Moving Forward

The lives of the infamous Wrecking Crew

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Maria Graziano
Proven Adventurer
Proven Adventurer
Posts: 239
Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2004 2:28 pm
Location: New Haven, RhyDin

Moving Forward

Post by Maria Graziano »

October 23, 2011
New Haven, RhyDin

“Are you and that man going to marry before I die, Maria?”

The question wasn’t unexpected. In fact, it had been posed to her more than once and not always by the woman in front of her. Why did it seem like so many people were invested in this relationship? Maria’s arms crossed over her chest and her chin was tipped up slightly as she leaned back against the counter in her mother’s kitchen. “Well, Ma, you’re only fifty-three, I figure that gives us another forty years or so.”

Mama G cut a sharp look up from the garlic she was chopping at the dismissive tone in Maria’s voice. All it ever took with her kids was one of those looks. Maria let her arms fall to her sides with a heavy exhale but refused to be intimidated into apologizing for the remark or the tone. “I’m only fifty,” she countered in an outright, bold-faced lie.

Maria gave a huff of a laugh. “How is it that I keep getting older and you’re getting younger?”

“It’s called preventative skin care, dear. If you would take a spa day with me every once in a while we could get them to do that great mask that they do and you would instantly look five years younger.” The response drew a warmer laugh from Maria and as the silence filled the room, Mama G returned to the subject at hand. “He’s a good man. He deserves to be treated as such.”

“Really if I have to hear how Saint Tical heals the blind and rescues kittens one more time, I will lose my mind. Do you know how exhaustin’ it is being in a relationship with a man that everyone thinks walks on water?” Maria replied as she leaned forward to steal a carrot off the vegetable tray on the counter. If it was up to Mama G she would be feeding Maria something much more fattening. She, Ria, and Myria never weighed enough in Mama G’s opinion. In fact, there wasn’t a soul better at guessing a person’s weight than Mama G. She’d know the minute they lost weight and if the women tried to deny it, she’d immediately make them stand on the scale in her bathroom to prove she was right before filling them full of cheese and pasta.

However, clearly her weight wasn’t Mama G’s issue of the day. It was her other favorite cause -- her children’s personal lives.

“I got it, Ma, okay? Every woman in RhyDin wants him. I’m lucky to have him. But what you don’t get is that I’m just some temporary itch that Tical had to scratch. I was something he had to do so he could close one chapter of his life and move onto the next. Eventually he’ll realize it and we’ll end quietly as friends,” Maria stated in a frustrated tone, swinging the carrot in hand around for emphasis.

Mama G set down the knife and swept the five minced cloves of garlic up in her cupped palm to toss into the shallow bowl before her. Every one of Mama G’s recipes seemed to start with garlic. Her dark brown eyes -- a match to Maria’s -- were leveled on her adult daughter as if she were a preteen in the middle of a temper tantrum. “Maria Graziano, you would do well to remember that I love that boy like a son and I think the best of him. I will not have you talk like that about him in my house. Do you understand me?”

Maria’s lips drew into an unhappy line but she gave a nod at the stern lecture. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Good,” came the sharp reply as she reached for an onion and the knife. Maria wasn’t sure which was more frightening -- Mama with a knife or Mama with her infamous rolling pin.

“You know of all my children I have to worry about you the most.”

Maria’s brows furrowed at the remark, hands settling on her hips. “You’ve got to be kiddin’ me. Chrissy is practically a shut-in. Tone can’t even cook for himself without catching somethin’ on fire. And My is constantly on the verge of letting her inferiority complex explode all over us by taking one comment the wrong way. I’m doing fine. I would have graduated from college if it wasn’t for ending up here. I had a successful career, a handful of endorsements, a business. I’ve got a gorgeous little girl. I’m independent and I’m standing on my own two feet.”

“There’s independent and then there’s standoffish. You cross that line. In fact, you’re so far over that line that I’m not sure you can even see it anymore,” Mama G stated bluntly over the sound of the knife hitting the cutting board in rapid fashion. Realizing the harshness in the words, Mama G sighed and paused in her work to lift her eyes to her eldest child. “You can only grow close to people, Maria, if you let them into your life as much as they let you in. This is your family and you can rely on them for help. It doesn’t make you any less of a strong woman to ask Tony to pick up some groceries on his way over or ask Ria to pick up Adie from school or to tell Tical that you want him in your life.”

“If you let people in, they let you down,” Maria replied briskly in what she hoped would be a pointed end to the conversation as she turned for the cellar. "I'm going to pick out a bottle of wine."

Mama G gave a huff in response. No child of her’s would get the last word in an argument. The same tone was used in response. “You let Bode in and he let you down, dear. The rest of the world is not guilty of those charges and one day you’re going to have to stop blaming them for it.”

The merciless attack only ended as Maria stepped into the basement and pulled the door shut behind. Cloaked in darkness, she let out one heaving, hesitant exhale hunching over with the pain that had surfaced. Only that one breath out was allowed. When she drew her next in, she straightened and threw on the light, pushing her emotions back, down, behind crevices, and then she descended into the basement.
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