Elizabeth Street - Laurie Fabiano [149]
Hours later, when Angelina was lifted out of the water, her mother wrapped her in a towel and her father poured wine. Someone held a little glass to Angelina’s lips as everyone drank.
On the bed, Giovanna removed Angelina’s towel and kissed every square inch of her daughter’s body, using the towel to wipe the tears that fell on Angelina’s clean skin. Uncapping bottles, she dabbed lotion and salves on the cuts, bites, and wounds, muttering prayers the entire time.
“I bought you a new nightgown,” said Giovanna, pulling a soft flannel dress over Angelina’s head. She picked Angelina up off the bed and knelt with her before her makeshift altar. “I prayed every minute to Saint Anthony to bring you home, Angelina. He answered my prayers.”
Giovanna retrieved a brown paper package from under her pillow that was tied with string. “I have something to open with you. I waited for you,” she whispered, crying and gently ripping the paper to reveal a photograph with three views. “Look how beautiful you are!” exclaimed Giovanna, crying even harder. “I want you to forget everything from the day after this picture was taken until this moment,” she said, placing the photo on her makeshift altar.
Angelina’s eyelids fluttered, and her head swayed groggily. Giovanna lay down on the bed with one arm wrapped tightly around her daughter as if she would never let go. Stroking Angelina’s hair, Giovanna whispered, “Sleep, child, you’re safe. You’re home.”
PART TEN
HOBOKEN, NEW JERSEY 1918
FORTY-THREE
When they moved to Hoboken, there was no doubt in Giovanna’s mind what type of business they would establish. Since that day in Coney Island, she was infatuated with ice cream and ice cream cones. Her passion paid off. They had become masters.
Teresa and Giovanna were in the factory behind their ice cream parlor. Sacks of sugar lined the walls, and in the center of the room sat wood barrels. Inside the barrels, a ten-gallon tin can was surrounded by ice, and the top of the barrel was covered with rock salt.
Over the years, despite their prickly start, Giovanna and Teresa had bonded. Teresa was not someone whom Giovanna would reveal secrets to, but she had come to love her sister-in-law, and they worked well together. Giovanna could read Teresa’s moods. Today, making ice cream, she knew there was something on Teresa’s mind that she wasn’t talking about. Giovanna also knew that Teresa was incapable of holding something in for long, so she waited patiently.
“Teresa, could you bring me another gallon of cream?”
Giovanna filled the silence. “The nights are becoming chilly. Soon we won’t need to make so much. Rocco was already talking about switching to selling chestnuts.”
When Teresa handed Giovanna the cream, their eyes met, and Giovanna’s curiosity got the best of her. “What is it?”
“You know I still see my friends from Elizabeth Street.”
“I know. You went this weekend, yes?”
“They told me that Lucrezia is dying.”
Giovanna shut her eyes, put down the gallon of cream, and turned from Teresa.
“Giovanna, I didn’t know whether to tell you. I know that you don’t see her anymore, but I thought you should know.”
Giovanna could never explain to Teresa. When she had lied over and over again to Lucrezia during Angelina’s kidnapping, she felt that she had violated their relationship and that it could never be the same. It was as if Lucrezia was her lover and Giovanna had cheated on her. She did love Lucrezia, in fact she knew that she still did, but she had forsaken the friendship because she was overwhelmed by fear. When Angelina was returned, she was embarrassed to confess and admit that she hadn’t trusted her.
“Why don’t you go see her, Giovanna?” suggested Teresa softly.
“I want to go for a walk. Can you finish up?”
“Of course.”
Giovanna hugged Teresa and walked into the parlor. Mary was on her hands and knees cleaning the black-and-white checkered floor. Her baby sister, Concetta, was asleep in a cradle braced against one of the wire-backed parlor chairs.
“Mary, that’s clean enough!”
“I like it to gleam, Zia.”
No one took