Act of Necessity Ch. 01-02

House was the wrong description. It was more like a mansion. The manicured lawns and gardens were impressive, but I was stymied by the gate. I looked and saw an intercom unit and got out and picked up the handset and pushed the only button visible. It was answered within a few seconds by a male voice.

"Yes, who is it?"

"It's Dal Larson and I'm here to see Francesca," I said nervously.

"Okay. The gate will open in a moment," the disembodied voice said before I heard a click.

I hung up the handset and returned to my car. The gate was already beginning to swing open.

I drove slowly up the big, circular driveway and parked just past the front entrance to the home. The more I saw, the more intimidated I was. I got out of the car and saw Francesca at the door, smiling as I approached.

"You didn't tell me you lived in a mansion," I said, almost immediately wishing I hadn't. I followed her into the house.

"Would it have made a difference?" she smiled, clearly not offended by my comment.

"I don't know. I guess not. This is quite a spectacular home," I offered as I gazed around as I entered a huge room with what must have been a twenty-foot ceiling.

I was nearly overwhelmed by the grandeur of the room. The rear wall was almost all windows with a view to a pond and the back gardens. I was in the presence of wealth. I finally got my focus on Francesca and was immediately reminded that she was one very attractive young lady. She was dressed in a skirt and blouse. The skirt was knee length and a light gray color, while her blouse was white with what appeared to be a multi-coloured needlework design. Very simple and yet elegant.

"You look very nice," I said, hoping is sounded as sincere as I felt.

"Thank you, Dal. You look quite handsome yourself. Come in and meet my family. They always want to know who I'm going out with."

"Okay," I agreed, wondering what to expect.

We walking into another large room and found several people sitting around in a circle.

"Mama, Papa, this is Mr. Dal Larson," Francesca said in introduction. "We are going to a dance at the university tonight."

I didn't have any trouble spotting Mama. She was sitting in a large wing chair, and smiled as I was introduced, but said nothing. The other men in the room all rose and approached me. All four of them.

The eldest held out his hand to me. "Nice to meet you, Dal. I am Eduardo, and these are my sons, Pietro, Alfredo, and Giovanni." We all shook hands and I started to relax a bit after being very intimidated by my surroundings. All three sons looked older than me, but not by a lot.

"How did you meet Francesca?" Pietro asked.

"Uhhm ... well ... she came into my restaurant and recognized me from our classes last year," I stumbled.

"So, she asked you for a date," Giovanni chuckled.

"Uhhm ... not exactly. She was curious about my education and I kind of stalled telling her about it. She wanted to know," I said, looking at a bemused Francesca, "so I asked her for a date so we could talk and catch up on things."

That was about as vague as I could be.

"Do you manage the restaurant?" Eduardo asked, his eyebrows raised.

"I am the manager of one."

He nodded in understanding, but added, "You are very young to be a manager. Is it a small restaurant?"

"No sir, it seats one hundred. It's not a fancy place, but we serve good quality and give good service. It's part of a chain of four restaurants owned locally. It's called Day and Night."

"Oh, sure. I know that one," Alfredo said with a grin. "I often stop in at the Burnaby one for lunch."

I must have visibly sighed because I saw Francesca smile, then admonish her brothers. "Are you finished with the third degree?" she said. "We'd like to go now."

Eduardo laughed and clapped me lightly on the shoulder. "Have a good time. It was nice meeting you. I hope to see you again."

That caught me by surprise. "Thank you."

Francesca approached her mother and kissed her cheek, getting a smile and a brief comment in Italian in response. She kissed her father's cheek as well and said good night. She hooked her arm through mine and we walked out to the front entrance and over to my car.

"This is a nice car, Dal. Is it yours?"

"Yes, it is. I'll explain when we get a chance to talk."

She smiled in return as I held the door for her and she slipped onto the leather seat. I had kept my father's '81 Toyota Cressida. It was just over two years old with very low mileage. It was one of my few luxuries and I planned to keep it for a long time.

"Go down here," Francesca said as we headed away from her home. "There's plenty of time to go to the dance, but it will be noisy and we won't get a chance to talk. I know the perfect place."

I was a little uncertain what she had in mind, but followed her directions without question. Within a couple of minutes, I had a pretty good idea of where we were headed. Spanish Banks looks out over English Bay and the north shore mountains. It was a warm summer evening and, with the sun about to go down behind Vancouver Island, we would enjoy a very nice sunset.

I parked in the public area just above the beach and turned off the motor. I sat, waiting for her to tell me what next. She undid her seatbelt, but didn't move to get out. Instead she turned toward me.

"I had a nice talk with Carl Villano, Dal ... or should I call you Dallas," she began, smiling at the surprise I showed.

"How do you know Carl?"

"I wanted to know more about you, so I called the office and asked for the manager. I wanted to know a little more about you and when I identified myself, he was more than willing to tell me about you."

"Does he know you ... your family?"

"Yes. My father is president of Transimeno Imports. He brings in wines from all over Europe, including wines made in our own winery in Umbria. Your restaurant buys wines from our company. That is how Carl knows of our family."

"Oh ... I didn't know. I guess that accounts for that incredible home you live in. Your father has done very well."

"Not just my father, Dal. My grandparents run the vineyards and the winery. Casa Mariani is our traditional home. My father visits twice a year to make sure everything is as it should be. My grandfather is seventy-nine, but still very active. Our family live long lives," she smiled.

"When the winery and vineyards become too much for them, Giovanni will be prepared to take over. Alfredo is studying business and finance at UBC, while Giovanni studies chemistry and oenology, the science of winemaking. He will be leaving for Italy in January to finish his studies. Pietro will succeed my father when he decides to retire. Right now, he's the assistant to the president for our businesses."

"Wow, that's quite a family you have," I marveled. "No wonder you've done so well."

"Yes, but this date isn't just about our family, it's about the interesting Dallas Larson," she said with that smile I was just now becoming familiar with.

"So, Carl told you my proper name. What else did he tell you?"

"He told me you were the most unusual person he had come across in a very long time. He said you were going to be very successful, but wondered if it would be in the restaurant business. He said that I would find you to be a gentleman and that you had been brought up with good manners. Of course, that made me very curious to know more about you."

She sat with a knowing look and "that smile" as she waited for me to say something.

I had a decision to make, and I was going to involve taking a big risk. I wanted to get to know Francesca Mariani better ... much better. Hell, I wanted to bed her to be completely honest. But I also didn't want to have her find out from someone else that I'm not all that I appear to be. Carl had painted a pretty picture for her, but he had also set a trap that he must have known I would fall into.

I stalled as long as I could before turning to her.

"I'm a cheat. I have stolen something and gotten away with it," I began.

She didn't flinch. She sat waiting for the rest of it.

I swallowed and then started again. "I've been getting a free education at UBC. I've been auditing classes without registering. I got two years of courses before Carl convinced me to go legit. I'm taking correspondence courses from a little-known California university. He wants me to earn a proper degree that I can use to better myself."

"Yes ... that's what he told me. He says you have a quality that he found quite interesting. You have ambition, touched with a bit of larceny," she grinned. "He told me you took your job seriously, but had a nice touch with the staff. He said in both locations, you have improved the performance of the restaurants. That's a pretty big compliment for someone as young as you."

"What about the two years I stole? Are you disappointed?" I asked.

"No, not really. Tell me about your family. What about your parents?"

"They are ... dead. I was in my last year of high school. They had gone to Miami for a Caribbean cruise for ten days. Dad rented a car to do some sightseeing before they left port. They'd gone down to the Keys one day and on the way back they were passing a transport truck when it blew a tire on the trailer. The casing of the tire hit their windshield and the highway patrol think Dad lost control and drove into a concrete barrier. They were both killed instantly."

Francesca had sat quietly as I told the short story of my parents' demise, showing a look of horror when I finished.

"Oh, Dal, that's horrible. I'm so sorry for you."

I shrugged. "I've gotten used to the idea that they're gone, but I don't feel good about how it happened. The only comforting thing was that they went together. I know they loved each other very much and, in a way, this was the best way for it to happen if it had to happen at all."

"Do you have any brothers or sisters ... grandparents?"

"I have one sister and one grandmother. My sister, Darlene is married and living in Saint John, New Brunswick. My fraternal grandmother is still alive, but living in a care home in Vancouver. She's become quite senile. She thinks I'm Dad and always thanks me for coming to see her. She wants to talk about the old days when Dad was my age, before he was married. I just go along with it. It's easier not to upset her and it lets her have a bit of happiness."

"How often do you see your sister and grandmother?"

"The last time I saw Darlene was when the estate was settled. She is quite a bit older than me and we've never been close. She thought I was a pain in the butt because she had to babysit me when she wanted to go out with her friends. I talk to her on the phone now and then, but she never calls me. I see Granny once a week, usually on Sunday morning."

"How did you survive all by yourself with no help?"

"I had help. Friends, neighbours, a housekeeping service. I taught myself to cook and manage the finances of the house. The lawyer who was our executor for the estate was a big help as well. I did okay until I finished high school. Then I was lost for a time. I picked up a job in a grocery store for a while, but that wasn't what I wanted to do. Then I worked for a diesel engine distributor in their parts and shipping department. That kept me busy and provided a small income. After a couple of years I realized I was dead-ended. I needed an education to get anywhere, even if I hadn't figured out where 'anywhere' was yet."

"So that's when you decided to go to university," she smiled.

"Yeah. I checked out the tuition and cost of books and commuting and knew I couldn't afford it without either bankrupting myself of getting way too deep in debt with student loans. So I made up my mind to try and do it on the sly. I never thought about a correspondence school. I didn't think they would have the courses I wanted."

"Amazing," she said with a look of admiration. "How did you get to be working for Carl?"

"I lied on my application for night shift manager that I had restaurant experience. He hired me, but I found out later he knew I was a fraud. I guess he thought I had the drive to succeed, so he took a chance."

She was shaking her head now, but with a smile. "Carl is ... was actually ... Carlo Villano. His family helped our family get established in the import wine business. I don't suppose he mentioned that."

"No," I agreed in complete surprise. "Your brothers chose not to change their names."

"No need. But when you call Pete, Fredo, or Gio, my brothers will respond. If you are going to start a business importing wines from Italy, it actually helps to be Italian," she grinned.

"Hah! I guess it does," I laughed. I glanced at my watch. "What do you say we head for the campus and that dance? We can always talk later."

"Let's go."

~*~

I brought Francesca back to her home just before one am and hoped I hadn't created a problem for her. She was very lively at the dance and a great companion. She stuck with me, even when several other guys asked her to dance. That pumped up my ego.

"Are you okay getting home this late?" I asked as we moved slowly up the driveway.

"Of course. I am old enough to not have a curfew." She didn't sound like she was offended by my question, so I hopped out of the car to get her door and escort her to her front entrance.

"Thank you, Dal. I had a very nice evening," she said, giving me a brief, soft kiss on the lips.

"Can I call you again for another date?" I asked cautiously.

"Yes. I'd be disappointed if you didn't."

That was all I needed to hear. At that moment I felt all of my six-foot-one and then some.

"I'll try and think of something more inventive for next time," I promised.

"Okay ... just remember not on Sunday afternoon or evening," she warned gently.

"I'll remember."

I drove home in a state of euphoria. It was the best date I could ever remember and better yet, there was more to come.

To Be Continued