The Body #1: Santo and Fiorella

Chapter 16 (Fiorella): Options

For the next three weeks, Santo was busy every day with Lucio, planning, organizing, shifting, meeting, arranging, negotiating. I knew this because he would come home and talk to me about his days over dinner. That had never happened before. In a typical Body family, the wife would ask how was your day, and the husband would answer just another day at the office.

That answer covered a multitude of actions and behaviors -- and sins -- and it was always left at that. The less said, the better. Nobody wanted to infect the home with the kind of happenings the men dealt with on a daily basis.

Now, though, even though he couldn't tell me specific details, Santo told me much more about his day, and I knew he and Lucio and the other higher-ups in the Body were working hard to make changes -- far-reaching changes that were turning our world upside down. It was all anybody could talk about, and my girlfriends and I were discussing it all the time. My little sisters were also thrilled that they wouldn't have to marry men not of their of own choosing. Lucio and Santo had made it clear that parents were not to pressure their daughters and sons to make matches, and if anyone did feel pressure, they could go straight to Lucio or Santo.

When they'd announced the end of arranged marriages, there had been much rejoicing from the younger generations. The older ones looked on it suspiciously, finding it difficult to let go of the it was good enough for us attitude.

They'd also instituted the policy that all Body husbands were to open bank accounts in their wives' names, providing their wives with an independence they'd never had before.

College was now being offered as an option to the girls and the boys in the Body, and career counseling was happening on a wide-spread basis.

"We relied on brute strength to hold our territories before," Santo had explained. "We'll still have that, of course, but we'll also have brains. We'll have our own lawyers and accountants and doctors and businessmen."

They'd also instituted a stay-at-home-mom wage. For all the married women who were keeping house and raising their children, they would be paid by the Body, the same as anyone else working for the Body. The women's hard work was finally being recognized and rewarded with a salary.

"They're raising the next generation, Fiorella. It's the most important job of all," Santo had said. "They should be paid -- and paid well -- for all they do. We're trying to make the future better than the past, and these are some solid starts, but I'm sure there's even more we could be doing. Let me know if you think of something else."

He'd been serious, and I promised I'd tell him if I thought of any other ideas that should be implemented.

The day after Dario had taken me from the house, Santo had had a new security system installed after the old one had been ripped out. I hadn't realized the old system was everywhere throughout the house, and Santo had just shrugged and said it was outdated and no longer needed so it was going.

Three days after Dario had taken me, Santo's mother and father came for dinner. That morning, Santo had asked if his parents could have dinner with us, and since I still didn't want to be out in public considering the state of my face (thank you, Dario, you bastard), I'd agreed.

That evening, my mother-in-law walked into the house, straight to me and took me in her arms. 

"I'm so sorry, Fiorella," she cried. "I'm so sorry for everything. I was trying to help you avoid trouble and ended up hurting you by being so harsh. I didn't know it wasn't Santo's baby, and if word had gotten back to Dario that you were resistant to your husband's child or giving him trouble about it, the situation could have ended badly. Very badly. Please forgive me."