Joe ignores him. "Yep, he came into the room all google-eyed, and he
said, 'Joe, I met the girl I'm gonna marry!' "
Eddie seethes. "I said shut it!"
"What's her name, Eddie?" someone asked.
"Does she go to church?"
Eddie goes to his brother and socks him in the arm.
"Owww!"
"Eddie!"
"I told you to shut it!"
Joe blurts out, "And he danced with her at the Stard—!"
Whack.
"Oww!"
"SHUT UP!"
"Eddie! Stop that!!"
Even the Romanian cousins look up now—fighting they
understand—as the two brothers grab each other and flail away,
clearing the couch, until Eddie's father puts down his cigar and yells,
"Knock it off, before I slap both of ya's."
The brothers separate, panting and glaring. Some older relatives
smile. One of the aunts whispers, "He must really like this girl."
Later, after the special steak has been eaten and the candles have
been blown out and most of the guests have gone home, Eddie's mother
turns on the radio. There is news about the war in Europe, and Eddie's
father says something about lumber and copper wire being hard to get
if things get worse. That will make maintenance of the park nearly
impossible.
"Such awful news," Eddie s mother says. "Not at a birthday."
She turns the dial until the small box offers music, an orchestra
playing a swing melody, and she smiles and hums along. Then she
comes over to Eddie, who is slouched in his chair, picking at the last
pieces of cake. She removes her apron, folds it over a chair, and lifts
Eddie by the hands.
"Show me how you danced with your new friend," she says.
"Aw, Ma."
"Come on."
Eddie stands as if being led to his execution. His brother smirks. But
his mother, with her pretty, round face, keeps humming and stepping
back and forth, until Eddie falls into a dance step with her.