FicWad

Soft music drifted out of the sprawling ranch style building. The aroma from the kitchen was carried out on wafts of late night air. Light from the large windows fell on the darkened, wet sidewalks. The building was the Blue Grotto, the Ravalli's restaurant. The history and geology buffs know the Blue Grotto as a cave in the island of Capri. The floor of the cave's water and everything inside the cave is lighted by a mysterious silvery-blue light. For Frankie and Victor Ravalli, the Blue Grotto was a childhood play place. They had visited their grandparents every summer on Capri, and had discovered the cave when they were seven. They had played in the cave every summer since then, and when their father had asked them to help him name his new restaurant, it was the best name they could come up with.
The restaurant did very well. It had a very good reputation. Good food, great service, warm atmosphere. It had become quite the New York hotspot, the place to see and be seen. It was Frankie's baby, his hangout. He was admired there. There was always somebody kissing up to him there. Frankie wasn't the only one proud of the place. Frankie's wife, Autumn, was the lady of the hour there. She was the hostess with the mostess, always knowing what to do, what to say, to make people feel right at home. Yes, there was a fine lady. His brother had done well for himself. They even had a son, Cal, a teenager now, who worked with his father sometimes.
Victor was very fond of Cal. He was a smart boy, both school-wise and street-wise. Some people might tell you that the last type wasn't very important, but it was. Cal knew how to keep a cool head about him, but he still was the sweetest kid Victor knew. Not like some of the no-good punks you saw walking around the streets these days, with safety pins through their eyebrows and their pants down around their knees, thinking that they were so tough. No, Cal was a good boy, if not a tad too curious. What is it they say? Curiosity killed the cat.
Well, it hadn't killed Cal yet, but it had gotten him into some very big trouble. Cal helped Frankie keep the books, and about eight months ago, Cal's curiosity had gotten the better of him. He had noticed that the numbers in the books didn't add up, that they were, as he said, "way off." So Cal had decided to do some detective work and had uncovered the truth. Needless to say, he had been shocked. But Victor couldn't feel too bad for the kid. After all, he had gone looking for the news. Frankie and Victor had had the truth dumped on them.
Victor started walking towards the restaurant. People were rushing in tonight, happy to be out of the cold, rainy night. Autumn stood just inside the open door, greeting the diners as if they were long lost friends. Lord but she was a beautiful woman. Victor stood still for a moment, drinking in her beauty the way one would drink in the beauty of a piece of art. He loved the way the light turned her hair into a river of fire, loved the way the simple black dress she wore was made more beautiful than any designer gown by the way it hugged her curves. Yes, he could love, but he could only look. A life of looking but not touching was one that Victor was used to.
He walked through the door; drawn up to his full height, chin up, and eyes ahead, trying to appear the confident businessman he was supposed to be in public. He breezed through the door, turning his head to smile and nod at Autumn. He walked into the main sanctum of the restaurant. People stared and whispered, both in front and behind him. Yes, that was something that came with being a Ravalli. People had been treating him like that since he was born.
Victor saw Frankie towards the back of the restaurant, talking to a group of people. He saw Victor, and waved him over. Victor walked towards them, feeling out of place in among the people.
"Brother!" Frankie greeted him warmly. "It's great to see you. I believe you remember the Suttons and their daughter Lori."
Victor exchanged the customary greetings with the Suttons. He was not a fan of the polite nonsense that passed for small talk. It meant nothing and was a waste of time. And time is a sad thing to waste.
"Mr. Sutton, Mrs. Sutton, Lori, if you would excuse us, my brother and I have some important business matters to discuss." Frankie placed a firm, commanding hand on Victor's arm, steering him towards the back room. As he walked, Frankie talked and Victor listened, trying hard to pay attention and not space out, watching all the people.
The brother's went into the back room, their own private dining room. A table was set for three and a young waitress was bringing in plates of steaming chicken penne, which had always been one of Victor's favourites. He had to admit it; his brother knew him well and treated him even better. Victor took an end and Frankie took the other.
"Cal is going to be dining with us tonight. He is just cleaning up after his shift."
"That's nice." And it was. Victor always enjoyed the dinners with his nephew. They were always pleasant. The conversation was light-hearted and intelligent with Cal, as opposed to dark and depressing or nostalgic with Frankie.
"Yes, it is. He's quite looking forward to spending time with you again. Very excited. If I didn't know any better, I would almost think that he liked you better than me."
"That's crazy, Frankie. Cal loves you, you're his father."
"I know. But he does like spending time with you."
"I enjoy spending time with him too. He's a great kid."
"He is, isn't he? His mother deserves most of the credit for that."
"So, how is Autumn? I passed her coming in, but we didn't get a chance to talk."
"She's fine. She's really in love with helping run this restaurant. Still helping out those homeless charities. Attends all Cal's baseball games. Does, you know, mom stuff."
Victor nodded and smiled. He placed the napkin on his lap and placed his hands on the table. He was waiting, waiting for the question so that he can get on with with the night and enjoy it. Frankie opened his mouth and put brother out of his misery.
"How did things go with Carlos?"
Frankie glanced upwards into his brother's eyes. No matter how much bigger Victor was than Frankie, he always felt small under that gaze. It was so much like his father's.
"It's all taken care of."
"That's my brother! You are truly the only man I trust!"
"And you are the only man I trust, Frankie. It comes with being brothers. Famila...family."
"That we are. And I couldn't have asked for a better big brother. Even if you did beat me up when we were kids."
"What? When did I ever beat you up?"
"Fifth grade. I was trying to take the cute little blond girl's lunch money, and you caught me and beat me senseless."
"Taught you not to push around women though, didn't it?"
"That it did, Vic. But you could have just told me that it wasn't nice to push that girl."
"Nah, talking never got anything through your thick skull, Frankie."
"yeah, well, I was a little punk back then."
"You're still a little punk!"
Victor reached over and put his brother in a headlock. Man, he might hate Frankie sometimes, but those times were few and far between. Frankie and Victor had always gotten along, mainly because Victor always kept Frankie out of harms way, and Frankie always tried to give Victor what he wanted. It was a mutually beneficial relationship.
Frankie was just crying mercy as Cal walked into the room. He looked at the scene calmly, and sat down in one of the unoccupied chairs. Victor let go of Frankie, who sat up and straightened his sports coat, which had gotten rumpled during the roughhousing.
"Did I miss anything?" Cal glanced at his father and uncle, an amused look on his face. "Discussing important business, perhaps?"
Victor had to laugh. "No, discussing what a little punk your father used to be."
"Oh..." Cal looked at Frankie. "Yeah, Dad tells me a lot of stories about when you guys when you were younger."
"Mostly stuff about our summer's in Italy...some funny stuff that happened to us down there. Stuff like that," Frankie added.
"And about Grandma," Cal said. " She must have been an amazing woman, if everything Dad tells me is true."
"She was. A truly amazing woman. She loved everybody and was always there when you needed her. She was an angel on earth, so to say." Victor looked down at the plates. He picked up his fork and stuck it into the pasta. Victor didn't like to talk about his mother, even if it was only his family he was talking to. He had loved his mother very much. She had always told him that while fantasies were all well and good, the best thing you could have was the dream of a better life as a better person. His mother had made that dream a reality for herself, her family, and countless other people until the day a car struck her as she was coming out of the halfway house where she volunteered. Victor had always tried to live that dream, but it just wasn't working out.
Frankie was gazing intently at his brother. He knew how much Victor hated to talk about their mother, so he tried to steer the conversation into safer territory.
"Hey Cal, why don't you tell Victor about that paper you did? That writing class one?"
"Ah, Uncle Vic doesn't want to hear about that." Cal looked down into his pasta, slightly red-faced.
"No, no, Cal, I do. So, you had to write a paper for writing class? What on?"
"Well, actually it was for English. It was a sort of book report, a what-do-you-think about deal on this book we're reading."
"Really? And what book is that?"
"Capote's In Cold Blood."
"That's a really interesting book. Do you like it?"
"Yeah. I think it's really neat how that guy, Capote, actually went into the prison and met that serial killer. I mean, that would be terrifying..."
Cal kept on talking, and Victor listened to the kid. The words registered and he nodded at appropriate time, junk like that. Victor couldn't get over how much he truly like his nephew. The kid constantly amazed him. At fifteen, he had been in honors courses. At sixteen, he was put ahead to grade twelve. He would graduate this year and head off to collage, the first Ravalli to ever get a collage degree. He was real proud of Cal.
"...Any way's, the teacher loved my paper. Called it original and thought inspiring. Gave me the highest grade in the class."
" That's good, Cal! I always knew that you would be the smartest Ravalli." Victor reached over and ruffled Cal's hair as he said that, liking the way the smooth, red tendrils felt and looked. "You must have got it from your mother."
Frankie looked up in false indignation. "Hey, he gets it from both of his parents! The Ravalli's are very smart people!"
The three of them enjoyed a hearty laugh together. Victor was smiling, the first real smile of this week, he thought. Frankie put a big forkful of food into his mouth, and gazed thoughtfully at his brother as he chewed. Victor glanced up from his food to catch about to get Victor to do something that Victor wouldn't be happy about.
"Cal, how about you go tell Roy to bring in the desert now?"
"Dad, Roy know when to bring in desert."
"Cal..."
"Dad, why am I always the one to leave?"
"Your uncle and I have to have an adults only talk, son, and you're not an adult yet."
"I am an adult. There's nothing you guys can talk about that I don't know about. I mean, I know about tons of things. Things you two probably have never heard of!"
"Cal..."
Victor was getting quite a kick out of this. There was one thing Cal got from the Ravallis' and it was his stubbornness. And his knack for saying whatever came into his minds without people wanting to kill him came from his grandmother.
"I know about sex. I've known about sex since I was ten. I know more about sex than you guys. All the fetishes and stuff. Free expressions!"
"Calvin Salvatore Ravalli! Go!"
By now Victor was going into hysterics. The things that came out of that kid's mouth were golden. Cal walked out of the room, mumbling and cursing under his breath. Victor caught the words I do know just as he left the room.
"What are they teaching him at that fancy school of his?" Victor asked, still chuckling.
"I don't know but with the tuition we pay them it should be more than that!"
"Yeah."
Victor, now calm, looked over at Frankie. The two considered each other for a moment. Victor spoke first.
"What's the trouble, Frankie?"
"No trouble, Vic. What makes you think that there is?"
"Don't bullshit me!"
"I'm not. There is no trouble."

Victor locked gazes with Frankie, searching his brothers face for a sign of what was about to come. His brother was easy to read.
"What do you need me to do?"
"Nothing really...just..."
"Just what, Frankie?"
"You know that about a year ago, Cal figured out what we really do for a living."
"Eight months ago."
"What?"
"It was eight months ago."
"Okay. So eight months ago, he found out. Since then, he's been asking...no, bothering me to let him help out. So I've been letting him. Always safe things, where he can't get hurt," Frankie exclaimed, after seeing the look of disapproval on Victor's face.
"I don't care if he's safe. He's too young to get into this life. Too good for this life. You should never have let him do anything!"
"Don't tell me what to do with my son! It was his choice. I believe in letting him make his own choices. Do you have a problem with that?" Frankie's voice was beginning to rise.
"You should know when to say no! For god's sake, don't you have a brain in your head! You let Cal in this business and he's going to end up in the ground! And it will be all your fault!"
"I have more brains than you'll ever know! Don't you get it! Around here, I am a God! You could be too! Just because you never wanted it, doesn't mean that Cal shouldn't have it! Don't mess up his chance to be somebody because you're too scared to be!"
Victor was furious. His jaw was clenched, his hands balled into fists, and he was seriously considering putting his mouthy, high-and-mighty little brother in a nice cot in the Intensive Care Unit of St. Mary's Memorial Church.
Cal walked in, blissfully unaware of what had, and was happening. As he came in, he was talking. "Roy says that dessert will be served in five minutes and that he'll bring in wine with it. It's strawberry cheese...hey, guys, what's going on? Why are you guys looking at each other like that? Is Uncle Vic going somewhere or something?"
The two men turned to look at the boy, who looked mildly panicked. They turned back towards the table, and Victor sat back down.
"No, Cal, I'm not going anywhere. Why don't you come sit down?"
Cal hesitated and then went to his chair and took a seat. He looked at his father and uncle, both of whom were looking anywhere but at each other. He repeated his question.
"So, what happened?"
"What makes you think anything happened, Cal?" Frankie asked, glad to have a definite spot on which to focus on.
"Because I heard raised voices coming down here, and when I got here you and Uncle Vic were looking at each other as if you guys wanted to kill each other."
"Your uncle and I were just having a tiny disagreement."
"About what?"
Victor sat back with his legs crossed, hands folded in his lap. He stared at his brother.
"We were discussing your work in our business. See, I didn't even know you were doing any."
"Really? But I thought you two were partners."
"We are," Frankie said, looking in confusion at his son.
"Well, don't partners in businesses have to make all decisions together?"
"Apparently not," Victor said disdainfully. "So what kind of work have you been doing? Your father assures me that it was nothing dangerous."
"Well, mainly just bookkeeping and delegating tasks. Same sort of stuff Dad does. But tonight, I get a real job."
"Really? And what is that?" Victor asked, never taking his eyes off Frankie.
"Well, see, there's this detective that's been nosing around."
Victor nodded, seemingly cool and collected, but his mind was racing. Frankie wouldn't send the kid on a take-out mission. Not his own son. He couldn't. Not even Frankie was that heartless. But he could. He had sent his brother out on plenty of them. Frankie did things that would send other people insane. Victor tried to dismiss all this from his mind and focus, but only half-succeeded.
"And he's got some incriminating documents. Photos, falsified papers, stuff like that. So what I get to do is go in and get them while the detectives at home tonight banging his wife."
"Watch your mouth Cal," Victor said automatically. A thought was forming in his mind. He thought he knew now what Frankie wanted.
"And you want me to accompany the boy just in case anything goes wrong, isn't that right, Frankie?"
"Yes, that's what I'd like," Frankie said, studying his empty plate.
"Fine."
"What?"
"I said fine. That is if it's all right with Cal."
"Of course it's all right with me! Oh, this is so cool," Cal said, as a goofy smile emerged on his face. It was still there as Roy brought in the desert.