Sorrow filled Jack’s stomach. But before he could stand up for himself, before he could insist, Francesca appeared at the top of the stairs and walked regally toward them. She didn’t look ill, save for how skinny she’d gotten. “There he is,” Francesca said in Italian. “My knight in shining armor.”
If Jack wasn’t mistaken, he was pretty sure he caught Lorelei rolling her eyes at that. But Jack couldn’t stop himself from feeling that he needed to help his mother, that he needed to be there. They needed to make up for lost time.
Jack led his mother through the freezing wind to the passenger side of his rental car. He half expected her to say something about how atrocious the rental car was, especially given the fact that she’d been raised with such extraordinary Italian wealth, but she said nothing. Jack’s hands shook as he drove them toward the chemotherapy clinic. He’d read online that it was a relatively new facility, here to care for the many aging residents of Nantucket Island. Cancer seemed to affect every sort of person from every walk of life, whether you were wealthy or not.
“Your father is in a panic,” Francesca said gently, by way of breaking the silence between them. As ever, she spoke only Italian to the children who knew it. “I’ve never seen him like this.”
Jack glanced over at her, wondering what to say. He wanted to tell her that his father had already lost her once, and obviously, he didn’t want to lose her again. But he didn’t want to insinuate that he thought she would lose the battle with cancer.
“It’s good you’re strong enough to take me,” Francesca said. “I’m sure I won’t be a pretty sight later. They say I’ll want to sleep the whole day through after that.”
“You’ll have to listen to your body,” Jack said.
“I’ve always listened to my body,” Francesca said. “It’s my body that didn’t listen to me.”
Jack reached the chemo clinic, rolled the car as close as he could to the entrance, and dropped his mother off before parking himself. Hurrying up, he met her at the front desk, where she spoke sternly to the young woman checking her in. “That is not how you spell my last name,” she told her. “It’s Accetta. Double ‘c.’ Double ‘t.’”
Jack might have laughed, but he kept it in.
Together, they sat in a little room where Francesca was given a chemo port and attached to a machine. Francesca had changed into a hospital gown and watched the nurse carefully, as though she were sure the nurse would make a mistake soon. When the nurse left them, saying she’d be back in a little while to check on them, Jack took his first full breath in a while. He hadn’t realized how nervous he’d been.
He realized that they would have several hours of uninterrupted time together, now. He marveled at how many questions he wanted to ask his mother. There were so many gaps in time.
“Tell me,” he said, hoping that talking about her life would make her forget what was happening to her. “Tell me what it was like to go back to Italy.”
Francesca’s eyes glinted, as though she might have cried but couldn’t bear to. Perhaps knowing it was the right way forward, she told him how bizarre it had been to go to Italy without all of the Whitmores and how broken she’d been. “I had Charlotte, Lorelei, and Allegra with me, but it wasn’t enough. I was heavy with regret. And I felt terrible to send Nina away, I really did, but I couldn’t bear the idea of raising your father’s daughter when he was dead and gone.”
Her lips shook. The machine pumped the terrible medicine into her blood. She went on.
“Maybe your sisters mentioned this to you. But Charlotte’s real father isn’t your father. His name was Jefferson Albright.It’s a terribly long story, the story of why I fell for Jefferson Albright. I imagine one day I’ll manage to tell it. But not now. Anyway, Jefferson Albright came to Italy to court me. I fell for him yet again, and we shared many years of joy and love. I don’t regret those years, not in the slightest. COVID took him from me. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to go through.” Francesca raised her chin. “Since his death, I’ve been living more or less alone, waiting for something to happen. I suppose cancer happened. But Nina and Charlotte and Alexander came to Italy, as well, and swept me into this strange and exhilarating new chapter. The cancer is a blip during an otherwise incredible time.”
Jack leaned back, surprised that his mother could find so much joy in the midst of cancer. But Francesca was a storyteller, above all. She knew how to tell her own story back to herself.
He honored her wonderful mind. He thanked his lucky stars that he could talk to her.
Francesca was cleared to go home about three hours after they’d arrived. In the car, she was quiet, hiding behind a massive pair of sunglasses that made her look like Sophia Loren. In the driveway at the vacation house, Jack hurried around to help her from the passenger side, just as the front door screamed open to bring out Lorelei and Allegra. Their faces were drawn, and their eyes were almost black with fear. But when they got Francesca into the warmth of the house, it was clear that Francesca wouldn’t be doted upon.
“I’m going upstairs,” Francesca announced. “But I’ll be better later. We’ll have dinner. Something delicious and divine.” Shesaid that last bit in English, which brought a smile to everyone’s face.
With Francesca upstairs and resting, Jack sat in the kitchen with Lorelei and Allegra and explained what had happened. “We just sat and talked,” he said simply.
“What did she say?” Lorelei asked, stricken.
Jack said that she’d told him about her time in Italy, about the Italian grandchildren that Lorelei and Allegra had given her, and about her long-standing romantic partnership with Jefferson Albright.
“Did she mention what she feels about Dad?” Allegra asked in a low voice.
Jack laughed nervously and shook his head. “Maybe she doesn’t even know the answer to that.”
“Are we sure we want Mama and Dad to fall back in love?” Lorelei asked, crossing and uncrossing her arms.
“I don’t think they were ever out of love,” Allegra murmured.
“I don’t think so, either,” Jack said. “But it’s so difficult to know what’s on their minds.”
Lorelei left the room to call their father and tell him that Francesca was home from the clinic and resting well. Alexander texted Allegra to ask what was going on, and when Allegra didn’t give him enough information via chat, he showed up on the front porch with a bottle of wine and tons of snacks. There was a nervous energy about him that, Jack assumed, didn’t usually befall such a calm and sure-handed pilot.
Not long after Alexander arrived, Charlotte and Nina appeared with more wine and food. Together, Alexander, Allegra, Lorelei, Charlotte, Jack, and Nina sat around the kitchen table of the vacation house, sipping wine and watching as snow began to blow out of the eastern-hanging clouds. Alexander wanted Jack to repeat everything that had happenedat the clinic, so Jack did, grateful that he could calm his siblings’ nerves for the time being.