Koesler almost winced. “No. And that’s what gave Vinnie his opening.”
1985
“’Samatter, babe?”
Beth Larson looked about her. “What could possibly be wrong surrounded by the ambience of the Lindell A.C., with Wayne Walker’s jockstrap on. the wall?”
“It’s bronzed.”
“Oh, that makes it all the more aesthetic.”
“C’mon now,” Tony Delvecchio pleaded. “Don’t go and ruin my night.”
Tony and Beth were seated at a table in the Lindell A.C., downtown Detroit’s quintessential jock beefeatery and watering hole-one of whose claims to fame was the now bronzed athletic supporter presented by Detroit Lions linebacker Wayne Walker upon his retirement from football.
Tonight there was another celebration. Tony Delvecchio’s jersey, “Old Number 28,” was going to be hung in the bar. Tony would never be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Nor would his number be retired by either the Bears or the Lions. But, for a time at least, it would be on exhibit in the Lindell A.C.
This was Tony’s crowd. Probably there was little reason for anyone to patronize the Lindell A.C. if one were not wildly in love with sports. It served its clientele well.
It held little attraction for Beth. She was here solely for Tony’s sake and the honor being paid him.
The presentation had been made minutes ago. Things were returning to normal: arguments over statistics, bets on sports trivia, recollections of yesteryear’s heroics.
“Can’t we go yet?” Clearly, Beth was bored.
“In a little bit.” Tony’s brow knitted. “I’d think this place was beginning to reach you except that you’ve been like this for … what? — three, four weeks? What’s the problem?”
She picked up the sweating glass that held her gin and tonic and began making wet circles on the table. “You know the punchline, ‘It’s the whole damn thing’?”
“Yeah …?”
“Well, that’s what’s wrong: the whole damn thing.”
“That doesn’t give me much to go on.”
She put the glass down and caught his eyes in her gaze. “We’ve been together for twenty-six, years. Over a quarter of a century. And aside from setting some sort of record for living together without benefit of clergy, what have we got to show for it?”
“Lotsa good times. Lotsa good memories. And …” He shook his head. “… some that weren’t so good.”
“Couldn’t just about anybody say that?”
“So what’s so bad about it?”
“Tony, we should be grandparents by now. And we’ve never even had a kid. We could’ve had some really close friends. Where are they?”
“What do you call the people we chum around with? How ’bout”-his gaze swept around the room, then back to her-“the folks here tonight?”
“Jocks … and jocks’ wives. Look at the configuration: We’re the only couple sitting together. The men are hanging around the bar. The women are off by themselves. I know this happens at most gatherings, but at the parties we give-and go to-the separation of the sexes happens immediately-almost the minute they walk in. I know you know that there’s a world out there. But the rest of these guys-their world stops at the locker room door.”
“Honey,
“That’s not it!” Her voice took on a tone of annoyance. “It’s …”
“I know: the whole damn thing. Well,” he said, after a moment, “there must be something we can do to get things off Square One.”
She toyed with her glass again. “Well, I have been thinking of something …”
“What?”
“Religion.”
He laughed so heartily that the level of conversational noise in the bar dropped abruptly. When the others noted that Beth was not laughing, but rather was flushed, they returned to their chatter. But not as loudly as before.
“What field did that come out of?”
“I’ve been thinking about your heritage. All your people are-were-Catholic. You attended parochial school. Your sister goes to Mass. My God, your brother’s just been made a bishop. But you haven’t gone to church since your mother’s funeral. Why?”
“Hypocrites.”
“Hypocrites? I beg your pardon?”
“The once-a-week churchgoers. They stab everyone in the back, pull the carpet out from under everyone. Lie, cheat, steal. Then they get pious on Sunday. They think that makes them holy … that it makes the lousy tricks they pulled between church visits okay. And Catholics are maybe the worst. I don’t know why … maybe ’cause they’ve got confession to really clean things up.”
“You’re talking ’they’ and ’them.’ You’re not a Catholic anymore?”
He slid down in his chair. “Once a Catholic, always a Catholic-that’s what the nuns and priests drummed into our little heads. And”-he pushed himself upright again-“I wouldn’t argue: I’m a Catholic, I guess. But I’d hardly say I was practicing it.”
“Would you object to my looking into it?”
“What? Catholicism? If it’ll make you happy-whatever you want, babe. How’re you gonna do this?”
“I thought I’d get in touch with our pastor.”
“‘Our’ pastor! We got a pastor?”
“I’ve done a little investigating.”
“Oh, so this bit about religion didn’t come right off the top of your pretty head!”
She ignored his gibe. “We live in St. Waldo of the Hills parish … that is, we live within its boundaries.”
“And our pastor?”
“You aren’t going to believe this …”
“I won’t believe it? Then I’d guess it would be my old buddy Father Koesler.”
“Close. But much closer than that.”
He looked at her expectantly.
“Our pastor is Bishop Delvecchio.” Disregarding his startled expression, she went on. “I think it says a lot about your interest in your faith that you don’t even know where your brother went after he became a bishop.”
“This is spooky.” Clearly, Tony was impressed.
“I thought so too. But spooky or not, what do you think?”
“There’s something about this that rings all the wrong bells.”
“I really feel strongly about it, Tony.”
She was drumming her fingers on the tabletop-always a sign that she was about to become emotional. Her emotional outbursts confused him. He had never learned how to deal with them.
“Well,” he said at length, “I guess it couldn’t hurt to look into it.”
She brightened. “Great! I really think this will do wonders for us. I feel I want to get involved in a church group. We need more meaning in our lives.”
“Yeah. Sure.”
It was ten days since Tony’s jersey had been hung in the Lindell A.C. Not another word about this religion business had been uttered.
Tony was quite satisfied with the status quo. He did not need another word. Beth had another word, but was waiting for the appropriate time.
