Illusions of Love by Cynthia Freeman

undoubtedly lower-middle income. It occurred to him that he’d never been in such a neighbourhood and he realized that in many ways he was as narrow and provincial as his roommates.
    Finally he got out of the car, walked up the short flight of stairs, rang the bell and waited.
    “Hi,” Dominic said as he stood framed in the doorway.
     
    “Did you have a rough time finding the place?”
    “No, it was much nearer than I realized.”
    Dominic held open the door a little wider.
    “Come on in.”
    Standing in the dark hall, Martin observed the small living room with the overstuffed couch and two matching chairs. The rug was faded and worn. A grand piano took up most of one corner.
    “My folks are in the sun room,” Dominic said, drawing Martin inside.
    “Come on, I want you to meet them.”
    Mr. Gatti was stocky, of medium height, with a shock of white hair. He wore very thick lenses which somehow did not detract from his appearance. Mrs. Gatti was a woman of almost her husband’s size.
    Nonetheless, she appeared almost delicate. Her hands and feet were small and her fingers were elegantly tapered. Her violet-blue eyes seemed to look beyond Martin, giving the impression of studied aloofness.
    “This is my mother,” Dominic said, interrupting Martin’s thoughts.
    “And this is Martin Roth, Mother.”
    “It’s a pleasure, Mrs. Gatti,” Martin answered.
    She merely nodded.
    “And my father.”
    Mr. Gatti extended his hand.
    “I’m glad to meet you,” he said and went back to reading his paper.
    With those casual amenities out of the way, Dominic said, “I think we ought to get cracking on the books.”
    Martin followed Dominic up the dimly lit stairs to his room. It was sparsely furnished with a bed, dresser, and a long folding table which Dominic used as a desk. There was a wooden chair near the door, another by Dominic’s bed, and a faded green mohair upholstered chair with a matching ottoman. On the wall was a picture of Jesus. The table was strewn with an assortment of books economics, engineering literature, and an assortment of other subjects.
    “All right, let’s get down to cases. Pull up a chair.”
    After two hours, Martin began to see the clearing in the wilderness.
    He laughed.
    “You thought it was going to take a half hour … I never thought I’d get it through my skull.
     
    My God, Dominic, I don’t know how I’m going to thank you. “
    “Forget the thanks. Let me know if you have any more trouble.”
    That night, for the first time in weeks, Martin’s sleep was uninterrupted by nightmares of flunking. He was always going to hate calculus, but at least he understood enough now to feel that he had a reasonable chance of getting through. And Dominic’s companionship made the prospect of four long years at Yale more endurable.
    In the next weeks, Martin and Dominic saw each other in and out of class. Martin was developing an enormous affection for his newfound friend. His fascination with Dominic lay in the fact that their personalities were as different as their backgrounds.
    Dominic was tough, proud, tenaciously independent, with a kind of street smartness that he had needed to survive. Under the facade of his wit was a cynicism born of the Depression.
    He was nine the year his father lost his job. Dominic never forgot coming home from school and finding his father seated at the kitchen table, crying like a baby. It would have been better if he had screamed, or gotten drunk; but he was too broken. Later, Mr. Gatti cursed the fates that had denied him an education.
    Dominic never viewed his father as being uneducated. Quite the opposite. Antonio Gatti was a natural intellectual. Yet all his self-acquired knowledge was not enough to get him beyond being a shipping clerk. If life had been more equitable, there was no telling what Antonio Gatti might have achieved, but though in the years to come he was able to get jobs here and there, they never amounted to much.
    Maria Gatti slowly sold