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sleep a night so she could pull a
double shift at the eatery so their rent would only be three days late, instead
of ten?
    And then? Willis graduated and school was finally behind
them, for him anyway. He’d managed to get a job for the first year as an
assistant manager at a cell phone retail store and money was still tight
even though tuition and books were expenses of the past. He had to have
the ‘right’ clothes to wear and sometimes spent half of his paycheck on shoes
and ties and cuff links. For most of that summer, Alex, only three years old, wore
his swimsuit because most of his clothes were too small and her paycheck had to
pay the rent and the electricity bill, with nothing left for even a trip to a
thrift shop for the toddler’s wardrobe. And finally, when the dream job
materialized and Willis finally got to wear his five hundred dollar pair of
shoes and his fourteen carat gold cuff links to a real job where he made real money, and she was allowed to quit her job, he controlled all the finances and she
was given an allowance that had to pay all the household bills with a little
left over for food and clothes for Alex. Sophia hated having to beg for extra
money to buy cleats for baseball, or supplies for art camp in the summer. She
learned quickly that a blow job released his rigid hold on the checkbook and as
she gagged as he released down her throat she just kept telling herself that
Alex was worth any amount of degradation and humiliation she felt.
    As they made their way down the aisle of the darkened
theater, Alex picking their seats, she knew she would do anything for him…and
she had. Popcorn in hand, her son wiggled and fidgeted until the lights dimmed
and the THX surround sound swirled and whipped around the theater. Sophia
sighed, knowing that she’d averted another disappointing evening for her boy, but
was unable to focus on the movie in front of her. Her thoughts had drifted to
her mother, who was at home, and she hoped all was well. She’d left her in the
company of a good friend who’d come over to visit, fortuitously at the right
moment for Sophia to leave. Aldo had all but ordered her out when she’d
approached him about the possibility of taking Alex out for a needed break but
her mind was still in caretaker mode as she thought about her frail mother.
    Sophia’s parents had been together since they were about
fourteen. Both born to Italian mothers and American fathers, they gravitated to
each other in school. They’d been brought up with the same morals and middle
class values of hard work and integrity. Now, hardly considered old at sixty,
they both still worked hard and loved each other deeply. Sophia couldn’t
imagine either of her parents alone; when she thought of them, they came as a
pair. Gloria’s healing was slow but the prognosis was optimistic. Just a few
more weeks and hopefully she’d be back to her usual chipper and energetic self.
    Snitching a handful of popcorn from the cardboard bucket
resting on Alex’s lap, Sophia took a deep breath, popped a kernel of butter
laden corn in her mouth and watched Mr. Spock and Captain Kirk save the earth.

4.
    “But why?” Ella asked her Uncle Ben for the third time.
    “Enough Ella,” Matt said, his brow furrowed. “Uncle Ben does
not have an answer for you so stop asking.”
    Ella frowned and thumped her fork down on the dining room
table. “Everybody has to get married. That’s how you get happy. You said so, Daddy!”
    “I what?” Matt asked.
    “You said that you were the happiest man when you married
momma. So if Uncle Ben wants to be happy he has to get married too.”
    Janie bit the insides of her lips to keep from laughing and
Ben gave his brother a look that said ‘try and find a rebuttal to that!’ Matt
had encouraged his five year old daughter to ask questions; to think for
herself. He was beginning to regret ever telling his daughter that she should
ask lots of questions.
    “Ella,” Ben sighed. “I’m not