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carpeted runner. The smell of cooking with garlic drifted in the air mixed with a faint scent of church frankincense and myrrh. Carol shared that her grandmother lived in the downstairs rooms. She was widowed for most of Carol’s life and had always shared the same home as Carol and her family. I followed Carol as we ascended the staircase. The wall from the first-floor foyer up to the second-floor landing was lined with photographs, framed portraits in long perspective. Carol saw that the pictures had my attention and took the time to identify several of them as we climbed the stairs. The first, prominently displayed, was Pope Paul VI. The few that followed were pictures of her maternal and paternal grandparents. There were three pictures, all in black and white, of angelically posed children dressed in white, one boy and two girls. Pictures of Carol and her siblings’ First Holy Communions. I saw three individual ink-black silhouettes of Carol, her sister, and brother, that were done in first grade. We chuckled, as I recall my siblings and I also having it done by our own first grade teachers. Three more pictures were hung of the siblings adorned in their Catholic Confirmation robes. At the top of the stairs, the landing leading into the sunroom at the front of the house.
We entered the sunroom and standing there basked in sunlight was Carol’s older brother, Anthony. Smiling wide, his bright white teeth shimmering, his eyes had a devilish spark in them as if proud of some unknown accomplishment that only he was aware of. I melted to my core, my heart bumping and thumping. Slender, he was, so young and beautiful, if ever a boy can be that handsome.
Now with a shy smile, he said hello as Carol proceeded with the proper introductions. He and I stood there gazing at one another, captivated, neither willing to break the spell. After what seemed like moments, Carol ended the trance by announcing that she was going across the way to visit with her friend Janet and would return when her parents arrived home from work. At that, she departed the room and descended the stairs. Awkward as it was, we