Free Home for the Holidays by Steven R. Schirripa Page A

liquor store delivered wine. The musicians came and set up their instruments in the living room. Nicky's mother spent hours dashing from room to room, issuing orders through the telephone.
    “We're going to need more ice.” “I need those cakes delivered by noon.” “Where are those flower arrangements?” Then the party rental company came with the tables and chairs, and the tent for the backyard, and the heaters that would keep it warm. Within an hour, the backyard was transformed into a party room.
    Grandma Tutti was busy in the kitchen, and she hadcompany. In addition to Nicky's mother, Mrs. Feingold and Mrs. Carpenter were back, plus two other women Nicky recognized but hadn't really met.
    “Hello,” Nicky said. “Good morning, Grandma.”
    “Good morning, Nicky!” his grandmother said, and gave him a kiss. “These are my students!”
    “We're the first students for your grandmother's cooking school,” Mrs. Feingold said. “Today, we're learning marinara sauce and homemade pasta!”
    “And the best part?” Nicky's mother said. “It's a vegetarian pasta dish!”
    “It's macaroni—or noodles,” Grandma Tutti growled. “Pasta is a phony-baloney word made up by restaurants.”
    “It smells great,” Nicky said, and sniffed a pot of sauce.
    “I can't believe it's all so simple!” Mrs. Feingold said. “Olive oil, garlic, tomatoes and a little basil? Who knew!”
    “And a pinch of sugar, right?” Nicky asked.
    “Out!” his grandmother said, and pushed Nicky away from the stove. When he was out the door, she whispered, “You'll tell them all my secrets!”
    “They don't know about the sugar?”
    “Shhh!” Tutti hissed. “You and Tommy go break something. You can have a bite later … if my students don't ruin the sauce.”
    Clarence came and went in the Navigator, dropping Nicky's father off somewhere and returning with an armful of party hats and horns for people to blow at midnight.New Year's Eve! Nicky had almost forgotten what they were celebrating.
    “Wow,” Nicky said. “It's the last day of the year.”
    “So?” Tommy said. “What's for lunch?”
    Nicky's mother flew into the room a short while later, full of energy and plans.
    “I
must
run,” she said. “I have a thousand things to do, and a meeting I'm late for now. Tommy, have you called your mother?”
    Tommy looked ashamed. “No. I mean, I've called, but she's never answered.”
    “Call again,” Nicky's mother said. “Keep calling until you reach her.”
    “Yes,” Tommy said. “I will.”
    “I'll see you in a few hours. Nicholas, if your father calls, tell him I'll be out until this afternoon.”
    “Sure, Mom.”
    Tommy went to try to reach his mother. Nicky watched Grandma Tutti and her ladies work on their sauce.
    “Some people chop the garlic,” Grandma Tutti said to her students. “No! Not in my kitchen! We
mash
the garlic, gently, with the flat side of the knife.
Ecco!
Now you do it.”
    An hour later Nicky and Tommy were deep into a round of
BlackPlanet Two.
    “See?” Tommy said, just as his last space probe was blasted by the Astrogoths. “You have to double your shield strength, even if it means downgrading your tacticals. Then you get the tacticals back on the next screen.”
    Nicky stood up and said, “We have to go to the library.”
    “Right,” Tommy said. “What are you talking about?”
    “I Google'd Patrick Arlen this morning,” Nicky said. “There're a lot of references to newspaper stories about him, but they're too old. You can't read them online. We have to go to the library to read the stories.”
    “They keep old newspapers in a library?”
    “They have them on microfilm, and CDs,” Nicky said. “My English class had a field trip. They showed us. Come on.”
    Nicky called Clarence and had him come around with the Navigator. At the front of the downtown library, he said, “We'll need about an hour. Can you pick us up at, like, five?”
    “I'll be parked in front at five,”