We stood there for a moment, the two of us, the weight of our uncle on our shoulders.
He said, “Are you happy here?”
I thought about it.
I said, “I think so.”
He nodded, satisfied. “Good. Because I think Din Aturo wants to keep us here a while longer.”
“It’s no bad thing.”
He put his hand on my shoulder, a heavy, steady weight.
Then he walked out, leaving the barn door open behind him.
I followed, a moment later.
The sun was so bright on the field it made my eyes water.
Angela was at the end of the property, standing at the bluff, looking at the river.
I went to her.
When I reached her, she looked up and smiled.
I smiled back.
The wind picked up, and the smell of the vines came with it.
I let myself believe, for a minute, that everything was possible.
“Baby Girl,” I said, “Come with me?”
She looked at me, blinked once, and nodded.
We went down into the vines. I didn’t say where we were going, but she let me lead. Her hand slid into mine, fingers cool from the porch, and I felt the small callus at the base of her middle finger, the result of a lifetime of pens.
We walked in silence for a while.
At the bottom of the first row, the earth was soft and dark. I guided her to the second row, then the third, not by plan but by a memory: Marco’s voice, the first time he’d shown me the field, telling me, “She’s down here. The oldest one. She came with the house. Nobody knows what she is, so I say Monreale.”
When we reached her, I stopped.
Angela looked at me, then at the vine. The bark was old, scarred from a hundred harvests. The new growth at the top looked almost foolish, bright green on black wood.
“Why here?” she said.
“This is the first vine Marco planted. The one he grafted.”
She put her fingers on the trunk, gentle. “She’s stubborn.”
I smiled. “She is.”
We stood facing the river. The bluffs threw the sun back at us, so everything around us was amber and honey. Angela breathed in, deep, and I saw her shoulders relax.
I said, “Can I tell you something?”
She turned. Her eyes were darker in this light, the green at the edges gone to grey.
