My Mother Meets Jake – A Turning Point

      When my Dad’s visit came to an end and I felt both loss and relief.  Besides the night at the diner with Captain Jack Finbar, the Marine Pilot Lieutenant Neil, and all the talk of UFO’s and aliens, it became apparent that summer was a turning point for me in many ways. Besides the additional excursions into the barrens, our family spent more time at the beach.

      It was the summer that my Mother and future Stepfather Jake would meet. Jake was a hydraulic jet mechanic in the Marines Corp. He owned a Jaguar XKE and a motorcycle, which we all thought was really cool. When he met my Mother, he went nuts, pursuing her vigorously. His DNA demanded that he listen to the siren song of her charms.

      The first time we met him was when my Mother brought him home to dinner.

      He was pleasant, polite and reserve. When we got ready for bed, without thought, I acted like I did when I was younger, which was to give all my relatives, male or female a kiss on the cheek goodnight.

      As I leaned towards Jake to kiss his cheek, he was startled from what was to him an uncustomary gesture and reflexively leaned away from me and froze in discomfort.

      His uneasiness over my attempted gesture projected to me and in a fit of uncertainty I aborted the gesture. This, first interaction between us, I felt was to set the tone of our underlying life long relationship, which was often mutual discomfort.

      Aside from Jake’s natural reserve, I had learned that he was mentally sharp and he had physical strength that belied his slender medium height frame. He was of Sicilian and Italian descent without any other ethnic influences to muddy the waters within the pool of his DNA. More than his Brother and as much as his Father you could see the face of Sicily stamped on him. Despite his ordinary size Jake possessed an enormous amount of personal force… you could practically feel it. This force coupled with his intelligence is what propelled him to one day become a Pezzonovante, a pistlolarro.

      Pezzonovante is a word that the Sicilians use to describe people that become big shots, have power and essentially are like a puppet master controlling the strings of every aspect of their lives. Jake reminded people of Al Pacino’s depiction of Michael Corleone because of his mannerisms and his close to the vest intelligence and force of will. My biological Father sometimes reminded some of our relatives of Sonny Corleone, because of his temper, humor and sexuality. Actually, as my Father got older he reminded everyone of an older Al Pacino – especially when Al Pacino played the blind man in the movie “Scent of a Woman – ohh ahh!

      Despite all of their strengths and good points, they both suffered from two flaws that impaired relations with the people that mattered the most too him; both of them are narcissists with a hair trigger tempers.

      Ironically and sadly, while my Stepfather Jake possessed personal power which was evident to practically everyone who came in contact with him, this power never allowed him to feel any real level of comfort around most people and therefore most people were uncomfortable around him… even the few people that liked or even loved him. He was, I believe, a man that was not very comfortable in his own skin.