Under Copp's Hill by Katherine Ayres

Author:Katherine Ayres
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781497646636
Publisher: Open Road Media

CHAPTER 9

BEHIND THE DOOR

That evening Innie and Nonna hurried to serve the lodgers supper, then went straight upstairs without even washing the dishes. Zia Rachela had invited them up for coffee and special pastry, but she wouldn’t tell them the reason. When Innie and Nonna walked into Zia Rachela’s kitchen, they found the whole family gathered at the table, where a platter overflowed with napoleons and cannoli. Everyone greeted them happily, and Zia Rachela poured cups of coffee.

“What, is this a feast day? Am I so old I have forgotten one of the saints?” Nonna spoke loudly as she surveyed the table.

“A feast day for the Moretti family, Mama,” said Zio Giovanni. His smile was so big that his white teeth showed under his bushy black mustache. “We got important news. Sit down and listen good.”

Zia Rachela passed the pastries, and even after everybody had helped themselves, there were still sweets left. Must be some news, thought Innie.

“I have found a building to buy on Salem Street,” Zio Giovanni announced. “The price is good, and I have saved all the money. Tomorrow I go talk to the owner and make an offer on the building. Soon I will have my own grocery store.”

Wow, thought Innie. That is news!

“Where? How big?” The cousins asked questions faster than Zio Giovanni could answer. Then Nonna’s firm voice cut through the others. “This building is brick?”

“Sì, Mama. Good, solid brick. Three floors, with an iron fire escape. Let me tell you all about it. On the first floor, a nice big shop at the front. Behind the shop, a storage room, and behind that, three rooms for you and Innocenza. Your own place.”

“My own place?”

“A kitchen, two sleeping rooms.”

“No more lodgers?”

Innie felt a smile come over her face. No more lodgers! She remembered the kitchen sink downstairs, piled high and waiting for her. No more stacks of dirty dishes to wash. And her own sleeping room.

“You worked hard, Mama. All these years, you cooked and washed for the men and saved up the money. Now you live like a queen, in your own place.”

A queen. Innie smiled at the notion. She knew Nonna would be in that shop helping every day.

“What’s upstairs, Papà?” Carmela asked.

“Second floor, five rooms. One for Mama and me, one for the boys, one for the girls, a kitchen, and a sitting-in room. Also, on each floor, a sink with running water in the kitchen. A clean white sink. A year or two, we save up, we’ll put in a running-water bathtub and one of those flushing toilets.”

Innie listened carefully as Zio Giovanni explained his plans. Benito and Mario, her two oldest boy cousins, would take over Zio Giovanni’s vegetable stall while her aunt and uncle ran the new grocery. Two businesses instead of just one. And they would rent out the third-floor flat, making more money, until one of her cousins got married and started a family.

Every part of her uncle’s plan sounded wonderful to Innie, but her mind kept running back to that clean white sink and a real bathtub.

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