God Provides

Megan is up to her elbows in soapy grease-laden water as she listens to a man complaining rather more loudly than she thinks necessary about how Kathy has gotten his order wrong. Again, dammit. People having dinner pretend they don’t notice, but by their furtive glances toward Kathy then back at the angry old goat, Megan knows they do. About the same time the irate customer storms out the door, Kathy walks from behind the counter pencil and pad in hand to take the couple’s order who just came in and sat in a booth by the window.

Kathy is apologizing for the outburst when the silver grill of the black Ford F-150 crew-cab pickup truck barreling into the front of Supercilio’s catches her full on, propelling her across the room and into the floor to ceiling mirrors she has Jack install to give the room the illusion of being larger than it is.

The coroner later states how Kathy Supercilio died instantly of blunt force trauma though Megan knows better because she is holding the woman’s hand as she passes away. Kathy’s lips are blue, moving, trembling as if from a cold only she feels. Everyone who can has run away but for Megan. She kneels by Kathy who with wild dying eyes is trying to say… something—but Megan cannot understand what it is even though she bends an ear close to the stricken woman’s mouth. She is reminded by the carnage of grandfather Denn’s war stories he used to relate when she was a little girl.

The death toll is eight. Megan tells the news people who gather around with their microphones and cameras and bright lights how she survived on account of how she was in back washing dishes. One of them wonders what this tragedy means for Megan.

“God provides,” she says, shrugging, the lights blinding.

Megan lives in a place called Fruit Cove. It is probable how the name came about on account of the myriad orchards growing in profusion but that is before the barbarian hordes arrive: retirees with children and grandchildren in tow stirred with a heaping admixture of natives content enough to share this land, their land, so long as the money spigot keeps flowing.

She works at Supercilio’s Pizza about fourteen miles south on Route 16 in an area called Colee Cove just past Six Mile Creek hard by the river. Megan is tasked with delivering pizzas to the wealthy who live in fine grand mansions lining the east banks of the St. Johns. Though perhaps she should be she is not surprised how the richest are also among the stingiest when it comes to tips. This does not in any sense exclude her boss Jack Supercilio, who carries an enormous bulge of cash in the front pocket of the khaki Dockers he wears and from which he disdainfully unfurls a few bills to hurl at the employees he owes money.

The city of San Agustín is founded in 1565. It serves as the capital of Florida for some 200 years. Saint Augustine, as it is later known, becomes the primary port by which cargo is both imported from and exported to Europe. Due to its strategic importance, a vast network of roads will be built to the city throughout northern Florida.

Miguel Colee is a tercio, a soldier of war, on the ship La Concepcion which arrives in the New World in 1566 under the command of the conquistador Pedro Menéndez de Avilés. When he tires of his atrocities, Avilés sails back to Spain leaving Miguel Colee behind with a garrison of soldiers charged with securing Florida for the king. Rather than remaining on the coast, Colee is part of a group assigned to wend its way inland where they establish a foothold along an enormous river which splits the state and later becomes known as the St. Johns.

During her downtime when no orders for pizza and wings and salad and sub sandwiches and garlic knots are coming in Megan is summoned to wash dishes, make up boxes, fill condiment containers, mop floors, and all the other duties she had no idea until being employed at Supercilio’s were associated with delivering pizza pies. These duties are not things she enjoys but the cleaning is a job she can count on since grease is the inevitable byproduct of pizza production.

Megan is forty six years old. Most days she dresses like her daughter: Tight jeans cut off up to here and left ragged, black pleated button-down knit tops that she thinks might accent what little cleavage she has, and a crucifix worn around her neck on a faux gold chain that turns blue if she forgets to remove it before showering or going into the ocean. She hopes the makeup she wears helps cover the pockmarks left from the years of acne that once ravaged her face but she knows it probably doesn’t. Not unless she dims the lights and keeps to the shadows.

In 1600, the Spanish conclude a treaty with the local Indians which allows them to establish a series of missions and plantations across what is now northern Florida. To connect the settlements with Saint Augustine a new road is built part of which runs along the St. Johns River. Two forts are constructed to protect the ferry which serves as a means to cross the river: Fort San Francisco de Pupa on the west bank and Fort Picolata on the east.

Guiro, Miguel Colee’s youngest son, has by now settled with his family in the mosquito-infested marshes just downriver from Fort Picolata on the east bank of the St. Johns where despite brutal hardships both natural and manmade the Colee family descendants will remain for better than the next 400 years.

A sign above the sink right at eye level says: God Provides. Megan is never sure exactly what this means. She likes to believe maybe how it means one day she will no longer be required to lean over that sink scrubbing away at the greasy leftover filaments of cheese and splatters of tomato sauce and shards of pepperoni that sometimes haunt her dreams but she knows it more than likely doesn’t.

In 1740 the Spanish forts on both sides of the river are sacked and burned though by this time the effects of yellow fever and attacks by Anglo-Saxons to the north and unsettled Indians to the south leave the surrounding missions and plantations all but deserted. The remaining Colee family in their swamp endures, however.

“Order up!”

This is Megan’s call to drop whatever she might currently be engaged in to rush a pizza pie to hungry customers. She does not live in Colee Cove so she relies on her GPS to guide her to her destinations. Sometimes, though, her antiquated phone leads her astray, and she ends up miles from her destination, at which point her phone rings.

“Megan? Where are you?”

“I’m sorry, Jack. I took a wrong turn.”

“Dammit. This is the third time this week.”

Kathy is more understanding. Kathy is Jack’s wife. Megan suspects if not for Kathy she would have been shit-canned ages ago. Were you to see the two of them together, you might think Jack is the dominant one in the relationship, the more intelligent, the driving force behind not only Supercilio’s Pizza but also the construction business which they own. You would be mistaken, however.

The construction company is called Ancient City Construction. In Europe, Saint Augustine might well be viewed as a relatively youthful city but here it is known as the oldest continually inhabited city in North America. Jack and Kathy Supercilio’s construction business suffers a severe economic downturn during the recession of 2008. During these dark times, Jack recalls an old family recipe for the most delicious pizza sauce he has ever tasted and Supercilio’s Pizza is born, in part to save Ancient City Construction but mostly to forestall the bank from foreclosing upon the mortgage.

In 1763 the British acquire what is then known as East and West Florida from the Spanish in exchange for Cuba. Philip Colee is one of the three Spanish citizens left behind when the last ship sails without him. He later claims he was looking for his horse which had run off during the night when harried by wolves but in fact, Philip Colee and his two brothers were sleeping off drunks and failed to wake in order to get to the dock on time.

People are all the time telling Megan how she looks so much like her daughter that they could be sisters. This in no way engenders the same happiness in Sabitha as it does in her. Sabitha is herself engaged in a horrific but losing battle against the rages of the same bad skin that once plagued her mother. She is twenty five years old and still a virgin. This fact simultaneously makes Megan both glad and sad for her daughter, who has not yet grown the bosom mother once promised.

The arrival of the British means a rejuvenation of the plantations as well as an influx of wealthy British citizens. The failing fortunes of northern Florida are revived if only temporarily. The Colee brothers do not hold deed to any property but for a marshy section of land just south of the old fort. However, that property fronts the stagecoach route that runs through vast plantation holdings into the city of Saint Augustine and is so situated as to make a perfect stopping point for passengers to disembark and have lunch before continuing onward.

This point is brought to the forefront of Philip’s attention when the stagecoach grinds to a halt right by the tree stump upon which he happens to be lounging in the late morning sunshine. A tall man, good looking and quite regal in his top hat and coattails, steps out. After standing and gazing about for several minutes as if he expects a wild Indian attack at any moment, he strolls up to Philip, asks when lunch will be ready, and carelessly tosses him a half penny.

By 1780 the brothers build a thriving business on that very spot. Thank ya kindly, the passengers say as they exit the stagecoach sore and stiff from the morning ride as they stand and sniff the Florida-scented air while they are handed wrapped lunches by the children of Philip.

Russalino and his wife Maria immigrate to Buffalo, New York in 1935 from Sicily, bringing with them a plethora of family recipes for anything from Italian sausage to pizza sauce. The Battagilias have twelve children. A daughter, Rosalinda, marries a neighbor, Tomaso Supercilio, in 1952. The children of their marriage are all given American names. Jonathon is born in 1957. On his twelve birthday, before he blows out the candles on his cake, he announces he wants to be called Jack from now on. Nobody knows why but they accede to his wish.

Jack Supercilio marries Kathy Barona in 1980. Together, they attempt to revive his family’s failing restaurant business but realize the struggling Buffalo economy will never support their vision. In 1994 they move their growing family to Saint Augustine in Florida where Jack’s brother Jason offers to bring him into his construction business as a full partner.

Jack Supercilio is suspicious of his wife. Oh, he never says so in that many words, but Megan recognizes the same signs in Jack that her ex-husband exhibits in the year prior to the divorce. In point of fact, Megan is never unfaithful while the man she marries plays around with just about any whore who will have him. Megan discovers this when her husband infects her with an incurable venereal disease and in a fit of conscience confesses all.

This experience has colored Megan’s existence. She is sure all men are the same: pigs and worse. Unfortunately, she also inadvertently passes along this prejudice to Sabitha and so unwittingly contributes to her daughter’s celibacy in profoundly devastating ways.

God Provides.

Megan can’t help but see the sign every moment she is standing over the sink scrubbing dishes. If this is so, does that mean God provides the vagaries as well as the blessings? Does God provide the hand which Jack uses to caress Megan’s ass, sub rosa, as he walks behind her? Is this some sort of sign too? Or is it more likely simply a man being a man?

In 1783, a new treaty is signed in which Britain gives back East and West Florida to the Spanish. It is for the most part an unanticipated disaster. The British population flees. By 1784 out of the 17,000 residents in East Florida only 700 remain. Fernando and his brother Nicolaus have both succumbed to a combination of drink and yellow fever so of the Colee’s, only Philip and his children are left. Though for his British neighbors the new treaty is a calamity on par with the hurricanes which periodically bombard the area, Philip Colee looks upon this as a God-provided miracle.

With the help of his sons Amos and Michael, Philip extends his land holdings to include the entire cove where the swirling waters of the St. Johns carves out a natural harbor on the eastern bank. Since the plantations and missions are abandoned, and Philip has established friendships with the local Indians, there is no one to challenge his claim to ownership. He names the area Colee Cove.

There is a tavern, Pete’s Place, next door to Supercilio’s Pizza where Megan sometimes goes after work to unwind. Though expensive she likes getting herself a frosty mug of Funky Buddha, a locally micro-brewed craft beer which the owner, Pete himself, travels south to Fort Lauderdale to buy and keep on tap. She sits alone out back in the beer garden where it is dark and smoking is allowed. After being reminded at least a thousand times by her daughter Megan understands how the cigarettes are killing her but since there is little to hold her to this life, other than Sabitha, of course, she does not overly concern herself with quitting.

Tonight she sees Jack and Kathy Supercilio sitting at a nearby table. Kathy has a mixed drink in front of her. Maybe a margarita though in the dim light Megan cannot be certain. Jack is drinking what appears to be a martini. Something with an olive. Both have cigarettes smoldering in the ashtray parked in the middle of the plastic patio table. This allows Megan to feel better about her own lack of willpower.

Uncertain whether or not to wave at them or maybe to get up, approach and say hi, she instead waits to see if they notice her. This seems the safer course. Megan has grown accustomed to always charting the smoothest sailing possible. Various men walking past her table do not seem to notice Megan either even though as a woman sitting alone she thinks how she makes an attractive target.

In 1819, Spain deeds the Florida territory to the newly minted United States for the assumption of some five million dollars in claims by British citizens against Spain. When these cases are resolved in a decision by the Supreme Court in 1823, Michael Colee, now patriarch of the family, is forced to surrender possession of the cove which his father claimed after the British ceded Florida back to Spain forty some years prior. The name of the area will remain Colee Cove, however.

“Hey, ya’ll,” Megan says in her heavy Floridian accent. “Let’s do us a shot.” She has by now and at their encouragement joined Jack and Kathy at their table and is well on her way to becoming exceedingly drunk. She knows this is not a good idea, especially in the company of her bosses, but the alcohol has taken hold and Megan is helpless to resist.

“Okay, but just one,” Kathy says, her voice still betraying telltale signs of growing up in Buffalo. She is looking at her husband for… is it perhaps permission to partake? “Then we better go.”

Jack does not look happy. But then he rarely does. Jack is a man who cannot seem to let go. Of anything. His face is a mask constantly taut under the myriad obligations he faces on a day to daily basis. Megan wonders momentarily what might happen if she responds to his overtures but then just as quickly she realizes how the betrayal of Kathy would be too great a burden to bear.

She orders three shots of Pete’s best tequila. When the glasses arrive on a platter of pink, Kathy hoists one in a toast while Megan does likewise. Jack simply shakes his head. He seems disgusted. The shots have cost Megan ten dollars each. That added to the beer she has drank so far tonight adds up to about half her weekly paycheck which was earmarked for the rent this month. While this should trouble her, it does not, though tomorrow it will.

“Are you okay driving home tonight?”

“Sure,” Megan says, though she notices how her voice is slurry and her vision has started to double. “I’m fine, Kath. Thank you.”

Kathy looks at her for what seems too long a time and then glances to Jack. Her husband has already stood up and is waiting, moving toward the exit, clearly anxious to be on his way. Though his cigarette still smolders in the ashtray he has lighted another. That he will have to extinguish it before leaving through the tavern must not worry him. Jack has other issues. Rich white man troubles.

As the lights come up announcing closing time Megan downs the remaining shot of tequila rather than wasting it. As she rises to her feet the world swims before her eyes not unlike how she might be a fish inside an aquarium looking out. She wonders for a moment at the advisability of driving herself home before pulling out her phone. Of course, Sabitha doesn’t pick up. She shuts off her phone when she goes to bed.

“Dad?”

“Christ, Megan. It’s 2am.”

“I’m sorry, dad. I need a ride.”

“You’ve been drinking.”

Dave is a recovering alcoholic who oftentimes suffers slips. Tonight is one of those times. Megan has remarked more than once to mother how her father’s reducing his dependency on booze has not lightened his mood swings. Her mother agrees but then always goes on to say how the Colee family have a tradition to maintain as one of the earliest European settlers in northern Florida whose presence is mostly due to the copious amounts of alcohol they have consumed during the nearly five hundred years they have been here.

“A little. Can you come get me?”

“Can’t do it, sweetheart. I’m half in the hat myself. Here. Talk to your mother.”

The forest surrounding Colee Cove comes alive at night with croakings and wailings and things little and large scurrying through the thick Florida undergrowth. Megan sits and listens. She would listen to the radio but she knows better than to leave the keys in the ignition. Mom will be there soon to pick her up. Surprisingly, she didn’t seem that bad on the phone.

Megan wonders what the ex is doing tonight. Probably in bed with the bimbo. The one he paraded around at Sabitha’s last birthday party. Half his age and tits out to here. Dammit. Why did she have to fall so hard for that creep? They’ve been divorced over twenty years and Megan still carries a torch for the bastard around with her. Good thoughts. Bad.

“I’m so glad you called, Megan,” mother says as she pulls up next to Megan’s car.

“I’m sorry for bringing you out so late.”

“Just climb in and we’ll get you home,” mother says. A sigh of exasperation escapes with the words. She is doing her best not to chastise Megan. She has always been there for her only daughter though sometimes it takes all Megan’s strength to remind herself of mother’s love. “Will you be able to get a ride back tomorrow to pick up your car?”

“Sabitha will take me.”

Driving is okay but riding in automobiles always gives Megan motion sickness and the way mother is only accentuates the feeling. Megan imagines how her mother must harbor a secret yearning to be an Indy 500 driver the way she accelerates so quickly before jamming on the brakes at the last instant whenever she comes up to stop signs. It isn’t far to the mobile home where Megan lives but halfway there she realizes she is not going to make it.

“You better pull over, mom,” she says, unbuckling her seatbelt in anticipation of dashing from the vehicle into the weeds growing along the roadside.

On Christmas day 1941 Dennard Colee convinces his father to sign the enlistment papers allowing him to join the Marines as a private. He is seventeen years old. War against the Empire of Japan has been declared just a couple weeks earlier. Denn spends the next four years fighting an enemy he never met on Pacific islands he never knew existed. Of the 180 boys who ship out from Camp Blanding with him, he will be the lone survivor.

When Denn returns home from his first world war, he marries Lorraine Hartman, a pretty dark-haired girl he has known since kindergarten, and goes to work for his brother in law, Dick Littman, in the burgeoning field of air conditioning, an invention of Willis Carrier of Buffalo, New York. The business thrives throughout the 1950s. About the same time as the birth of his first son, Dave, in 1955, and despite pulling up on the wheel, Denn begins a slow downward spiraling descent into extreme alcoholism, and his second world war begins. This one he will not survive.

Dave Colee will start his own illustrious drinking career when he is eight years old by shimmying under tables at the drunken parties his parents host systematically commandeering forgotten glasses of booze. By the time he marries Carla Rogers who lives just down the road, Dave is downing a fifth of Jack Daniel’s each and every day. This continues, interspersed with a few intervals of sobriety, throughout the rest of his life.

Megan wakes with not as bad a hangover as she feared considering how much she drank the night before. She has overslept. Sabitha leaves for her job soon so Megan hurriedly showers and dresses so her daughter can drop her off at Supercilio’s. On the way, she tries counting the money she has left in her pocketbook but the motion of the automobile soon makes that chore impossible. Instead, Megan focuses on the horizon to help alleviate the sickness she feels. That and she realizes she spent way too much last night and will need to ask dad for a loan in order to make rent this month.

Dave Colee marries and divorces Carla three times over the next fifty years. They are currently on marriage number four though he hears the distant rumble of trouble brewing just over the matrimonial horizon, suspecting divorce number four might not be as far off as he thought. Once, they stayed together for the children’s sake. Later, the grandchildren. Now, Dave is no longer sure why they bother.

The funeral is over and Megan is back at work up to her elbows in a soapy grease-laden disaster of dishwater. A stack of pots and pans several feet tall greets her each day, the result of the prep work the cooks must come in early to do in order to prepare for the rush of customers later in the afternoon and evening. Her lower back aches. The Tylenol she took earlier is wearing thin and she has not remembered to bring more. She stares at the sign and wonders.

God provides.