Beyond Eighteen by Gretchen de la O

when your
father got this basket from one of our favorite restaurants in New
York. I never liked it, but didn’t have the heart to tell him,” she
said amiably as she set the chunky, loosely braided wooden basket
on her plate and unfolded the peach cloth that covered the rolls.
Her hands, pale and thin, moved like they always had any time
before. But this time it was different; suddenly I noticed how
vulnerable she was. She continued like we had asked her for her
side of the story. “God, every time we were in New York, we’d have
to make a special trip into little Italy and have dinner at
Pellegrino’s. This one night, your father was being…well, your
father. We were being impish, and I dared him to take the basket.
Just tuck it under his arm and walk out with it.” She smiled, her
eyes glazed a little damp with her memories.
    “ Oh, my God! Did he do
it?” Camille gasped.
    Mom chuckled. Tears escaped the ledges of
her eyelids as she nodded, yes.
    “ Dad stole that basket
from Pellegrino’s?” I asked. Funny, I never thought my dad would
steal anything. He was such a stickler about stealing. We would
have had our asses whipped if we were found stealing anything…and I
mean any little thing.
    “ Well, that’s a shock. I
never thought Dad had the balls to steal something,” Calvin added
in a nervous laugh. Mom shot him a look before she turned back and
finished the story.
    “ Well, actually, come to
find out, he never stole it. While I went to the ladies’ room, your
father paid the waiter for the basket. I’ll never forget how brazen
he was, though, when he shoved the basket under his arm, took my
hand, and walked right out of the restaurant. I couldn’t believe
it.”
    “ That’s sounds just like
him,” Camille said as she picked up the salad and dished herself
some.
    “ Remember the time Dad
convinced Calvin he was found under a rock?” I said to Camille,
laughing.
    “ Oh my God, that’s right.
He told me that he traded his watch and fifty cents to a band of
gypsies for me,” Camille blurted out as she passed the salad to
Dan.
    I looked over at Wilson. She was comfortably
watching our family interact, her eyes glossy with tears. Her
laughter was my home. Somehow I was no longer worried about the
news Dan had tucked away. It didn’t matter what was going to happen
tomorrow; tonight was reserved for good-humored memories of our
father. I pressed my lips to the side of her head and inhaled her
essence.
    “ I love you,” I
whispered.
    “ Me too,” she
said.
    Calvin’s voice roared behind his laugh.
“Yeah, well, that wasn’t funny; I’m still going to therapy over
that one.”
    “ And that’s a big bill,
let me tell you…” Mom teased.
    “ Well, Daddy used to say
that Max was delivered next day air, by the UPS man. Or was it that
you belonged to
the UPS man?” Camille snorted.
    “ Oh, that’s just because I
dated a guy who worked for the post office before I met your
father,” Mom interceded before she grabbed Wilson’s hand. “Oh,
dear, I hope these hooligans aren’t scaring you away from our
family.”
    Everyone at the table was laughing, and
suddenly took a collective breath, as if it was planned.
    “ No. I feel right at
home,” Wilson sighed.
    Mom smiled at her before nodding. Her brown
hair, that always framed her face perfectly, swished forward before
she looked over at me. “She’s a keeper, Maxi.”
    “ I know,” I
answered.
    Then the table was quiet and the only thing
we heard was the clinking of forks and knives against the plates.
Calvin was humming as he ate, and Dan smacked his lips as he chewed
his food. We were home. As home as we could be without my dad.
    “ Nancy, how did you and
Frank meet?” Wilson asked just above a whisper.
    I looked up from my plate at my mom. All of
us at the table stopped eating.
    Mom put down her fork, pulled the white
cloth napkin from her lap and stared at the chair my father was
supposed to occupy for dinner.
    “ Well, Frank