Justine wanted to tell him he was full of surprises, like confessing that he was in love with her. “Larissa is lovely.”
“That she is,” Frank agreed, “but Kenny will meet a lot more lovely girls before he decides to settle down.”
Justine hoped Kenny would wait until after he finished college before deciding to settle down. “I planned to take him out for dinner, but it looks as if he has more exciting plans.”
Frank tightened his hold at her waist. “That doesn’t mean we can’t go out for dinner.”
“I just realized something.”
“What’s that?” he asked.
“That we’ve known each other for five years, and we’ve never been out on a date.”
Frank angled his head. “That’s because you didn’t want to date.”
“It wasn’t because I didn’t want to date. I just wasn’t ready.”
“Are you ready now?”
“I’m working on it.”
Throwing back his head, Frank laughed with abandon. “While you’re working on it, I’m going to take you to Peter Luger Steak House in Brooklyn. But first I need to find a phone so I can call to make a reservation.”
Justine wasn’t given a chance to object when Frank took her hand. They stopped on Broadway, where there was a phone near the corner. She watched as he deposited coins in the slot and dialed a number. It was obvious he’d memorized it when he made a reservation for two for later that afternoon.
She waited until he hung up to ask Frank, “Do we have time to stop at my place to change my clothes?” She had selected a navy-blue linen gabardine pantsuit with a white silk blouse to wear to Kenny’s graduation ceremony, and with the rising temperatures and humidity, she needed something much cooler.
Frank reached for her free hand. “Of course. I made the reservation for five, so we have a lot of time to do whatever you want.”
She smiled. “Right now, I want to get out of this suit.”
“After we go to your place to change, we’ll go to mine so I can also change.”
Justine nodded. She’d known Francis D’Allesandro for five years, and during that time, she’d never been to his apartment—and,aside from his nephew and namesake, she’d never met anyone in his family. He’d come to her apartment when she moved into public housing a few times, but after a while, he would call and tell her he was waiting downstairs when it came time for him to pick up Kenny for his cooking lessons. And once Kenny entered high school, he’d stopped picking him up.
So many things had happened in five years that Justine felt as if it had passed by at warp speed. She’d secured a better-paying job working at Bellevue Hospital in their billing department once her typing projects dwindled to less than three a year. And she was able to finally get off welfare. She’d also changed her attitude about living in public housing, because there was always heat and hot water, things that were occasionally missing when she lived in the tenement building. The Amsterdam Houses weren’t the towering monstrosities housing tens of thousands of residents like so many public housing developments in New York City. There were playgrounds, a nursery, gymnasium, and a community center for the residents, and if she hadn’t initially been so opposed to moving into the projects, the Amsterdam Houses would’ve been the perfect place to live and raise Kenny.
Frank led her to his car. It was a more updated model than the one he’d had when she first met him, but still not the latest model.
Frank opened the passenger door for Justine. He waited until she was seated, then rounded the vehicle and opened the driver’s door. He removed his suit jacket and placed it on the rear seats before getting in behind the wheel.
Putting the key into the ignition, he started the engine, then maneuvered away from the curb and into the flow of traffic. When he’d gotten up that morning, he debated whether to attend Kenny’s graduation, then decided it was something he wanted to do. There was nothing he wanted more than to stay in the boy’s life and his mother’s. The boy was growingolder and more independent, while Frank felt as if he and Justine were growing further and further apart.
They rarely saw each other over the past three years, and there were times when he believed he’d forgotten what she looked like. He realized a lot of things had changed, and there were issues he knew upset her. Kenny told him his mother was worried about the escalating war in North Vietnam, because at eighteen he would have to register for the draft.
Racial unrest had swept across the country like a lighted fuse attached to a stick of dynamite with riots in Watts, Newark, and Detroit. The latter, known as the 12th Street Riots, decimated Black neighborhoods, and was eventually stopped when over twelve thousand federal troopers and National Guardsmen were called in. Kenny said his mother couldn’t believe that their government had called for soldiers to round up American citizens as if they were the enemy.
Frank had found himself glued to the television after the news that civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had been assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, and then two months later, it was presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy in Los Angeles, California. It was now the middle of 1969, and he wondered if the civil rights and turmoil that had plagued the 1960s would spill over to the next decade.
If Kenny was apprehensive about being drafted, it was also the same with Frankie and Ray Torres. They were eighteen and worried that their number would come up and they would have to report to their nearest draft office. Frank had tried to allay their fears, because as college students, they could request a deferment.
“Now that Kenny is headed for college, are you ready to follow him?” Frank asked Justine.
“Yes. I submitted my application, sent in my high school transcript, and now after nearly eighteen years, I’ll find myself sitting in a classroom once again.”
“You’re good, doll, because I don’t think after being out ofschool for that length of time, I would have the patience to sit in a classroom or lecture hall again.”
“That’s because you’ve done it, Frank. College is very different from high school, where you attend classes every day. I’m going to begin taking two courses this upcoming semester, then register for more during the spring. Don’t forget, I have a day job, so I’m going to have to monitor my time wisely.”
