I’m here, for you and him. Don’t hesitate to come to me anytime you need anything.”
And that’s when I knew I was making the right choice.
I was going to marry Alide Mazzanti.
Chapter 11
A Desperate Chance
Alide
Ever since he helped me with Luca, I’d been asking if we had a chance. He was so intent on making sure I was going to have everything I needed now. He even asked his father to bump up my salary, which he did.
I now made more than enough to have a comfortable life. I still lived in Brooklyn though. I had friends there that meant a lot to me, after all.
And there was also the fact I just didn’t have the money for a new place, though I was saving for it already.
And Luca now had plenty of games.
His cheeks were redder now and he put on some weight since coming out of the hospital. The medicine was doing wonders for him. His coughing was less frequent now. I could almost forget he had that illness.
I was wiping the table clean, removing the pieces of food still on it when something or someone slammed the door open. I startled and yelped.
In stumbled none other than Angelo, whose shirt and coat were all bloody. I yelped again, and dashed to him.
I ran as fast as I could do.
I needed to save him. His eyes were barely open.
He stumbled once more, and fell down on the floor. His face was directed to me, and I knelt before him and felt so useless. I yelled for someone to come, but the seconds passed and nobody did.
I was all alone with Angelo.
And he was bleeding so much.
Blood still tainted and spread in his clothes. He was barely breathing. He needed to be bandaged up and then have the ambulance blast its way to here.
He needed to be saved.
I couldn’t lose him.
I… loved him.
He tried to speak, and upon realizing how much he meant to me now, I stood up in a flash and rushed to my telephone. I had left it by the kitchen room so that it wouldn’t distract me at work.
I dialed 911 and the voice of a woman spoke. “Please, get an ambulance at the Bello Italiano in Little Italy! My- there is someone here bleeding a lot and I’m afraid he won’t make it!”
She said I should calm down and that an ambulance was going to come as soon as it could. I had no idea what had just happened to him, and it made me feel so powerless.
I rushed back to him and the only thing that mattered was doing something – anything – to stop his bleeding.
But I had no bandages.
I had no nothing to stop his hemorrhage.
And despite that, I still thought of something. I didn’t know if it would work, though, and didn’t care. Doing that was better than just waiting for the ambulance’s late arrival.
I yanked one of the table’s cloths after taking off the support for the candles, and hurried back to him. Carefully, I lifted his torso and encircled the linen around him.
I had no idea where the blood was coming from, and I felt so nervous I couldn’t even stop to find it out.
I knew I should, but my mind was such a confusion I couldn’t think clearly.
I just couldn’t stop moving.
All I needed was to find a way to lessen his bleeding.
I tightened the tablecloth around his waist however I could, and my heart calmed down once I realized the bleeding had been somewhat contained.
But he still needed help, and I couldn’t wait for the ambulance to arrive.
That’s when it finally did, the tires screeching in front of the Bello Italiano.
It was night outside, and people were opening the doors and windows of their homes to find out what was going on.
The ambulance’s siren continued to wail, and the lights kept flashing and spiraling.
Someone asked me to move away. I did, stumbling my way to the other side of the room.
They hoisted him to a stretcher. One of the doctors – someone with grey overalls which had the hospital’s logo embroidered on it, hurried over to me with a pen and a notepad in his hands.
He asked me a question. I couldn’t answer it.
I kept opening my mouth, trying to tell him I didn’t know what had happened.
But nothing came out of it.
I kept clutching my hands together while my legs felt like jelly. That’s when Mr. Romani showed up.
His eyes were firing with rage and worry.
“Not the hospital. You are taking him somewhere else.”
He just came from a car and was pointing his fingers at them. His face was an expression of fury. He said some more things about where to take him, and the medical team looked lost, talking among themselves and eyeing Mr. Romani.
He approached me.
I felt like I had done something wrong, but I calmed myself down.
I did the right thing, even if that meant calling the ambulance when Mr. Romani had a better place for him. It was something to do with him not wanting to let the hospital ask his son questions they shouldn’t.
He trotted to me, though I knew he wasn’t entirely
confident. There was something he wasn’t liking about this at all.
“You are coming with me, Alide.”
That was no question, but a statement. He wanted me to come with him, and I was glad he did. I needed to know if Angelo was going to pull through.
If he perished, I didn’t know what I would do with my life.
And Luca needed him so much.
He got inside his car with me, and drove us out of the city. A solitary, old building emerged in the distance. Inside it, a light bulb in a room cast light that penetrated the darkness beyond.
The ambulance followed us as it should. I imagined the people inside it were scared that something terrible was going to happen to them after this was over.
Mr. Romani parked the car and commanded, “I’m really thankful you called them. They said he wouldn’t have had a chance had they not come in time.” He stopped for a second, staring at the ambulance. “You are a good girl. I want you to know that.”
I had no idea how to respond properly, only that I was glad I was able to help save Angelo’s life.
He nodded and the medical team took Angelo to a room in the building. When Mr. Romani opened the door, it was like finding myself in a different plane of existence.
The walls were super white, a big light bulb cast light into the room and there were virtually no shadows. I could perceive every detail of the medical equipment and furniture. There was an examination bed by one of the walls, and everything the team needed for the operation.
My heart was still racing.
I had no idea if I should stay and help him.
I just hoped he was going to pull through somehow.
Mr. Romani grabbed my arm and took me out with him. He ran his hand over his face. “I have no idea if he will make it out of this alive, but they said he has a good chance, and I have you to thank for that.”
“I just want him to live, Mr. Romani. He’s been so good to me recently.”
His eyes widened. “He has?”
Alarmed and assuming he was thinking I was taking advantage of Angelo, I stated, “He’s been a good friend of mine. He’s paying for my brother’s treatment.”
His eyes cleared up, and my heart rate slowed to normal.
Phew. I’d assumed he was going to fire me right now.
