When they returned several hours later, their faces were rosy from the cold and Lucy proudly sported a blood blister on her trigger finger.
“How did she do?”
I asked, drying my hands on my apron.
“Not bad,” Marino said, looking past me. “I smell fried chicken.”
“No, you don’t.”
I took their coats. “You smell cotoletta di tacchino alla bolognese.”
“I did better than ‘not bad,’“ Lucy said. “I only missed the target twice.”
“Just keep dry firing until you stop slapping the trigger. Remember, crawl the hammer back.”
“I’ve got more soot on me than Santa after he’s come down the chimney,” Lucy said cheerfully. “I’m going to take a shower.”
In the kitchen I poured coffee as Marino inspected a counter crowded with Marsala, fresh-grated Parmesan, prosciutto, white truffles, sauteed turkey fillets, and other assorted ingredients that were going into our meal. We went into the living room, where the fire was blazing.
“What you did was very kind,” I said. “I appreciate it more than you’ll ever know.”
“One lesson’s not enough. Maybe I can work with her a couple more times before she goes back to Florida.”
“Thank you, Marino. I hope you didn’t go to a lot of bother and sacrifice to change your plans.”
“It was no big deal,” he said curtly.
“Apparently, you decided against dinner at the Sheraton,” I probed. “Your friend could have joined us.”
“Something came up.”
“Does she have a name?”
“Tanda.”
“That’s an interesting name.”
Marino’s face was turning crimson.
“What’s Tanda like?”
I asked.
“You want to know the truth, she ain’t worth talking about.”
Abruptly, he got up and headed down the hall to the bathroom.
I’d always been careful not to quiz Marino about his personal life unless he invited me to do so. But I could not resist this time.
“How did you and Tanda meet?”
I asked when he returned.
“The FOP dance.”
“I think it’s terrific that you’re getting out and meeting new people.”
“It sucks, if you really want to know. I haven’t dated nobody in more than thirty years. It’s like Rip Van Wrinkle waking up in another century. Women are different from what they used to be.”
“How so?”
I tried not to smile. Clearly, Marino did not think any of this was amusing.
“They’re not simple anymore.”
“Simple?”
“Yeah, like Doris. What we had wasn’t complicated.
Then after thirty years she suddenly splits and I have to start over. I go to this friggin’ dance at the FOP because some of the guys talk me into it. I’m minding my own business when Tanda comes up to my table. Two beers later, she asks me for my phone number, if you can believe that.”
“Did you give it to her?”
“I say, ‘Hey, if you want to get together, you give me your number. I’ll do the calling.’
She asks me which zoo I escaped from, then invites me bowling. That’s how it started. How it ended is her telling me she rear-ended somebody a couple weeks back and was charged with reckless driving. She wanted me to fix it.”
“I’m sorry.”
I fetched his present from under the tree and handed it to him. “I don’t know if this will help your social life or not.”
He unwrapped a pair of Christmas-red suspenders and compatible silk tie.
“That’s mighty nice, Doc. Geez.”
Getting up, he muttered in disgust, “Damn water pills,” and headed to the bathroom again. Several minutes later, he returned to the hearth.
“When was your last checkup?”
I asked.
“A couple weeks ago.”
“And?”
“And what do you think?” he said.
“You have high blood pressure, that’s what I think.”
“No shit.”
“What, specifically, did your doctor tell you?”
I asked.
“It’s one-fifty over one-ten, and my damn prostate’s enlarged. So I’m taking these water pills. Up and down all the time feeling like I gotta go and half the time I can’t. If things don’t get better, he says he’s gonna turp me.”
A turp was a transurethral resection of the prostate. That wasn’t serious, though it wasn’t much fun. Marino’s blood pressure worried me. He was a prime candidate for a stroke or a heart attack.