New York - The Novel

the day, he asked Teresa if he might see her again, and she said that she and another cousin were coming into the city the following Sunday. So it was agreed that they would meet at Uncle Luigi’s restaurant for an ice, and then go out on the town.
    “You can bring your cousin,” he said, “and I’ll bring Angelo.” At this suggestion of extra company, he thought she might have looked a little disappointed. He was pleased about that, but he wanted to proceed carefully and do everything with propriety.

    Uncle Luigi liked Teresa. He thought she was a nice, sensible girl. Albanian, he said, was almost as good as Italian. And Teresa seemed to like Uncle Luigi too. After they’d had their ices she said she wanted to walk in Central Park, and then visit the stores. Salvatore soon understood that though she loved her family, who all lived together on Long Island, Teresa’s greatest joy was to come into the city.
    Two weeks later, he went out to meet her at the racetrack by Coney Island. Teresa was with a young male cousin, but Salvatore came alone. They all enjoyed the races, and as they walked to the subway, she linked her arm in his in a friendly way. Her cousin left them for a few moments, and Salvatore kissed her on the cheek. Teresa laughed, but she didn’t seemto mind. Then she told him she’d be coming into the city again in two weeks, and they agreed to meet.
    This time he had Angelo with him, with orders that if Teresa came with her cousin, he was to stay, but that if she came alone, he was to make himself scarce. Angelo didn’t seem to mind. Rather to Salvatore’s disappointment, she was accompanied. But they went to a dance hall, and all danced together, and had a good time, and agreed to do the same thing in another two weeks.
    In the weeks that followed, Salvatore considered his moves carefully. He had not felt a sudden rush of passion for Teresa, yet from the moment they met, he had felt certain that she was the one. In confidence, he talked to Uncle Luigi about it. Uncle Luigi was humble. “What do I know? I have never been married,” he declared.
    “I trust your judgment all the same.”
    “Then I think it is important that your wife should be your friend.”
    It would have been easier if Teresa lived in the city so that he could see her often. But each time they did meet, he felt a growing sense of friendship and of tenderness for her, and though she was careful not to show him too much, he was sure that she had feelings for him too. She would walk arm in arm with him, and let him kiss her on the cheek. By late summer, he was planning to push the relationship further. And he was wondering what move he should make when she took the matter in hand herself.
    At the end of August a terrible event occurred. It shocked all Italians, and most of the women in the Western world. Rudolph Valentino, the Latin lover, the most adored male star of the silent screen, died suddenly, after an operation in New York. He was only thirty-one. As the news broke, a hundred thousand people converged on the hospital.
    His latest movie,
The Son of the Sheik
, was just being released, and there were long lines to get in. A few days afterward, Salvatore took Teresa to see it, along with her cousin and Angelo. As they came out Teresa told him that there would be a big lunch party at her family’s house the next Sunday, and casually suggested that he and Angelo should come.
    So, she wanted him to meet her family.
    The following Saturday the two brothers went out to see their parents at their brother Giuseppe’s on Long Island. Sunday was a fine day. It only took them an hour to walk from Giuseppe’s to Inwood.
    Teresa’s family lived in a big clapboard house. It stood on a half-acreplot, had a wide porch, and a Victorian turret at one corner. In the backyard stood a small secondary dwelling. Teresa was looking out for them when they arrived, and immediately took them inside, introducing them to people as they went.
    Within moments they had encountered three brothers—two of whom were married—a married sister and two others. One of the married brothers and his wife lived in the little house just behind. And though Teresa’s married sister and her other married brother had their own places nearby, this house was obviously the center of the family operations.
    Everyone was friendly, and the place was buzzing. There were half a dozen children running around. Teresa’s brothers and sisters spoke to Salvatore in