The Bonjour Gene: A Novel

Chapter 3. Tying the Knot

Face up on Anthony’s bed, Michael Bonjour listened to the mandolin trio tuning up amid the engagement party bustle in the many rooms of the Carmelo house. A sick stomach had given him a good excuse to stay upstairs in his future brother-in-law’s bedroom and not have to greet the arriving guests, mainly from Cindy’s family. Except for Anthony, who studied law at Stanford and couldn’t make the party but sent a gift, the entire Carmelo clan would soon invade the house and vast backyard to toast to Cindy’s happiness. From his side, there would only be his mother and his brother Vincent, partly the reason why Michael was feeling sick. For days he had been dreading the arrival of Vinnie and that predictable fraction-of-a-second when the Carmelos all register his younger brother’s darker skin. Michael’s anxiety over that, as well as over countless more things spinning in his head at that moment, had kept him from eating anything for breakfast or lunch, so the two vodkas on the rocks downed by noon had been heaved up well before the first guests buzzed at the door. The petite Mama Sylvia Carmelo fed him some chicken broth before sending him up to rest in Anthony’s room to recover in time for the party. When he got up from the kitchen table, Cindy’s dad took the opportunity to quip that “Michael had turned white as a New England Yankee,” and diagnosed the stomach problem as a fear of tying the knot. Mama Sylvia’s broth did pacify his stomach, but after lying down for almost an hour he was still unable to relax, and he could hear the 28 k Tying the Knot 29 Tying the Knot extended Carmelos chiming at the door and filling the house. They had come to publicly celebrate this engagement even though they privately whispered disapprovals that could be felt through the walls. The engagement’s public announcement at the highest decibels in the Providence Sunday paper, with a 3´´ x 5´´ portrait of Cindy, was kept from him as a surprise. He took the clipping out of his shirt pocket: Ms. Cynthia Carmelo, of Providence, is betrothed to Michael Bonjour , of Riverdale, New York City. Ms. Carmelo, a graduate of Providence College, is the daughter of Louis and Sylvia Carmelo. Mr. Bonjour is a graduate of Manhattan College, son of Jean McCartin and the late Edgar Bonjour, from the Riverdale section of the Bronx, New York City. Ms. Carmelo is a graduate student at Teachers College, Columbia University. Mr. Bonjour is an executive trainee with Westminster Bank. Mr. Carmelo is founder and president of Pope Costume Jewels in Warwick. Mrs. Bonjour is a graduate of New York University and is presently office manager of the Manhattan law firm Dunkin, Hayes. High-heeled steps passed by the bedroom door. Knocking on the door to Cindy’s bedroom, her middle-aged cousin Nancy asked when the bride-to-be would make her appearance. The door opened, and Nancy expressed exuberant admiration at how gorgeous her cousin looked. Nancy’s daughter Rebecca, the hairdresser, pointed out to her mother the special touches she had given to Cindy’s hairdo. Nancy reiterated how simply great Cindy looked. Nancy’s voice lacked the sarcasm she customarily leveled at Michael . For the past three years, at some point when she spoke to him she would inevitably reiterate the first thing she said when they were introduced: that his light brown hair and fair complexion weren’t anything at all what she expected when she’d been told that Cindy was seeing “a Puerto Rican guy.” From Nancy’s reaction, Michael deduced that the only detail about him that made a deep impression with the Carmelos was that he was “a Puerto Rican,” when he was really also half Irish. Nancy was the constant reminder of the odorless yet noxious fumes emitted by the entire Carmelo family, murky signs that he had denied to himself for three years but that as the date of this formal engagement approached increasingly became clear as vodka. There were the afternoon drives with Cindy along the coast, taking in the fishing boats, the dunes, the overcast New England skies, on the way to their dropping something off for her father at the jewelry factory. As those stops were always short...