The Day Steam Died (7 page)

Chapter 12

“Traveling by train was the only way to travel in comfort and safety before there were Interstate highways and airlines.”

March 1961

The warehouse office was a warm retreat from the icy rain that made hanging off the side of a boxcar almost unbearable as it crept up to the loading dock.

“Whooee, it’s cold out there.” Jerry shook off the cold water as a wet dog would. “Reminds me of those days in Inchon Harbor.” He pulled his rain gear off and stood as close to the heater as he could without scorching his clothes.

From his collection of NASCAR cups, Ann held out a steaming mug. “Maybe some hot coffee will help.”

“Winter is hanging on way too long. March is truly going out like a Lion, so we should have some pretty weather coming up in April and May.”

It seemed like the weather and little Ricky was all he could ever find to talk about with Ann. Even though they’d been dating for a year, Ann still wasn’t ready to make a serious commitment.

“Hey, our first anniversary is coming up this weekend,” Jerry said. “How about we go to Liberoni’s for dinner to celebrate? And before you say you have to check with your mother, I already have, and she says it’s fine with her to keep Ricky.”

“Well, aren’t you the sneaky one.” Their coffee cups clicked, toasting the coming celebration.

Ann smiled and raised her coffee cup in acceptance of his proposal for dinner, not wanting to spoil the thought of having been in a relationship for that long. She was okay with that.

Liberoni’s was an intimate, dimly lit Italian restaurant with a violinist and accordion player that wandered around the dining room playing Italian and American love songs. They also were known to serve the best Italian cuisine in the state.

“Buonasera.” A heavyset maitre d’ with a thick Italian accent and dark olive skin greeted Ann and Jerry. “This way, please.” A slight bow and his extended right arm draped with a starched white napkin directed them toward the back of the restaurant. “We have your table ready for you in the Naples Room.”

Ann felt like royalty seated on her upholstered Victorian chair. She tried not to be swept up in the romantic atmosphere of candlelight and soft music. But the emotional wall she’d built over the years had already started to crumble.

“I hope you don’t mind, but I already ordered dinner for us. I wanted this to be a special night for a very special person.”

“Thank you,” Ann said. “That’s fine with me.”

“I know you told me you have never eaten much seafood, but you will love this. I guarantee it. Liberoni’s chef is from Tuscany and makes the best Italian seafood you have ever put in your mouth.”

For the special occasion, the waiter recommended San Severo Rose to complement their dinner and poured each a sample. Having an alcoholic father, Ann was wary and tasted the wine slowly. She found it smooth, if a little tart for her uninitiated taste buds. She nodded her approval to Jerry.

“If you liked the wine, you’re going to love the Marinara De Pesce,” the waiter said, beaming. “It’s a combination of clams, scungili, shrimp, lobster, calamari, and mussels marinated in Liberoni’s special marinara sauce and served over a bed of linguine. I believe you will like the different sea foods you have never eaten all in one sitting.”

“To a wonderful evening.” Ann lifted her glass and lightly clicked against Jerry’s for one of the many toasts of the evening. “I’m impressed. I never knew you had such gourmet taste.”

Jerry grinned. “I don’t. Antonio, the owner, suggested it because I wanted to really impress you with something besides lasagna or spaghetti and meatballs. I’m basically a meat and potatoes kind of guy, but I wanted to start a new tradition tonight with something we’ve never eaten before.”

The Marinara De Pesce was more delicious than Ann imagined seafood could be. They savored the delicious meal with a second bottle of wine that brought a relaxing freedom of emotions she hadn’t felt since the security of being wrapped in Rick’s arms.

After the waiter cleared their dishes, Jerry reached across the table and nervously took Ann’s hand in his. That was his cue for the violinist and accordionist to begin playing
Somewhere
from West Side Story on their first date. Her face, illuminated by the soft glow of low-burning candles, glowed like a single star against a black, moonless sky. Emboldened by wine and the beautiful image in front of him, Jerry spoke the words that until that moment had been locked away since they first met.

“I love you, Ann. I want to take care of you and Ricky for the rest of our lives.” He touched his finger to her lips to keep her from speaking, just like she had done to Rick the last night they were together. He reached in his pocket and produced a little black box like the one Rick had given her.

She clinched her hand into a fist when he opened the box and tried to put the ring on her finger. “I can’t,” she said. “I care about you, Jerry, but I don’t know if I can make that kind of commitment yet. You don’t know anything about me.”

“I know I love you and will be a loving father to Ricky. You’re a wonderful woman and mother. What else is there to know?”

A strained silence made Ann uncomfortable. Undaunted, Jerry stood and, still holding Ann’s hand, motioned for her to stand.

“Come on, let’s get out of here. I want to show you something.”

“Where are we going?”

“You’ll see in a minute.”

Ann’s head was spinning from the wine. Jerry had an intensity about him that unbalanced her.

The drive from Liberoni’s on Trade Street to West End Drive took only a few minutes. Their rented Lincoln Town Car climbed to a dark hilltop and made a sharp turn into a shadowed driveway.

The crunching sound of a gravel driveway fell silent. In the beam of his headlights she could see they were sitting in front of an old Queen Anne style Victorian house.

“What’s this?” She squinted to focus her wine-impaired vision on the showplace mansion.

“Our house.” He got out of the car and came around to the passage door. After opening it, he offered his hand and said, “Come in and let me show you around.”

They entered through a massive nine-foot oak and beveled glass door into a spacious vestibule illuminated by a crystal chandelier. They stood at the base of a spiral staircase that corkscrewed its way to the third floor. To the left through opened pocket doors with shiny brass doorplates was the living room complete with overstuffed love seat, richly printed upholstered wingback chairs with side tables adorned with Tiffany lamps.

Ann looked in awe at the large fireplace with marble hearth and a carved mantle. “Jerry, this is beautiful.” Ann continued to the sitting room—more beautiful Victorian furniture, including an elegant chiffonier modified to contain the latest thirty-two inch color TV.

Through draped French doors they entered a chandelier-lit dining room. She gasped at a mahogany dining table that would seat a dozen people in Chippendale chairs.

“This is so beautiful. Seriously, who lives here?” Ann questioned.

“Nobody yet. I’ve been working on it for years and kept it a secret,” Jerry said. “I restored it while I was waiting to meet that special person to share this house and the rest of my life with. And you’re that person, Ann. Do you think you, Ricky, and I can be happy here? The difference in our ages doesn’t matter to me. There’s even room for your mom and dad and Jo Lee, if you want.”

“This is unbelievable.”

“You haven’t seen the best part yet.”

Taking her hand, he led Ann up the sweeping spiral stairs to the master bedroom suite on the third floor. The streetlight shone through parted drapes of the floor-to-ceiling window coming to rest on the four-poster Rice bed’s pillows and down comforter.

Ann struggled to understand what was happening. Between the wine and this surprise, she could hardly keep standing. “I don’t know what to say. This looks like something out of Gone with the Wind. I need to think—”

Before Ann could finish, Jerry pressed his lips against hers and pulled her against him with forceful, enveloping arms. She responded by kissing him back. The wall of resistance she’d built up for so long tumbled down.

Jerry moved her toward the bed. Without words, he caressed her neck. Ann allowed herself to be loved like she hadn’t been since Rick, which felt so long ago. She gave into her sensuality, allowing Jerry to undress her ever so gently.

“Are you sure I’m the one you want?” she whispered.

A hot stream of passion awakened ever nerve ending in her body, responding to Jerry’s soft hands massaging her breasts and working their way down her undulating body. She ached for his touch. All resistance was gone, the years of pent up emotions released with a flood of passion, her undulating hips eager for him to be inside her.

Her body responded violently to Jerry’s animal thrusts again and again as the night slipped into a spiral of torrid lovemaking.

Early morning sun replaced moonlight on their bed the next morning. Ann woke up to find Jerry propped on one elbow watching her sleep.

“Good morning. Sleep well?”

“Like I haven’t slept in years,” Ann said. “Is this real, or am I still dreaming?”

“Oh, it’s real all right. Last night was no dream. Maybe a dream come true for me. Definitely the first night of what the rest of our lives can be like.”

Jerry held Ann’s face gently in his hands, kissed her, and rekindled the embers of passion still glowing from last night.

The smell of fresh coffee beckoned Ann downstairs. She’d just finished her shower and was trying to make her hair look like it hadn’t been combed with a pitchfork.

Descending the magnificent staircase, Ann pretended to be Scarlet O’Hara wrapped in dark green silk bed sheet she’d found in the linen closet. She made a grand entrance into the dining room. There was just enough opening in front to reveal that she was wearing nothing underneath.

“Wow, you look so beautiful,” Jerry said from his seat at the table, a cup of coffee in his hand and one waiting for her. “We should do this more often.”

“Good morning, Rhett,” Ann said, her chin lifted high. “I’m Scarlet and am famished.”

Ann sat completely naked at one end of the table with her green cloak draped over the back of her chair. Facing Jerry at the other end, she was still feeling the freedom she’d allowed herself last night.

After a breakfast of French toast, strawberries smothered in whip cream, and strong Cajun coffee, reality returned and the mood was gone.

“Oh my God!” Ann screamed. “I didn’t call mother. She’ll worry herself sick wondering where I am.” She rewrapped her body with the emerald sheet and scrambled up the stairs two at a time.

“Don’t worry,” Jerry called after her, “you’re a big girl and your mother trusts me.”

He entered the bedroom just as she pulled on her dress that still smelled of Liberoni’s lilac scented candles. Jerry walked over to Ann, who stood in front of the mirror trying desperately to arrange her rumpled hair, and slipped his hands around her waist.

“Would you like a second chance on my offer last night?” Pulling her snuggly against his body, he placed the ring in front of her. “It would look much better on your finger than in this box.”

She turned to face Jerry and wrapped her slender arms around his neck. “Do you still want to marry a woman that looks like this on the morning after?”

“In a heartbeat,” Jerry answered and slipped the diamond ring on her finger. “Your mom can’t be too mad now if I’m going to make an honest woman out of you.”

In spite of Ann’s worry about her mother’s reaction to the sudden change of events, Alice was pleased with the announced engagement. They sat together at the kitchen table, already talking about plans for the wedding. Jerry was seated in the living room, Ricky on his knee, happily playing together.

“Oh, Ann, I was praying for this.”

“Momma!” Ann said with exaggerated surprise. “I didn’t know you were
that
sweet on Jerry.”

“A mother knows a good man for her daughter when she meets him, but it’s up to him to do the right thing.”

“Pleased to please,” Jerry said.

Ann and Alice laughed together, feeling years of weight lifted from both of them.

“We can have a June wedding,” Alice said. “Ricky can be your ring bearer. Your father will be pleased, too. You’ll have him walk you down the aisle, won’t you?”

It wasn’t something Ann had thought about. All the hurt from the days in their old apartment returned in a flood of anger. Years of heavy drinking destroyed his liver and now senility had robbed him of his mind.

“I don’t know if I can ask him to do that,” Ann said. “He hardly speaks to me. Occasionally he seems to recognize Ricky. Even if I can forgive him enough to walk down the aisle with me on what’s supposed to be the happiest day of my life, will he be able to do it? What if he starts taking his clothes off like he does at home when he has to go to the bathroom? What would we do then, Momma?”

“Oh, honey, you know he wouldn’t do that. He has his clear moments. He’ll be pleased to see you happy and married to a fine young man like Jerry. Let me handle him. I promise he won’t embarrass you.”

“You never stop protecting him, do you Momma? After all these years, how can you do it?”

“When you take your vows for better or worse, that’s what they mean,” Alice said in a whisper, tears in her eyes.

Jerry stood and put Ricky down on the floor to play with his toys. “Ladies, if you’ll excuse me, I think that’s my cue to leave the details to you all and get out of your hair. I’ll call you tonight, Ann.” He gave Ann a kiss on her cheek then rushed out the door and let out a war whoop loud enough for the neighbors to hear.

“Momma,” Ann said after Jerry had left, “I’m really sorry I didn’t call you last night.”