Julie and Romeo Get Lucky Read Online Free PDF Page B

to let him tag along.”
    â€œThere were thirteen of us,” Al said.
    Dominic capped the spent syringe and dropped it back into the bag, then he scrawled out a series of prescriptions. “These are for pain, and he’s going to need them. Whatever he needs, I’ll be here.”
    â€œAnd I’ll be here, too,” Al said.
    â€œIf he decides to opt for faith healing over Demerol,” his brother said. “But I think he should stick with the drugs. This man you are in love with has a very bad back.” I thought I detected a certain amount of pity in his voice, like I had been the unwitting recipient of damaged goods that I was now stuck with.
    Al and Dominic offered to show themselves out, and I stood by the bed, watching the man I loved melt into a deep puddle of drug-induced sleep. Kink by kink, he let go of his waking life and spread across the sheets. I could tell just by looking at him that he wasn’t going to be coming around anytime soon.
    I sat down very carefully on the bed beside him and held his hand. For that minute I could see him as a boy of six or seven, worn out and hard asleep after a day of summer baseball. I could see him as a father at thirty, up all night with croupy babies and completely exhausted, or a businessman of fifty, falling asleep on his flower-arranging table after a giant wedding.
    My dear Romeo. So he had a bad back he hadn’t mentioned before. Believe me, there were things going wrong with my own machinery that I hadn’t been so quick to share. Well, I wouldn’t let him carry the boxes of flowers in from the truck anymore. Everything would be fine.
    There was a light tap on the door, and Sandy stuck her head inside, her curls conveying a sense of franticness. “Is he okay? Al said his back was a mess.”
    â€œHe’ll be fine,” I said, resting assured in my own sudden sense of peace.
    Sandy slipped inside the door, our clothes neatly folded in her arms, the shoes balanced on top. “I brought you these.” She put them on top of the dresser.
    â€œThank you. I’m sorry I didn’t get things picked up.”
    â€œI was going to give you a hard time, you know, before I realized that Romeo was hurt.” She sat down on the little straight-backed chair beside my desk and looked at the two of us. “The truth is, I wish Tony and I could be alone in the house every now and then. Privacy is hard to come by around here.”
    â€œMaybe we should have a sign-up sheet.” Sandy and I really were in the same boat. She was married to the son and I was in love with the father and with all of us in the house together with two kids, it was just about impossible to find five minutes alone.
    From downstairs I heard Little Tony wail, then I heard the Candyman start to sing again. Sandy sighed and shook her head. “There she goes.”
    â€œShe’s going to do us all in,” I said. “You know that.”
    â€œMom!” Tony cried from outside the door.
    Sandy sighed again and pushed up out of her chair heavily, like a foreman going to deliver a guilty verdict. She opened the door halfway and touched her son’s head gently. “I know.”
    â€œI can’t stand it!”
    â€œListen, go in your room and put your Walkman on. It’s all you can do. I need to spend some time with Grandma right now.”
    Tony peered around his mother to where I sat on the bed with my sleeping Romeo. “Is he okay?”
    Tony was a sweet boy, maybe too sensitive for his own good, but genuinely loving and concerned for others.
    â€œSure he’s okay,” I said. “He just needs to get some sleep. Go tell Sarah to turn the volume down. Tell her that Romeo is trying to rest.”
    Tony smiled hugely. So rarely did we give him the opportunity to exercise any real authority over his little sister. As he ran down the stairs, he screamed out her name.
    â€œSarah! Grandma said—”
    Sandy