Chapter 9

An hour later, I had him strapped into a seat in back. “Where are we going, Uncle Pete?”

“We are going out to the barn and see Fred and Sandy Hamilton. I want to go up on the top floor and look at those piles of boards again.”

“Is it way up high?”

“Higher than you have ever been before. We can look out a window and see a long distance.”

Ricky thought about being way up high. “Uncle Pete, will I be scared?”

“Maybe, but I’ll be right with you and I’m not scared.”

“I guess I won’t be either.”

Fred was working, cleaning up some doors that he was going to advertise for sale. Sandy was in the office doing paper work. I was carrying Ricky. “Hi Pete, hi Ricky. Ricky, I don’t see you very much.”

“I know, Mom keeps me at home. Mom and Uncle Guido have gone some place called East to see Uncle Guido’s mom. I am staying with Aunt Mary and Uncle Pete for a few days.”

Sandy looked at me and I answered, “Guido is going to introduce Chloe to his family. I think he is going to ask Chloe to marry him. That would mean he might stay here. I hope so for he is our best carpenter.”

“Oh, I hope so too. I like Chloe a lot. I understand that she may be opening a diner or something.”

“Maybe. Her ex-husband may give up his share of a place because he owes Chloe so much for back support for Ricky. I guess he owes some back alimony too. Anyway it is in the courts now and soon will be settled. How did you hear of this so soon?”

“Gino and Gina were discussing it yesterday. I guess Gina was observing the proceedings in court. I haven’t said anything to anyone. Chloe is a very pretty woman. Gina was saying that the diner should come to you for Chloe’s ex stole your money to buy a share of the diner. You went with Chloe at one time, right?”

“That was along time ago. Say, I’m going to go up to the top floor and look at those boards I got from Fred. I told Ricky he could look out the window and see a long ways off.”

“I’m done here, I’d love to do that. I’ll watch Ricky while you are up there looking around. He and I can do that together.”

“Great, I’ll tell Mary you were watching him for me.”

“She won’t be jealous will she?”

“No, she and I go way back.”

“I thought you haven’t been married that long.”

“It isn’t that. We are so in love, it seems like it was from the beginning of time.”

“I hope someday to find a man who makes me feel that way.”

“I’d say your prospects of finding a man are improving all the time. I mean you are a pretty woman and own your own business.”

“Yes, and you know whom I have to thank. Pete, I hope when I find someone, he will be at least half as good as you.”

Ricky was tugging on my sleeve, “Uncle Pete can we go up now?” Whew, I didn’t have to answer Sandy’s comment. I wouldn’t want to cut this young woman off and embarrass myself or her.

Ricky got excited when we looked out one of the windows and there were two deer feeding close to where the old stable was. There was a bit of frozen grass and the deer were munching on it. “Ricky, watch the deer. See their heads are down. Soon you will see their tails twitch and then they will raise their head and look around to see if there is any danger. Then they will go back to feeding. I read that in a book one time and always wondered if it was true.” We did watch and that’s just what the deer did. Another fact I thought was fiction and it wasn’t at all.

Sandy asked what I was going to do with the piles of boards. “We may build a bigger house when our family demands it. We would like three kids someday. I was thinking the other day, I’ll build one room for a den or something and call it Mary’s room. That’s where she can retreat to while I watch the kids and she can rest with some down time. I can panel the walls, build book shelves, and peg the floor boards with wooden pegs. I’m sure she will love it.”

“Yeah, Pete, and she’ll love you all the more.”

Finally, I had an inventory that I was positive of an accurate count of every size of the boards in the piles for an inventory I was satisfied with. There were a much larger amount of board feet than what the man I had asked to estimate its worth. Maybe he couldn’t count, or maybe he could for he said they were worth so much, but I counted a lot more board feet than what he quoted. The old saying, (Trust but verify) still holds true.

Ricky went screaming into the house, hobbling the best he could, telling Mary that he had seen deer up close and feeding. “Sandy watched me and some deer while Uncle Pete counted his boards. He said the someday he was going to build you a house and put the boards on the walls and on the floor.”

“Ricky, I’m sure he will. What did Sandy, Pete, and you talk about?”

“Some about Mom and Uncle Guido and them going east. Uncle Pete was down to the other end of the barn looking at every pile of boards. I got sick of watching the deer so we came home. What’s for dinner?

“Ricky, I made macaroni and cheese and put some left-over roast beef in it. I’ve got some frozen strawberries for desert.”

“Are you going to make smoothies out of them?”

“I can, but I have hot biscuits too if you would like them in a shortcake.”

“I’ll have a smoothie and I can cover the biscuits with some of it. I bet that will be yummy. Mom gives me really good food to eat since Uncle Guido comes to the house.”

“We’ll try it.” It was good! I tried it and liked it.

After we ate, Ricky asked Mary if she would rub his right leg. She massaged it. I felt of the bump that was above the heel. As per the doctor’s diagnosis, the cords had grown together while was Ricky still in his mother’s womb. That was what tipped his foot down at that point and wouldn’t let the heel touch the floor.

“Mary, somehow we are going to have the operation done. The surgeon tells us that this is the last year it is possible to correct it without doing more damage. I know I was tangled up with Chloe but we are well enough off so we could supply money to have this done.”

“Pete, I’m willing. I was just waiting for you to mention it. Chloe took you for a lot of money and the revenge I tried to even things out didn’t work and this made me so ashamed for attempting it. I love the little boy like I would if he was mine.”

“Okay, we will talk to her about it when she gets back on Monday. We have done a lot for her, but we can do more.”

Sunday, Ricky wasn’t as active and wanted Mary to rub his leg for longer than usual. We didn’t have much going on so it was no problem. I had the painting out and examined how the coin in the corner was affixed. Ricky hobbled over and asked if he could rub the coin.

He did it long beyond what I thought would hold his attention. “You like rubbing on that, don’t you?”

“I do, and it makes me feel good all over. I think the green is coming off because my finger is green. Is that okay?”

“Sure, but don’t put it in your mouth. I don’t think it will hurt you, but you never know. We call the green corrosion, and it often appears on copper metal. It is a chemical reaction to the moisture in the air.”

“Oh.”

“Go ahead and rub it all you want to if it makes you feel good.” Ricky returned his finger to the coin and smiled at me.

I went on now holding Ricky in my lap so he could reach the coin. I examined the painting with a magnifying glass that I brought in with me. I determined that this was done in oil paint and here and there, there were cracks in the surface. I wanted to chip a little off, but didn’t want to spoil the picture. I might even take the painting to a conservator to tell me what he thought about this unusual piece of art.

But this was Mary’s and she might not want me to. Mary had been very successful about keeping her stigmata covered and our friends who knew about it never brought it up or mentioned it. The marks were so obvious when seen, they not mentioning it was in itself unusual.

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When we got Ricky into bed and asleep, I asked Mary what she found in the little night stand’s drawers while I was gone during today.

“Not too much, Pete. There is one very long letter from my mother in the middle drawer addressed to me which answers many of the things I always wondered about concerning her. It is a rambling letter and confusing at times. The priest wanted mother to go public about the marks on my chest. He asked often if the marks were still there like Mother showed him shortly after I was born. Mother wasn’t going to let that happen. From what she says in the letter about me and the priest, Mother fought him about sharing the stigmata I was born with to the church and the world.

“The priest was after her for years. She felt the marks had been shared with the priest too much already. The priest wanted the notoriety that a child with stigmata would make him and the church famous and was not concerned about Mary or the child at all. “Christ, if Mom wanted him to make me into a sideshow I would be in some circus somewhere.” She said he wouldn’t do that. Mary is a child of God.

“The insistence over what he wanted to do and what he brought to bear finally made her unstable. The last time he came to see her, he declared he was going to write his bishop anyway, and place her daughter’s marking in his hands. Two days later the priest had a stroke. Mother went to see him in the hospital. He couldn’t speak, but she thought he was somewhat lucid.

“Mother was bitter and cursed the priest. Later, mother was going to apologize to the priest, but she was informed he had passed away shortly after she left the hospital two days before. Mother apologized to me, then declaring she didn’t understand why this burden had been placed on her. And now I am faced with the same of having to hide it.

“She thought the stigmata were a burden, not for her but for me who had my life ahead. Also, this the priest dying made Mother more unstable. It was the idea of having cursed the priest and she felt she may have contributed something to his death.

“I guess this must be why mother left me all her wealth and not to my stepbrothers.”

“Mary, I feel the marks on you are a gift and I’m begging you to believe that this really is stigmata and you were born with it. It may be because you helped the two men in the picture with a chore that needed doing. It could be just a simple ‘Thank You’ in some form or other. I know in this life I am thankful that you are here beside me.”

“That is why I love you so much. Do you think there is more to this than just some dreams and a few artifacts from a distant past?”

“Time will tell and I’m sure what is ahead of us will make us happy. Always we will have each other to bolster our life and make us both satisfied and happy. You have come a long way from what you were when I first met you. Everyone in your family is now happy since you told them how you felt when they spoke badly about you. You were going to act the same way toward me, but you changed. I’ll take credit for that.” I wanted to get away from this subject. So I asked a question, and changed the conversation.

“What was in the bottom drawer?”

“I’m mystified a little. There is a bunch of letters tied with a string directed to Mother from the Priest, Father Paul. Mother never named the priest when she talked about him, but I guess she wouldn’t have if they had a contentious relationship. I haven’t opened the bundle and I don’t believe she did either.

“May I open and look at them?”

“Of course you may. I’d say open them tonight, but you would never come to bed if I said yes.”

“I’ll look at them tomorrow. You can keep Ricky entertained while I do.”

“I’ll take him to see Gram and Aunt Ida. They love having any of us stopping by to visit.”

“That will be good.”

Where Ricky was tired yesterday, today he was just the opposite. The two old women doted on him and always asked of his crippled ankle. They were amazed that he never complained. Before Mary left the house, she asked Ricky if he wanted his leg rubbed. “Aunt Mary, it’s good today. I might want it rubbed before I go to sleep tonight.”

Chloe called from Boston just after the two left and I told her that Ricky was fine and had asked me when she was expected home. “We’ll be in before daylight and we’ll stop over about seven to get him tomorrow.”

“I may have left for work by then. Geno will want to know about Friday after you left. Did you have a good visit with Guido’s family?”

“I did and we showed the pictures of Ricky to both Geno and Guido’s family and they promised to see us all sometime before June.”

“Any thing special about June?”

“I’m not saying, but you could ask Guido.”

“I guess that answers my question. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

“Pete, I love you and Mary. After what I did to you and how you have forgiven me, I appreciate it so much. Some of the last few years have been hell for me, but you have been so generous, that’s with you waiting while I get enough money to fix Ricky’s ankle and not demanding it.”

“Nothing has changed so forget it until after Ricky has his operation and is well.” I hung up before she said anything more.

Mary and Ricky were home before lunch. Ricky asked if we would take him to get a hamburger like Mary bought for him and his mother one time long ago. He had a great time diving into the place where the plastic balls were. Mary and I suspected he would be tired, but he said he wasn’t.

Finally, we got him to go to sleep by Mary rubbing his leg even when Ricky said there was no need. He had rubbed the big penny notched into the right corner of the painting and now felt great. I had risen early because I wanted to open the bundle of papers in the bottom drawer.

This was Father Paul’s work he had done after he retired and didn’t have a church any longer. He spent his time tracking down reports of people who claimed that the marks on their body were stigmata. He had copied every one and then realized most claims were from people looking for notoriety. He knew that Mary had almost certifiable marks on her chest. What a way to wind up crushed, not being able to gain permission to publish his stigmata investigation with Mary as the most likely one.

There was a separate letter in an envelope in amongst the papers, sealed and never opened. Apparently, Mary’s mother hadn’t opened this bundle. This had Mary’s mother’s name of Maria on the envelope, and I surmised that the priest could have written an apology and enclosed it here for it was very personal. Too bad for her, but Mary might appreciate it when I showed it to her.

Guido and Chloe knocked on the door at 6:30. I was ready for work, but stayed to hear about Chloe meeting Guido’s family. Mary made coffee and said she had gotten up early to make sweet buns for Ricky. “You’re spoiling him, Mary. I’ll go wake him up. He has been good, hasn’t he?”

“Great, we’d like to keep him.”

“Ricky has his days and he did promise to be good. I’ve only been gone three days and it seems longer. Point me to where he is sleeping.”

We heard the bedroom door open and then the two talking about Ricky getting out of bed for a sweet bun that Aunt Mary had made for him.

Suddenly we heard Chloe shout. “Mary, come in here! What did you do to Ricky?”

Chloe was standing in the hall with Ricky beside her. Chloe said, “Look how Ricky is standing. His foot is flat on the floor. He jumped off the bed and I noticed when he took some steps that he is the way any one would normally walk. Ricky, walk down to the kitchen. If it hurts, stop. We’ll have to have the doctor inspect this.”

“Mommy, it doesn’t hurt at all.” Tears were running down Chloe’s face. Ricky walked normally down the hall to the kitchen. I and Guido were sitting at the table having coffee. Guido stood up and Ricky ran to him and climbed into his arms.

I glanced at Mary. Tears were running down her face too. Guido looked at Mary and asked, “How did this happen? Was he like this when he went to bed?”

“No, I would have noticed. I did rub his heel and leg a lot day before yesterday and he said I made it feel good. Chloe said it was okay to do this.”

Guido said, “Chloe, call the doctor and maybe even the surgeon. We have to find out what happened and if it will last. I’ve never seen a miracle, but I think I have seen one today.”

We had discussed whether to leave the painting out where Guido and Chloe could see it. Ricky had touched the coin so much we had made that decision for them to see it. Chloe was horrified. She started to criticize Mary, but at that moment, Ricky ran over and rubbed the coin. “Mommy, it makes me feel good to touch it. I think it helped make my leg feel better.”

These two hadn’t been involved when we retrieved the painting from Sam and Alice’s house. Mary explained a little what it was and how she came to have it. I knew she would keep the explanation at the minimum as possible, but it wasn’t to be. “Mommy, that is Aunt Mary standing there. She helped those two men put the cross on the wagon.”

It obvious that Guido didn’t get any connection to the Holy Land for he turned to Mary. “Where did you get that painting, and why did you show this to Ricky? Oh wait I remember at the pool last summer Chloe said you had some scars and that is why you wear your clothes the way you do. Are you a stigmatic and do you have markings that you keep covered? The Catholic religion is rife with such stories.”

“The painting came from my mother’s effects. I’m not Catholic and my mother wasn’t either. But, and that’s a big but, I don’t want to discuss this. My family knows of the painting and I have asked them to not discuss it either. I believe that a doctor will declare Ricky’s leg healed. I don’t have anyway to know this for certain, but I sure hope it is.

“Mother named me Miriam which I understand is the Hebrew name for Mary. She may have named me that, not knowing where it originated. Anyway, I have always been called Mary. As far as reading the picture, I had a dream which I repeated to Ricky when he asked if the person standing in the left hand corner was me. He seemed to know this without me saying it could be. I will not discuss my dreams and Ricky will soon forget what I said.”

Chloe promised immediately not to discuss Ricky’s seemingly correction of his foot and heel and any connection to Mary because she had rubbed it when he asked her to. Hesitantly, Guido did the same. “In the olden days, a happening like this would name you a stigmatic and you had performed an act of either for God or the Devil. I say God because the outcome seems to be a wonderful improvement.”

“Guido, please. I am not looking for notoriety. I have lived with this situation my whole life and would escape it if I could. Mother was turned into what everyone called weird and died with that burden of me being marked and it was troubling to her. I think this happening to Ricky was a one time thing. I soon will have a baby and Pete and I want to get on with our lives.

“I have changed, because when I was growing up I was more than a little weird myself. It took Pete to see it and make me come around to be a more normal person. To prove my point, I want to confess to Chloe that it was me who directed her car to be damaged. That was my last act of revenge due to Pete’s intervention and I changed at that moment to the person I am now. I’m happy and Pete is happy and I’m terribly happy that Ricky is better. I still want a normal life and that is why I don’t want any notoriety.

“Mary, I understand and you have my promise not to talk about it. Chloe and I will be seeing the doctor later today if we can get an appointment. Would you go with us and tell the doctor how this came about?”

“I can do that. You know this may not even be connected to the marks I have on my chest. This may have just happened normally.”

“Well maybe, but I don’t think so. As you wish, Chloe and I will not even mention the possibility of this miracle being attributed you. It is a miracle though. That is enough for the world to see and I do believe it is a miracle with Ricky walking and running around.” Ricky was getting hugs from his mother and Guido. Chloe kept hugging Mary. Guido even hugged me. I got up to go to work and Chloe shyly hugged me. Guido decided he would go with the two women and Ricky.

I didn’t tell any one at work about Ricky’s new status. People we knew would notice it soon enough. Mary would talk to the doctor, because he knew of the stigmata on her chest. She asked Chloe to caution the doctor not to speak of it if the doctor wondered to her if there was a connection of Mary’s stigmata and what happened to improve Ricky’s foot.

Mary called just before lunch, “Pete, Chloe is cooking us supper tonight. We want to tell you what the doctor thinks happened to Ricky. The surgeon is going to x-ray and take pictures on Wednesday of what really happened, but Ricky’s doctor has been looking at the foot and ankle for over three years now so he has a good idea about it already. So we are eating here and discuss it.”

“You’re not telling me now?”

“No, it would be more exciting if you wait.”

“Oh, come on sweetheart, tell me a little bit.”

“Okay, I will. I think the doctor knows I had something to do with straightening it out. He didn’t mention it, but he saw how Ricky clung to me. How are you doing after our mini vacation?”

“I’ll be glad Geno and Gina went on vacation during the holidays. Maybe the weather will be nice and with the extra men we are moving right along. I’m getting to know what is going on too. Geno gets tied up in the office and that pisses him off. I’m glad I’m just a working foreman.”

“Has Guido said what his folks said about meeting Chloe?”

“They just love her. Guido’s mother has some Jewish relatives so she fits in. Guido’s father is an Italian and Catholic, so the father is fine with the two matching up.”

“Hey, I’ll wait for this evening and you can tell me everything. I’ve got my two original workers, Mack and Randy, and we are wrecking another house. This one is number seven. There are the two of the three new men working on number three. I think with the snow gone so early, Gina is going to be listing number one house since it is all done except the grounds. It should have sold last fall, but with me investing in the business it wasn’t so critical.The grounds will have to wait until May, but she can sell it and the new owners can have their grounds the way they would like them.

“Oh, Sandy and Fred are here with the pick-up taking what is good out of the house. Sandy is even helping me put trash in the dumpster.”

“You watch it, boy, she might have designs on you.”

“Not to worry, Randy has the inside track. He is the one who spent so much time in prison when he was charged with robbing a store. He was innocent, but had to pay anyway.”

“Her Uncle Fred is okay with that?”

“Fred asked me about him. I found out who was his parole offer and gave Fred his number and they have talked. It didn’t change anything and he is a decent sort. I’m relieved because I would hate to lose Randy. Some day he will be just as good as Guido.”

“And of course, you are giving him every chance.”

“I am. You do good things just the same as I try to.”

“That hurts because I haven’t always.”

“But you changed.”

“I have, haven’t I?”

I arrived at Chloe’s apartment just before six. Guido had a beer in his hand. Ricky was a little quiet and hanging onto Mary. Chloe said, “Ricky is worn out ‘cause he has been poked and prodded all day long. He had to have x-rays taken. Anyway we can’t tell exactly how his foot changed, just the end results. We have always known that there was a bunch behind his foot above his ankle. Now there is a bunch in front above that same place on front on his ankle.

“That part is terribly loose and the one in back has disappeared. We surmise that there are two sets of cords that control his foot. Apparently, Mary manipulated the cords in the rear which were knotted together. They separated into what is the normal position with her manipulations.

“The ones in front were bunched together before and are loose because now they were stretched to hold his foot in his former position. The doctor is hoping they will tighten up because those are the ones that control his toes. They should return to their proper place so that will solve that problem. The calluses will soon soften and disappear as he uses the whole foot rather than the ball of the foot while hopping to get around.”

I asked, “Is there anything we can do?”

“Well, the cords still will benefit by massaging them.”

Ricky asked, “Can I still rub the big penny? That makes my foot feel good all over.”

Mary suggested. “Of course you can. I’ll tell you what, Why don’t we bring it over and you can rub the penny just before you go to bed and when you wake up in the morning.”

Chloe said, “I don’t know, that painting must be quite valuable. I would hate to have something happen to it.”

“That is no worry to me and if it helps Ricky, I’d like to have him use it. I can come over most days until the baby comes, and I’ll do some of the massaging on his foot.

Guido said, “I’m good with a camera and I have one. I’ll take several pictures of the painting you can look at until we return it.”

I said that would work. “The bill of sale said this was a reproduction, anyway. I’ll talk to our agent and have it appraised and insure it.”

That night when we returned from Chloe’s, I tried to think of what I could do to help the boy. While I was doing this, I remembered I hadn’t looked at the bundle of papers that the Priest, Paul had left in the bottom drawer of the three-drawer stand. It was after midnight when I finally crawled in next to Mary.

She roused up. “I knew if you got into that bunch of papers, you’d find something interesting and be stuck until you finished looking at them. What are they about?”

“They are a list of people who are or claimed to be stigmatic. Most of them are women, but there are a few men. They have various marking on them. The men named seemed to be borne out as truly stigmatic, and these have been more or less been proved to be so. Some are holy men but two are men who were poor and miracles happened to someone or ones who they came in contact with.”

“What about the women who had or have markings on them like me?”

“I believe you were very wise to keep this hidden as much as you have. Women seemed to fare worse than the men, but that may be because there were more of them with known markings. Through the centuries, many of these people with markings were burned as witches. We had that happen here in Salem, Massachusetts. Earlier there was the Spanish Inquisition which went on with this practice for years.

“Father Paul seemed to discount most of these as either witches or stigmatic marking that didn’t have any connection with the Lord and he probably was correct. I’m guessing it would be the same with the Inquisition. Often they were charged and tortured to recant and some did recant, but many refused to do so. Were they true believers in God or did they want to become martyrs in His service? It didn’t matter, for it wouldn’t save them. Many were burned even if they did believe this.

“Some were truly Holy, becoming nuns in a some Holy Order and never found out until the markings were discovered when they were laid out waiting on their funeral. History is fickle and I suppose some of these became Saints.”

“Pete, you scare me!”

“I’m not trying to. You do have much going for you. You have related your dreams about a happening from very early in the beginnings of the Christian religion. You say I was there with you and that makes me feel akin and closer to you than us being a normal couple. Is there more for us, I don’t know? It is strange for neither one of us is particularly religious.

“Mary, I will state I believe you couldn’t be when I first met you. You have changed though, from a bitter and revengeful person to one who gathers friends around you and willing to give your all to help them.

“Will I rush to a church and begin doing good deeds to prove how religious I can be? No, I don’t think so. I do believe and I do have an active conscience and guess I am alright concerning my life. Mary, what about you?”

“Pete, I certainly have had a wake-up call. Some of it because of the marks I was born with, but mostly because of you. Where are we going from here?”

“I think we can go on with our life much like we have since we were married. As for the so-called miracle that has occurred, we can pass that off as some normal happening to Ricky and would have occurred naturally. We don’t have to let on how closely we are associated with Ricky, Chloe, and Guido. There are the dreams, the copper (penny), and the painting. If we ignore speaking about these items, we may escape being found out.

“This is our life and I think we should live our lives without the notoriety that Father Paul wanted for your mother and the marks you are carrying. We don’t need it.”