A Different Light Read online

  “Mom said maybe I can start again in the fall. I hope so.” Callie’s sadness at having suspended her riding lessons over the past few months was evident. She brightened when she told Diana, “We just came from seeing Grandpa.”

  “Oh, can it, Callie,” Athen muttered under her breath as she prepared to exit the driver’s side.

  “How is he this morning?” Diana’s face tensed slightly.

  “He’s okay. The same.” Callie’s attention was diverted by the appearance of one of her old friends. “Hey, Mom, there’s Julie. Hey, Julie! Wait up!”

  Callie sprinted across the asphalt, turning back once to wave. “See ya, Ms. Bennett …”

  “See you, Callie.” Diana turned to Athen with obvious caution. “Hello, Athen.”

  Ari Stavros’s mistress faced his daughter across the back of the car.

  “How are you holding up these days?” Diana asked with what appeared to be genuine concern.

  “I’m fine.” Athen opened the trunk and made a point of checking the contents of Callie’s beach bag: the carefully folded swimsuit, the towel, the sunscreen.

  “I’m sure this is difficult for you. To be here, I mean, after John …” Diana began hesitantly.

  “I’m fine.” Athen slammed the trunk with more vigor than was necessary. How could Diana possibly know how hard things were for her?

  “Look, if you need a refuge, if things get tough, I’ll be here. If you need to escape …”

  “I’m fine, Diana. Really,” Athen insisted, averting her eyes to the left as another car pulled in to park next to her. Relieved to see an old friend behind the wheel, she turned her back stiffly on Diana as she greeted the newcomers. When she turned back, Diana was gone.

  The day passed in a haze of handshakes and hugs, much as Athen had known it would, and she’d survived. Late in the afternoon, she sat alone on the small rise overlooking the playing field where the children’s games were being set up. Searching the gathering crowd, she found her daughter in the midst of a group of young girls pairing off for the sack race, bending down to tie their legs together much as she herself had done so long ago. Unconsciously, her tongue sought out her front tooth, capped since that Memorial Day when she was twelve, when Angie Gillespie’s foot, tied to Nancy Simpson’s, collided with Athen’s face as they fell in heap at the finish line.

  Lost in reverie, she did not hear the approaching footsteps until it was too late.

  “Oh, my, would you just look at that bunch?” Diana Bennett sat down beside Athen on the grass and nodded to the group of men gathered not fifty feet away, set off slightly apart from those flocked around the picnic tables. “Our fearless leaders. Defenders of the city. Dan Rossi’s sitting on that beach chair like Caesar at a field maneuver, surrounded by all his little generals. The man who would be king.”

  Athen smiled wanly as the feeling of being trapped washed over her. She had no desire to engage in conversation, personal or political, with this woman. She turned her attention to the white-haired man in the dark glasses and the Mets cap.

  Dante Rossi, the mayor of Woodside Heights and its undisputed political kingpin, was seated in a folding chair no doubt provided by a devoted employee to spare the boss the discomfort of perching on the edge of backless picnic benches with the peons all afternoon. His closest advisers stood around him in a cluster like the palace guard.

  “And look at Harlan Justis—that’s City Solicitor Justis.” Diana pointed discreetly at the tall thin man who was lifting a tiny infant from the backpack with which a young mother struggled. “That son of a gun is playing the crowd. Now check out Rossi, watching Justis. See his face? ‘Someone had better remind old Harlan that no one’s a candidate until I say he’s a candidate.’” Diana effectively mimicked the mayor’s gruff tone.

  “Candidate for what?” Athen asked, curious in spite of herself.

  “Mayor, of course.”

  “What do you mean? Rossi’s been mayor forever.”

  “It only seems like forever.” Diana laughed. “But actually it’s been a little less than eight years. Look at those meatheads. Circling like sharks around a capsized boat. Just waiting for Rossi to give one of them the nod for the big chair.”

  “But Rossi’s still mayor.”

  “He won’t be, after November.” Diana leaned back on one elbow, a bemused expression on her face.

  “Is he retiring?”

  “Sort of. Forced retirement. City charter says four consecutive terms max. This is Rossi’s fourth term.”

  “Oh.” Athen slanted a glance in Diana’s direction.

  It was as close as she had ever been to the woman with whom her father had kept company for so many years. Athen didn’t know for certain how many. Ari had never discussed Diana with his daughter. It had been John who’d mentioned his father-in-law’s relationship with the young woman as if Athen had known about it. She had not.

  Athen had been shocked when she learned that her father was seeing a woman who was only ten years older than Athen herself. Secretly, she hadn’t been certain that what she’d felt wasn’t jealousy as much as shock, but she’d never been sure if she was jealous because her father had found someone else to fill his hours, or if she was offended because it was part of his life he would not share with his daughter.

  “What a sorry group,” Diana went on. “They all want it so badly they salivate every time they get within ten feet of that office, bending over backward to please Rossi in any way they can.”

  “Why?” Athen studied the woman’s face surreptitiously.

  Diana had those Angelina Jolie lips that were so in vogue, and crystal blue eyes, long dark lashes, a peaches-and-cream complexion. Her short blond hair curled around her face in ringlets. She was very pretty, Athen conceded, though the very opposite of her mother, who had been olive skinned, with hair and eyes as dark as night.

  “Because whoever he picks to run will win.”

  “But won’t there be an election?”

  Despite her best efforts, Athen couldn’t help but compare the two women. Melina Stavros had been a tiny doll of a woman, small boned and fragile as a butterfly, chained to her home by the heavy braces she wore on both legs. Diana was soft and rounded. An athlete all her life, she excelled at tennis and riding, and played softball on the city’s team. Athen had watched her play once, when the police department had challenged the City Hall team. It seemed at the time that everyone’s eyes had been on Diana, the pretty young pitcher who stood boldly on the mound and struck out more than her fair share of batters.

  “Elections mean nothing in this city, Athen,” Diana explained. “It’s a one-party town. Dan Rossi is the party. He’ll choose his own successor.”

  “You mean whoever he picks will win? Automatically?”

  And Diana is so contemporary. She wears makeup and has a career as a CPA. Mama was a page from an old-fashioned novel, old country in her ways and in her dress, beautiful in her simplicity.

  “Oh, there’ll be an election. But Rossi could run Lassie in this city and the party faithful would vote for the dog.” Diana grinned. “And each one of those little mutts over there wants to be Rossi’s dog. If he has a favorite, though, he hasn’t let on.”

  “Why doesn’t Rossi just name a successor and be done with it?”

  If Melina had been candlelight, Diana is sunlight on an open field.

  “What? And put a premature end to all this butt kissing?” Diana laughed out loud. “My guess is that Rossi doesn’t want to give it up, pure and simple. He loves it all too much. He loves the power.”

  “But he’ll still be head of the party, right?”

  “It’s not the same.” Diana shook her head. “My gut tells me if Rossi could find a way to hold on to it all, he would.”

  “What could he do if the charter says four consecutive terms?”

  “Good grief, Athen, didn’t you learn anything about politics from your father?” Diana chided good-naturedly, blue eyes twinkling.

  “No.�
� Athen was hoping that her father would not be mentioned, and was uncomfortable now that he had been. “I’ve never been particularly interested in politics.”

  “That’s what brought us together, Ari and me, you know? I was just starting out in the finance office; Ari was already on the City Council.” Diana stopped, realizing that Athen had deliberately turned her face from her. “But you don’t really want to hear about that, do you?”

  “Not really.” Even to herself, Athen sounded childish.

  “Why? Are you afraid I have something of him that you don’t? And even if I do, what would that take from you?” Diana spoke quietly, but there was anger beneath the soft tone. “This you need to know: I have loved that man for seventeen years. That’s right, since you started college. I’ve stayed in the background and never intruded into your life. Not when Ari had the stroke. Not when John died and I wanted to comfort you, because I know how much you’ve lost.”

  “You’ve no idea what I’ve lost, Diana.”

  “You think that all these years I’ve been merely an easy diversion for a lonely widower, don’t you? You can only think of one reason why your father would want to be with me, right?” Tears swelled in Diana’s eyes but they did not fall.

  Embarrassed, Athen sat in silence.

  “How old are you now, Athen? Thirty-five?” Diana stood. “Don’t you think maybe it’s time you grew up and accepted your father as a man who has a life that doesn’t revolve around you? Can’t you grant him that small measure of independence? And if he’s found happiness with someone who isn’t your mother, can he not be forgiven for that?”

  Stung and surprised by the outburst, Athen watched with flushed cheeks as Diana stalked off in the direction of the parking lot.

  2

  Athen remained on the spot, wrapped in embarrassment at having caused such an impassioned and unexpected outburst. While not wanting to know the details of her father’s affair, she had no desire to intentionally hurt Diana. And Diana had been right. Athen assumed that her relationship with Ari had been strictly fun and games, that he wasn’t proud of the fact and so had never involved Diana in any way with his family. Ari had attended his daughter’s wedding unescorted, and had spent every holiday, every birthday with Athen and John, though, she now recalled, he had always departed immediately after dinner.

  Diana’s quiet declaration of love had left her disconcerted. Had Ari returned that love? For the first time Athen wondered if her failure to offer her father the option of bringing a guest to share Christmas or Thanksgiving or birthday celebrations had hurt him. Had he been reluctant to ask Athen to share him with Diana, or had he been unwilling to share Diana?

  The children’s games concluded and Callie jubilantly ran to her, proudly showing off the medals she’d won for swimming and for the pie-eating contest.

  “Let me guess,” Athen said wryly. “Blueberry, right?”

  “How’d you know?” Callie asked.

  Athen laughed and pointed to the front of Callie’s shirt.

  “Oops.” Callie giggled and rubbed the purple stains.

  “It’s okay, honey. It’ll probably come out in the wash, and if not, then you have a new shirt to garden in.” Athen glanced at her watch. “Hey, it’s getting late. Why don’t you start gathering up your things, and we’ll …”

  “Aw, Mom, it’s not that late,” protested Callie.

  “It will be by the time you find everything and we get out of here. Go. Find your things. Meet me at the car in fifteen minutes.”

  Athen stood and brushed off the grass clinging to the backs of her bare legs. She looked over at the picnic grove and saw that Dan Rossi was on his feet, preparing to leave. She should go pay her respects, she told herself. He and her dad had served together on the City Council for many years, and whenever Dan saw Athen, he never neglected to remind her that the two men had been great friends. He’d been a great source of support to her not only after her father’s stroke, but after John’s death as well.

  She caught his eye from thirty feet away, and a broad smile of recognition spread across his face. The old man abruptly ended the conversation in which he’d been engaged. Beaming broadly, his arms opened to enfold her.

  “Athen, sweetheart.” He embraced her warmly. “What a joy to see you. You are well? And Callie? And your blessed father? You must tell me how he is doing. Not a day passes that I don’t think about him. Come and walk with me a bit and we’ll talk. I haven’t seen you since, well, since that terrible day when John … God rest his soul.” Rossi shook his head sadly. “You’re getting your checks on time? The worker’s compensation, the pension …?”

  “Yes, everything’s been on time, Dan. Everyone’s been very helpful.”

  “God help them if they’re not,” he told her. “We take care of our own, that’s a fact. You need anything—I mean anything—you call me directly, you hear? Not Mary Fran, you call me. Though, of course, soon enough Mary Fran won’t be there. You remember Mary Fran Ellison?”

  “Sure.”

  “My right hand. Best assistant anyone ever had. Gonna be next to impossible to replace her.”

  “Is she retiring?” Mary Fran must be close to seventy, Athen recalled.

  “Back surgery. Had a car accident last year, let them operate on her back. Worse now than she was before, can’t sit for more than an hour at a time. Anyone ever wants to operate on your back, Athen, you tell them to go to hell, hear?” They were nearing the parking lot, and Dan waved to a departing fireman and his young family. “What are you doing with yourself these days, Athen? Did I hear you went back to teaching?”

  “I went back as a substitute last month. I thought maybe I’d go back to teaching full-time when Callie started middle school. I quit when she was born because I wanted to stay home with her, after having lost my own mother when I was so little.” Why am I babbling? she asked herself, a flush settling on her cheeks.

  “Ah, but that was a tragedy, her dying so young. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times: Melina Stavros was the most beautiful woman I’ve ever known. We all mourned her, Athen. Just as we all mourned your John. As fine a man as ever wore the uniform, no question about that. Ah, and your father … well, it breaks my heart to even think about it.” Rossi pulled a white linen handkerchief from his pants pocket and wiped at his eyes. “So … you’re thinking about maybe going back to the classroom, eh?”

  “I’m not sure when. When I’m ready.” She glanced away.

  “Well, I’m a great believer myself in the importance of timing, you know. Always have been. Just don’t put it off too long, hear? Not enough time in our lives that we should waste a bit of it.” He waved to a passing group, calling after them, “Good to see you. Glad you could make it.”

  They walked toward the spot where Athen parked her car. Callie was nowhere to be seen.

  “So what do you do with your time?” he asked directly.

  “Not a whole lot.”

  “That’s not good, Athen. Not good at all. You’re young, you’ve a whole lifetime ahead of you.”

  “It’s just so hard. …”

  “I know it is. Didn’t I lose my own Madeline two years ago? Don’t I know how hard it is to go on? But you have to. My best advice to you is to find something meaningful to do with your time. Find a job that matters to you. After Maddie died, the only thing that kept me going was the job.”

  “I couldn’t handle teaching full-time right now. I’m at too many loose ends, Dan. It wouldn’t be right to inflict someone in my present state of mind on a classroom full of children.”

  “It doesn’t have to be teaching, Athen. I bet there’s plenty you could do if you gave it some thought. You gotta find something to fill the hours, honey. Get your life moving forward again.” He stopped again to shake a hand or two. “Hey, there, Bob, Susan, glad you joined us. Sue, tell your sister we missed her today.

  “Like I was saying, Athen, you should look into finding a little something to keep your mind occupied
, you know, until you get your feet back on the ground again. Think about it. Anybody would love to have you on their staff, bright and pretty as you are. Love to have you myself.” He stopped in midstride and grabbed her arm. “Now that’s an idea. Why not come to work for me?”

  “For you? Doing what?”

  “Answering my phone, keeping the wolves from the door, keeping my day organized.”

  “Dan, lately I can’t even organize my own days.”

  He didn’t appear to have heard. “The more I think about it, the more I know it’s just the thing for both of us. I need to replace Mary Fran, and I can’t think of anyone I’d trust more than you.”

  “Dan, I can’t replace Mary Fran. I’ve never worked in an office. I have no office skills.”

  “Nothing to it.” He dismissed her objections with the wave of a beefy hand. “Just like running a house.”

  She shook her head. “Thanks, Dan, I appreciate the offer, but no, I don’t think so.”

  “Don’t give me an answer now, give it some thought.”

  “Dan, I can’t commit to anything long-term right now.”

  “Athen, we’re not talking long-term.” He laughed good-naturedly. “Since I’ll be out of a job myself come November, you’ll be, too. The new mayor will want his own right hand sitting outside that door, not someone loyal to his predecessor. Long-term employment is definitely not an issue here. But it will get you out of that house for a little while and give you a change of scenery, which I suspect you need.”

  “Still, I don’t …”

  “Here’s my car now.” He motioned to the driver of a dark blue Cadillac inching its way through the crowd. “All I ask is that you give it some honest consideration.”

  She nodded and held out her hand to him.

  “What handshake?” He scoffed. “Give the old man a hug, eh? There you go, now, great to see you. You think about what I said. You give me a call, hear? My love to your dad.”

  THE WHIRLWIND THAT WAS DAN Rossi disappeared into the back of the waiting Cadillac. The driver hesitated momentarily as the throng jamming the parking lot parted like the Red Sea to permit the vehicle to pass.