Rapture's Rendezvous (37 page)

“This is ya'all's brothah?” Mama Pearl said quietly. She frowned toward Alberto. “And why didn't ya'U tell me earlier? All the othah times ya'll came knockin' on this heah door?”

Alberto's hands went to his whiskers and began to caress them. “I didn't think it . . . uh . . . wise,” he stammered.

Maria spoke again. “You see, Alberto and my Papa
work in Nathan's coal mine. Alberto feared . . .
Nathan “

“Feahed . . . Mastah Hawkins . . . ?” Mama Pearl whispered. “How can anyone feah Mastah Hawkins? He has always been so kind to me.”

“To hell with you,” Alberto exclaimed, glaring. “It is Maria whom I am so concerned about. Maria? Tell me. How could you do this? Have you lost all love and respect for Italians? You know how badly Nathan Hawkins treats all of us.”

Maria felt tears surfacing. Alberto looked so tired. His dark eyes were heavy with sadness, and his face was lined with coal dust. His clothes were even dirtier than when he had worn his chimney sweep costume. Maria's heart ached so, knowing even mpre now that Alberto hadn't
bettered himself by traveling to America. “Alberto, there's so much to tell you.” she said, reaching for him.

Mama Pearl stepped away from them both, watching silently as brother and sister stood arguing with one another. Mama Pearl didn't understand any of this. Hadn't Maria willingly married Mastah Hawkins? Had he forced her . . . ? She knew that he had done this many other times before. Lawdy, she had learned to keep her mouth shut about things. She had no other choice but to. . . .

“Tell me then,” Alberto shouted. “Maria, tell me. Now!”

Maria looked at Mama Pearl who still stood glowering, ready to pounce on Alberto if he made another approach toward Maria. Maria didn't feel free to talk while in Mama Pearl's presence. She knew that anything they said would more than likely be repeated to Nathan. Mama Pearl appeared to have great loyalty to her . .. master.

Turning with wavering eyes, Maria whispered, “Alberto, I cannot tell you now. Please. . ..”

Alberto's rage increased. His eyes bulged as he yanked Maria into his arms and kissed her strong and hard on the mouth, feeling an inner excitement at such softness against his lips. He knew that he was swelling beneath his breeches, and felt shame, utter shame and contempt for himself, not having been able to control his feelings for Maria any longer. But love had almost become the same as hate, as he now realized what she had done. She had betrayed him. She had given herself to a man who was no better than a snake in the grass.

He clung to her for a moment, feeling his heart
pound wildly inside him, then released her, watching her expression turn to one of mortification. He then rushed from the porch to the wagon and shouted loudly to the horse, anxious to get away from what he had just revealed to his sister. He now even knew the cause of his being incapable of making love to another woman. All along, it had been because of his secret passion for his lovely Maria. Tears burst forth from his eyes as he slapped the horse with the reins, yelling loudly into the wind. He knew of only one place to go. He couldn't face his Papa. Not after what he had just done.

Maria lifted a finger to her lips, stunned. She raced to the edge of the porch and watched as Alberto grew dim in the distance. Why had Alberto done such a thing? Had his hurt caused him to become suddenly deranged in the head? Then she remembered. The blow to his head on the ship. Was it still causing him trouble? She vividly recalled how worried she had been about him for so long after he had supposedly recovered. And now? To kiss her? As a man kissed a woman . .. ?

Lowering her eyes, she rubbed her lips furiously. Her brother. Her own flesh and blood.
Now
what was she to do?~

“Sweet Baby,” Mama Pearl said, moving to Maria's side. “Your brother. He has taken leave of his senses.”

Maria swung around, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I must go to him,” she said. “I have to talk with him. There's so much that needs saying. But my clothes. I can't go dressed so expensively. You did say that my clothes had arrived … ?” She paused, then added quickly,.”! need to change into something less
fancy to go to my Papa's house.”

Mama Pearl moved toward the staircase, motioning for Maria to follow after her. “Yes, ma'am. Ah've already placed a few things across the bed for ya'all. Ah'll take ya'all to the room that's to be yours.”

Breathless, Maria lifted the skirt of her dress and climbed the staircase. She couldn't help but let hereyes wander around her, seeing the greatness of all that she continued to find in this house. The staircase led upward to a hallway of many rooms, and as she passed each, she peered into the rooms, seeing many styles of decorated walls and draperies. The furniture was all large, comfortable pieces, and the floors shone back at her as though never walked upon.

“In heah. This is your room,” Mama Pearl said, stepping aside. “Do you want me to assist you change ya'all's clothes? Or do ya'all want to be left alone?”

Maria stood wringing her hands. “Please leave me be, Mama Pearl,” she murmured. “Please go on about your duties.”

“Now you just quit frettin' ovah things. Don't ya'all know things will work out? Mastah Hawkins will see to it. He's a kind man. Sho nuff is.”

In anger, Maria closed her lips tightly together. Then she said, “Please, Mama Pearl.” .She moved toward the bed. “Please. I'd rather not speak of Nathan at this time.”

“If ya'all needs me, ah'll just be down the hall.”

“I will be leaving as soon as I change,” Maria said, already unbuttoning her dress. “And please don't tell Nathan. He wouldn't approve. I am sure of it.”

“If that is what ya'all wants,” Mama Pearl said,
shrugging, then left Maria standing alone in a room totally unfamiliar to her, though she knew that it now by legal standards was hers.

As she stepped out of her dress and began to unlace her corset, her gaze traveled around her. A great mahogany bedstead sat against a far outside wall beneath a window. The drapes hanging at the one window of the room and the bedspread covering the bed were of pale orchid velveteen. The bureau and night table were of a matching mahogany, as were the carvings of the legs of two velveteen-covered chairs.

Seeing herself in a pier glass that was set into the wardrobe's door. Maria quickly shook her hair to settle around her shoulders and down her back. Then she slipped into a full-length, black serge skirt and white shirtwaist, feeling now more ready for her first appearance in Hawkinsville since she had been forced to wed the man whose name the town bore.

She threw a simple knitted shawl (one of her personal choosing in Saint Louis) around her shoulders, then she raced down the staircase, on through the spaciousness of the brightly lighted parlor, to the outdoors, and began to run down the gravel road. Oh, if by fleeing now she could only escape the memories of Nathan's hands and lips. They would always be revolting to her. But now she was remembering another's mouth against hers. It was as though her lips were burning even now. “Why, oh, why, Alberto?” she whispered to herself.

Lifting her skirt, she stepped from the road, into the Indian grass, slowed by its thickness. But she continued to push her way through it, feeling the breeze lifting her
hair from her shoulders, making it whip around her face. She wiped it back from hereyes, hurrying onward until she reached the iron bridge.

Panting, she ran across it and began to move in front of all the bleak houses that made up this town of Hawkinsville. Aromas from the privies rippled through the air, and the breeze carried coal dust upward to settle on her lips and face. She sneezed, then rushed on up the steps that led inside her Papa's house.

A fresher aroma met her as she moved into the front room. She recognized it as the distinct aroma of turnip greens with only a faint fragrance of vinegar intermingling. As she drew nearer to the kitchen, she could hear movement from within. She hurried her pace and stopped when she entered, seeing her Papa even more slumped, and much, much too thin, making her heart ache.

“Papa?” she whispered. When he turned, she saw the familiar distortion to his face, knowing this to be the usual wad of chewing tobacco he kept formed into a cheek.

“Maria?” he said, paling. “My .. . Maria .. . ?”

Maria went to him and hugged him to her, seeing through his thin wisps of hair the signs of coal dust on his scalp and in the lines of his face as he searched hers

“Are you truly all right, Maria?” he said, tears causing his eyes to redden. “I was so worried. I had no idea why you would have gone with that. . . that. . . Nathan Hawkins.”

“This is why I have come home, Papa,” she said, sniffling. “To tell you the reasons. But, first. I have to see Alberto. Has he come home? I have a desperate
need to speak with him first.”

“No. Alberto isn't here. Why? What has happened?”-He pulled away from her, going to pull the pot of turnip greens from the stove. Then he slouched down onto a kitchen chair, wheezing hard.

Maria saw the laboring of his breath. She went to him and touched his brow. “Papa. You aren't breathing naturally. Has your … health … worsened?”

He hung his head, inhaling and exhaling even more laboriously. “No. I'm all right,” he mumbled. With his hand, he covered the area over his heart, sighing deeply. “No. Now I am all right.” His gaze met Maria's and held. “Now. What is this about Alberto?”

Maria swung her skirt around and went to stand at the back window, wringing her hands nervously. “It is something between Alberto and myself, Papa,” she murmured. “Please understand. I cannot tell you.”

“He's done something foolish. Tell me what it is. He's acted strangely since coming to America.”

Maria went to the table and pulled a chair from beneath it and sat down onto it. “Like I said, Papa,” she said, her eyes wavering. “It's between me and Alberto. Where is he? Please tell me.”

“He took the wagon just as soon as we arrived home from the mine,” Giacomo said. “I have no idea where he went.”

Maria knew. She cast her eyes downward, thinking her Papa might be able to see some truth in the depths of her eyes. “Well, then I will have to seek him out later,” she murmured. Again she met her Papa's gaze. “Now I must explain why I went away with Nathan Hawkins.” She swallowed hard, then held her left hand
toward her Papa, letting him see the largeness of the diamond that had been given her after the words had been spoken between her and Nathan, the words that had sealed .. . their . .. union. She chewed on her lower lip, watching her Papa's expression change to disbelief. .. then anger. He pushed himself up from the chair, breathing hard once again.

“You can't tell me that you have wed that. . . that evil man,” he said, amost choking. He leaned his full weight on the edge of the table, teetering. “Maria, why? Why?”

Maria rose and rushed to him, trying to embrace him, only to be brushed angrily aside. “Papa, if you will let me explain, then you will fully understand,” she cried. “You will see that what I have done was .. . quite . . . necessary.”

“Nothing would be explanation enough, Maria,” he said, moving from the room.

Maria felt an iciness fill her veins. Had she been wrong? Should she have refused Nathan Hawkins? Had he only been bluffing? Maybe he wouldn't even have done what he had threatened. She hung her head in her hands, sobbing. She cried for a few moments, then followed her Papa into the front room where he sat, staring out the window into space.

Maria fell to her knees in front of him. “Papa?” she whispered, taking his hands in hers. “Now you listen. You just listen to what I have to say. Then you will know that I only did this to make all of our lives better.. ..”

His dark eyes sought hers out, heavy and brooding. “You mean
your
life, don't you, Maria?” he
said, accusingly.

“No. No, Papa,” she cried. “Please listen.”

“All right, tell me,” he said thickly. “Tell your Papa why you have disgraced the Lazzaro family's name . . . and all the Italians in this community. Tell me how you can let that craggly faced devil. . . touch … the flesh … of your beautiful.. . body. . ..”

Alberto drew the horse to a halt next to Ruby's fence, staring at the house. He knew that he was a bit too early and that he wasn't cleaned up as usual after his day of working, but he had nowhere else to go. Ruby's had become his second home. She seemed to know him so well now. She had even consoled him when he had failed to have sexual success with any of her girls. He wiped at the tears in his eyes, feeling so weak, so unmanly. He needed to prove himself a man even more this early evening than at any time before. Maybe Ruby herself could take him to a room and bring out the man inside him. He had the desires . . . the needs of a man. Surely someone as skilled as Ruby could ease his inner torment. Up to this time, her consoling had only taken the form of words.

He jumped from the wagon and tied the reins to a hitching post, then entered through the gate, eyeing the dogs cautiously. They came to him, sniffing, then went on their way. He was glad that they had finally grown used to him. He had always feared dogs and the sharpness of their teeth, especially these two that Ruby depended on for safety.

Trembling, Alberto went to the front door and tapped lightly. Thrusting his hands in his rear breeches
pockets, he stood with bowed head. He could still feel, the softness of Maria's lips and what they had caused to stir inside him. Shame once again flooded his thoughts. How .. . could he . . . have . . . ? What must Maria be thinking . . . ?

When the door opened, Ruby's brown eyes traveled over Alberto, seeing the state he was in. “Alberto? What's the matter?” she said in her slow drawl. “You've never come to Ruby's house so early. And you look so distraught. What has happened? Have you finally suc-ceeded in finding Maria? Are you upset. .. about. . . your findings?”