They Spoke Sicilian Over My Head, So I Called My Don Grandfather novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: Tested

The Cammarata wives held their luncheon on Thursdays in the back room of the club.

Twelve women, one long table, white wine at noon.

Cinzia had hosted it for three years.

I walked in at ten past twelve in a black dress, with one of my grandfather's men behind me and my head high.

Every conversation in the room stopped.

Cinzia sat at the head of the table in cream, with a glass of wine and a plate of untouched salad.

She looked up, and her whole face lit.

"Fio!"

She stood, and held out both arms, and for a second the old habit made my feet move.

I stopped.

"Don't," I said.

Her arms came down slowly.

"I wondered if you'd come," she said, in English. "I told Papa you would. He didn't think so."

"Where is Massimo?"

"I don't know." She tilted her head. "Isn't he with you?"

"He had a meeting at ten. He hasn't called."

"Men," said Cinzia lightly. "They never do."

A dozen women had stopped pretending not to listen.

I walked to the table and put both hands on the back of an empty chair.

"I want to ask you something," I said. "In front of everyone."

"Of course."

"At the restaurant on Friday. When Remo called me stupid. You asked him, in Sicilian, whether I really didn't understand."

"I did. I'm so sorry. It was thoughtless."

"You looked at my face after you said it."

Cinzia's smile held.

"You looked at my face after every sentence you said in Sicilian," I said. "At every dinner. For fourteen years."

"Did I?"

"I thought back last night. At my twelfth birthday. At graduation. At my foster mother's funeral, when you leaned in and whispered something in the old dialect, and I thought you were comforting me, and you were watching my eyes."

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