Getting Old is the Best Revenge by Rita Lakin Page A

chorus a variation of: "Yeah, Mama, be quiet!"
    I look at my girls and they look back, equally surprised. Mama's children are in the fleshpot with Poppa?
    Mrs. Take Charge takes charge once again. Evvie calls out over escalating voices, "Why don't we all go inside? You're drawing a crowd."
    And sure enough, other front doors are opening. Windows are being raised. Cars are stopping.
    We all retreat inside to the tune of the door chimes once again trilling "Volare."
    The house is tiny. In fact, it's a replica of Angelina's place. I'm guessing the two houses were built at about the same time. The decor is very similar, too. I am beginning to get the feeling these two women shopped together at one time.
    Elio looks at each of us and announces, "We are going into the bedroom now, and you will all show respect."
    Barely able to sit up in her bed is an emaciated woman whose head is covered by a scarf. She is surrounded on all sides by medical equipment, and her arm is hooked up to a machine. There are pill bottles everywhere.
    "Aha!" Bella shouts. "That's what I saw through the window and that's what I forgot! Medical equipment."
    Ida swats her shoulder. "Now you remember?"
    Bella shrugs. "I remember when I remember."
    The Sicilianos stare at us. "You were looking in the window?" asks one of the guys we saw earlier today at the construction site.
    Elio cuffs him. "Where're your manners? Intro duce yourselves to the snoops--Gladdy Gold and Associates Detective Agency. This one's Frankie."
    "Detectives?" says another of the men, the spitting image of his father. He introduces himself as Paulie. Come to think of it, all six children favor their father. Elio must have very strong genes.
    "Who hired a detective, and why?" asks Joey. Then Sal and Louie and the one female, Josie, take their turns echoing his question and introducing themselves.
    Elio wags a finger at Angelina. "That crazy one, your mother."
    Angelina and the woman in bed stare intently at one another.
    "What is it, Connie?" Angelina says. "What's wrong with you? You look like hell."
    "Thank you very much. You look well."
    "Never mind about me. What is it with you?"
    "I got the cancer. What else?" Connie whispers.
    "You're dying?" asks Angelina.
    "Do I look like I could swim the Atlantic?"
    "You look like you're dead already."
    "You always did have a way with words, Angelina. It won't be much longer."
    Elio addresses us. "Fifty years she stops talking to Connie. Sisters and best friends they were. Never apart. Back and forth from each other's house twice a day. Turns into hate. Over nothing."
    "You got that right," Angelina says. "Over you. A whole lotta nothing."
    "Don't start," he threatens.
    "Fifty years!" says Ida, flabbergasted.
    "Fifty years," echoes Bella. "You can last that long without seeing a relative?"
    Connie manages to lift herself up slightly on the bed. She looks at Angelina, sadness in her eyes. "Right after the marriage. What did I do that you should hate me and shut me out?"
    "And make all our lives totally screwed up," contributes Josie.
    A roomful of mournful faces look to Angelina for some explanation. Cornered, she lashes out at Connie.
    "Did I need you walking in and out of my house to check on me? Was I as good a cook as you--you, with the perfect marinara sauce? What about the sex? Did I want you inspecting my marriage bed to maybe see if I knew what to do? I was a new bride. I needed my privacy. And you two, always laughing together. As if you had secrets."
    Elio is astounded. "You were jealous of your sister? Did I ever once compare you? Didn't I show you love? All these years you shut her out? For that?" He pauses. "Women!" he adds, as if that explains everything.
    "Don't tell me you didn't have a crush on my Elio." Angelina throws at Connie.
    "Sure, I found him attractive, but once he gave you a ring . . ."
    "So, why didn't you get married? So I wouldn't have to worry anymore."
    Connie manages a small shrug. "Every family has a spinster they can