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Intervention

Posted on September 19, 2007
Filed Under The Stories |

In the afternoon when the sun has reached its highest point and it feels like gravity is going to pull it to the earth…that’s when I wish to see you. Do not be late, do not forget and prepare to share a meal with me and mine.

That was the note she got. The thing is, she was one of the people who formed part of the ‘mine’ in me and mine. The note had arrived from her father and though she didn’t know exactly what time he meant or what this was all about she had little choice really but to go.

She turned up at one o’clock. He looked pleased to see her. “Ah you made it, I see, and on time too.” She allowed him to hug her and smiled into his familiar smell, “Hey Daddy, it’s good to see you.”

He put his arm around her and walked towards the house, “Let’s eat.”

Inside she was surprised to find that everyone was there; her father’s brothers, his sister, their kids sharing space with her mother’s sole sibling and his kids. The whole family was gathered in the kitchen – something she didn’t even see at Thanksgiving, or Christmas. She smiled, “Wow, everyone is here.”

Susanne, her cousin, raised her eyebrows and rolled her eyes, “Not quite everyone. Tony’s not here.”

That stopped her cold. She turned to her father who had stepped into the kitchen to retrieve his whiskey, “You invited Tony?”

“Of course! I invited the entire family.”

“We’re separated. I’ve filed for divorce.”

Her father took his place at the head of the table, “You never asked me how I felt about that.”

“It’s my life.”

“And I respect that.”

“So! Why did you invite Tony?”

“I like Tony. For the few weeks or months that he is still part of the family I’d like to see him. I didn’t need to check with you about that now, did I?”

She knew he had a point and even though she wanted to fuss about it she knew they weren’t going to side with her. None of them. Not her cousins or her nieces and nephews. They all loved Tony too much. A condition she had been unable to contract.

She couldn’t understand why they loved him so much. She had tried everything in her power to paint Tony out to be a complete monster. It was her defense against admitting that she regretted getting married les than a year after they walked down the aisle. Especially when that hot Italian guy moved in from Rome and took over marketing at the fashion line she worked for. He seemed to have a way of looking at a woman that made it appear that her life had ceased to mean anything before the moment he laid eyes on her. Giuseppe’s Baptism the women at the office called it and she hated the idea that her being married excluded her from the festivities somehow.

She decided it was Tony’s fault that she got drunk at the office Christmas party she had conveniently gone alone to. She decided that it was Tony’s fault that she introduced herself to Giuseppe with more buttons undone than not on her shirt. She decided that the raw animal passion that drove him to penetrate her from behind, less than a hour after they first exchanged greetings was also Tony’s fault. Because his ring on her finger ensured that she could never have sex with another man without feeling guilty about it, and she didn’t think that was right.

She decided that it was Tony’s fault that she stayed later and later at work so that Giuseppe could have her any way he wanted, anywhere he wanted. And when Giuseppe left, to return to his wife and three kids in Rome, she asked Tony for a divorce.

She told him he was stifling her and that she needed to be free again. She had been pulling away for so long he didn’t try to make her stay. That was her assessment of the situation. So she filed for divorce citing irreconcilable differences.

Her father was looking at her as she battled all her thoughts about the man she married so when she snapped back into the present he blinked once and said, “Tony won’t come. He’s way too classy for that.”

She didn’t understand what he was getting at so she asked, “What?”

Her father took off his glasses and fixed her with his Paul Newman-blue eyes and said, “Were you ever going to tell Tony that you cheated on him?”

“What!” Her mind was racing and she was trying to figure out how anyone could have known. Her father ignored her response and asked another question instead, “Did you also know that Giuseppe, the married man, was fucking two other women at the same time as you?”

Her mother put a hand on her husband’s arm and he apologized, “Sorry dear but the word seems appropriate at a time like this.”

She took in all the eyes on her and said, in a slightly tremulous voice, “What is this?”

Her father said, “You have to be punished for what you did Agnes.”

“What? Why? What are you going to do to me?”

“Unless you figure out a way to let Tony know of your indiscretion before he signs the divorce papers…you will be disinherited.”

“This is a ridiculous accusation.”

“Really?”

“You’re my family! Does that mean nothing?”

“It means everything, actually. You’re our responsibility. The way you turned out, it’s our doing. I could be wrong again but I didn’t realize we raised you to be this way. So now, it’s our responsibility to punish you for hurting another person like this.”

Her anger got her to her feet because they didn’t have any strength of their own. Blazing-eyed, she glared at the entire table and hissed, “What about me! You set up this, this intervention? All of you? Did anybody think of what it was like for me to be married to one guy and somehow that closes all other doors? Fuck all of you. I’ll bet you all have skeletons in your closets you sanctimonious bastards. Go to hell! Each and every one of you.”

She left as fast as her legs would carry her. She needed a drink, she needed to get laid and she needed to find someone rich enough to support her.

I’ll show you. All of you. This isn’t over and you’ll be sorry.

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