Cristina Rosamilia: Late afternoon sunlight in the row homes

"Ma, you're burning the shad! Turn off the fire before it's burned beyond all recognition!"

"What is this, my own daughter telling me how to cook fish, and I've been feeding this family more than thirty years now."

Cristina and Angelo sat at the kitchen table, looking out the side window. The afternoon rays of late winter sunlight cast themselves through the backyard and into the house, bringing the red bricks of the Casanovas' house into full color -- a welcome respite to the Monteverdis, since the winter and bad news from Europe had put everyone on edge. Hitler seemed to be in control of all of Europe and was bombing London to smithereens.

The young couple sipped red wine and looked at each other. Ma was sauteeing fish and onions on the stove, about to add the ingredients for a marinara. Pop was in the parlor playing with little Angelo, Carlo, and Bernadetta. Cristina thought, this war comes to the United States, Angelo will have to go. He'd already said he wanted to fight for Italy, until Mussolini allied himself with Hitler. No one in the house wanted to talk about the war in Italy -- too painful. They hadn't heard from their Monteverdi cousins in Toscana or their Italiano cousins in Napoli for months. The pallid expressions on Ma and Pop's faces told Cristina to hold her tongue.

"Ma, when do you and Pop think you'll head to the beach this spring? You always go down by mid-May."

That would be two months from now. They spent their summers at the little house on the Delaware Bay. Used to be, Ma would spend her summers there while Pop ran the store here in town. But since Angelo had taken over the store and seemed to be running it real good, Pop had decided to retire and spend more time fishing in the bay.

"Things being so bad these days, we thought we'd stay here and just go down for weekends. We don't have a radio down there, you know."

"You can take the one here, can't you?"

"I'd rather not go to the effort."

Cristina knew the real reason. Ma and Pop were afraid the Sal would join the Navy and leave town. They didn't want their only son going to war. Everyone knew it was just a matter of time before Roosevelt got the U.S. into the war.