Previously:

"What would you be doing in a dark alley?" Berga asked.

"Taking a shortcut."

She said so simply that Berga didn't know what to say to that other than:

"You're something else, you know that?"

Luck kept smiling.

"And wipe that grin off your face! Don't encourage her."

Charlie laughed, and Luck joined her.

"I'm warning you two! It's not funny!"

Even though he was doing his best to sound stern, Berga was in danger of cracking a smile, and it showed.

Keith watched their smiling faces, and it made him happy.

"… Heh."

Chapter 2: A New Year

January 1931. New York. Somewhere in Little Italy.

Charlie was checking a juicy red apple to make sure it was undamaged, when someone bumped into her, and she nearly dropped it. She tightened her grip on the apple and turned her head to see who it was as a familiar voice said:

"Sorry, ma'am."

Charlie was surprised. She was facing a young man around her own age who had curly dark-brown hair, warm brown eyes, and a friendly smile. She was looking at none other than her childhood friend, Joseph Marino.

"Joe?"

"Charlie?"

He looked equally surprised, but then he smiled broadly and pulled her into a hug.

"It is you!"

He was ecstatic to see her.

Charlie was happy to see him too. She grinned as he let her go and asked:

"What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you. You sent me that post card two years ago, and then not a peep since. I got worried."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to worry you. But I didn't think Myrtle would appreciate you receiving letters from another woman. I thought it might cause trouble for you. She's always been the jealous type."

Charlie smiled a bit sheepishly as she apologized.

"Ah, Myrtle. Who cares what she thinks."

"You broke up, huh?"

"Yeah, but even if we hadn't, I'd still rather have a proper letter from you. Who needs peace anyway? You know you've always been my favorite girl."

"There you go again."

Charlie smiled wryly. Joe was always teasing her like that.

"So how've you been? What've you been doing with yourself?"

"I could ask you those same questions."

The fruit seller cleared his throat. "Are you gonna buy the apple or not?"

Charlie realized a line had begun to form behind her.

"Oh, sorry."

She quickly picked out three more apples and paid for all four.

"I guess we should find somewhere else to talk."

Joe was looking around for another place to chat as he said this.

"Come on, I know a good cafe."

Joe followed Charlie to a nice little cafe that was in Gandor territory. The owner recognized her immediately.

"Ah, Miss Charlie. The usual?"

"Yes, please."

Charlie gave the owner a polite smile and turned to Joe.

"What'll you have?" she asked Joe.

"Just plain black for me, thanks."

"Miss Charlie, can I ask who this is?"

The owner had seen her with the Gandor brothers before, and he could tell from the way Luck looked at her that she was special to him. This new man seemed like trouble.

"Oh, this is my childhood friend, Joe Marino."

"Childhood friend, huh? Well, I suppose that's okay..."

"Thanks for your approval," Joe said wryly.

Charlie and Joe paid for their cappuccino and black coffee and sat at one of the small tables outside. Joe started from where they left off:

"So, what've you been up to?"

Charlie wondered how much she should tell him. She decided to leave out that she was working for the Mafia and Camorra, for their sakes and for his.

"I've been supporting myself by singing and playing the piano."

"That's great. You must be doing well, because you look good and healthy. Although your watch is missing, so maybe not..."

"Oh, that. It broke, so I dropped it off at a jeweler's to get it fixed."

"Yeah, I didn't really think you had sold it. Your father gave it to you, after all."

He was talking about Mr. Azzura, Charlie's adopted father, the only one she ever knew.

"So what have you been doing? Still slaving away at the bakery?"

"Yes, and we're doing very well, thank you."

At that time, Luck happened to be passing by, and he saw Charlie at the cafe. She was smiling and laughing with another man on what appeared to be a date.

Luck calmed himself down, he didn't know that's what this was. It may look that way, but he didn't know for sure. He aimed to find out. He called out to her.

"Charlie!"

Charlie looked and saw Luck approaching them. She smiled when she saw him.

"Taking a break?"

"Something like that."

Luck decided to get right to the point. "Who's this?"

"This is my childhood friend, Joe Marino. He makes some of the best cakes in New Orleans. Joe, this is Luck Gandor. We became friends after I moved here, and he's helped me out a lot."

Joe stood up and offered Luck his hand. Luck shook it.

"Thanks for looking after her," Joe said.

"It's been my pleasure," Luck said.

"Want to join us?" Charlie asked Luck.

"Sure."

Luck moved another chair over so he could sit at the small table with them.

"Maybe you could tell me more about Charlie?"

He thought a childhood friend should know all sorts of interesting things.

"Did she ever tell you about the time we went camping, and she insisted we make a raft and float down the river like Huckleberry Finn?"

"I'm not sure he needs to hear this story..."

"I want to hear it even more now."

"Well, we were just kids, but Charlie, Dino, and I managed to gather enough logs for the three of us to sit on. Then we tied it all together with vines. It looked sturdy enough, and it held up with we got onto it, but as soon as we pushed it out into the river, and a stronger current hit it, the whole thing came apart beneath us. Dino and I were in the water before we knew it, but Charlie managed to keep her balance and ended up standing on a log. It kept rolling over in the water as it floated downstream, so Charlie had to keep running to keep herself from ending up in the water. Which was fine until the log came to a spot where two other trees had fallen in on either side, and the log wedged itself between them. Charlie slipped and had to grab onto one of the fallen trees to stop herself from falling in. Unfortunately for Charlie, there was a snake in that tree, and as soon as she saw it, she screamed and let go and fell into the water. Which wouldn't have been so bad, except she got swept into some rapids, and Mr. Azzura had to jump in and save her."

"It sounds like something out of a slapstick comedy. Where you okay?"

Luck asked because, although she obviously wasn't any worse for wear in the long term, it must have been scary at the time.

Charlie answered wryly.

"I survived. But that wasn't the worst part."

"It gets worse?"

"It later transpired that one or more of the vines we used must've been poison ivy, because we had all the symptoms," Joe said.

"We were covered in patches of an itchy red rash. Mrs. Aggie had to slather us with calamine lotion. Morning, noon, and night: calamine lotion."

For Charlie, just thinking about it conjured up the smell of all that calamine lotion.

"Charlie even made up a song about it. How did it go? 'Calamine, calamine, calamine lotion~ Ohh, please no more calamine lotion~!'"

Joe sang along to the little tune she had made up.

"I think that's enough."

Charlie's face had gradually become a light red, and she was now leaning on the table, holding her head in one hand. She was clearly embarrassed.

Luck smiled.

"Don't worry, I've heard worse."

"I thought it was cute."

Joe's words, while accurate, rankled with Luck a little bit, especially in conjunction with the adoring look Joe was giving Charlie, though she didn't seem to notice.

"So what are you doing in New York? Sight-seeing?"

Luck wanted to the subject, get Joe to take his eyes off Charlie.

"Well, like I told Charlie, I came here looking for her. I got worried when she stopped writing and never came back."

"Why did you stop writing?"

"Well..."

"She says she was just being considerate of my girlfriend, but do you think that's reasonable? One postcard and then nothing?"

"I'd have come looking for you, too."

"I didn't think you'd be that worried."

"How can I not worry? A big city like New York, and all the trouble that comes with it. It's probably silly, but I was worried you might get in trouble with the Mafia."

Luck and Charlie exchanged a glance.

"How so?" Luck asked.

"Well, the last I'd heard, you went up here to find Dino. We both know what he's like. I thought he'd run up debts and drag you into the mess with him."

Luck thought that was a very astute assessment, since it really had happened.

"You know there's Mafia in New Orleans, too," Charlie said. "If Dino was smart enough to stay away from them back home why would he be stupid enough to run up debts with them here?"

"That's because you and Mrs. Aggie were keeping an eye on him. She was worried, too, when you didn't come back with him. She wanted to see you, before the end."

"She did?"

"We sent you a letter at Dino' address, but we never heard from you."

"I hope she didn't think I abandoned her?"

Charlie couldn't bear it if Mrs. Aggie died thinking she didn't love her.

"No, she died the day we sent the letter, so as far as she knew, you were on your way. But how come you didn't answer?"

"I wasn't staying at Dino's. I'm living with my roommate, Lia. You'd like her. She's a nice a girl."

"Is she a singer, too?"

"She's a waitress."

"How did you meet? Was she a waitress in a restaurant you were playing for?"

"Something like that."

"And how did you two meet?" Joe asked, looking at Luck.

"My brothers and I run a jazz hall. Charlie plays for us sometimes."

"I'll have to come and listen."

"You're welcome to come, but I think she's playing elsewhere tonight."

"So where is it, Charlie?"

"Oh, come on. You don't really want to hear me play. It's just more of the stuff you're used to from Mrs. Aggie's parlor. Wouldn't you rather go see a real musician play?"

"You are a real musician, and I've missed your voice."

"Uh…"

"You might as well just tell him, Charlie."

Part of Luck was hoping Joe would find out what kind of people she was involved with and get scared off.

Charlie thought it over for a moment. Joe was as straight as an arrow, so she had been hoping to avoid exposing him to the world of the Mafia and Camorra, but it seemed he was bound to find out no matter what she did, so she might as well take the chance and invite him.

"All right, fine. I'm playing at Alveare tonight. It's a honey shop. Just tell Miss Seina you're a friend of mine. I'll let her know you're coming."

"You're singing in a honey shop?"

"You'll see when you get there."

"All right. It's a date."

It was said like a joke, but Luck had a feeling Joe was being serious, and he didn't like it.

Joe stood up to leave.

"It's getting late. You probably need to get ready. I'll see you there."

"See you."

Charlie agreed, and Joe left her and Luck sitting together at the cafe.

"You seem to be trying to protect him," Luck observed. "You should've just written him some letters, if that was the case.

"Well, I didn't know how much I wanted to tell him. I didn't want to tell him anything about the Mafia or Camorra, but I didn't want to lie, so I ended up saying nothing at all."

"You know he's going to eventually find out the truth about who we are."

"I know, but I thought it would be better to keep him as far out of it as I could. He's straight as an arrow, a completely normal person."

"And you're not?"

"I haven't been normal since the day I was born."

Luck considered her colorful background and said:

"I suppose that's true."

"Hopefully Joe will be satisfied once he's heard me play and leave."

"I doubt that. He came all the way to New York to find you, although it did take him two years."

"Well, he was probably swamped helping out with the family business. The bakery was in trouble when I left, and they needed all hands on deck."

"I thought he made the best cakes in New Orleans?"

"Some of the best cakes. No, there was fire, just before I left. It was bad. It probably took them a year to rebuild everything, and then another year to get the business back into shape. What time is it?"

Luck checked his watch.

"He's right. You do need to get ready."

"I guess I'd better go, then."