Fate (38 page)

Sal left the room several more times to take calls
,
and
then he’d come back and huddle up with his brothers and even his father one time. Though no one said anything
,
there’d been an obvious change in mood ever since Rose picked up on it earlier. Sal’s parents had even left while she was busy with Alison without saying goodbye
,
which wasn’t such a big deal
,
but so unlike them.

After walking Alison an
d
Ezekiel out
,
she walked back to the kitchen where Grace was now starting to put things away. Rose didn’t miss
t
he worried expression Grace tried to hide as she glanced away quickly.

Sal walked in just then. “Zeke seems like a nice guy,” he said referring to Ezekiel.

“Political science major
,
huh? Alison
says
he’s really interested in running for president someday. Wow.” Grace added with a soft smile.

Rose turned back to Grace after smiling at Sal. “Yeah, well it runs in his family. His dad works for the mayor
,
and his uncle
is
a mayor of some town up north.” She leaned against the counter still unable to shake the feeling that everyone knew something she didn’t. She addressed Grace first. “Listen is something going on? You guys all seem…I don’t know
…
tense.” She turned back to Sal. “And your parents
,
they left so suddenly. What happened?” She caught Grace shaking her head at Sal. Grace stopped as soon as Rose turned to her. “No, what?”

A familiar knot began to form in Rose’s stomach. Something
was
wrong and for whatever reason
,
Grace didn’t want her to know about it.

“My mom was just feeling a little under the weather
,
t
hat’s all.” Sal assured her. “She didn’t want to interrupt you while you were with your friends.”

“Under the weather?” Rose remembered Sofia’s hand going to her mouth earlier as if she’d just been given some bad news. She turned to look at Grace
’
s eyes that were so telling of how much more serious this really was. In the time she’d lived with Sal
,
his parents had become somewhat of surrogate grandparents to her. His mother was the sweetest woman she knew. “Is she gonna be okay? Did she go to the hospital?”

“No nothing like that,” Sal said again in as reassuring voice as he could. “It’s just a little cold. She’ll be fine.”

“Rose,” Sofia walked into the kitchen holding Rose’s phone out. “The caller ID says Ben
,
so I thought maybe you’d want to take it.” She smiled.

Rose took it but eyed Grace as she walked out of the kitchen to answer. “Hey
,
I heard you won. Congrats, baby! So this is it
,
right? You go to state finals?”

Smiling
,
but feeling a little uneasy about
his
calling her baby now that everything had changed
,
she responded. “Yeah, finals start next week.”

“Cool! I’ll try to make at least one of the games. I think you guys got this.” He went on to tell her about looking up ranks online and where exactly they stood next to all the other teams that had made it that far. By the time she hung up
,
her head was spinning with all the stats and numbers he’d thrown at her.

Starving
,
since she’d hardly eaten during the barbeque
because
she was so busy
mingl
ing, she headed straight to the kitchen where a very somber bunch
was
gathered. That was it. She was getting to the bottom of this on
c
e and for all.

“Will somebody please tell me what is going on?”

She could see it in Grace
’
s face
;
it was the same look she had when she’d been so worried about Rose being depressed. She bit her lip
,
looking at Grace then Sal and waited.

Angel spoke first. “Lorenzo got a call today on his way here from your game about Vince.”

Rose felt the air sucked out of her lungs as Grace
’
s words from the moment she first found out a few weeks ago screamed in her head.
Vince’s been deployed to Iraq.
She couldn’t move—breathe. Getting the words out was incredible struggle. “What about him?”

“He’s been MIA for days.”

It took a moment for her brain to wrap around that—make sense of what she’d just heard.
MIA?
Then it came to her from a paper she had to write in high school on the war:
m
issing in action. Her Vincent was missing in action in Iraq
,
v
ery possibly already dead.

~*~

An entire week later they still knew nothing. Lorenzo had told her everything right down to the expressions on the faces of the first sergeant
,
the chaplain,
and the base commander that had been sent to his parents
’
apartment to deliver the news.

On his mother
’
s request they waited for Lorenzo to get there and explained everything they knew. Vincent’s entire squad had perished during a battle. Everybody but Vincent had been accounted for. It’d been nearly a week since he’d gone missing
,
and they’d wait
ed
that long to notify them because there’d been an investigation
,
first to rule out the possibility that Vincent had deserted.

Unlike Rose Lorenzo was convinced Vincent was alive. She didn’t want to tell him about the report she’d written in high school
,
but from her research
,
more than ninety-eight percent of soldiers missing in action were either never found or found dead.

As if this past year hadn’t taken a big enough toll on her emotionally and physically
,
this had done it. The first few days after getting the news, Rose lay in bed refusing to get up for any reason. She’d never tell Grace
,
but she had moments she wished she were dead. Anything was better than having to endure the pain she was going through now. At least when he’d first left
,
she had hopes of seeing him again someday. It wasn’t until the day Lorenzo showed up teary
-
eyed
,
begging her to have faith
,
that she finally snapped out of it.

“Why am I the only one that believes he’s still alive? Why doesn’t anyone else have faith like I do? I know my brother. He’s a fighter
,
and more than anything Rose he’d come back for you. If nothing else
,
he’d do it for
you
.”

Rose wanted nothing more than to believe that
,
but one thing nagged at her. “
T
hat’s the thing, Lorenzo. What if he never got my letter? What if he really thinks I’ve moved on?”

Lorenzo shook his head. “
It d
oesn’t matter. He’d never give up so easily. You shouldn’t either, Rose. He’ll come home to us
;
I know he will.”

As much as she knew the odds were stacked against Vincent, that day she forced herself out of bed. Between all of them, Sal, Grace and Lorenzo they convinced her to go to her practices. The finals started that weekend
,
and her team needed her.

“It’s the distraction you need, Rose.” Grace insisted. “What good does it do you to be home thinking about this
?
”

Grace was just weeks away from delivering. Rose wasn’t even dreading having to tell her about her anemia anymore. Somehow after getting the news about Vincent
,
her having to get injections for the rest of her life didn’t seem nearly as dreadful as when she’d first found out. At least she’d live.

Lorenzo had already given her the first shot this week. Being around him at first she thought would be detrimental to her mental state
,
but it actually helped. Only
he
was hurting as much as she was.

Rose was putting in a few hours that morning at the restaurant
,
and
then she’d go home and get ready for her game later that evening.

Sal rushed into the back
office
just as she was walking into the dining room with a tray full of food. Looking up as she placed the dishes on the table
,
she tried to concentrate on getting everyone’s dish right.

“No I had the
enchiladas
,”
said
the lady
Rose had put the plate
in front of
.
“He had the
mole
.”

Rose turned back to her. “Oh
,
I’m sorry.” She switched their plates and finished serving just as Sal walked out of the back room in a hurry again and waved her over.

She rushed to him. “Something wrong?”

“Well
,
not wrong
,
but Grace is
having contractions
again.”

Rose’s eyes bulged. “Really?”

“It’s still a few weeks too soon
,
” Sal frowned
,
“
b
ut the doc said to bring her in anyway. I gotta get out of here. Alex is already on his way. Can you hang out just until he gets here?”

Rose nodded quickly. “Sure.”

When Alex arrived
,
she gathered her things and left. She wanted to go home and get her things ready
,
so she could at least stop by the hospital on her way to her game.

Knowing she wouldn’t be home long
,
she didn’t bother parking in the garage like she normally would. Sal hadn’t been parking in there lately either. With Grace so big now
,
it was hard for her to get in the car if it was parked in there
,
so he’d started just parking in the driveway the last few weeks.

Frowning as she made her way into the house
,
she thought about how disappointed Grace would be that she’d be missing her game today. Just as she reached her room the doorbell rang. She walked back to the front door wondering who it could be
.

As soon as she opened
it,
she remembered. “Lorenzo, Oh my God
,
I almost forgot.”

“About your injection, really?”

“Yes, Sal asked if I could go into the restaurant for a few hours this morning, then Grace went into labor a few hours ago. My mind is all over the place,” she said walking back toward her room
.

After washing his hands in the restroom
,
Lorenzo stood at her bedroom doorway. “We doing it in here?” he asked.

Rose glanced around. “Yeah
,
I think it’s safest
,
”
s
he said as she pulled the stuff out of her drawer. “My mom isn’t here. I’m not sure if she went to the hospital with them or not. I wouldn’t want her to get here suddenly and walk in on us.”

“It takes but a sec, Rose.”

“Still,” she said looking up at him again
,
“
c
lose the door behind you just in case.”

She handed him the syringe and everything else he needed including rubbing alcohol and a cotton ball. “Do it on my lower back. I don’t want anything affecting my legs today.” She turned around and lifted her blouse, lowering her shorts a bit. How in the world did this happen? Her standing here in her bedroom holding her shorts down for Vincent’s brother. Just the thought of him
gripped
her heart something awful. “Have you heard anything new?”

“Nothing.” She
felt him
rub the cold cotton ball on her lower back. “My dad said he’s gonna try calling again today. All done.”

She turned to him
,
smiling
,
hoping he wouldn’t see that she was already tearing up again. “You’re getting better every time. I didn’t even feel it this time.”

He handed her the syringe and the empty little bottle of the vitamin injection with an equally forced smile. She put the things down on her desk then to her surprise felt his hand in hers. When she turned to face him
,
he brought his hands to her face. “Listen to me, Rosie. The power of thought is an awesome thing. You
have
to believe he’s okay. You
have
to believe he’ll come home to us.”