ยฉ 2022 Duleigh Lawrence-Townshend. All rights reserved. The author asserts the right to be identified as the author of this story for all portions. This story or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the expressed written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a review or commentary.
Stormwatch
A Wedding in The Woods
Unfortunately, incidents occurred which caused the planned September wedding of Josh Gravely and Veronica von Kรถster to be pushed back a month. Luckily warm weather has prevailed and the woods of the southern tier of Western New York are vibrant and full of color and Veronica's Autumn wedding has become a Halloween themed wedding to be held in the plot of woods that Josh owns. A quick meeting with the members of the wedding party on the status of the ceremony is a great excuse for a dinner at the Groom's favorite Italian restaurant.
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Giardini's Italian Family Restaurant
22 Days before the wedding
Dr. Paul Jarecki and his wife Dr. Adrianna Jarecki were doing something unusual for them, they were driving their Transport van full of passengers, but not a single child was with them. They have twin 6-year-old girls and a ten-month-old boy but they're under the care of their governess tonight. Tonight, is a night to celebrate and help plan a wedding for friends. Paul is a cardiologist and his wife, who goes by Andi, is a pulmonologist. Paul kind of inherited a run-down network of car dealerships that his dad tried to build up and only saw success for his efforts near the end of his life. Paul took over and aggressively built the dealerships into one of the most successful string of dealerships in the state.
With them in the van is the engaged couple, Ephraim Gravely, known exclusively as Josh to everyone, and Veronica von Kรถster who is known as Ronnie only to her close friends and Nica only to Josh. Josh is a battle-scared veteran from the deep south who suffers from PTSD. His GI Bill education and a push from a friend landed him a job at Andalon.com in Orchard Park NY where he met and fell in love with Ronnie.
Veronica grew up in Erie PA, she and her sister Magda were raised by a single dad. Veronica and Magda started in youth beauty pageants and Veronica had great success and eventually became Miss Ohio while she was a student at Ohio State University. The scholarship money from the beauty pageants and a modeling career paid for her MBA and she was able to drop modeling and become a much sought-after businesswoman. It didn't take her long to find out that her success was due to her looks, and she ignored offers from large corporations and took a job as an assistant for the CEO of an adoption agency.
Her boss, Marj Friedman, was unlike other female executives that Veronica met in that she was a woman that wasn't expecting a lesbian affair and was happily married with seven children. Marj then asked Ronnie if she could take on added responsibility and soon Ronnie was the executive assistant for Marj's husband, the CEO of Andalon.com. Veronica found a home at Andalon.com, a small internet service provider that was aggressively moving into medical software and secure data storage. Her new boss was polite and fun to be with, he was a family man who kept his hands to himself and eagerly assisted Ronnie with her budding romance when she and Josh discovered each other.
Also in the van was Ronnie's dad, Mike von Kรถster, a retired welder with a heart condition. His savings were pilfered by his ex-wife and daughter Magda and they somehow got control of his pension leaving him penniless. Mike was kicked out of his retirement home, so he ended up living with Josh and Veronica. Riding next to Mike is Audrey Mitchell, a close friend of Veronica. Audrey's father was a VP at Andalon and a co-worker of Veronica but ran afoul of the law. Audrey offered to help out with Mike, and she fell in love with eldercare so much that she began taking nursing classes at the local community college in her spare time. She also fell in love with Mike and their relationship is an open secret among Josh and Veronica's close-knit community of friends.
"Ah, the old neighborhood," sighed Paul, as they pulled off US 33 and entered a wooded neighborhood of split-level houses. "Look familiar Josh?"
"Familiar? I've never been here," said Josh. "All this time we've been coming to Giardini's religiously and you've never taken me through this neighborhood." Before they met the women in their lives, Josh and Paul purchased property near each other as hobby farms near Springville NY and became friends. Josh's property used to be a CCC camp that was converted to a scout camp for a short while.
"Look at the style of buildings. Some of them have been changed a bit," said Paul's wife Andi.
"I know you've seen them before," insisted Paul.
I don't think so..." they were nice buildings, split level duplexes, they were built a bit odd, the front of the house actually overlooked the back yards, the back of the houses faced the little dead-end streets the houses were situated on. Was it an odd utopian designed community?
"Look again," urged Paul as they turned a corner.
"Wait..." the buildings they were now facing were different, big ugly, slab-sided two-story apartment buildings, four apartments in each building, something the Air Force called "four-plexes." Josh now saw something he didn't believe possible, "military family housing in Cheektowaga NY?"
"Yep, that building right there is where John and I grew up," said Paul as he pointed to a rundown four-plex. "This all used to be military family housing for Curtis Wright Army Air Corps Station. The Curtis Wright plant used to be where the airport is now, they built all the P-40 Warhawks and C-46 Commandos right here in Cheektowaga, the housing for the pilots and ground crews was a five-minute bus ride away. When the base closed, they sold off the housing to private concerns."
"Wow," said Josh as he glanced around. These exact same buildings were on every one of the state side Air Force bases that Josh had been to. Many were upgraded but the original design remains. Paul himself was an Air Force veteran also, he was a flight surgeon. "That must have done a number on your head when you got to your first base and found yourself in home sweet home," remarked Josh.
"It really did," chuckled Paul remembering his first assignment as a young Lieutenant. As they pulled out onto Genesee Street Veronica was amazed at all the restaurants of every ethnicity that made up Cheektowaga: Italian, German, Greek, Hispanic, Ethiopian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, and more. Josh, who has been buddies with Paul for years was familiar with all of them but there's one Italian place that Paul calls home. They pulled into Giardini's Italian Family Restaurant. "This is where my family lives," said Paul, as the six of them, Josh, Veronica, Mike, Audrey, Paul, and Andi climbed out of Paul's luxurious Ford Transport, and they entered the restaurant.
"What do you mean... You're Italian?" asked Veronica. A young hostess counted heads and gathered menus but the cry of "Is that my Paulie and Andi?" rang across the restaurant. With more fanfare than Veronica was expecting, Mama Giardini stormed out of the kitchen crying "My Paulie!" she cried and smothered Paul and Andi with hugs and kisses. She was the short, round Italian grandmother that everybody should have. She was wearing a long print dress; stained kitchen apron and her salt and pepper hair was covered in a hair net. She was the woman that saved a very young Paul and John Jarecki when she found the starving urchins eating out of their dumpster.
When Paul and Andi pried themselves loose, Paul turned Mama around, "Folks, this is Anna Maria Giardini, but we call her "Mama," we've been friends for..." Paul paused at the warning finger Mama raised to him, "...uhhh for a while. Momma, you know Josh, this is his fiancรฉe Veronica, her dad Mike, and this is his nurse Audrey.
Momma Giardini hugged everyone and when she got to Josh, she pulled in Veronica, and whispered, "Such a nice young girl! You must tell me how you do it, do you know any young men that need some loving, eh?" Momma then turned her attention to Audrey. The young, curvaceous brunette stood in fear of Momma, but Momma smiled and pulled Audrey in close and hugged her tight, "You're going to be such a beautiful bride!" Audrey panicked, their plans were still secret, only Josh and Veronica knew for sure, then Momma whispered into Audrey's ear "Momma
knows!
"
Audrey froze, her skin went pale, and her legs suddenly felt weak. "Please don't say anything," whispered Audrey, "I haven't talked to Mike yet."
"You and me, come on..." Mama then turned to the gang and said, "You go find your own seats, Miss Audrey and I are going to have a talk," and she led Audrey away.
Mike started to follow, a worried look on his face, but Josh stopped him. "Dad, she'll be ok. Momma Giardini is going to become your mother-in-law now," he whispered.
"What do you mean?" asked a confused Mike as he allowed himself to be led away to their table.
"I think Momma just adopted Audrey," said Veronica. She just met Moma Giardini but she was sure momma knew something that Veronica was beginning to suspect.
