There’s no denying that a part of me wanted him to stay with us so I could go on stealing glimpses of him. But a bigger part never stopped wishing he’d get out of our lives that he had unnecessarily complicated and go back to Italy. We would all have avoided so much misery. In the spring, he would graduate, and believing my opportunity had come, I awaited with great anticipation the fast-approaching day when they would hand him his diploma and he would go buy his boat ticket.
Three weeks before the graduation ceremonies were to take place, Luca got into a fight with Mrs. Hennessey over her cat, Emily. It seemed that some animal had gotten mad at Emily—which wasn’t surprising, Emily being as old and mean as her mistress—and bitten off a hunk of Emily’s ear. It sounded to me like the work of a raccoon. Mrs. Hennessey, for no reason other than that she hated our guts, concluded that Old Sam had done the damage; she marched over to order Luca to shoot the dog for viciousness.
The idea of Old Sam being the guilty one was ridiculous. He was Jewel’s dog in disposition and outlook and there wasn’t a creature living that Old Sam didn’t like. He never chased squirrels like other dogs, and as for cats, why he and Emily had always been friends. Back when Emily was a young mother, Old Sam had been over there every day, just sitting by the basket out on Mrs. Hennessey’s front porch, looking down so proud at those kittens, you’d have thought he was the father. Besides that, Old Sam would even let stray male dogs come into his yard—his own front yard, mind you—and lift their legs on his very own trees without so much as a bark of protest, and after they were gone, he never ran up behind and wet over the spots where they had wet like most dogs would do. He just sniffed a little to see who the visitor was and left their scent undisturbed on territory that was rightfully his. And he never bothered humans either, not even Mrs. Hennessey when she took a broom to him. Yet this was the dog that she wanted shot.
I was upstairs when she stormed over with broom in hand, and hearing the commotion, I hung out a window to listen and was just in time to hear Luca ask her if she had ridden her broom over or if she had walked. Then in his own formal way, he told her that he would sooner shoot a meddlesome neighbor than he would a harmless dog and finished by telling her never to darken our door again. He’d never shown such spunk before, and in spite of myself, I had to smile. In fact, it was all I could do to keep from applauding. Unfortunately, Luca was soon made to pay for giving the old lady what for, and I was made to pay with him.
A week later, we were paid a visit by the immigration authorities. Someone, who the officials refused to name, had reported Luca as being in this country against the law, and if he didn’t leave of his own free will, he would be sent back to Italy.
What a golden opportunity for him, I thought. Here was his chance to get the government of the United States to pay for his return to the country that had spawned him. So you can imagine my surprise when he pleaded with Jewel not to let them send him away.
“You can’t be serious,” I said to him. “What about all those times you were so homesick? What about Italy being the most beautiful place in the world?”
He didn’t argue with me, just sat there with his head in his hands looking miserable.
“Don’t you understand anything, Darcy?” Jewel turned on me. “Luca’s life is here now. All his friends are here and we’re here. We’re his family now.”
“But he’s Eye-talian,” I insisted. “And Eye-talian people should be with other Eye-talian people.”
She paid me no attention and as I watched her face, I saw an idea take hold. She rose so suddenly that she gave all of us a start, including Luca, who by now was savvy enough to know there was good reason for fear when an idea presented itself to Jewel.
“I know!” she said, and we all shuddered in unison. “We’ll marry Luca off to an American girl. They could never deport him if he was the legal husband of a legal United States citizen.”
I saw that the wheels were turning a mile a minute in that mind of hers, but never in my wildest imaginings could I have foreseen what came next. With unusual innocence, I said, “Now why would anybody in her right mind agree to marry Luca? He doesn’t have a pot to piss in! Who could possibly—” The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as one by one, Jewel, Caroline, Jolene, and finally Luca himself turned to stare at me.
“Wait a minute. If you think— Why should —I won’t!”
When the voice of reason came, it was strange to hear it come from Jewel. “Now there’s no need to get yourself in a lather. This would purely be a business agreement, and with your mind being so finely attuned to profit and loss, you should certainly be able to digest that.” She crossed the room
