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‘Wait here.’ I spoke gently to Serafina, opened the car door, and closed it gently behind me. I replaced my suit jacket and leant my backside on the car. While I stood waiting, I could feel my impatience rising at his obvious attitude. To remain calm, I pulled at the cuffs of my shirt, before buttoning up my jacket.
‘Mr De Luca would like to speak to you.’ I heard Aldo speak and sick of the fat little man’s mutterings beside him, watched as he caught hold of his elbow and helped him close the gap between them and me.
‘Good evening.’ My deep voice filled up the evening air.
‘Ahh… Mr De Luca.’ My name and presence as always changed the situation. ‘It is indeed a pleasure. How can I help you this evening?’
‘I want your church opened.’ I pushed off the car. ‘My wife and I want to spend some time in there.’
‘I’ll need help with the candles.’
‘Do it.’ I gestured to Aldo. ‘This should help with the inconvenience.’ I pulled some notes from the inside of my jacket and handed them over.
‘Thank you, my son. May God be with you,’ he offered as he pulled up his robe and stuffed the notes inside the dirtiest pair of underpants I’d ever seen.
‘I doubt that,’ I answered with a look of disgust on my face.
‘Would you like me to hear your confession, too?’ He asked the question and held out his hand again. After talking myself out of knocking his greedy, sweaty hand away, I shook my head.
‘My sins?’ I questioned, before a loud laugh erupted from me. ‘No, father… my sins are plenty, but that’s not what I’m here for.’
‘Come on,’ Bruno impatiently spoke, before he directed the priest away.
I waited until one by one all the small church windows lit up and opened the door to help Serafina out of the car.
‘What’s happening?’ she whispered as she took hold of my proffered hand.
‘Today is a day we need to mark and remember. There’s something we need to do in there.’ I jerked my head sideways to indicate the church, which was now offering a warm glow of light.
‘It’s the church we married in.’
‘It is,’ I agreed. She gripped my hand tighter and fell into step beside me.
We walked slowly towards the arched entrance and I thought about what I wanted to tell her, only I had no idea where to start. The years we had been apart had been hard on her. No one knew that more than I did. I’d felt every second of her pain, but I’d done what was necessary.
As we walked through the doorway together and I discovered the way the candlelight caught on her hair, my thoughts evaporated.
‘You look beautiful, little bird.’
‘This is beautiful.’ Serafina smiled at me, before stepping further into the church and stood for a few seconds, turning around on the spot.
‘It’s not the first time you’ve seen the inside, you know?’ I couldn’t help the hint of amusement I spoke with.
Her eyes came back to mine and she smiled. It was a smile that fucking floored me. It was as genuine as I’d ever seen.
‘I know,’ she whispered, stepping up against me once again, ‘but on that day all I had eyes for was you.’
‘I’m surprised you could see through your anger,’ I teased.
Taking hold of her hand, I stepped closer into her, placed my free hand onto the back of her neck and placed my mouth down onto hers. For a few minutes, we just stood there, locked up in the pain of our past. Slowly, our kiss turned into one of acceptance and reluctantly, remembering why I’d brought her to the church in the first place, I lifted my mouth away from hers.
‘Leave us,’ I demanded.
I didn’t need to look up from my wife to know my order had been acted on. Aldo and Bruno’s feet sounded out on the flagstones as they escorted the priest outside. Finally, they shut the heavy oak door behind them. The candles that had been lit on the altar and in each of the small arched windows flickered in the draft and then stilled.
Saying nothing, I moved us down the aisle until we were stood in front of the altar. Moving forward without her, I did what I’d brought us in here to do. I blew out all the candles on the raised platform, plunging us into semi-darkness. Then I rearranged them, placing the five biggest and strongest looking candles together in the middle. I relit the five and swept my arm against the others making them clatter to the floor.
Taking a step backwards, I admired the light the candles gave out and happy with my work, I moved down the remaining couple of steps and stood at the bottom, next to my wife. Once there, I unbuttoned my suit jacket, pulled up the legs of the Italian, handmade suit trousers that encased my legs and knelt.
