5 — Peace
October 3, 1938
"Now, brother mine, would Mama and Papa be happy to see you in a place like this?"
Carmine turned, saw his sister grinning at him, and cocked an eyebrow.
"No happier than they would be to see you here, I think, Annuziatta Maria."
Nunzia winced and slugged him lightly in the shoulder.
"Christ, brother, don't trot out that embarrassment of a name."
"Don't blaspheme," Carmine shot back, and flicked the bill of his sister's cap — his cap really, or it had been a decade ago.
"Listen, what are you doing here? Thought you and your innamorato preferred classier joints."
"Ah, I'm on my own, tonight. Burt had to work late. Thought I'd try somewhere new. What about you? You here alone?"
Grinning, Nunzia shook her head.
"Oh, I'm not alone. I got a real... Well, I dunno. An amazing girl, I think. Wanna meet her?"
"Well, if she's amazing..."
Carmine watched his sister push off through the rapidly growing crowd — this new place was surprisingly popular — and smiled to himself. It was pretty soon to tell, but Nunzia seemed happier than usual. Maybe this girl would settle her down for a while.
To his surprise, Nunzia re-emerged, not from where she had disappeared into the crowd, but behind him. The rough pat on his shoulder made Carmine whip around in his chair, and there Nunzia stood, smiling nervously, nodding to the rather pretty girl on her arm.
"Pauline, this is my brother Carmine. Carmine, this is my... This is Pauline."
"I'm pleased to meet you," the girl said, and shook Carmine's hand.
"Well... Pauline, was it? Very pleased as well. Why don't you two join me here?"
Carmine nodded to the empty seats across his table.
These two, his sister and this girl, looked happy, in that new-happy sort of way. Nunzia seemed, at least for now, to drop her "tough guy" front, to be all sweetness. She had pulled Pauline's chair out, real gentlemanly, and once they were seated — awfully close together — she kept an arm around the girl's waist. It wasn't the tight, possessive squeeze some people favoured, though. It was a simple resting closeness. Pauline, meanwhile, seemed to lean endlessly into the closeness, and to hang fascinated on every word Nunzia said.
Carmine remembered those early days with Burt, when they had been rather like that. Sweet days.
For a while, Carmine and Nunzia spoke of family business — the legit business — and gossiped about the old neighborhood.
"I can tell ya," Carmine breathed, finishing his whisky, "I don't miss living at home."
"He's a smart boy, my brother," Nunzia murmured aside to Pauline.
"Oh, what?" Carmine chuckled.
"Baby sister suddenly tired of living at home."
"Hell yes I am! I'm an adult. Shouldn't be at home now. You aren't."
"Ah, but you're Mama and Papa's only daughter. They wanna protect you, they..."
"They wanna run my life. Ya know, they tried to confine me to my room, all because I stayed out Saturday night and wasn't home to go to Mass with them yesterday."
Carmine shook his head.
"Did you go to Mass at all?"
"Course I did. Went with my Lina, didn't I?"
Nunzia looked to Pauline, who nodded emphatically.
"We did go to Mass together, at the church I attend."
"I even told Mama and Papa I stayed the night with a friend and went to Mass. They didn't believe me. So, anyhow, Carmine, that's why I came looking for you."
"What've I got to do with anything?" Carmine shrugged.
"You're my big brother, an' you wanna help me out."
"Sis..."
"Look," Nunzia said, pulling her arm from Pauline's waist and leaning across the table, "you've got that place in the Britton that you don't even use now..."
"Which Mama and Papa still think I use."
"Exactly! If they think I'm moving in with you, they won't mind. You'll be free still living with Burt, I'll be free to live as I please, and Mama and Papa will feel a lot less strain, I assure you."
Her case stated, Nunzia relaxed back in her chair, her arm once more slipping casually around Pauline's waist.
Carmine snapped his finger softly against the surface of the table. It wasn't like Nunzia was asking some impossible thing, but...
But what? Why not? Why not let his sister have the place he wasn't using? He'd held onto it to cover his tracks when he moved in with Burt, and now it would feel a bit less of a waste. Nodding, Carmine held his hand out across the table.
"Well," he said, "I guess you got yourself a place, then."
"You mean it? Oh, brother mine, thanks!"
Nunzia shook his hand a bit more firmly than perhaps was called for, then turned and kissed Pauline fiercely.
Carmine smiled.
Posted Oct 5, 2019, 2:53 PM UTC · edited