Weekly Stories

Giovanni’s disco shoes

“The first time I introduced Gio to your Nonna Lucia…” says Louisa in her kitchen, handing out cognac with the pumpkin pie I brought, “Gio was wearing these high heeled disco shoes, what do you call them-” her daughter, Nita, interjects, “Platform shoes, Ma, everyone wore platform shoes in the seventies.” Louisa continues, Giovanni grins sheepishly in the background, “He was wearing the platform shoes I made him wear because I didn’t want him shorter than me when we went dancing. Anyway, typical Italian family, everyone is downstairs. So, we go through the living room and head down the stairs…

keeping the magic of the tooth fairy

“Mom, I have something very sad to tell you…” my pixilated daughter says over Skype. She hangs her head down with a half gasp, unsure of how to speak it. Her curls fall across her cheek and I can see the little dark gap where her bottom eye tooth used to be. It’s a little bloody. It’s a little more painful than the others. “What, honey? You can tell me.” “I…I don’t believe in fairies anymore.” Her voice breaks with emotion, like she’s betraying the unseen kingdom, causing a Tinkerbell to die. I hum and nod my head, waiting for…

wide eyed

I am visiting Poul and Janice and he is showing me a picture of a halibut he caught. Halibut have eyes on only one side of their head because they bottom feed on the other side. This is a fact that I know, then forget, then get reminded again and always say, “Really?! Wow! Wait, I think I knew that.” Poul explains the nature of halibut to me with such animated passionate interest for knowledge it makes me want to go fishing, write a book about it or – okay, let’s be honest, serve halibut cheeks with miso orange sauce….

double standards are never honourable

I sit at Bill and Renita’s table over a mountain of Mennonite crepes. It’s a beautiful morning in Rosebud, the sun toasting up the rolling hills like hot cross buns. Bill shows me how to operate the breakfast: line the mid crepe with crab apple sauce, then roll, then top with a layer of whip cream, then a drizzle of maple syrup. Bacon on the side. Cheese if you’re – (he wrinkles his nose) if you’re a cheese eater. Delicious. You see, Renita puts her whip cream inside the crepe then rolls…Norma makes her apple sauce without sugar…both of these…

hesitating to merge

On my way to dinner I merge off of Deerfoot Trail at 100km/hr onto Memorial. The driver in front of me to the left decides to merge into my lane and then she hesitates, slams on her brakes and wiggles about unsure if it’s too late to get back onto the main highway, waiting for an opening. I have to slam on my brakes so hard, there’s nowhere to go, I nearly smash right into her and the guy behind me nearly smashes right into me. Blink! Dead! Gone. My heart thumps in my chest. Why? Why, did I almost…

unblinking

My sister is at the sewing machine with her mouth in a tight little thinking O. My brother makes the same face and has from the cradle. It makes me smile and want to say “what’s a matter, baby?”. She is designing a Sophia Loren frock for her tomorrow’s rockabilly gig with Eve Hell and the Razors, her fluorescent pink hair catching the sun. A musician friend of theirs has just died from a heart attack, far far far too young. She exchanges melancholic tendernesses with her husband while in a heap of cheerful cherry, check and eyelet. I can’t…

pierced ears

My daughter lays her gentle head carefully onto her pillow. She tucks her curls away from her tender little ears. She just had them pierced and the sight of her studs and their sparkly diamond gem-ness gives her a little thrill up the back of her neck. She doesn’t want any fabric to press against her sore red lobes. She lies there, still, in the night, breathing with a little excitement, thinking of her first day of school…it has come at last! I can see her spidery long lashes flutter against her soft cheeks that still hold some baby plumpness….

dedicating my life to conflict

Well it’s dress rehearsal and we have our first audience tomorrow and it dawns on me I am not doing my job. I have been skittering around this character. I’ve done my historical research, I’ve decided what region she comes from, I’ve thought about her health, I’ve thought about her record collection…and ever so briefly I have touched on her marriage, her fertility, her history with violence. The director has spent too much time on my scene, in my opinion, because of me. I haven’t landed her yet. I am allowing her to escape into her “character” that she puts…

the ex bug collection

Half of us who ever legally declared “I do” now legally declare, “Actually, I don’t”. So many exes. It makes me go “o”. I had a reasonably amicable split but many don’t. And the information age takes advantage of this pain and there’s a whole market around figuring out how to be divorced. So many self help books and spiritual practices and websites and blogs and therapists mixed in with unqualified spouters playing Dear Abby. It is so easy to pick and choose, like a psycho-spiritual salad bar, sound bytes to justify any selfishness, fear and emotional violence towards others….

Lucia’s Pumpkin Pie with Maple Whip Cream

Thanksgiving is coming up and I made a few test pies today with this recipe that I made up last year. Geesh…it’s good. I feel I should share it again with you… Lucia’s Pumpkin Pie with Maple Whip Cream (warning: this pie may cause spontaneous marriage proposals. Antony Holland was the first to ask for my hand after having a piece of this pie. I also wish to credit Kathryn Aberle with the pie crust tips) Pumpkin I roast my own pumpkin. They’re cheap and yummy and you can use the excess to make soup. Get yourself a pumpkin, clean…

Lucia Frangione