The novel ‘A Woman between Two Men’, with an Albanian-American Theme, is authored by Carrie Hooper and Skifter Këllici
Later that same evening, after they had eaten supper, Mary and Wilma sat on the hotel’s veranda while Ralph and Scott Norton played cards at another table. Mary told Wilma what had happened a few hours earlier. She spoke quietly, as if she were revealing a deep, dark secret only her best friend should know. Wilma held her breath and raised her thin eyebrows, where a tuft of dark hair sometimes fell, and listened with intense curiosity. After Mary finished her story, which sounded like an action film, Wilma opened her flaming, brown eyes.
“Wouldn’t you say that Kreshnik or Nik Germeni, who is of Albanian descent, has fallen head over heels in love with you?” Wilma asked.
“It seems that way to me,” said Mary.
“Maybe his feelings for you started when you met at the hospital. You mentioned him then, and you said you liked him.”
“Yes, I admit it. He was a very likable person. He was polite, quiet to the point of shy, attractive, not to mention charming, although at first glance, he is rough. As I told you, even after James, who adopted Kreshnik after his father died, recovered and went home, Nik came back after a few days to thank me. He brought me a bouquet of flowers.”
“You don’t suppose the love bug has bitten you, too, do you?”
Mary burst out laughing. Ralph and Scott turned their heads toward her, then immersed themselves in their game again. One person won, then the other.
“They have no idea what we’re talking about,” said Wilma. “They think we’re just talking about women’s stuff.”
“In a way they’re right although what I told you really struck me,” said Mary. “At any rate, it’s not that the love bug has bitten me as you say. But I can tell you, tonight I got to know that young man through the tragic events in his life which he told me about. I also learned that he likes to write and is interested in art. I don’t know how it happened, but my life has taken an unusual turn.”
Mary raised a hand as if searching for the words to complete her thought.
“When we were dancing and he almost fell on me, not on purpose, of course, when our cheeks, chests, and thighs almost touched, as if we were one body, a wave of warmth washed over me.”
“That means you are falling in love with him.”
Mary shook her head.
“You know, Wilma, I’m cautious when it comes to love. I’m twenty-seven. As I have told you, until now, I have had a fling or two. I ended them because I hadn’t found the right person.”
“I have mentioned Charlie Smith to you a few times. Do you think he might be the right one?”
“I don’t know. I met him one afternoon in Del Mar Beach. He, like Nik, is well-mannered and laid back. But he doesn’t talk about anything other than his chemistry studies and his lectures at the university.”
“Maybe he will express his love for you during future meetings.”
Mary shrugged her shoulders, not knowing what to say.
Wilma thought for a moment, then said, “Forgive me, Mary. I am your first cousin and am older than you, but if I were you and had to choose between Charlie and Kreshnik, I would choose Charlie. On the one hand, you have a scholar. On the other hand, you have Kreshnik whom you do not know well.”
Mary smiled with surprise.
“You talk as if I had decided to marry Kreshnik!” Mary said, as if scolding Wilma. “I know he was an orphan. He may have defects. He appears to have a drinking problem. I saw that for myself. But amazingly, he also loves music and literature. When he told me the awful events surrounding his and his father’s escape, when he was only five years old, he almost teared up.”
“He seems very sensitive.”
Mary nodded.
“And, as I said, he recited a poem he had written, and I really liked it,” said Mary. “It was unique. If he were to publish a few of his poems, I think they would be well received. Don’t you agree that someone should help him?”
“By making love to him?” Wilma teased.
“That’s all you think about!”
“Of course. I don’t know what to say. This is an unusual situation. The perfect plot for a novel. So tomorrow night you’re going to meet him at seven?”
“Are you coming, too?”
“No, Mary. I’ll see you afterwards. It’s better that way.”
In the meantime, Ralph and Scott had finished their card game. They came over to Wilma and Mary.
“What do you say we go sailing in the motorboat?” said Ralph suddenly. “You, your dear cousin, Scott, and I. The seas are calm and the clear sky is swarming with stars.”
“The fact you won seems to have made you a poet,” said Wilma, smiling.
“Even if I had lost, I would still have invited you to go sailing. Isn’t that right, Scott?” said Ralph, and motioned to the others to get up.
“What a good idea you had,” said Scott.
“Next time, bring Violet,” Ralph added.
“When will you get engaged, Scott?” asked Wilma.
“I’m working on that,” said Scott.
“She’s quite a gal!” Ralph said to Wilma and Mary.
“Lord willing, Mary, you and Charlie will get engaged,” Wilma said quietly.
Mary just shook her head and knit her brow.
She did her hair as if it were a special occasion. She combed it neatly and put it in a ponytail to make her rosy cheeks, soft lips, and earrings more visible. She wore a blue skirt and a tight, cherry red shirt that emphasized her attractive shoulders and chest. As she was leaving the hotel to meet Wilma, she regretted her rather sensuous outfit. She looked as if she were going to meet her lover and wanted to impress him. In fact, she was going to see a young man whom she had met a while ago. She really liked him. However, during their meeting, he might tell her things that had nothing to do with love. Mary had considered that possibility the night before.
He might reveal another secret and might ask Mary her opinion about it. Or he might tell her something totally unexpected. She eagerly awaited their meeting. The most important thing was to be with him.
Mary arrived at the club entrance right at seven. She waited a minute, then a couple more minutes, but Nik did not come. She thought maybe she had misunderstood him. Perhaps he had told her they would meet in the club itself. Therefore, she went inside.
Couples danced to the music of an orchestra. Other people drank and embraced passionately. Mary was lost in anxious thought when to her astonishment, she saw Kreshnik sitting at a corner table with a dark-skinned girl whose hair went down to her nearly bare shoulders. The two sipped drinks and talked, oblivious to what was happening around them.
The girl’s eyes bored into Kreshnik. She spoke sweetly at first, then more harshly, as if she were threatening him. She tightened her jaw, then wrinkled her forehead. Kreshnik shook his head and fluttered his eyelids as if he were drunk. He tried to explain something to the girl, and his body language indicated he wished to leave. He awkwardly shook the hand in which he held his drink, and some of it spilled onto his chest. Meanwhile, the girl continued to listen to him. Then she lured him with her playful eyes. Suddenly, Kreshnik seemed to remember something, jumped up from the table, looked at his watch, and was about to leave, but the girl, who had also risen to her feet, grabbed his hand, embraced him with one of her plump arms, and almost kissed him on the lips. Kreshnik avoided her. He staggered and tried to free himself from her grasp. But the girl, overcome by a strange magnetic force, grabbed his arm. His face grew solemn. He swayed and fell back into his chair. He shuddered when he saw Mary. He broke free of the girl and rushed toward her. But it was too late. Mary turned and ran out of the club.
Kreshnik followed her.
The dark-faced girl also ran out of the club. She saw Kreshnik following Mary, and she screwed up her face with disdain.
“Mary, wait! Please!” Kreshnik begged, trying to catch up to her. “It was a misunderstanding.”
Mary did not stop, but ran even faster. Kreshnik could have gone after her, but he saw it was futile. Filled with bitterness, he followed Mary’s silhouette until it disappeared from view.
In the courtyard of the hotel, Mary saw Wilma with another woman. When Wilma saw the look on Mary’s face, she ended her conversation with the other woman and walked toward her. She was worried.
“What happened, Mary?” she asked.
“I can’t believe it! It’s just terrible!” she gasped, on the verge of tears. “In a corner of the club, I saw Nik with another woman who clung to him and even kissed him. He sat there motionless like a simpleton.”
Mary was filled with turmoil as she spoke. Her furious eyes opened wide. Her words made Wilma’s eyes practically jerk open.
She took Mary’s arm, and the two of them sat on a bench in the public garden in front of the hotel.
“He seemed so shy. How could he have deceived me like this? How could he have stooped so low?” she sobbed. “He made a date with me and at the exact time we were supposed to meet, I found him with another woman. And where? At a table in the club entrance where she seduced him. They hugged and kissed right before my very eyes. Then Nik followed me like a disgusting beggar! How could he do that?”
Mary put her trembling hands to her temples as if they were about to burst, and their bitterness was about to flow down her cheeks.
“Stupid me, why was I taken in by his innocent face, his pitiful appearance. He was an orphan with childlike naivete who struggled so much. His gentleness and honesty drew me to him, especially yesterday, when he fought that robber and risked his life for me. Therefore, I agreed to meet him again today.”
Wilma remained paralyzed for a few moments. She did not know what to do. Then, to comfort Mary, she put her arm around her hunched shoulders.
Mary swallowed.
“I don’t know what would have happened later,” she continued. “I might have seen him again. I wanted to be with him. I wanted to help him, to get him away from alcohol. I might have gotten even closer to him, and God knows, I would not have fallen into the trap he so slyly set for me. But God protected me. He gave me the opportunity to see what lay behind that jerk’s appearance.”
After this surge of fiery words which came from her broken heart, Mary almost exploded with anger, but Wilma put her hand to Mary’s lips.
“That’s enough,” she said, and looked at Mary tenderly. “I’ve listened to you carefully, and I believe you. Speaking as someone who is older and more experienced than you, I had a bad feeling about this guy aside from what you told me. There are many people who hide behind a cultured exterior. Calm down and forget what happened.”
Mary listened, wracked with pain.
“If Charlie Smith invites you out, don’t put him off. As you say, he may be a little cold. He seems that way to me. But I think he has qualities that are important to a woman who wants to start a family.”
After she said those words, Wilma embraced her stunned friend.
The next afternoon before three, Mary, who had still not recovered from the incident with Kreshnik, was headed for her usual shift at the hospital which ended at eleven P.M. She was so distracted she did not notice that someone had appeared in the vicinity, seemingly out of nowhere. On rare occasions, relatives of patients approached Mary and asked her to talk to the doctors about letting them see their loved ones even if it was not visiting hours. But she could barely suppress a scream when she saw Kreshnik, totally exhausted, his face pale. His hair clung to his sweaty forehead. He was dressed in the same pants and wrinkled shirt in which she had seen him two days earlier. Yet he still looked attractive. Mary, however, was not impressed. She pulled herself together, gave him a furious look, and, burning with hatred, she burst out: “How dare you show your face here!”
Kreshnik could not look at her.
“Please, Mary,” he said. “Hear me out for just a couple minutes. I may have a problem with alcohol, and when I’m drunk, I may start a fight, as I told you, but I am not and have never been a mean-spirited bum. However, yesterday something unexpected happened because of, among other things, that accursed alcohol.”
“Something unexpected?” interrupted Mary angrily.
“Yes. That girl was Dolores, my boss’s lover. She followed me to the cafe I went to before I went to the club to meet you. It’s a long story.”
“You’re certainly full of stories. Now I find out you have a boss. You still haven’t told me what kind of work you do. It must be pretty bad if you go out with the boss’s lover. And she had the audacity to approach you, take your hand, and embrace you right in front of me and everyone else. You sounded so desperate when you told me you had left your lover because she only wanted your money. Then last night, rascal that you are, you were taken in by her seductive looks.”
Kreshnik shook his head and was about to approach Mary, but she took a step backwards and knit her brow which trembled with anger. Then she shouted, “Enough of your nonsense! Don’t look at me! Or I’ll tell one of Ralph Kallagan’s officers to throw you in prison for attempted rape. You said yourself he hasn’t forgotten your foolishness.”
“Please, Mary. If you listen to me, you’ll understand a lot of things. All right, throw me out! Don’t ever see me again!”
Kreshnik’s voice sounded like a distant rumble of thunder in a dark, cloudy sky. He looked miserable.
“Why should I listen to you? Because you are well versed in literature and music, because you know parts of opera arias by heart. You recited some verses you claimed you wrote, and Lord only knows where you got them from.”
Kreshnik smiled bitterly. He wanted to say something, but Mary, infuriated, cut him off:
“Get out of here this minute! I never want to see you again! If you come back here, I will call the police!”
Kreshnik retreated and looked around, as if he actually saw one of Ralph Kallagan’s officers. After he gave Mary a pleading look, he disappeared. (Continues)
Click here for Part-1, Part-2, Part-3, Part-4, Part-5, Part-6, Part-7, Part-8, Part-9,
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About the Authors
Carrie Hooper was born and raised in Elmira, New York. She has been blind since birth. She received a B.A. in vocal performance from Mansfield University, Mansfield, Pennsylvania. She went on to receive an M.A. in German and an M.A. in vocal performance from the State University of New York at Buffalo. After completing her studies, she spent a year at the Royal University College of Music in Stockholm, Sweden as a Fulbright scholar. Carrie currently lives in Elmira, New York. She taught German, Italian, and Romanian at Elmira College. She has a passion for foreign languages and in addition to the languages mentioned above, she is also proficient in Swedish, Spanish, and Albanian. Music also plays an important role in Carrie’s life. She teaches voice and piano lessons, gives vocal concerts, plays the piano and organ at a church, and sings in a community chorus. Carrie not only loves music and languages, but also enjoys poetry. She has published three books: “Piktura në fjalë” (“Word Paintings”), a bilingual collection of poetry (Albanian-English), “My Life in My Words”, and “Away from Home.” She has also translated texts from Albanian and Romanian to English.
Skifter Këllici was born in Tirana, Albania and received a diploma in history and literature from the University of Tirana. He worked as a journalist, scholar, and sportscaster on radio and television. He is the author of several novels and nonfiction books, including the children’s books, “Memories of the Old Neighborhood” and “In the Footsteps” as well as the historical novels, “Assassination in Paris”, “The Murderer with the White Hands”, and “September Disaster.” He wrote the screenplay for “In the Footsteps” which won a special prize at the International Children’s Film Festival in Giffoni, Italy in 1979. He has lived in Boston, Massachusetts since 1999.
[The book ‘Disastrous September is being reproduced in episodes with the consent of the author]
