*

*

Chapter 26:  Losing Marco

            It is still early in the day as Teresa winds her way back up the bluff to the Manor House.  Her two canvas grocery bags are full of fresh supplies from Sainsbury’s.  At the top of the rocky cliff, she stops again to look out at the sea.  Even though the day is fair, the waves are still fierce, splashing white and high on the jagged, dark rocks just yards away from the beach.  She stands, mesmerized, hearing the crash and swoosh clearly even from this distance.

            Teresa’s thoughts return to Father Michael.  He must be about the same age as she, sixty-ish, and he is in hearty good health.  Moreover, he’s a decent-looking, vigorous man with a quick mind and cheerful demeanor.  Although she has chosen to be single for many years, Teresa admits that there are still pleasures to be had in male company, pleasures she realizes she has missed. 

            After Giancarlo, Teresa was absorbed in her family’s concerns, and then, when Marco was born, all her energy focused on him.  The doctors watched and waited until Marco was three years old.  Then they began a series of operations and hormone treatments to make it possible for Marco to walk.  The first surgery went well.  During the second operation, Marco stopped breathing and was resuscitated.  But in the recovery room, his leg threw a blood clot and her little boy quietly died while she slept by his hospital bed.  All the wires and monitoring machines failed to alert the nurses’ station.  There was an investigation, but it came to naught.  No one was to blame.  They had done their best.

            With no child to care for and fill her days, Teresa went to work at Random House, in the Young Books division.  The work was interesting and challenging enough to be satisfying.  She met Aaron at a book-launching party, two years after Marco’s death.  Aaron was a lawyer at Random House.   All was well until Aaron decided he wanted to marry her and have children.  That was territory Teresa refused to enter again.  Unable to find a way to compromise, they split up. Teresa was thirty-one years old and single once again.

       “And now I’m sixty-three and I’m fantasizing about a priest.  Pathetic.”  Teresa says this aloud.  She slides back into the car.  In less than a quarter of an hour, she is settled in front of her computer.