Page 19 of Mafia’s Dirty Secret

“Hi, Marie. Don’t worry about this. I have a few minutes, so I’ll clean her up. Get settled in and I’ll see you in the kitchen.” Jane’s face was red, despite the air conditioner her friend had been kind enough to donate to them. Marie was sympathetic, she knew it wasn’t just the heat that caused that redness. It had more to do with trying not to breathe too deep until the mess was cleaned up.

Marie simply nodded her head and waited for Jane.

“She’s more lively today, but I think she’ll sleep tonight, for a change.” Jane sighed as she came into the room and washed her hands at the stainless-steel kitchen sink. She’d washed them in the bathroom but, like Marie, she washed them in the kitchen too, just to be sure. Hygiene was key to keeping down contamination and infection, for all of them.

Marie looked down at her hands, raw and a little red from all the washing she did. She used hand cream on them, but that only helped a little. Sometimes she would massage cooking oil into them, just to try and help the dryness she would end up with. That worked when it was really bad.

“Oh, here, I brought you this. It really helps your hands.” Jane winked at Marie and handed her a white tube. It was some kind of specialty hand cream for those with work-roughened hands.

“Thanks!” she said with a grateful smile. From the label, Marie knew she’d never be able to afford a tube of hand cream like that. She squeezed a dab out into her hands and saw it was more an ointment than a cream. “That’s different.”

“It is. It’s what I use, and well, I think you want to look your best, lately, don’t you?”

Marie went still and she looked at the nurse with a quizzical gaze. “Maybe.”

She laughed after she spoke. She hadn’t exactly told Jane about Matteo, but Jane knew she’d been seeing someone. As the whole town apparently knew she’d been seen talking to Matteo, it was likely Jane had been told to. Or asked. Most people knew Jane was Ruby’s home health nurse.

“Just enjoy yourself, Marie. Don’t get to, um serious.” A flush ran down Jane’s face, deep down into the top of her pink uniform top, and she looked down at the floor. “But I hope you get some happiness, honey. You deserve it.”

“Thanks, Jane.” Marie wanted to hug her but wasn’t sure she should, suddenly.

She wasn’t sure why, Jane had always been open to affection from Marie, but now, well, she felt a little distance there that hadn’t been there before. Marie knew it was something in herself that put that wall up, maybe the idea that she was really a grown-up?

In the end, Jane took Marie in her arms and hugged her tightly. “Just have fun, honey, remember that, alright?”

“I will, Jane. Thank you.” Whatever the problem was disappeared the moment Marie was wrapped in Jane’s arms. She sank into the embrace and smelled the other woman’s perfume. This was what having a mom was supposed to have been like, she thought. But her mother wasn’t that kind, she reminded herself and pulled away. “I hope you have a good day, Jane.”

“I will, honey. One way or another. Use that ointment in the morning and before you go to bed. It works. See you tomorrow.”

Jane left finally and Marie took a deep breath. She walked back to her mother’s room and saw she was asleep. Even in her sleep, she looked bitter, Marie noted. She wasn’t sure if that was from pain or if her mother had always looked like that when she was asleep.

She wanted to be able to tell her mother about Matteo, to tell her the gossip she’d heard, but she knew that Ruby would just end up having a fit. Any hint that he was Mafia would send Ruby over the edge. It was better, then, to keep the news to herself. To protect her new relationship from her mother’s taint. It hurt Marie to think like that, but she knew it was the truth. Ruby corrupted things, it was just who she was.

12

“You can just take that shit and shove it up your ass, Marie. I’m sick of that mushy crap. I want a steak!” Ruby threw the bowl of oatmeal at Marie and barely missed her head. The plastic bowl hit the wall and slid slowly down the wall, the oatmeal adding friction to hold it in place.

“Mom,” Marie said, her patience with her mother almost gone for the day. She’d dealt with her all day long. Jane had called to say she was ill with pneumonia and wouldn’t be there that day. Marie was sympathetic to the other woman and her illness, but her patience with her mother was worn thin.

A new nurse would come tomorrow, but for today, Marie was all her mother had, and she was showing her ass already. The day would end in tears, Marie knew it.

“What? I’m the grown-up here, I tell you what I want. Now, get in that kitchen and cook me a steak, you lazy bitch.” Ruby glared at Marie as if she could get up and slap her daughter if she wanted to, she just didn’t want to make that effort.

Marie knew better. Ruby couldn’t get out of that bed on her own if the house caught on fire, much less to slap Marie.

“I’m sorry to tell you, Mom, but I’ve been an adult for 8 years now. We’re both grown now.” Marie glared back at her mother; irritation steeled her backbone enough to let her maintain the hard stare. “I’m not making you a steak because you can’t swallow it. You are aware of that. I wouldn’t withhold food from you, but I’m not going to make another bowl of oatmeal until you tell me you’ll eat it.”

“I won’t! I’m sick of that shit. Call the doctor, I demand you call the doctor.” Ruby shook with rage as she screeched at Marie. “If you don’t call that charlatan, I’ll have Jane call social services on you tomorrow. You can’t make me eat that slop anymore!”

Marie sighed and left the room. She came back with a roll of paper towels to clean up the oatmeal. She reminded herself, for the thousandth time, that it was time to pull the carpet up in there. It was clean, but even the dark green color had started to show stains and signs of wear. She couldn’t afford a new carpet, so she’d have to just polish the hardwood beneath the carpet.

“Marie! Marie, where’s my oatmeal? I’m starving!” Ruby shouted, her voice a totally different tone now. It was confused, maybe even a little frightened.

“It’s here on the floor, Mom. Where you threw it, remember?” Marie had to struggle to keep her irritation under control.

“What? I didn’t do that! Why do you lie about me so much, Marie?” Ruby promptly burst into tears, and Marie stood up, stunned into silence.

“Pardon?” Marie watched as her mother pressed her face into her hands and cried as if she was heartbroken. This was new.