Laura Caldwell - Red, White & Dead

“See you,” I answered.

I glanced at my phone. Nothing from Theo yet.

My mom and I made our way through the crowd to the side of the stage. Charlie was there, talking to a friend, gesturing at his swollen face. “Yeah, dude, I just got jacked. Came out of nowhere.” He made it sound as if the punch had just happened, inside the street fair.

“Dude, you gotta get that looked at,” his friend said.

“Yeah, I will,” Charlie said. He glanced at my father, who stood next to him, uncomfortably shifting back and forth, his eyes scanning the crowds.

Charlie looked back at his friend, a weak smile on his face, and I saw in that instant that Charlie had been weighted, too. Carefree Charlie would walk around with secrets now, too, and I didn’t know how he would handle them.

My mother and I exchanged concerned glances, then I saw someone familiar out of the corner of my eye. I turned my head and saw him behind the stage, staring at me. Theo.

I broke into a smile. So did he. He gestured me toward him.

I met him where the bouncers were taking backstage passes.

“Can you let her in?” Theo pointed to me and the rest of my green T-shirt crew. “And her friends.”

The bouncer looked annoyed, but after a second, he did as Theo asked.

“Who’s the band?” Charlie said when we were in, gesturing toward the stage.

“Poi Dog Pondering,” Theo answered.

“That’s the name of a band?” my mother said.

“Sweet,” Charlie said. “I love these guys.” He started telling my mom about the band, leaving me standing with Theo and my father.

Theo glanced at me as if to say, Is this who I think it is?

I nodded. “Theo, this is-”

Before I could finish, Theo reached out his hand and shook my father’s. “Good to meet you,” he said. He put his hands in his back pocket and kept looking at my dad. “I have to tell you your daughter is one of the most incredible people I’ve ever met.”

My dad seemed not to know what to do or say. Finally, he said, “I had nothing to do with what a wonderful person Izzy is. But thank you.”

Just then my mother stepped up to us, too. “Theo, this is my mom and my brother, Charlie.”

They all shook hands with him. I saw my mom send a little questioning glance at his long hair and the tattoo. Definitely not her type. But soon, as they chatted, the two of them somehow stumbled into talking about the Robie House, a Frank Lloyd Wright landmark home where my mother happened to be a docent. I had no idea Theo even knew who Frank Lloyd Wright was. And then Theo and my brother were discussing the band that was about to take the stage-Theo knew them and sometimes helped them out-and another band they both liked.

When my mother asked, “How do you know him?” I found myself answering immediately. “He’s the guy I’m dating.”

The band started a bouncy, happy summer song, causing the crowd in front of them to cheer and dance. Get out of your head, and into your heart, they sang.

A guy came running up to Theo. “We blew an amp. There’s another one in the van.” He held out a set of keys. “Can you grab it?”

Theo took them. “Sure, no problem.” He turned to me. “I’m going to help these guys out, if it’s okay with you.”

“Of course, go.”

“You’re sure.”

“I’m sure.”

“This might take a bit, and if we lose each other, I’ll see you soon, right?”

“Definitely,” I said. “But I’m not going to lose you.”

He leaned down, his long soft hair brushing my face, and he kissed me.

When he’d walked away, I turned back to the group and saw them watching me.

“Is he someone important to you?”my dad asked.

My mother raised her eyebrows as if waiting, interested, for my answer. Charlie smiled a little.

Finally I spoke. “Yeah. He is important to me.”

I looked at the three of them. My mother was shooting glances at my dad, but she seemed to have adjusted at least momentarily to him being there. To him being alive. Charlie, despite his dinged-up face and a split lip, looked at the two of them in wonder.

I stepped forward and took Charlie’s hand, then my mother’s, and moved them so that we stood in a little circle with my dad. “I’m not trying to be all kumbaya or anything,” I said, “but I think we need to have a moment for Aunt Elena. She’s a different person than we thought we knew, but she saved us today.”

“What’s going to happen to her?” Charlie said.

“I’m sure she’ll go back to Italy,” my father said. “Back to her life.”

Just then the sound of a huge explosion came from behind us.

Someone in the crowd screamed. My mother gasped.

We turned toward the Loop and saw a red orb of fire rising into the sky.

“Oh my God,” my mother said.

My father closed his eyes shut, then opened them and looked at us again. None of us seemed to know what to do.

Charlie squeezed my hand tighter. “Is she okay?” he asked.

My father stared at the red sky. He nodded, whether to reassure himself or answer Charlie’s question I didn’t know. “For Elena,” my dad said, squeezing our hands.

“For Elena,” I echoed, squeezing back.

Another explosion sounded and people started to scream “Fire!” “It’s a bomb!” “Call the police!” There were murmurs of terrorism, word spreading fast. Soon people were running in every direction, the world’s largest block party thinning out quickly.

I saw Charlie reach out his other hand and take my mom’s. And then the oddest thing happened. My mother lifted her free hand and took hold of my father’s.

As the four of us stood there, I thought back to my conversation with Q and Maggie a few weeks ago. I’d said that all I wanted for my thirtieth birthday was to be around family and friends.

I looked around at the four of us, at my…

Finally, I allowed myself to say it in my head…at my family.

That was true, whether or not my father stuck around. That was true whether or not the four of us would ever be together again. They were my family. And, yes, my friends. I squeezed their hands. I smiled at them all. And they smiled back.

Izzy has a strong connection to Rome, Italy. Do you have a connection like that to any city or any country?

What do you think of Theo? In particular, how do you feel about Izzy dating someone younger (Izzy is 30, Theo 22)? Would their eight year gap be as big a difference at ages 40 and 32? Or 50 and 42?

Did you know about the Camorra or the other factions of the Italian mafia other than the Cosa Nostra (which had made famous by the Godfather movies)? (For those interested in the Camorra, a book was written about the topic called Gomorrah (by Roberto Saviano) and is also a film by the same name).

What did you think of Elena, Izzy’s aunt? As she disclosed to Izzy her part in the history of their family, could you understand why she had made certain choices?

What do you envision happening in the future with Theo and Izzy? What about Izzy and Sam?

What do you think Izzy should do with her professional career?

How do you think Izzy’s mother and brother will react to the events that transpired in the book?

This scene was originally in the manuscript after the scene in which Izzy, Maggie, Bernard and Theo get chased out of the hotel in Naples. But then I realized it would be giving away the dad’s existence earlier than I wanted.

An unraveling-of a riddle, a situation, a life-can be terrifying and yet also a beautiful thrill. In his life, he’d experienced all kinds of unraveling, and he knew now what he was feeling-sadness for what was about to be no longer, the thrill of potential, the potential of being discovered. The unraveling felt, in fact, like a wound, a clean one that was open, exposed.