The Shoemaker's Wife(114)

“I’m sorry.” Enza moved the violets on her nightstand so their small velvet petals faced her.

“It’s Vito that deserves an apology,” Laura said.

“He’ll never forgive me, and he shouldn’t,” Enza said as she leaned back on the pillow. She couldn’t believe that she had made Vito so unhappy, when all she had done her whole life was put others’ happiness before her own. But something had shifted within her in a profound way. When a devout girl is about to make an irreversible, lifelong vow, she must be honest. When Enza searched her heart, she knew that she could only marry for love, and that meant choosing Ciro.

“Vito left Our Lady of Pompeii like it was on fire. Ran out of there like a shot.”

“ . . . After he let me have it. Did you hear what he said?”

“The doors of the sacristy at Our Lady of Pompeii aren’t very thick. But I couldn’t blame him for being angry.”

“Neither could I. Then, it was so strange, he got very quiet and sat down. And then he said, ‘I never really had you. And I knew it.’ ”

“This is so unlike you, Enza. You’re not impulsive. This is the act of a flighty girl.”

“But I’ve loved Ciro since I was fifteen years old. He’s had my heart all along. I tried to create a kind of happiness with Vito by putting Ciro out of my mind. But he came for me, Laura. Today, he came for me. He chose me.”

“But you have a choice in the matter.”

“You know, back on our mountain they have tried to build dams to harness the power of the waterfalls. But sooner or later, there’s always a leak or a flood or something else to make the structure come crashing down. The water seems to have a will of its own. The engineers can’t figure out a way to stop nature. That’s exactly what it was like when I saw Ciro this morning. I can’t fight the power of it.”

“And you don’t want to try.” Laura sighed. “What was wrong with the life Vito offered you?” she asked as she sat up and pulled the blanket around her.

“Nothing,” Enza said quietly.

“Then why would you throw it away? Are you sure about Ciro? When we were working in Hoboken, you talked about him. And when we saw him on Columbus Day so many years ago, you told him your feelings, and he never came for you. I remember how miserable you were for months after that. I thought he was a heel. Doesn’t that worry you? Is he reliable?”

Enza sat up in her bed. “He has a plan.”

“Oh joy,” Laura said, lying back on her pillow. The tone of her voice made Enza laugh for the first time that day.

“Ciro is ambitious,” Enza continued. “He talks about opening his own shop someday. He’d like to learn how to make women’s shoes. But he’s not just a shoemaker, Laura. Spending time with him today, I realized he has an artist’s view of the world.”

“So do you! Does he have any idea of what you can do? Has he ever seen your work up close, like I have, or from a distance, from the diamond horseshoe, like a society matron? You’re a masterful seamstress. You make the rest of us in the costume shop look like a pack of amateurs. Signor Caruso may like the way you boil macaroni, but that’s not why you were chosen to work for him. He saw how you built a costume, and that’s why he selected you to head up his crew. You’re inventive. You’re the artist! You took scraps from the floor during the war rationing and made them into glorious capes and suits for Caruso! Does Ciro know who you are and how far you’ve come since he left you on the roof?” Laura pummeled her pillow into a fluffy circle and rolled onto her side to face Enza.

“I’m not going to stop working,” Enza vowed.

“I hope you like making shoes.”

“I’ll help him, and he’ll help me.”

“Really. A man is going to put your work on a par with his? I can’t believe what I’m hearing!”

“I have hope, Laura.”

“Yeah. Hope is wonderful thing. It has no memory. It fills you with possibility. Whatever your imagination can conjure, hope will design and deliver.”

“You just don’t like him,” Enza said.

“I don’t know him. But it’s not about liking Ciro. It’s about loving my friend and wanting the best for her. You have no idea what you’re getting into. You’ll be living on Mulberry Street, doing his boss’s laundry. I don’t know how he convinced you to change your life, one that you created over years, in a matter of minutes. He must have made some pretty big promises.”

“He promised to love me. And for once in my life, I’m going to do the impractical, unwise, ill-advised thing. I’m going to make a decision based upon the feeling I have in my heart, and not what looks good on paper or makes anyone else happy. I’m going to do something for me, and I’ll live with whatever Ciro brings into my life and be happy that I did.”

Laura sighed. “You’ve gone over the cliff. He’s got you. I have to hand it to him. For a woman, love is the highest dream, and if a man promises to build a ladder tall enough to reach it, she believes him, hikes up her skirt, and follows him to the stars. Now it’s my turn to hope. I’m going to hope Signor Lazzari doesn’t disappoint you.”

Laura rolled over in her bed, pulling the blanket up to her chin.

Enza didn’t sleep that night. She spent the late night hours thinking about Vito and Ciro and the life she had chosen.