The Last Week Of November

The Last Week Of November

My grandmother never drove. It's not that she was afraid of cars or of the road; rather she was very fond of vehicles in general and over the years, had developed an irritating habit of backseat-driving. But she never learned because she never had reason to. Back when she was a teenager, in the 50's, women never drove all that much. And then she got married to her first husband, John, at the age of 20 and then he drover her around. So she never bothered to learn.

Now John was an interesting fellow. I think I should talk about John first before I explain the real reason why I am sitting on this very cold, dank bench on a Monday night in this last week of November. John had a lot of jobs throughout my grandparents' brief 5 years of marriage. I shouldn't say brief, because to Nonni it felt like anything but brief. But in the relative expanse of a human's lifetime, 5 years is merely a breath. He did have a lot of jobs though, and it took them all over the country. He was a paper salesman for a while, operating out of a kiosk in _______, North Carolina. Then he took up an interest in buying and selling various collector's items, some art, some furniture, but mostly junk, in the underground market. Without a college degree, and only a meager family inheritance, it was hard to make ends meet for a while. But all of that was not the reason Nonni left.

She was pregnant. It was the eve of their fourth anniversary and they had decided to have a little family and friends get-together. John had kept his current job as a newspaper photographer for almost seven months. He finally liked what he was doing and it just so happened that it was located in _________, Indiana, where all of John's family was settled. Everyone was in a fine mood, and things were going well. She decided to tell John the news before dinner so they could make the big announcemement together.

She walked into the dining area where John and a few of his old high school buddies where smoking and reminiscing.

"Honey, could you come over here for a moment? Marge and I just can't decided on the wine for tonight and we want you to be the tie-breaker." Nonni said coming up behind him and applying just enough pressure on his shoulders to make him get up.

He got up and glanced briefly at her before turning back around and politely excusing himself. Once they were in the bedroom and the door was closed, John reached for her and started to kiss her.

"Oh, is this why you asked to talk to me?" He said softly rubbing his lips on hers, his hands squeezing her waist and pulling her closer.

"I-uh..no," she sighed as his hands started wandering further down. He pressed her closer and started to remove the tie of her dress at the back. Nonni knew she had to say something right then, or the next twenty minutes would go very differently.

"John…" she said trying to rearrange her thoughts back to the speech she had prepared. John bent his head and started kissing her neck, "yes, Connie?"

"I actually do have something to tell you. And I was hoping you would be looking at me when I said it." she said, grasping his chin and moving his head up. John looked at her questioningly.

She smiled a little