Passports and Plum Blossoms

by Barbara Oliverio

“Did you find anything, love?” she asked.

  “Oh, you know. I wouldn’t have room to pack it if I did.” I hoped I had covered.

  “Well, I’m buying these lovely chocolates, then we can go to the gate.”

  “Perfect.”

  Breathe.

  Everything will be normal when we get home.

  I hoped.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  I would have thought that the fourteen hours of flying time would have been interminable, but both Auntie Lil and I slept as if we were drugged. Even the hour we spent checking through Vancouver changing planes did not drag—aided by a stop at the Tim Hortons doughnut counter.

  We ascended the escalators at the airport in Denver to be met by our family brandishing welcoming signs and flowers.

  “My baby!” exclaimed my mother as she crushed me to her.

  “It’s good to see you, Ma, but you are going to squoosh me,” I protested mildly.

  She ignored my protests and covered my cheeks with kisses, then moved on to Auntie Lil. I’m sure that passersby imagined we had been gone for years rather than days.

  “Let’s get your bags,” my father said after giving me his own crushing hug. “Your mother and Amanda have dinner ready at home. Do you need something to tide you over for the drive?”

  And people wonder why my curves are plentiful.

  After retrieving our bags and getting us sorted into the two vehicles that had come to take us home, we were off. Auntie Lil was spending the night with us after what I knew was going to be a lavish Italian dinner because—as my mother put it—we “hadn’t had a decent bowl of pasta in days.”

  “So. Tell me everything. No. Wait until we’re home. Amanda is there making sure dinner is ready. No, I can’t wait.” My mother was as skittish as a twelve-year-old. I was in the car with her and my brother, and Auntie Lil was in the other car with my father. I would have felt safer together with my aunt. Less chance of spilling something on accident.

  “It was all beautiful, Ma. We have tons of pictures.”

  “Yes, yes, I saw all the pictures and read your reports, but I want to hear everything from you.” She turned around and waited eagerly.

  “Well. Um.” I was truly stumped. There was a lot to tell, and some of it wasn’t mine to tell.

  Thank goodness for Nicky. He caught my eye in the rearview mirror and could tell that I was hedging for a reason.

  “Geesh, Ma. Let the girl get used to the time zone and the altitude, why don’t you? Besides, do you really want to hear things twice?” He winked at me.

  “Nicholas! I want to hear everything!” She paused and turned back to me. “But, if you want to wait, I suppose we can.”

  “Ma, I promise to go into scads of detail.” Maybe not.

  “You can ask all the questions you want.” But I might not answer them.

  “Let’s just wait until Auntie is around, okay? Besides, why don’t YOU fill me in on what’s been going on here at home?”

  That did the trick. Once I had Ma giving the latest news and views during my absence, I was set until we arrived home.

  We pulled into the driveway of our comfortable brick home just moments ahead of Pop and Auntie Lil. When he careened into the driveway, I knew something was up. Ma and Nicky went into the house with my bags, but I cautiously waited for my father and aunt to leave their car.

  Blam! My father’s door slammed shut. He walked to the trunk and yanked out Auntie’s luggage, then stomped up the steps of the front porch.

  “Auntie Lil? What gives?” I walked over to her door as she stepped out quietly.

  “Well, dear. You know how I always tell you that unwelcome news doesn’t get any better with time?”

  “Don’t tell me that you told Pop about Genio?”

  “I’m afraid I did.”

  “And?”

  “And he’s not too thrilled about having to walk me down the aisle, I guess,” she said as shouldered her carry-on.

  “I don’t think it’s that, Auntie Lil. I think it’s more that he isn’t thrilled about the whirlwind aspect of it.”

  “Well, he’ll have to get thrilled, won’t he? I’m not changing my mind. Remember, I’m the older sister?”

  We walked up the stairs and into what I knew wasn’t going to be a nice, quiet family dinner.

  I was right. Their “discussion” began immediately after we said the blessing—frankly, I’m surprised my father held off that long—continued through bread, cold cuts, salad, and pasta and was full force during dessert. Requests for Ma’s famous lemon torte were punctuated with many spoon wavings and rolling of eyes.

  During it all, I managed to avoid being a star witness, despite the pleadings of both sides.

  “Tell him, Annalise. Tell him what a wonderful man Genio is.”

  “Annalise, tell your aunt how vacations give you a distorted view.”

  I didn’t want to cause the vein on the side of my father’s head to erupt. On the other hand, he kept bringing up such good, practical points that I was worried I would be disloyal to Auntie Lil if I agreed with him.

  “Enough!”

  It was Ma who brought the 12-round bout to a close.

  “Frank, your sister is old enough to make her own decisions.”

  Auntie Lil looked at him smugly.

  “Lilliana, we need to meet this man, don’t you think?”

  My father one-upped the smug quotient.

  “Annalise, do you think we should meet him?” All eyes turned to me.

  I cleared my throat. Never was there a more important sentence to utter.

  “I think that you all would like Genio if you met him. I think that you should reserve judgment until then.”

  I mentally crossed my fingers.

  “It’s settled. Invite him, Lilliana. We will have no more discussion until then. Now, who wants more lemon torte?” My mother. The supreme negotiator.

  We all looked at one another, afraid to add anything to the discussion, when the front door opened and in flew the scarlet-haired whirlwind that was Rory.

  “Hi everyone! Did I miss anything?”

  Having Rory there cut the tension somewhat. After we finished eating, she insisted on modeling the body-hugging emerald-green cheongsam that I had brought back for her. She was also the prime commentator on the gifts that Auntie and I had distributed to the others. Eventually, Auntie Lil and I begged to be allowed to go to bed, and even my mother recognized that jet lag and time change overrode her desire to hear any other travel stories.

  “Lilliana, I made up the spare room for you. The other sisters are coming tomorrow, then we can take you home—unless you want to stay with us for a while. Rory, you are welcome to stay with us tonight if you like. Do you want me to call your mother?”

  “I’ll visit with Annalise for a while, but I’ll go back over to Mom’s. Thanks, Mama Fontana.”

  Rory and I glanced at each other. Leave it to my mother to feel that she still needed to call Rory’s mother to assure her that her daughter was safe with us.

  She and I climbed the stairs together and fell onto my bed, prepared for a good gossip, when Nicky ducked his head into my bedroom.

  “So, Annalise, the trip was good, then?”

  “Yes, Nick. Weren’t you downstairs when Auntie and I went over all of that?” I covered my eyes with my forearm.

  “It must have been good based on this picture.” He came over and scootched between us, nearly knocking Rory off the bed and holding his phone in his outstretched hand inches from my nose.

  “Hey!” I sat up. As I did, I came face-to-face with a photo of a couple framed by a leafy bush.

  Entwined in an embrace.

  I gulped.

  It was Eli and me, in the garden of the Forbidden City. You couldn’t tell it was him because of the tilt of his head and the shadow of his cap, but you could definitely make out my face.

  “Nicky! Where did you get this picture?” I jumped up and snatched the phone from his hand.
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  “I take it that I’m not wrong then? This is you?”

  Rory pulled me back down and leaned over my shoulder.

  “Annalise, is this you with the brooding mystery man that you told me about?” She looked at Nicky and clapped her hand over her mouth.

  “Too late, Rory. You can’t cover for her because I can read her like a book. That is very definitely Annalise. What I want to know is, who is the guy who looks like he wants to devour you alive?”

  I punched my brother in the shoulder in a well-worn move from childhood.

  “Stop it, Nicky.”

  I kept staring at the photo while a myriad of emotions washed over me. First, my heart pounded and my face flushed at the thought of the two of them looking at this photo of me in such a vulnerable moment. Another set of emotions hit as my heart fell, thinking about the conversations Eli and I had had during the trip and how our time together was broken off so suddenly.

  “I’m waiting,” Nicky moved to the stool at my makeup table and began to swivel back and forth.

  Rory put her arm around my shoulder. I cleared my throat and told my brother an abbreviated story of the ill-fated romance, all the while keeping an eye to the door to make sure my father or mother didn’t barge in on us.

  “And you haven’t heard from him?” Nicky asked when I finished.

  “Nope.”

  “What a jerk.” My loyal brother.

  “That’s not fair. I don’t think. Oh, I don’t know.” I stumbled for the right words. “But you still haven’t told me where you got this picture.”

  “You know Lorna who works in my office? She is always trolling the web for bizarre top-ten lists. Apparently, someone posted this in a top-ten kisses list or something like that. She showed me because she thought it looked like you.”

  “Oh no!” I imagined this going viral with Lorna’s celebrity-obsessed friends.

  “Don’t worry. I managed to convince her that it wasn’t you because of the short hair.”

  Trust my brother to come up with a lawyer-like defense.

  “But I knew it was you. And, sis, I knew that if Pop saw the picture ...” He didn’t finish the sentence.

  “It would make his conversation with Auntie Lil seem positively tame by comparison,” Rory finished for him.

  “Right. So ... you think you won’t see this fellow again?”

  “I doubt it, Nick. He doesn’t know where I live or a lot of other details about me, so I guess we’re just strangers.”

  He returned to sit on my other side. The three of us kicked the bed with our heels in silent unison.

  “Please keep this to yourself,” I finally said to him.

  “Well, I can. But you know as well as I do that if a picture is on the web, it’s out there for anyone to see.”

  “I know, I know.”

  “And if Pop sees it before he knows anything about it, his head will explode.”

  “I know, I know.”

  Finally, he stood up to leave.

  “Well, I left Amanda downstairs to cover while I could talk to you alone. Sorry to blindside you, kid, but I figured you’d want to know.”

  “No, I appreciate it. You know, I really suspect that Pop won’t see it since he is not on the web and he and Lorna don’t exactly travel in the same circles.”

  The three of us laughed at the idea of my conservative father being buddies with the bubbly Lorna. Nicky hugged me and left to collect his very pregnant wife to go to their own home.

  I flopped face-first on my bed and screamed into my pillow.

  “Very articulate,” Rory commented.

  I sat up and brushed my hair back.

  “My head is spinning, Rory.”

  “I think you are just jet-lagging, Annalise. You need a good night’s sleep and then get yourself back into a groove, and you’ll be okay.”

  “That’s just it. I don’t want to go back to my sad little groove. No job, living here. Wasn’t this where we were less than a month ago?”

  “Not exactly.”

  “What do you mean ‘not exactly’?”

  “Well ... actually, you could have a job if you wanted it.”

  “What?” She could be so maddeningly cryptic sometimes.

  “So, remember I told you I shared your blog with my editor?”

  “And a lot of other people, apparently.”

  “She thinks you have a flair for that type of writing. She is willing to offer you some freelance work, based on a final interview of course.”

  “What! Just based on my random scribbles?”

  “Well, that ... and some other writing I gave her.”

  “What other writing?” I eyed her suspiciously.

  “After your layoff, you had me review your portfolio for job interviews, remember? I just pulled out your resume and the pertinent writing items.”

  “What!”

  “What’s the problem? You were thinking of moving to Manhattan anyway.”

  “But—”

  “Come on. I know you like to do things on your own, but can’t you just take a moment and accept this tiny bit of help from YOUR BEST FRIEND?”

  I sat with my legs and arms crossed. It was true that I had a history of being fiercely independent. But if I learned anything from my months of job hunting, it was that we are all better when we help each other.

  “Did you schedule the interview for me, too?” Knowing Rory, she had already picked out my outfit.

  “Well, no, but I did tell her that you would be available next week.” That cheeky grin had never changed from grade school.

  I pounded her with one of my many pillows. We were shrieking like schoolgirls when my mother appeared in the doorway.

  “I thought you were sleepy, Annalise? Shouldn’t you get to bed?” Her tone was gentler than her words.

  “I am. She started it ...”

  Rory leapt to her feet, hugged my mother, and blew me a kiss.

  “See you girls tomorrow!” And she was off.

  “That girl has always had more energy than either of her brothers! I pity the young man who tries to keep up with her!” Ma sat down beside me.

  “I know what you mean.”

  “Annalise, tell me the truth. Do you think your Auntie Lil is making the right decision with this Genio person?”

  “Oh, Ma, only she knows. But he is kind, and he seems genuine. You’ll see when you meet him. And his family seems a lot like ours.” I hoped that would help.

  “Well, we’ll find out soon enough. Your aunt called and invited him for the weekend. We’ll see how your father deals with that.”

  “First of all, I’d recommend not calling him ‘this Genio person.’ Not a good way to introduce our family to his.”

  “Annalise, do you question my social skills?”

  “Oh, no, not yours. But there are all the aunts.”

  “Ah, yes.”

  “Ma, how did you deal with meeting all of them?”

  “Lots of prayer and healthy slugs of your grandfather’s wine.”

  I burst into laughter. My mother was the perfect mix of piety and practicality!

  “Get to sleep now, baby girl. We have a lot of sauce and meatballs to make tomorrow.” She kissed my forehead and left the room humming.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  “Annalise!” Georgiann enveloped me in a mighty hug and kissed me on both cheeks as soon as she spied me at the airport. Tom and Genio were slightly behind her, no less happy but a bit more reserved. She stepped aside to allow Genio to greet his intended before sweeping Auntie Lil into a hug as well.

  “Hello, dear girl.” Genio took both of my hands in his and kissed my cheek as well. Tom followed with a hug.

  It was hard to believe that it had only been days since we’d last seen these delightful people. It was harder to believe that they were in Denver to meet my family. I was happy that Tom and Georgiann had accompanied Genio on this trip.

  We chattered together on the way to baggage claim.

 
; “Now, I know you must think that we are moving in, but of course Georgie felt she had to pack half of Chicago to come here,” Tom said, shaking his head.

  “Hush, Tommy! I wouldn’t dream of coming to meet the family without a few trinkets.” She waved him off.

  Auntie Lil and Genio were a few steps behind us, and we allowed them their space.

  “So, Annalise, how are you doing?” Georgiann whispered conspiratorially.

  “I’m great, Georgiann. Just getting over jet lag, as I’m sure you are.” I didn’t know what she was getting at, but I knew I didn’t want to find out.

  We managed to snag all the luggage, move to the car in the parking lot, and get on our way without a hitch.

  “It’s just beautiful here in Denver!” Georgiann exclaimed.

  “We have more than 300 days of sunshine a year,” I said in my best tour guide voice.

  “Quite a difference from our smog-filled days in Beijing, eh?” Tom commented.

  We reminisced about the weather and other topics from our trip, hardly believing that it had been such a short time ago. Soon we were pulling into the driveway of my parents’ house.

  “Get ready for the onslaught,” I muttered.

  “Annalise! Be positive!” Auntie Lil chided.

  “Sure. Say that now. But do you see what I see?”

  No sooner was the engine turned off than dozens of Fontanas appeared as if from everywhere: the front door, the backyard, the garage. Did I even see one of cousins climb out of the chimney? No, impossible.

  “Here we go.” I prayed a quick prayer.

  As if it were the Red Sea, the humanity parted and allowed my father to walk across the porch, down the stairs, and onto the driveway. Genio opened his door and assisted Auntie Lil out of the car.

  “Frank, this is my fiancé, Genio,” she said confidently. “Genio, this is my younger brother, Frank.”

  Yep. Auntie Lil set the stage.

  Pop and Genio shook hands.

  “Genio, come walk with me.” Pop invited him around back, and we knew they were going to the far corner of the yard to the small gazebo with the small bench. So that’s where the most important talk of Auntie Lil’s life would take place.

  The residual silence was broken by my mother descending the stairs, wiping her hands on her apron.