Free The Coming of Fabrizze: A Novel (Black Squirrel Books) by Raymond Decapite

swing again. She drew her legs up. The swing dragged to a stop.
    â€œDon’t you like to swing?” she said.
    â€œI do, I do,” said Fabrizze.
    â€œYou must lift your feet,” she said.
    â€œI’ll do it,” said Fabrizze. “I’ll do it.”
    Soon they were swinging together in the dark. The swing kept on soaring. Fabrizze held on for dear life. His head was spinning. The night was a blur of dark and silver and the whispering leaves.
    â€œWhat are you thinking?” said Grace.
    The swing slowed.
    â€œTell me,” said Grace. “Tell me.”
    â€œIf only I could,” said Fabrizze. “It’s your hair, too.”
    â€œMy hair?”
    â€œYou never take it down. I never saw it.”
    â€œI’ll take it down,” she said. “For you.”
    She turned. Her pale beauty was hidden away. Her fingers were quick and sure in the dark. Suddenly the breath-taking mass of hair tumbled beneath her shoulders.
    Fabrizze melted back.
    â€œDo you want to touch it?” said Grace, softly. Fabrizze watched her.
    â€œTouch it,” she whispered. “Touch it then.”
    The black sweet hair sent shivers through him.
    Grace turned into his arms and he was kissing her warm lips.

IV
    T HEY were married.
    It was during the celebration that Rossi announced the promotion of Fabrizze to acting supervisor of the railroad yard.
    â€œThere you have it,” said Penza. “They were telling me that Fabrizze needed a wife. He married the most beautiful girl in the city. They were telling me he was too young to be a foreman. Now he’s the supervisor. They were telling me I had a hole in my shoe. Now I have a hole in the other shoe.”
    Summer was keeping the promises of spring. The long days were rich with joy and love. An air of triumph like music filled the house on Jackson Street. It swelled forth to quicken every hope in the neighborhood. Friends came with words of advice and wisdom for the young couple. No secret was withheld. Everyone took an interest in their happiness and so shared in it. Cardino remarked that Grace and Fabrizze had put each other under a spell, and the neighborhood, watching close, fell under it.
    For a while Mendone fell under. He started work as a special assistant on the railroad. For weeks he was eating dried figs and nuts. He heard from Rumbone that such a diet had restored vitality to a man of ninety. With his first pay he bought an old violin from a peddler who promised to give him three lessons. The peddler returned to sell him a stool where he could sit if he played the harp or piano. He spoke of sending across the sea for a wife.
    â€œIt’s an idea,” he said, tapping his pipe on the porch. “It’s a good sign to have this idea at my age.”
    â€œI agree,” said Grace. She sat beside Fabrizze on the swing.
    â€œA man in our village was a father at eighty,” said Fabrizze.
    â€œWho told him so?” said Mendone.
    â€œIt’s true,” said Fabrizze. “You should see him. Eyes bright as fire. One tooth missing. He fell off a roof and knocked out a front tooth. He used to shake his fist at that roof when he passed it. What an appetite he had.”
    â€œFor what?” said Grace, smiling in anticipation.
    â€œFigs and nuts,” said Fabrizze. “Nuts and figs.”
    â€œI chew and chew these figs,” said Mendone. “My jaw aches with them. I crack and crack these nuts. I pick and pick at them. I think it’s a way to pass the time, and nothing more…. Be sure to wake me for work.”
    Grace would be at the window when they left the house.
    â€œHello, Fabrizze, hello,” someone called.
    â€œHello, hello,” said Fabrizze.
    Nellie was shaking her carpet.
    â€œLook who’s there,” she said.
    â€œLook who’s there,” said Fabrizze.
    â€œIt’s Fabrizze,” said Bassetti. “And the special