Page 142 of Play of Love
Dear Signora,
Our archivist foundthis box of letterswhile doing a survey of our old storage facility. The sender continued to send to us although your father had long since returned to America. These letters seemed to have been placed in the facility for safe keeping, but somehow hadbeen misplaced with some other items of value. We can only apologize with deep sincerity for this occurrence, and for any inconvenience caused. While they are decades late we felt you would appreciate having them.
Please contact us if we can be of any assistance to you.
Warm regards,
Pierre Portofino
Chief Archivist
Poor Lucy.I could only imagine how she must have felt.
"She got upset with me when I told her she couldn't just go off to Italy. She was even more furious when I said he was more than likely dead by now." Gage frowned and looked at me as if he thought I'd side with him.
"You said that to her?" I gave him a withering stare.
"Of course I did," he replied sharply.
"Why would you do that? How could you say such a thing to her?"
Typical Gage with his lack of compassion.
"Evie, my grandmother is eighty-nine, and this guy is probably the same age or older. What are the chances of him still being alive? The letters were from the forties. It's two thousand and sixteen." He opened his palms as he spoke and looked at me askance. "Come on, even you can't bust my ass for talking straight."
I stared at him, wanting to be angry but found I couldn't. He was right. I couldn't believe that I was admitting thathewas right, but he was.
"Okay, so you told her you thought he was dead?" I asked, trying to reason out what could have happened. However, the hair on the nape of my neck stiffened as realization began to dawn on me. "And that she couldn't just go to Italy?"
He nodded. "Yes, and now I don't know where she is. I've been walking around for hours looking for her. I went to the park, the supermarket, that lake house she always plays at. And nothing. There's no sign of her."
I closed my eyes and bit my lip again. Sometimes I wished I didn't know Lucy so well because right now I had an uneasy thought of where she might have gone, my nerves tensed the more I thought about it.
"She's gone to the airport Gage," I stated.
Gage straightened up immediately. "That's ridiculous. She wouldn't do that. She doesn't even drive."
"Taxi. Gage, She's gone to the airport, and if I know her she's totally on her way to Italy."
As he rose to his feet, I reached for my car keys.
* * *
My hunch was right as always when it came to Lucy.
It didn't take long to get to O'Hare International, and it didn't take long to find Lucy either amongst the sea of people moving around. It was Gage who spotted her first. She was sitting alone in the waiting area sobbing as she held her purse close to her chest. Her snowy white hair that was always neat and rolled up into a bun hung in loose disheveled waves about her tear streaked face.
I had always thought she looked great for her age. No one would ever believe Lucy was nigh on ninety. However, right now she looked her age, and her tiny, flowerlike frame looked as if the life had been sucked out of her.
My heart broke as I observed her and my emotions propelled me to Lucy's side.
Lucy looked relieved to see us but was so choked up she found it hard to talk.
"My dear girl." She sobbed catching her breath as she hugged me. Gage stood beside me looking down at Lucy, his shoulders hunched with worry.
"I'm so sorry," I told her. "Gage told me what happened."
Lucy's delicate shoulders shook as she cried harder. "My Angelo never died. He never died."
