Across the yard, a teenager dressed like a lion let out a roar and tackled his buddy, who was dressed like a crocodile. No, she thought quietly, it’s not too much.
“Are you going to decorate the cake?”
Elly put down her bucket in front of the cake table. “Yup.” She stepped back to take it in. The cake was giant, its design an elaborate combination of fondant animals intertwined with sugar flowers. Elephants, monkeys, and seals stood on blown-open peonies, hippos danced above pale-green viburnum, and a crafty-looking snake circled an innocent nerine lily. This cake was well over a thousand dollars, judging by the sugar flowers. She didn’t want to touch it.
“So do you just, like, put the flowers on? Do you use glue or….”
Elly tried to ignore Victoria as she figured out where to put the flowers. A couple at the top, maybe a few on the sides….
“So, you’re just going to stick them in?”
Elly gave a single nod.
“Do you think that Ginny could do it?”
She was unable to control her confusion. She turned to Victoria. “Um, I’m sorry, what?”
“I was just wondering if Ginny could do it. You know, for the memories. And the pictures.”
For the first time in a long time, Elly was speechless. She peered at Victoria. “Uh, I mean, I guess she could … but this cake is really expensive.” She corrected herself. “Expensive-looking.”
Victoria shrugged. “I’m sure you could fix it if anything went wrong.”
Elly bit her lip. A bead of sweat dripped down the front of her chest. “I could try, but I’m not a cake designer….” She decided to go with honesty. “Honestly, I wouldn’t risk it. She could pull down the whole cake.”
Victoria looked at Elly, aghast. “My daughter would do no such thing. I’ll have you know that she is very highly regarded in her class at Little Tots Montessori School.”
Elly stared blankly at the horizon, trying to hold in a laugh. “She does seem very smart.”
Victoria continued. “I think it would be a special memory for her. She has great reflexes.”
Elly cast her eyes downward. “Well, then, why don’t I just leave you the flowers right here, and then you can have her put them on the cake as you see fit?”
Victoria was lifting Genevieve out of her high chair. “That sounds great. Thanks, Elly, the flowers are gorgeous! Can I book you for her third birthday?”
Elly smiled. “Absolutely!” Only if your budget is either the same or higher…. “Is it okay if I use your restroom really fast?” she inquired. “I drank a ton of water on the way over.” Why did I tell her that?
Victoria gave her a puzzled look. “Sure, it’s just inside the door. Have you seen Brad? He needs to take the picture. Braaad!”
Before Elly headed for the massive stone house, she gave Genevieve a sympathetic look as the child mashed a fist into her mouth. Seeing Anthony on the way in, she asked him, “All done?”
He gave a curt head shake. “Just gonna spray down the centerpieces one last time, and then we should be ready to go. I’ll bring the van around to the front.”
“Thanks.” Elly huffed up the hill, the long Serengeti grasses (planted ahead of time for the party!) brushing her ankles. At the top of the hill, she walked around a large antelope arguing with a shorter chimpanzee. “There is no way that Kate is going to go to prom with you. She’s already going with Jack.”
The chimpanzee shook his head. “No way. She broke up with him because he took her to that horror movie because he was all like, ‘I love when they run in the tank tops.’ So she’s going with me….”
Elly withheld a loud chuckle as she passed them on the porch. Teenagers were hilarious, especially in jungle outfits. She momentarily missed Snarky Teenager, who had the day off today. Stepping inside the house, she welcomed the cool blast of air conditioning on her damp forehead. Looking around, she spied a long hallway to the left and a sign that read Bathroom. She headed down the hallway, undoing her apron as she walked. Just before she reached the door, a shadow stepped out of the door across from the bathroom. Elly jumped. It was Brad, his long torso blocking her way, a beer in his hand. “Well, hey there! Didn’t expect to find you in here.”
Elly gave a shy smile. “Just using the facilities, but if that’s a problem….”
He placed a hand on her shoulder. “No worries, that’s fine. Where is Victoria?”
“She’s outside with the baby. She was looking for you to take some pictures as Genevieve decorates the cake. You might want to head out there.”
“Ginny is decorating the cake?” He looked shocked. “That cake was two grand. She’s not going to touch that effin’ thing.”
Elly shifted uncomfortably. “That’s what I thought, but I’m sure it will be fine. This is her party, after all.”
Brad looked as if he was about to step out of her way, and she was about to let out a breath of relief when he said, “My wife is so crazy. Look at this crap!” He picked up an embroidered khaki vest from a large wicker basket, a take-home favor for the men attending this soiree. “Sometimes I think I needed to marry someone with a better head on their shoulders. Or,” he muttered drunkenly, “I just need to have a little fun on the side. Nothing is fun anymore.” He looked at Elly, tilting his head sideways before he casually draped his arms around her waist. “We could have just a couple minutes of fun, you know, if you are up to it.”
Elly stood frozen, her heart pounding so loud that it resonated in her ears. She was sure the entire house could hear it, the entire party outside, the kids in their jungle outfits, Victoria and Genevieve and Anthony. She raised her eyes to look at Brad, terrified. His face leered down at her with a lupine grin. Just ignore him, she thought. But then she thought of Keith. A fire ignited in her belly as she pushed Brad out of the way. “You pervert. Your wife is out there planning an amazing birthday party for your gorgeous daughter, and you are in here trying to hook up with the help? Shame on you. Have some class next time.” She stepped around him, but not before she grabbed his beer. “Quit drinking, go outside, and watch your daughter destroy an expensive cake. Now, if you will excuse me, I have to pee.”
Brad stared at her for a minute through glassy eyes before stumbling to the door. “But,” he moaned drunkenly, “I love curvy women. And I never get to have them.”
“Go on.” Elly motioned with her hand.
Mumbling, he stepped outside. Elly shut the bathroom door behind her, dumping the beer into the sink. Minutes later, as Anthony pulled the car out of the driveway, Elly took a last glance at the safari in the backyard. Balloons and flowers danced and swayed in the wind. Party guests were beginning to gather, their faces glowing with awe as they entered the party through jungle vines. The teenage menagerie growled and paced around, and under the tent, Genevieve happily stuck both of her hands and a rose into the top layer of the now-destroyed cake. Victoria smiled as she held her up, cake smeared across her light blond hair. Brad snapped picture after picture, slightly swaying on his feet. As the van pulled away, Elly thought that she had never seen anything be so heartbreaking and lovely at the same time. As Anthony hurtled the van toward the highway, Elly suddenly felt that she couldn’t get to Keith fast enough.
Later, when they were both full from a luscious dinner (Swiss cheese lasagna, brioche, and a spinach and mandarin-orange salad), Elly happily swung Keith’s hand as they strolled toward his deli. She had agreed to help him hang some framed pictures on the bare (and somewhat unsightly) walls. The deli desperately needed a makeover, and while she would never say it outright, she was trying to help it achieve its full potential—secretly. Maybe I’ll make it look like an old lady shop, too, she thought with a scowl. Stupid Snarky Teenager.
Keith unlocked the huge glass doors, pushing them to the side. Elly lifted her nose into the air, enjoying the drift of a million different mouthwatering scents: hearty wheat bread, pungent pickles, spicy mustard, crisp cucumbers, and smoked sausage all mingled deliciously in her nost
rils. “I love the way this place smells,” murmured Elly, dizzy with delight.
Keith rested his mouth and nose against her hair. “I love the way this smells.”
Elly blushed and gave his hand a squeeze. “So, where are we starting?”
“Well,” Keith walked into the store and gestured at the wall behind his long white counter, “I was thinking maybe behind here, so the customers can see them?”
Elly winced. The wall behind the counter was practically covered already; two chalkboards listing the various meats used hung next to each other, and any space left on the wall was covered with the daily specials. She tried not to laugh. “Um, where on that wall would you put those pictures?”
Keith looked up at the space. “I don’t know, maybe on the sides of the chalkboards?”
Elly shook her head. “Honestly, I think that might look a little crowded. What about …?“she spun around and pointed to the huge, naked wall behind the limited customer seating, pretending that she hadn’t thought about this in great depth before now, “here?”
Keith cracked his knuckles as he stared at the wall. “There?”
Elly laughed and made huge circles with her hands. “Yes, here, where you have nothing.”
“But….”
Elly frowned. “But, you don’t want people to look at anything while they’re eating?”
“I guess I just figured that the pictures should go where everybody looks—by the menu.”
Elly gave him a soft smile. “You are such a man. Here, sit down and then imagine it.”
Keith took a seat in the booth as Elly grabbed two of the framed pictures and stood on a chair, pushing then against the wall. “See how nice that looks?”
Elly could feel Keith’s eyes taking her in as she stretched out on her tiptoes, her shirt untucked and rising up on her belly button. “It looks very nice from here.”
Heat rushed into Elly’s cheeks. She instantly dropped her arms and pulled at her shirt. “Well, that’s where I think they should go, anyway, but it’s your deli.”
Keith rose from his chair. “Let me get this straight.” Carefully, he climbed on the chair behind her, trailing his rough hands up Elly’s arms and burying himself in her neck.
Elly turned to him. Holding the pictures in both hands, she wrapped her arms around his neck and brushed his lips softly with hers. “We have to get this done,” she whispered.
“Why?” he breathed back.
“Because your wall is naked.”
“Why did you have to say naked?” he teased.
She gave a grin. “This is man’s work. I’ll tell you where to put them and you will hang them up. That’s how it works.”
Keith ran his hands through her blond curls. “Okay, but maybe we can finish this kiss later?”
“It’s a date,” she sighed.
Carefully, Keith stepped down and took Elly’s hand to help her down. Elly watched as he climbed back on the chair. “I’m really surprised that little bit of decorating didn’t end up with a broken leg,” she chuckled.
Keith grinned. “I am pretty impressed, myself. Okay, hand me the first picture.”
Elly passed up the first of the black-and-white photos. “Where did you get these, anyway?”
Keith hammered a nail into the wall with manly efficiency. “They’re my grandfather’s old photos from Italy.” He pointed to the one Elly held in her hand. “That’s my grandfather, the tall man on the left.”
She glanced down at the photo: three men all stood together, and only the tall man on the left was smiling. His ruddy cheeks were puffed out with apparent joy, as he stood beside a hanging skinned pig.
“I like him,” said Elly, touching the picture lightly. “He looks like you.”
“Oh, yes. I very much take after my grandfather. He was a butcher in the old country—Brindisi. It’s gorgeous there—I’ll take you someday.” Someday. Elly flushed, her heart spinning. “Anyway, he worked almost his whole life at Piazza il Manzo, a tiny butcher shop on the coast there. Anyone who knows food knows that Italian butchers are not like the others. They are as essential to everyday life in Italy as a good coffee shop is here. My grandfather knew every type of cut and flavor of meat there was—and he didn’t suffer fools lightly. If you came into the Piazza il Manzo, you had better know your pork and veal mince, pork and fennel sausage, and a good pancetta. He worked thirty years at the same butcher shop until he finally was able to buy it. Then he and my grandmother moved to America to start their own business and well….” He looked uncomfortable for a moment. “And that was that. After he died, he was ground up in a mixer.”
Elly’s mouth dropped open and she stared up at Keith with revulsion and horror.
He gave her a pitying look. “Elly, you are such an easy mark. No, he died of a heart attack in his early sixties, same as my dad.” A look of sadness passed over Keith’s face. He took the picture from her hands and hooked it on the nail, then returned to the ground beside her and sorted through the remaining frames. “See, here is a picture of the butcher shop … see that butcher’s block up against the wall?” Keith pointed to the corner of the store, where a massive dark block of wood sat in front of the windows. “I don’t use it, really, but I love having it in here, a piece of my true history. Sometimes, when the seating is limited….” That’s every day, thought Elly. “I see kids playing on or around it, and it brings me a lot of joy. My parents wouldn’t have appreciated it, but he would have.” Keith flipped through the frames. “Ah, here it is, the first Carcelo’s Deli. See, that’s my dad right here, with my sister and me.”
Elly peered at the picture. Another tall man stood at the center. His resemblance to Keith was startling. It was like Keith had put on a stage mustache, but other than that, they could be brothers. His hands rested squarely on the shoulders of two young children: an apple-cheeked girl with jet-black hair, and Keith, a chubby child with his hair cropped close to his head. They stood in front of a brick building with a metal sign on the door that read Cary’s. The name rang a bell in her mind, but she was distracted by the children in the picture; the little girl looked miserable, but Keith’s dorky grin stretched from ear to ear. “Oh,” exhaled Elly, her heart warming to a brand new feeling. “Keith, these pictures are amazing. You were so cute as a little boy!” She swore that her ovaries did a tiny jig at the thought of his children.
Keith gave a deep laugh. “Yeah, I loved growing up in the deli. My sister, not so much. She’s a vegetarian now. And annoying.”
“So you’ve told me,” replied Elly. His sister’s veganism and spending habits were a source of great annoyance to Keith. “Who becomes a vegetarian with this kind of impressive lineage?” Elly shook her head. “Such a tragedy.”
Keith huffed. “In a family of butchers, it is.”
Elly looked at the next picture. “And this car? What does it say on it? Cary’s … why does that sound familiar?”
Keith grabbed it quickly out of her hand. “Oh, my dad started delivering meats by car in the late sixties to local delis. It made him very popular in the neighborhood. And in a time where racism was still rampant, he didn’t discriminate. Everyone who wanted Carcelo’s cuts got them.”
Elly watched as he continued hanging up picture after picture, displaying his family history. Keith seemed so proud of his family, while at the same time dodging questions about his parents. Eh, she understood. She lately had found herself wishing that she had known more about her past. It made her long to pick Dennis’s brain, something she knew she wouldn’t be able to do for a long time. “So,” she started casually, as Keith raised his hammer, “I asked Dennis to move in with me.”
The hammer came down on Keith’s finger and the picture smashed to the floor. “Owwwww….” He shook his finger rapidly while silently mouthing a world of hurt. “What? Dennis is moving in with you?”
Elly tried to keep a casual cadence to her voice. “Yeah, I mean, you can’t pay for him to stay in that hotel forever—I won’t let you. It’s
really no big deal.”
Keith clambered down from the chair. “Elly, it’s a big deal. It’s a really big deal. You don’t even know him that well!”
Elly frowned and set down the pictures. “Keith, I know. But he’s my brother, and he has nowhere else to go.”
Keith took a deep breath. “I know Elly, and I totally feel for the kid. But I don’t want you to put the cart before the horse. Are you even sure that he is your brother?”
Elly’s mouth dropped open and suddenly she was furious. Furious at Dennis for dropping in on her, furious at Keith for thinking the opposite of what she knew for sure, furious at her mother for not being alive to talk about it, and furious at the father she never knew for keeping Dennis from her. “Yes, Keith, I’m sure. That letter was written in my mother’s handwriting. He looks like me. We do the same things with our mouths, with our hands. Besides all that, besides every single thing that points to Dennis and me being related, I just know it, Keith! I know it in the deepest part of my heart. I have to help him.”
“Elly, it’s not your responsibility to help him. I know that this affected you deeply, but you just met him. It’s not like the two of you have a relationship. He could be psycho for all you know. Remember his weird backpack?”
Elly sat down at a table and leveled her glare at Keith. “Keith, I trust my intuition; he’s not a threat. Sure, he’s quirky and strange and smells really bad and sometimes hangs out in his underwear, but he needs my help. I have no choice.”
“You can help him, but he doesn’t have to live with you. I feel like you’re leaping into this blindly.” Keith paused. “I’ve been thinking about it, and I really think you should get a DNA test.”
Elly’s mouth dropped open. “Are you serious?”
Keith stared back at her without flinching. “Yes. I think before you throw away money and resources on this kid, that you should make sure that he’s not some sort of con artist.”
“Does Dennis seem capable of being a con artist?”
Keith’s face distorted for a moment. “No one does, at first. I just think that having a DNA test done would remove all doubt and uncertainty. He wouldn’t even have to know.”