"Eddd-deee!" she yells from the kitchen. "Where are you? Everyone's here!"

From his bedroom, even with the door closed, Eddie can smell the beefsteak his mother is grilling with green peppers and sweet red onions, a strong woody odor that he loves.

"There's the birthday boy," his mother crows when he rambles into the room. He wears a button-down white shirt and a blue tie, which pinches his muscular neck A grunt of hellos and raised beer glasses come from the assembled visitors, family, friends, pier workers. Eddie's father is playing cards in the corner, in a small cloud of cigar smoke.

He rolls off the bed and puts away the comic book. He is 17 today, too old for such things, but he still enjoys the idea -- colorful heroes like the Phantom, fighting the bad guys, saving the world. He has given his collection to his school-aged cousins from Romania, who came to America a few months earlier. Eddie's family met them at the docks and they moved into the bedroom that Eddie shared with his brother, Joe. The cousins cannot speak English, but they like comic books. Anyhow, it gives Eddie an excuse to keep them around.

Eddie feels a rush of blood.

Later, after the special steak has been eaten and the candles have been blown out and most of the guests have gone home, Eddie's mother turns on the radio. There is news about the war in Europe, and Eddie's father says something about lumber and copper wire being hard to get if things get worse. That will make maintenance of the park nearly impossible.

The brothers separate, panting and glaring. Some older relatives smile. One of the aunts whispers, "He must really like this girl."

"Shut yer trap," Eddie says to Joe.

Even the Romanian cousins look up now -- fighting they understand -- as the two brothers grab each other and flail away, clearing the couch, until Eddie's father puts down his cigar and yells, "Knock it off, before I slap both of ya's."

Eddie seethes. "I said shut it!"

"Oww!"

"Eddie! Stop that!!"

"Owww!"

Joe ignores him. "Yep, he came into the room all google-eyed, and he said, 'Joe, I met the girl I'm gonna marry!'"

Eddie goes to his brother and socks him in the arm.

"Eddie!"

Whack.

"What's her name, Eddie?" someone asked.

"Yeah. Said he's gonna marry her."

"SHUT UP!"

"Does she go to church?"

"Oooh. Did he?"

"Hey, Ma, guess what?" Joe yells out. "Eddie met a girl last night."

Joe blurts out, "And he danced with her at the Stard --!"

"I told you to shut it!"

"So," she whispers, "you like this girl?"

Eddie stands as if being led to his execution. His brother smirks. But his mother, with her pretty, round face, keeps humming and stepping back and forth, until Eddie falls into a dance step with her.

"Come on."

She turns the dial until the small box offers music, an orchestra playing a swing melody, and she smiles and hums along. Then she comes over to Eddie, who is slouched in his chair, picking at the last pieces of cake. She removes her apron, folds it over a chair, and lifts Eddie by the hands.

"Such awful news," Eddie s mother says. "Not at a birthday."

They move around the living room until Eddie breaks down and laughs. He is already taller than his mother by a good six inches, yet she twirls him with ease.

"Daaa daa deeee," she sings with the melody, "… when you're with meeee… da da… the stars, and the moon… the da… da… da… in June…"

"Aw, Ma."

Eddie loses a step.

"It's all right," she says. "I'm happy for you."

"Show me how you danced with your new friend," she says.

"With him?"

"Now you two dance," she says.

But she insists and they relent, and soon Joe and Eddie are laughing and stumbling into each other. They join hands and move, swooping up and down in exaggerated circles. Around and around the table they go, to their mother's delight, as the clarinets lead the radio melody and the Romanian cousins clap along and the final wisps of grilled steak evaporate into the party air.

They spin to the table, and Eddie s mother grabs Joe and pulls him up.

"Ma!"