Chapter 19

“Paul! Look at me! I could have lost my job over that!” John was clearly angry with his brother.

“You would not have lost your job.”

“If that had gone bad, if Andi had complained in any way, they would have stormed my office, demanded my resignation, and voted you off the board.”

“You’re exaggerating. I may not have known this congregation as long as you’ve known them, but I’ve known this congregation long enough to know their limits. And the only thing I know better,” Paul looked up from his work and glared at his brother, “is Andi. I tell you J, this girl is the one. She is my soul mate; it’s like we can read each other’s minds, no – better, we can read each other’s heart. We heal each other.”

John threw up his hands. “That’s not how it works!”

Paul spoke slowly and angrily. “You say that only because you married a ... a...”

“Look me in the eye and say it. I DARE you,” snarled John.

Paul put his hands on his brother’s shoulders and held him at arm’s length and stared him dead in the eye. “You married ... a Canadian. There, I said it, a Canadian.”

John screwed up his face and hissed, “You’ve always resented me for that.”

Paul pulled him in close and hugged his younger brother. “It’s ok, it’s ok, we’re going to wake up from this dream and we’ll be back in Tiorunda, there will be 4 feet of new snow and we’ll still have to go to school.”

“Cheektowaga sucks.” John was still angry with their hometown, especially the school system. “Lake Erie could overflow and flood all the way to Manhattan and the best Cheektowaga Central Schools would get is an early dismissal.”

Growing up in Western New York unites school children of all ages and races around the radio in the morning, listening for the school closings after a snowstorm. Some school systems are famous for closing the moment that snowflakes fell. Alden and Depew were the leaders of that category. But some wouldn’t close until lives were threatened. Williamsville, Sloan, and Cheektowaga Central were the worst offenders.

As they broke the hug Paul said, “You know I would have taken any and all heat if Andi didn’t like her Lifesaver. If anyone would have raised a stink you know it would have been the Konjakowski’s.”

“The whole famn damily” added John sadly.

“However, we have an ace in the hole,” winked Paul. “Stan, the Konjakowski clan leader himself, wants his spring turkey. I agreed he can spend the entire season in the cabin if he needs it, and he can slaughter any turkey he wants and he can play fetch with Wonka until his arm falls off from throwing that damn Frisbee. He won’t jeopardize that.” Paul held up his project. He changed one of Wonka’s old Support Dog harnesses and said, “Let’s see if this works and then take the girls to Giardino’s for an early dinner.”

“You want to go all the way into Cheektowaga?”

“We have some furniture shopping to do, let’s see what the girls think, ok?”

The brothers climbed up from the basement and Paul called Wonka, who came at a trot with Sandy and Madeline in tow. They had two leashes on him, and the giggling twins were being dragged. “Good boy, now stand.” He bent and put the harness on Wonka. It was Wonka’s oldest service dog harness, and Paul added a small handle on each side. “You guys hold here,” said Paul as he showed the twins the handles. They latched on immediately. “Walk pretty!” he told Wonka. Soon Wonka, Sandy, and Madeline were walking together flawlessly, and they walked into the kitchen to show Macy and Andi, who loved the idea.

“Hey girls,” said Paul as he stepped into the kitchen. “I was thinking, let’s go oot, and aboot, and get some poutine for lunch, eh?”

“That is never going to get old, is it?” said Macy coldly glaring at Paul.

“I don’t get it,” said Andi, confused.

“My darling wife is Canadian eh?,” said John. “Your betrothed was simply speaking to her in her native tongue.”

“When she left her parents and two brothers the black population of Quebec dropped by twenty percent,” grinned Paul as he rubbed her shoulders. “But we love you, you’re our favorite canuck.”

“You watch that canuck stuff,” said Macy as she rose from the kitchen chair and gave her brother in law a kiss on the cheek, “Je vais vous rapporter aux ressources humaines!” (or I’ll report you to human resources)

“Daddy,” said Andi, “the girls and I are getting hungry, can we go to that place you were talking about, Giardino’s?”

“You called it,” said John in a mild state of shock.

“Yeah, we gotta get beds for the girls, car seats, and maybe some toys to tide them over until Santa comes,” said Paul.

“Then we have to stop at the cabin and get our clothes, all my suits for the conference are in the cabin,” agreed Andi. “The girls miss their stuffies.”

“Wonka can be our stuffie now,” said Madeline, still clutching the handle on Wonka’s harness. ‘Stuffie’ is the word they use to describe their stuffed toys.

“After dinner John and I will stop by the cabin and pick up your clothes and stuff so it will all be here for you when you finish your shopping spree,” said Macy. “I want to see how that sauna works if you know what I mean,” she whispered in Andi’s ear.

Forty-five minutes later, they pulled off the 33 on to the Harlem Road exit and they were right there in Tiorunda, or Cedar Grove Heights, as it was currently known. Paul drove through the wooded neighborhood made out of split-level duplex houses. Some were converted to single family units in the past. One had even added a second story. It was a very gentle looking neighborhood, shoveled driveways, neatly trimmed hedges dividing the properties, but Paul said “we didn’t live here in this area, this was originally officers housing. John and I lived over there,” and he pointed out a series of slab faced two-story buildings, each containing four apartments known as a “fourplex.” Broken storm doors, bicycles abandoned in the snow, and overflowing dumpsters were the order of the day. Black and Hispanic faces watched them as they drove by.

“Back in the day this neighborhood was all Polish, Italian, Irish, and Greek. We tell ourselves that we kept the neighborhood cleaner back then, but we didn’t. It’s always been the same since the Army Air Corps turned this housing area over to the Town of Cheektowaga. Now they call it Cedar Grove Heights, but it will always be Tiorunda to those of us that grew up here.

He exited the neighborhood on to Genesee Street and Andi was amazed at all the restaurants of every ethnicity that made up Cheektowaga: Italian, German, Greek, Hispanic, Ethiopian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, and more. Finally, they pulled into Giardino’s Italian Family Restaurant. A quick scan of the parking lot showed that John and Macy were already there, so they went into the restaurant. With more fanfare than Andi was expecting, Mama Giardino stormed out of the kitchen crying, “My Paulie!” and smothered him with hugs and kisses.

When he pried himself loose, he turned Mama around. “Andi, this is Anna Maria “Mama” Giardino, we’ve been friends for...” Paul paused at the warning finger Mama raised to him, “ ... uhhh for a while. Momma, this is Doctor Adrianna “Andi” Roberts.”

“Such a nice young girl,” Mama said to Paul, shaking Andi’s hand. She looked at Paul again and smiled, shaking a finger at him, “Mama knows!” she smiled and turned and smothered Andi in her ample bosom, hugging her and almost weeping said, “You’re going to be such a beautiful bride!” She released Andi, who was left gasping and smiling from the onslaught and bent and pinched the twins’ cheeks saying, “You two bambinas are going to be such beautiful brides maids!” before turning back to hug Paul even more.