It's All In the Family
By Ceramac24
CHAPTER TWO
"You're right," Rose said, clearing off the last of the plates. "It was a long time ago."
Julie followed her aunt into the kitchen with her pile of dishes. Rose was busy putting the lid on the lasagna pan. She hated to have her aunt be in the middle of this. It wasn't fair. She placed her plates on the counter and turned on the sink. Julie grabbed a load of dishes and placed them into the sink.
Rose came over and placed a hand on Julie's arm. "You don't have to do this," she said, nodding at the dishes. Her blue eyes met her nieces brown ones. Rose could see the remorse in them, and knew that if Julie could take back everything that was said that night, she would. She brought Julie into an embrace.
"I'm sorry." Julie said, enfolding herself in her aunt's arms. "I never got a chance to say that before."
Rose let go of Julie and took her face in her hands. "I'm not the one you should be saying it to."
Julie sighed, knowing her aunt was right. She went back into the living room and grabbed her coat and purse. Giving Rose a quick kiss on the cheek, she went out into the New York City night, lost in her thoughts.
For a January night, it was quite warm. Still, Julie shivered underneath her caramel colored wool trench coat. She wished that she hadn't forgotten her hat at her apartment when she left in the first place. She walked only a few blocks to the subway platform and got on her train. The ride would be about 15 minutes; she needed to think of how to repair her relationship with her cousin.
It all went back to events that took place in the park. Julie hadn't thought about that night in years. But, as if it were yesterday, she could still hear their voices echoing in her head. She had acted like such a child that night. She had been jealous and immature. Now, she was just embarrassed. She had fought back with the only words that would make Maurice leave her alone; and it had cost her a potential friendship with her cousin. She closed her eyes and rested her head back on the window of the subway car. Seconds later, in her mind, she was sixteen again, taking that long journey down Memory Lane.
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15 YEARS EARLIER
"Maurice! Mikey! Hurry up boys, or we're going to be late!" Rose Boscorelli yelled to her sons down the hall of their apartment in Manhattan. If they were to make it to her ex-brother-in-law's house just outside the city, they would have to leave in a few short minutes.
"Mom!" fourteen year-old Mikey called from the bedroom. "Maurice says that he's not going!"
"Not this again, Maurice!" she said. Rose walked down the hallway and into the bedroom that her two teenage sons shared. She sat down on the bed, next to Maurice. "I know you don't want to go," she said, stroking his hair. "But, Roger is taking me away for a weekend vacation and I have nowhere else to bring you and your brother."
"Can't we just stay here?" Bosco pleaded. "I promise there won't be any trouble!"
Rose laughed. "Just like you promised me last time? I don't think so Maurice," she said, getting up from the bed and coming to a standstill in the doorway. "Get your bag. We have to go," she said. Bosco sighed. She owed him big time for this, he thought. He grabbed his bag and followed his mother and little brother out the front door of the apartment.
The train ride was a little over an hour. His mother got teary-eyed on the platform when she saw them off. Mikey just rolled his eyes at her.
Bosco didn't get his mother sometimes. She wouldn't leave him home alone, but she would send him and his brother on a train all by themselves. He could easily get off at any stop and have the whole weekend to do as he pleased. Him and Mikey would quietly roam the streets of New York, not having to answer to anyone. He couldn't wait for the day he turned eighteen, he thought to himself as the train pulled away, bringing them closer and closer to a weekend he was not looking forward to.
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At their stop, Bosco and Mikey's aunt and uncle were waiting for them. Their uncle Nicolas was their father's only brother. He was older by two years, the same as Bosco and Mikey, although Bosco hoped that was their only similarity. Even though he hadn't seen his uncle, or any of their family for that matter, since his father left, Bosco was always hearing stories of his infamous Uncle Nick. He was a womanizer and apparently didn't try to hide it from his wife.
"Hello boys!" his uncle said as they stepped off the train. He grabbed each of them in an awkward embrace. "How was the ride?"
"Thrilling." Bosco replied. Was this weekend going to suck, or what? "It was ok," Mikey said, setting down his bag. Bosco did the same.
"You boys both remember your aunt Sharon right?" Nick said, motioning to his wife. She was a very tiny woman, both in height and in weight. No wonder she let him run around, Bosco thought, he would break her in two if she stood up to him. "Hello boys," she said. She stepped over to Mikey and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. She almost had to stand on her toes to reach! She came over and did the same to Bosco.
"You both look so grown up since the last time that I saw you!" she said, getting a little teary-eyed, just like his mother did before. Maybe it was his mother and aunt Sharon that were related, Bosco thought, the idea making him smile. He could just imagine timid Sharon and outspoken Rose as siblings.
"Well, let's pick up your things and get going!" Nick said, reaching down to grab Mikey's suitcase. They walked to the forest-green Ford Taurus out front. Nick put all the bags in the trunk and then unlocked the doors to the car. "It's a busy day for me," he said. "I've got places to go and people to see. You know, work related."
I'll bet, Bosco thought. He got in the car, far passed wishing he could go home. Now, he was praying for it.
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Once at the house, Bosco and Mikey were reunited with their cousins Julie, who was sixteen also, and James, who was eight. The first night was boring, like Bosco expected. There was nothing to do, so Bosco spent the night in the guest room, staring at the ceiling. His uncle was off on another "business" dinner and his aunt had locked herself in her room, which Julie said was normal. The second night, the last night they were to be there, was just a repeat of the first. Only this time, Sharon gathered all the cousins in the living room before she went up to bed. She told them that if they were going to do nothing, they were going to do it together.
That's where they had been for the last hour. Julie was on the couch, flipping through a Vogue magazine, acting like she was 25 years old, Bosco thought. Mikey and James were playing with a toy of James' on the floor. Bosco was staring off in space on the loveseat in the living room, pulling on the string of his sweatshirt. It was dead silent, except for an occasional giggle from James. Desperate for something, anything, to do, Bosco broke the silence. "Wasn't there a park that we passed on the way back from the station?"
"Willard Park, I bet." Julie said. "Did it have a big yellow slide?" James asked.
"I think."
"Yeah, that's Willard Park." Julie said. "Why?"
"Just thinking of stuff to do." He went back to pulling at the string on his sweatshirt. A few seconds later he asked, "You guys wanna go?"
"Yeah, Julie!" James said, jumping up and running to his sister. "Can we? Can we?"
"I don't think so James," she said. "Why not?" Bosco and James asked in unison.
"Because I don't like the idea of sneaking out of the house this late at night!"
"Julie, come on!" Bosco said, getting to his feet. "You said so yourself that your mom will lock herself in her room for the rest of the night and that your dad won't be home again until 2 or 3 in the morning."
"So?"
"So, it's not even dark out yet." Bosco said. The desperate tone of his voice made her rethink her natural impulse to say no again.
"Fine. But you have to promise to help me keep an eye on James."
"Fine. You have to promise to help me keep an eye on Mikey." he said, smiling.
They were very quiet as they left the house and headed for the park. It was a warm night for October and there wasn't much wind. James ran right to the slide; it was his favorite thing about the park. "Be careful James!" Julie said, walking over to the swings. She sat down and started pushing herself.
Bosco went and sat in the sand, nearest to the swings. He started playing with it, running it between his hands. The silence between the cousins resumed once again, and Bosco laughed.
"What's so funny?" Julie asked. "Well, I wanted to get out of the house to escape the silence, not to bring it on again." Bosco replied. "Well, maybe we all just better accept the fact that we have nothing in common." Julie said, still swinging. "James, come over here please." Julie yelled to her brother.
"Man, what the hell's your problem?" Bosco asked, rhetorically. James came to sit next to him and began playing in the sand also. "So James, what do you want to be when you grow up?" he asked, trying to start any sort of conversation.
"I'm gonna be a cop." James said, reaching into his pocket and showing off the plastic badge and ID card that his mother gave him for his birthday last month.
"A cop? Cops are worthless!" Bosco said to his little cousin. "If there is one thing I'm never going to be, it's a cop!"
"No, but you'll have your run-ins with them frequently!" Julie said, pushing herself higher on the swing.
"Oh yeah?" he said, "Well, at least I'm not going to be some dried up old hag with eight cats!" Bosco shot back. Julie was getting on his nerves tonight. He didn't know what the hell her problem with him was.
"Old hag!" Julie exclaimed, stopping the swing. "Yeah," Bosco said. "With a mother who's looney from the bastard husband she's got!"
"Oh, like you should talk!" Julie said, throwing her head back laughing.
"Hey guys," Mikey broke in. "You're starting to scare James."
They ignored him. "At least my old man didn't get under the skirt of every woman that came within a 5-mile radius!" Bosco said, smugly.
"No, yours made up for that by using your mother as a punching bag!" Julie yelled.
Bosco's mouth dropped open. He could have said so many things right then and there, but he kept his mouth shut for the first time in his life. James was suddenly beside him, and Bosco was not going to fight about their fathers in front of him. Bosco knew what it was like to be that age and have a father that you couldn't look up to. It was the most difficult thing in his life.
Julie on the other had, did not take the hint. She kept right on running her mouth. "He's gone! Out of your life! You have nothing to worry about anymore!" she said, the tears starting to form in her eyes. "You don't have to watch your mother be degraded while you sit back and do nothing. You do nothing, because you can't. You don't know how lucky you are."
Mikey held James by both shoulders and led him away from the feuding cousins. He wasn't about to let James hear this conversation at such a young age. With his brother being a part of it, Mikey knew that it could get nasty.
"Lucky! How do you figure I'm lucky?" Bosco said, thankful that Mikey started back to the house with James. Bosco could now safely tear into his cousin for what she said. "I still have to live with the fact that everyday I am without a 'real' father. Even the guy my mother has now still knocks her around every once in a while. I try to step in and I get knocked down! Don't tell me about my life when you know nothing about it!" Bosco yelled in her face, which was wet with tears. "I'm far from lucky."
He turned and started to follow Mikey and James, who were at least 20 yards ahead of him. He turned around once more to face her. "You know, that cop business that your brother was talking about doesn't sound so bad now."
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That was the last time the cousins spoke to one another. They parted the next day, each silently refusing to let go of the grudge they had towards one another. Too many things had been said, and like true Boscorelli's, their pride refused to let them apologize to one another.
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PRESENT DAY
Julie said goodnight to Ray Tallie, her landlord, who was just closing up the shop when she got back. She walked upstairs to her apartment, unlocked the door and went inside. Her roommate, Sarah, was out, so Julie had the apartment to herself. She went to the refrigerator and got a bottle of MGD Light and sat down at the kitchen table. She put her face in her hands. She had been reliving the story of the park the whole way home. It physically hurt her to even think about it and the way that she acted.
Her father, like Maurice's, was not a father to model oneself after. He ran around with so many women, but the thing that Julie never understood was the fact that he never tried to hide it. When her mother told her about Bosco's father leaving his family, she got optimistic. She had so desperately wanted her father to leave too, and spare their family the embarrassment of the neighbors and family members ridicule. She got laughed at, pointed at, and talked about, at the high school by her peers. At sixteen, that's enough to make you fearful of school. She thought all Bosco's problems were solved and she had hated him for it. Downing her beer in one breath, learned from her college years at Madison, she grabbed another from the fridge and brought it and the phone with her onto the couch. Rose had given her Maurice's number before she left, so she dialed it.
It started ringing.
Ring, after ring, after ring. Finally his machine picked up. "This is Officer Boscorelli of the 55th Precinct. I'm probably out searching New York City for you. Leave a message so I know where to look."
Julie smiled at her cousin's creativity. "Maurice?" she said to the machine. "Maurice, if you're there, pick up the phone…please pick up."
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STAY TUNED for Chapter 3. This story is FAR from over.
By Ceramac24
CHAPTER TWO
"You're right," Rose said, clearing off the last of the plates. "It was a long time ago."
Julie followed her aunt into the kitchen with her pile of dishes. Rose was busy putting the lid on the lasagna pan. She hated to have her aunt be in the middle of this. It wasn't fair. She placed her plates on the counter and turned on the sink. Julie grabbed a load of dishes and placed them into the sink.
Rose came over and placed a hand on Julie's arm. "You don't have to do this," she said, nodding at the dishes. Her blue eyes met her nieces brown ones. Rose could see the remorse in them, and knew that if Julie could take back everything that was said that night, she would. She brought Julie into an embrace.
"I'm sorry." Julie said, enfolding herself in her aunt's arms. "I never got a chance to say that before."
Rose let go of Julie and took her face in her hands. "I'm not the one you should be saying it to."
Julie sighed, knowing her aunt was right. She went back into the living room and grabbed her coat and purse. Giving Rose a quick kiss on the cheek, she went out into the New York City night, lost in her thoughts.
For a January night, it was quite warm. Still, Julie shivered underneath her caramel colored wool trench coat. She wished that she hadn't forgotten her hat at her apartment when she left in the first place. She walked only a few blocks to the subway platform and got on her train. The ride would be about 15 minutes; she needed to think of how to repair her relationship with her cousin.
It all went back to events that took place in the park. Julie hadn't thought about that night in years. But, as if it were yesterday, she could still hear their voices echoing in her head. She had acted like such a child that night. She had been jealous and immature. Now, she was just embarrassed. She had fought back with the only words that would make Maurice leave her alone; and it had cost her a potential friendship with her cousin. She closed her eyes and rested her head back on the window of the subway car. Seconds later, in her mind, she was sixteen again, taking that long journey down Memory Lane.
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15 YEARS EARLIER
"Maurice! Mikey! Hurry up boys, or we're going to be late!" Rose Boscorelli yelled to her sons down the hall of their apartment in Manhattan. If they were to make it to her ex-brother-in-law's house just outside the city, they would have to leave in a few short minutes.
"Mom!" fourteen year-old Mikey called from the bedroom. "Maurice says that he's not going!"
"Not this again, Maurice!" she said. Rose walked down the hallway and into the bedroom that her two teenage sons shared. She sat down on the bed, next to Maurice. "I know you don't want to go," she said, stroking his hair. "But, Roger is taking me away for a weekend vacation and I have nowhere else to bring you and your brother."
"Can't we just stay here?" Bosco pleaded. "I promise there won't be any trouble!"
Rose laughed. "Just like you promised me last time? I don't think so Maurice," she said, getting up from the bed and coming to a standstill in the doorway. "Get your bag. We have to go," she said. Bosco sighed. She owed him big time for this, he thought. He grabbed his bag and followed his mother and little brother out the front door of the apartment.
The train ride was a little over an hour. His mother got teary-eyed on the platform when she saw them off. Mikey just rolled his eyes at her.
Bosco didn't get his mother sometimes. She wouldn't leave him home alone, but she would send him and his brother on a train all by themselves. He could easily get off at any stop and have the whole weekend to do as he pleased. Him and Mikey would quietly roam the streets of New York, not having to answer to anyone. He couldn't wait for the day he turned eighteen, he thought to himself as the train pulled away, bringing them closer and closer to a weekend he was not looking forward to.
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At their stop, Bosco and Mikey's aunt and uncle were waiting for them. Their uncle Nicolas was their father's only brother. He was older by two years, the same as Bosco and Mikey, although Bosco hoped that was their only similarity. Even though he hadn't seen his uncle, or any of their family for that matter, since his father left, Bosco was always hearing stories of his infamous Uncle Nick. He was a womanizer and apparently didn't try to hide it from his wife.
"Hello boys!" his uncle said as they stepped off the train. He grabbed each of them in an awkward embrace. "How was the ride?"
"Thrilling." Bosco replied. Was this weekend going to suck, or what? "It was ok," Mikey said, setting down his bag. Bosco did the same.
"You boys both remember your aunt Sharon right?" Nick said, motioning to his wife. She was a very tiny woman, both in height and in weight. No wonder she let him run around, Bosco thought, he would break her in two if she stood up to him. "Hello boys," she said. She stepped over to Mikey and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. She almost had to stand on her toes to reach! She came over and did the same to Bosco.
"You both look so grown up since the last time that I saw you!" she said, getting a little teary-eyed, just like his mother did before. Maybe it was his mother and aunt Sharon that were related, Bosco thought, the idea making him smile. He could just imagine timid Sharon and outspoken Rose as siblings.
"Well, let's pick up your things and get going!" Nick said, reaching down to grab Mikey's suitcase. They walked to the forest-green Ford Taurus out front. Nick put all the bags in the trunk and then unlocked the doors to the car. "It's a busy day for me," he said. "I've got places to go and people to see. You know, work related."
I'll bet, Bosco thought. He got in the car, far passed wishing he could go home. Now, he was praying for it.
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Once at the house, Bosco and Mikey were reunited with their cousins Julie, who was sixteen also, and James, who was eight. The first night was boring, like Bosco expected. There was nothing to do, so Bosco spent the night in the guest room, staring at the ceiling. His uncle was off on another "business" dinner and his aunt had locked herself in her room, which Julie said was normal. The second night, the last night they were to be there, was just a repeat of the first. Only this time, Sharon gathered all the cousins in the living room before she went up to bed. She told them that if they were going to do nothing, they were going to do it together.
That's where they had been for the last hour. Julie was on the couch, flipping through a Vogue magazine, acting like she was 25 years old, Bosco thought. Mikey and James were playing with a toy of James' on the floor. Bosco was staring off in space on the loveseat in the living room, pulling on the string of his sweatshirt. It was dead silent, except for an occasional giggle from James. Desperate for something, anything, to do, Bosco broke the silence. "Wasn't there a park that we passed on the way back from the station?"
"Willard Park, I bet." Julie said. "Did it have a big yellow slide?" James asked.
"I think."
"Yeah, that's Willard Park." Julie said. "Why?"
"Just thinking of stuff to do." He went back to pulling at the string on his sweatshirt. A few seconds later he asked, "You guys wanna go?"
"Yeah, Julie!" James said, jumping up and running to his sister. "Can we? Can we?"
"I don't think so James," she said. "Why not?" Bosco and James asked in unison.
"Because I don't like the idea of sneaking out of the house this late at night!"
"Julie, come on!" Bosco said, getting to his feet. "You said so yourself that your mom will lock herself in her room for the rest of the night and that your dad won't be home again until 2 or 3 in the morning."
"So?"
"So, it's not even dark out yet." Bosco said. The desperate tone of his voice made her rethink her natural impulse to say no again.
"Fine. But you have to promise to help me keep an eye on James."
"Fine. You have to promise to help me keep an eye on Mikey." he said, smiling.
They were very quiet as they left the house and headed for the park. It was a warm night for October and there wasn't much wind. James ran right to the slide; it was his favorite thing about the park. "Be careful James!" Julie said, walking over to the swings. She sat down and started pushing herself.
Bosco went and sat in the sand, nearest to the swings. He started playing with it, running it between his hands. The silence between the cousins resumed once again, and Bosco laughed.
"What's so funny?" Julie asked. "Well, I wanted to get out of the house to escape the silence, not to bring it on again." Bosco replied. "Well, maybe we all just better accept the fact that we have nothing in common." Julie said, still swinging. "James, come over here please." Julie yelled to her brother.
"Man, what the hell's your problem?" Bosco asked, rhetorically. James came to sit next to him and began playing in the sand also. "So James, what do you want to be when you grow up?" he asked, trying to start any sort of conversation.
"I'm gonna be a cop." James said, reaching into his pocket and showing off the plastic badge and ID card that his mother gave him for his birthday last month.
"A cop? Cops are worthless!" Bosco said to his little cousin. "If there is one thing I'm never going to be, it's a cop!"
"No, but you'll have your run-ins with them frequently!" Julie said, pushing herself higher on the swing.
"Oh yeah?" he said, "Well, at least I'm not going to be some dried up old hag with eight cats!" Bosco shot back. Julie was getting on his nerves tonight. He didn't know what the hell her problem with him was.
"Old hag!" Julie exclaimed, stopping the swing. "Yeah," Bosco said. "With a mother who's looney from the bastard husband she's got!"
"Oh, like you should talk!" Julie said, throwing her head back laughing.
"Hey guys," Mikey broke in. "You're starting to scare James."
They ignored him. "At least my old man didn't get under the skirt of every woman that came within a 5-mile radius!" Bosco said, smugly.
"No, yours made up for that by using your mother as a punching bag!" Julie yelled.
Bosco's mouth dropped open. He could have said so many things right then and there, but he kept his mouth shut for the first time in his life. James was suddenly beside him, and Bosco was not going to fight about their fathers in front of him. Bosco knew what it was like to be that age and have a father that you couldn't look up to. It was the most difficult thing in his life.
Julie on the other had, did not take the hint. She kept right on running her mouth. "He's gone! Out of your life! You have nothing to worry about anymore!" she said, the tears starting to form in her eyes. "You don't have to watch your mother be degraded while you sit back and do nothing. You do nothing, because you can't. You don't know how lucky you are."
Mikey held James by both shoulders and led him away from the feuding cousins. He wasn't about to let James hear this conversation at such a young age. With his brother being a part of it, Mikey knew that it could get nasty.
"Lucky! How do you figure I'm lucky?" Bosco said, thankful that Mikey started back to the house with James. Bosco could now safely tear into his cousin for what she said. "I still have to live with the fact that everyday I am without a 'real' father. Even the guy my mother has now still knocks her around every once in a while. I try to step in and I get knocked down! Don't tell me about my life when you know nothing about it!" Bosco yelled in her face, which was wet with tears. "I'm far from lucky."
He turned and started to follow Mikey and James, who were at least 20 yards ahead of him. He turned around once more to face her. "You know, that cop business that your brother was talking about doesn't sound so bad now."
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That was the last time the cousins spoke to one another. They parted the next day, each silently refusing to let go of the grudge they had towards one another. Too many things had been said, and like true Boscorelli's, their pride refused to let them apologize to one another.
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PRESENT DAY
Julie said goodnight to Ray Tallie, her landlord, who was just closing up the shop when she got back. She walked upstairs to her apartment, unlocked the door and went inside. Her roommate, Sarah, was out, so Julie had the apartment to herself. She went to the refrigerator and got a bottle of MGD Light and sat down at the kitchen table. She put her face in her hands. She had been reliving the story of the park the whole way home. It physically hurt her to even think about it and the way that she acted.
Her father, like Maurice's, was not a father to model oneself after. He ran around with so many women, but the thing that Julie never understood was the fact that he never tried to hide it. When her mother told her about Bosco's father leaving his family, she got optimistic. She had so desperately wanted her father to leave too, and spare their family the embarrassment of the neighbors and family members ridicule. She got laughed at, pointed at, and talked about, at the high school by her peers. At sixteen, that's enough to make you fearful of school. She thought all Bosco's problems were solved and she had hated him for it. Downing her beer in one breath, learned from her college years at Madison, she grabbed another from the fridge and brought it and the phone with her onto the couch. Rose had given her Maurice's number before she left, so she dialed it.
It started ringing.
Ring, after ring, after ring. Finally his machine picked up. "This is Officer Boscorelli of the 55th Precinct. I'm probably out searching New York City for you. Leave a message so I know where to look."
Julie smiled at her cousin's creativity. "Maurice?" she said to the machine. "Maurice, if you're there, pick up the phone…please pick up."
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STAY TUNED for Chapter 3. This story is FAR from over.