Authors: Patrick Abbruzzi
He started to feel hunger pangs so went up to the kitchen to see what he could throw together for dinner. As he approached the top of the stairs, he found Annette already there, standing at the stove, cooking. When the scent of seafood hit his nose, he realized she was making one of his favorite meals. The table was set with some of he
r
good china, not the best, which she reserved for company or very special occasions, but better than their everyday dishes. There was a bottle of white wine chilling in an ic
e
bucket and two shrimp cocktails were sitting at their place settings.
Th
e
ice bucket had been a gift he had bought her years ago. It was silver an
d
had an emblem crest on it of an oldItalian winery. He also took in th
e
unmistakable aroma of garlic and knew that she had prepared shrim
p
scampi to go along with the shrimp cocktails.
Charlie was elated to find that hi
s
wife seemed as if she was really trying to make things work. If she thought their marriage was a hopeless cause then why would she go through so much trouble to fi
x
his favorite dinner?
“Is there anything I can do to help?
”
he asked.
“Just go and wash up. I have everything under control,” she said with a shake of her head.
After cleaning all the dirt off his hands, he joined his wife at th
e
dinner table.
“Thank you,” he said simply.
“For what?”
“For you; for all of this,” he said as he waved a hand across the table before his tone turned serious. “I love you, Annette, and I always will.”
“Oh, don’t be so melodramatic, Charlie. Eat your food before it gets cold.” Although her own voice sounded harsh, she was smiling, just a bit.
Charlie knew that inside Annette was smiling, too, and he found himself on cloud nine. He fervently hoped they could continue
in this direction as the coming days turned into weeks.
After dinner he helped load the dishwasher with the dirty dishes then straightened up the rest of the kitchen. When they were finished, Annette put the Italia
n
Espresso maker on and they took their coffee into the living room as soon as it was ready. The
y
watched TV for a while but the entire time Charlie’s head was full o
f
questions.
“
Should I try to make love to her tonight? I wonder if she even wants me to try?Does she want me or not? What if I don’t make love to her? Would sh
e
think I don’t want to?
”
Endless, silent questions raced around in his head.
After the nightly news they got up and went upstairs to their bedroom. Charlie undressed, leaving his white tee shirt and boxer shorts on while Annette went into the bathroom and came out wearing a nightgown. Sh
e
climbed into bed and Charlie reached over to give her a goodnight kiss, which she freely accepted. He tried to kiss her again and placed his hand on her breast.
“Charlie, we had a nice dinner but tonight is not the night for this,” she said, answering his unasked questions from just seconds before. “Don’t take this wrong, but I have to go slowl
y
with this. Let’s not spoil it by rushing into something sexual.”
“Okay, honey. I guess you’re right,” he said then kissed her once more and rolled over on his side. She was right, of course.
When he finally slept, it was Terry, not Annette, in his dreams.
**
The next day Charlie was the first to wake up. He got out of bed and just stood there, watching his wife as she slept. She was beautiful. One of her breasts had become exposed and Charlie couldn’t help but think that another man had not only looked at them but had probably kissed them, too. He thought of the so called double standard; he had done every imaginable sex act with Terry but the thought of another man with his wife was killing him.
He forced himself to shower and shave and left the house before Annett
e
woke up. He went to the local bagel Bistro and bought some bagels, som
e
cream cheese and the Sunday paper. He knew that the bagel store had a phone booth but resisted the overbearing temptation to call Terry. He returned home and found Annette u
p
and dressed. She had on a cute outfit of jeans and a silk blouse. He immediately thought of Terry when she had greeted him at her doo
r
wearing a similar outfit but quickly forced those thoughts away.
Annette had the coffee on already and was cooking bacon.
“Good morning. I bought your favorite bagels. I even got cream cheese to go with them,” he said, smiling at her.
“Sounds good. How do you want your eggs?
”
“Over easy would be fine,” he answered.
Charlie poured himself a cup of coffee, sat down at the table and opened his paper.
“Looks like another suicide bomber has killed more people over in Israel,” he said grimly.
“I don’t think there will ever be peace over there. They’re all fanatics,” she said as she rotated the bacon.
“Yeah. I guess you’re right.”
They ate breakfast together with Charlie reading the news sectio
n
and Annette reading the travel section. When he noticed what part of the paper she was perusing, he found himself a little taken aback. She never read the travel section.
“So where are you going on your vacation?
”
he asked jokingly.
“Oh, I don’t know. A few of the girls said they wanted to go to Puert
o
Rico, and it’s surprisingly not expensive for an all-inclusive package,” she said.
“What are you talking about? You and I never take separate vacations,
”
he stammered.
“Oh, it’s not really a vacation. They just want to get away for two or three days.”
“Since when do the girls want to get away? They have never done this before
,
have they?
”
he asked as he struggled to hide his anger and disappointment.
“There’s a first time for everything, Charlie,” she replied casually.
He didn’t want to come across as suspicious but vacations were generally a week or more. Two or three days away was more like an office tryst with the boss.
“Are you serious, Annette? You would go someplace like that without me?
”
he asked.
“Oh, don’t worry. I can take care of myself,” she said.
“I’m not worried about you. I’m just trying to work on us. I don’t think going away withou
t
me is going to help us in any way. Is this something that has been planned already? Is it? I mean is this something that you and your frien
d
had planned together?
”
he asked, unable to contain his suspicion any longer.
“Charlie, don’t do this. You’re acting as if you have no faith in me.”
“Annette, I love you. You tell me to go slow. You fix me a wonderful mea
l
and then you hit me with sayonara, I’ll send you a postcard from th
e
sunny shores of Puerto Rico. What am I supposed to think?
”
“You simply have to trust me. It’s plain and simple,” she replied, as she carried her dishes to the sink.
Charlie knew she was right; he would have to leave off with the questions. If she were to come back to him emotionally as well as physically, h
e
would have to pave the road to her heart with gold and not cold, blac
k
tar. He would have to win her back with confidence. Whatever was going to happen was going to happen, even if it meant that his wife, the mothe
r
of his children, was going to leave him. He dropped the subject like a hot potato and, using reverse psychology, even offered advice on some nice spots in Puerto Ric
o
that he’d heard about. He hoped it would work.
They spent the day outside working in the yard, even taking a nap together later in the day. Although the repair of their marriage looked promising, there was still no physical intimacy between them.
As the day finally drew to an end, Charlie found himself looking forward to going back to work and seeing Lt. A. He had neve
r
asked the lieutenant for advice but this time he thought he just might.
Twenty-One
Before he knew it, Charlie found himself once more staring into a mirro
r
beginning his nightly ritual of showering and shaving for work. He didn’t mind late tours, in fact he loved them in an eerily, sick sort of way. What he hated was getting out of bed at that time of day to prepar
e
for them. Once he was done with his preparation he was ready to face th
e
night. During the coming shift he was finally going to share his problem and confide in his boss, Lieutenant Audenino. Charlie knew that other men confided with their partners but this was different. Lt. A. was like a partner but so much more. Even though their lives depended upon each other when they were working, the lieutenant was also his boss.
Charlie wondered if Lt. A. would handle their conversation like a partner and keep it to himself, or like a boss an
d
forward it upwards through the channels to the police department’s earl
y
intervention unit. This unit had been set up to help cops with marital o
r
emotional problems caused by either drinking or money woes. However it would be handled, Charlie’s mind was made up. He was going to ask his boss for help.
He kissed Annette goodnight and began his drive into the 120
th
station house. He decided to take the Staten Island Expressway all th
e
way down to Father CapodannoBoulevard and then along Bay Street to Saint George. He had clear sailing on the S.I.E. and exited at the Sout
h
Beach exit onto Father Capodanno Boulevard.
The boulevard’s namesake had been a Mary Knoll priest with the rank of lieutenan
t
in the U.S. Navy Chaplain Corps. Father Capodannolost his life providing comfort an
d
assistance to marines fighting in the QuangTin Province of Vietnam o
n
Sept. 4, 1967 and was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. He was
a
native Staten Islander.
Charlie thought the light traffic was a fairly good sign that the night before him would be quiet. He hoped his assumption was right because he wanted to really utilize the time with his boss.
He parked his car in his usual spot behind the station house and was happy to see that the lieutenant’s vehicle was already in the spot i
n
the side lot reserved for the Platoon Commander. Charlie hurried upstairs, bypassing the sitting room. He put on his uniform as quickly as possible then grabbed his gear and lit up a cigarette before descending the back stairs to wait for roll call. As he waited Charlie engaged in
a
little talk with some of the guys and learned that there had been a shooting in Parkhill. The 4X12 Platoon Commander was still on the call and would need to be relieved by the midnight lieutenant. Charlie wasn’t to
o
thrilled to hear this but silently hoped it would be wrapped up b
y
the time he got there with Lt. A.
The sergeants took the roll call and the lieutenant spoke briefly about car stops and safety factors while on patrol. There was no inspection an
d
the troops were quickly turned out into the night. Charlie gassed up the car and picked up the lieutenant, who was waiting in front of the station house.
“We need to relieve Lieutenant Moor over at 180 ParkhillAve first,” the lieutenant told him. “They had a drive by shooting during the night and are waiting for the ESU sergeant to arrive. We’re going to hold it down for abou
t
an hour because Sergeant Scott had something to do. I told her I would attend to it until she could get there, so let’s get ou
r
coffee and head over to Parkhill, okay?
”
“Anything you say, Lou,” Charlie agreed with a nod.
He drove them to the coffee shop in Stapleton instead of the Dunkin Donu
t
shop on Victory Boulevard because he did not want to see Terry. Not ye
t
anyway.