Chapter 11: Chaperones

After the walk-in cooler, both families agreed that the engaged couple required a chaperone, and both families sent the same two people.

"I'm representing the Bellandis," Pietro said, on the boardwalk at Navy Pier on Friday night, eating a funnel cake.

"I'm representing the Vitales," Lucia said, with the notebook under her arm.

"Who is representing us?" I said.

"Nobody," Lucia said. "You're the evidence."

The Ferris wheel at Navy Pier has gondolas that seat four.

The attendant looked at the four of us, then at the sign that said four, and let us in.

Lucia sat across from me with the notebook on her knees.

Pietro sat beside her with the funnel cake on his.

Domenico sat next to me, in the gray suit, with his hands on his thighs, and the gondola swung once and began to rise.

"Beautiful view," Pietro said.

"It's dark," Lucia said.

"Beautiful dark, then."

The lights of the city came up around us in long, bright rows, and the lake went black and flat beyond them.

I looked at Domenico, and he was looking at the lake with his face gone still and young.

"I've never been up here," he said.

"It's thirty minutes from your house."

"My grandmother wanted to ride it," Domenico said. "She asked me every summer. I told her next summer."

I did not say anything.

The gondola reached the top and stopped with a jolt.

Out over the water, a loudspeaker crackled.

"Folks, we have a small delay," the operator said. "Five minutes."

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