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“Thank you,” I said, somewhat at a loss for words. “That means a lot, Aunt Judy.”
“You’re welcome,” she said, and for the first time in my memory, I saw a twinge of real emotion on her heavily painted face. A tear formed in the corner of her eye and spilled out down her nose. She didn’t try to wipe it away. She let it fall. “I loved your father. He always took care of all of us. It’s something that I understand you do as well. Just promise me you will keep that part of your father’s legacy. Always take care of people.”
“I will,” I said. “I promise.”
“Well then,” she said after a moment, clapping her hands down on her knees and making like she was about to stand. “I think that about wraps things up for me here.”
“You aren’t going back tonight, are you?” I asked.
“Oh, I have to,” she said. “I have my cat I need to get home to. He doesn’t eat at all if I’m not home and I really just want to get home.”
With that she stood, and we said our goodbyes. As she left, I turned back to Carmela, who was putting some things away in her desk and locking them up. She glanced up at me once, looking like she was going to say something, but held back.
“Why did you do that for me?” I asked, breaking the silence. “I thought… well, I didn’t think you would help me anymore.”
“I made a bargain,” she said, shrugging. “I was going to keep my end of it, no matter what.”
“Well, I appreciate it,” I said. “Seriously, thank you.”
“Don’t mention it,” she said.
“All right, well,” I started, “if that’s all, I guess I’ll get going for now.”
She nodded and kept her eyes on her desk.
I started to head for the door, frustrated I couldn’t think of something to say, some way to extend our conversation. At the same time, I didn’t want to overstay my welcome. She had done something huge for me, and I owed it to her to let her determine how things went from here. Maybe now that the arrangement was fully behind us, she might talk to me again.
“Mark,” she said behind me as I opened the door.
I froze. Turning slowly, I faced her and saw her eyes downcast, her fingers splayed on the desk as she leaned on it, like she was using it to keep herself standing.
“Yeah?”
“There’s something I need to tell you.”
“Sure,” I said. “What’s up?”
“You… might want to sit down,” she said.
My heart started thumping in my chest even though I had no idea what this was about. But the tone of her voice, the way she was avoiding eye contact, the fact that she had almost let me get out of the door before stopping me was all combining to make me very concerned about what it could be.
“Carmela?” I asked. “What’s going on?”
“When I said I did that for you, to pay you back, that was true,” she said.
“Okay…”
“But it wasn’t the whole truth.”
“Okay,” I said, wondering where she was going with all this.
Carmela sat back down on her chair and seemed to take a deep, focusing breath. Her eyes were wide as she looked at her desk, almost like she was looking for something. I clasped my hands together, interlocking my fingers. Whatever was going on, I had a feeling I wasn’t going to walk out of there feeling the same.
“The truth is,” she said, stumbling over herself and rallying, “the truth is… I didn’t do it just for you. Being a doctor, that’s a good future. And you are a good man, like she said. You take care of people. Your family always has here, for generations. That’s what I want for our baby.”
It took a moment for that last bit to sink into my brain and percolate, eventually bringing realization with it. My heart dropped into my stomach. Carmela’s eyes were now on me, and when mine refocused, they met hers, and there was a moment of silence that was probably only a few seconds long but felt like an eternity. I couldn’t remember how to talk.
“When?” I finally got out.
She nodded, looking down at her desk again for support and then back up to me.
“I found out a couple of days ago. I just didn’t know what to do about it, you know? Not with”—she motioned between us— “this. I just didn’t know what I should do. So, I took a few days to figure it out. I know I probably should have let you know immediately, but I just needed that time. I’m sorry.”
“A couple days ago?” a voice that sounded a lot like mine said. It sounded like me, but like it came from far, far away.
“Yes,” she said. “I didn’t know exactly what to do about it, but eventually I decided you needed to know. You deserved to know. But I want you to know there’s no catch. I don’t expect anything from you. If this is too much, if all this is just too much…I get it. I do. So that’s up to you.”
