Page 25 of Italian Professor

“I’m fine. What about you? Are you alright? Did he hit you?”

“Yeah, but that’s all he did. You got here just in time. He was going to…” she begins to sob and I pull her into my arms.

Her mother, disheveled and scared sober, looks at me and says, “Thank you, Professor. I owe you our lives.”

The police arrive in less than ten minutes and an army of officers rush the room. They check Lanz, cuff him, and load him into an ambulance. The paramedics seat me on Aria’s bed to assess my injury and determine that I need stitches. They insist that I go to the hospital, but I’m not going anywhere without Aria so they bandage me up to hold me over.

They question each of us separately but what happened is pretty obvious given the broken window and weapon. They provide Aria’s mother with a case number and leave after I insist that I’ll find my own way to the hospital.

As the sun comes up, Aria falls asleep on my chest on the sofa. Her mother is sitting across from us, watching. She sips the coffee Aria made and says, “You two look good together.”

“You think so?” I ask as I brush Aria’s hair from her face.

“You do. I know she must be exhausted, but I’ve never seen her this comfortable with anyone before. Not even me.”

“You’re her mother. I’m sure she’s fallen asleep in your arms a time or two.”

“When she was a baby, sure, but my career has kept us from being as close as I’d like. By the time she was ten years old, she was so independent she acted like she had no use for me. I couldn’t tuck her into bed or kiss her goodnight. Be careful what you wish for, right? I wanted her to be independent so she wouldn’t be sad when I was away. I guess you can’t have it both ways. They’re either independent all the time or none of the time.”

“She cares very much for you. That’s why she was so frightened to tell you about us. Your opinion of her matters.”

“I’d like to think that’s true. What I saw from her tonight was incredible. She stood right up to that young man. She really took control of the situation and put up a fight for us both. That should have been my job and all I could do was cry. My little girl has become an amazing woman and I missed it.”

“There’s still time,” I tell her.

“Thank you, Anthony.”

“For what, Ms. Kane?”

“It’s Jennifer and I thank you for not taking her away from me. I know you could have. It would have been easy.”

“I would never do that. If you had tossed her out on the street, I would have given her a place to stay. But the fact is, you’re her mother and her place is with you. At least until she graduates and decides what’s next for her.”

“What is next for her, Anthony?” she asks me.

“That’s a conversation for another day, I think. Right now, I need to get her off to bed so I can get this hand stitched up.”

“Well, before you go, I owe you another thank you. The most important one. Thank you for saving my life. Thank you for saving my daughter’s life,” she walks across the room and kisses me on the cheek.

“I’d like to think he wouldn’t have taken it that far, but I’m glad I got here before anything else happened.”

Aria opens her eyes and looks up at her mother’s face.

“What’s going on?” she yawns.

“I was just telling Anthony how happy I am that you have a man like him in your life. Now, I’m going back to bed. Good night, Aria,” she kisses her daughter on the forehead and walks up the stairs.

“She just kissed me,” Aria gasps.

“If I were you, little girl, I’d expect a lot more of that sort of thing.”

“What happened while I was sleeping?”

“All good things. Your mother loves you. Now, you need to go to bed and I need to go to the ER.”

“Oh, god, I forgot. Yes, go and get that taken care of please.”

“I’m good. It’s not all that serious. I just don’t want to have to worry about bleeding all over my papers. You sleep. You’re officially excused from school today and I’ll call you later.”

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