Balboa Park

She had some tears in her eyes. I put my hands on her face and kissed her gently. I whispered, "Are you sorry?"

"No, no, I'm not. I wanted you so much."

She gave me back the ring and I put it in my coat pocket.

And tired, sated, we fell asleep. Knowing we were alone, knowing we would resume, knowing the date was off and now we would stay and continue our love. In some deep, passionate dream I heard a noise - a door slamming? - that raised me a level towards consciousness. Then thumping on the stairs … Jaci, wake up? Both of us rising to a sitting position with the sheet falling to our waists. Elissa a shadow in the door - gasping in shock. Jaci covering her breasts and crying.

Elissa ran down the stairs and Jaci gave me a quick kiss. "I have to talk to her. Go on home now, just … quickly, go. I'll call you later."

And I did … I rushed out the door. I waited two days for her call and finally I tried to call her. Her brother: "She's busy right now, I'll tell her you called."

And two days later a knock on my door shortly after I got home. Knowing it was Jaci I rushed to open the door - only to stare blankly at her brother, Teddy.

"Can I come in, Jimmy? We have to talk."

I blankly led him back to the den and grabbed a couple of beers. Opening one, I asked, "What going on, Teddy."

"Well … I won't beat around the bush, there's hell to pay. Elissa told dad what she saw. If it had been me I would have kicked the shit out of you but I wouldn't have told. There has been fighting and arguing for two days. The bottom line? You can't see Jaci anymore. Don't try to see her, call her or even send a letter. I don't like this, Jimmy, but this is the way it has to be."

"Teddy, they can't do that. I asked her to marry me and she said yes. They can't keep us apart. She's an adult and we can get married if we want!"

"Jimmy, that might be true if she was an American girl. If either of you fight dad on this he will send her back to Greece. Even if you went there they would hide her so deep in the mountains you would never find her. You have to face it - if you try to force this there will be a lot of unpleasantness and it will only get worse. I'm on your side. I argued for you but was told to stay out of it."

We talked some more but I could see that's the way it was going to be. Teddy left and I drank a couple of more beers trying to come up with an idea. I was devastated and I'm sure Jaci was too.

The next few weeks were really hard on me. I decided I wasn't going to hide so I kept going to Balboa Park for the soccer matches. Sometimes I'd see her family and she would usually be with them. I'd look over at her tear-streaked face and try to make eye contact, but she wouldn't.

They attended church at Annunciation Cathedral, the cathedral church for the Greek Orthodox Church for the Metropolis of San Francisco. I'd attended service there several Sundays with her and her family, so I decided to just go every week. They weren't going to make me go away that easy! I'd come in late to make sure they were there and then sit a row or two in front of them. I would never turn around to look back but I knew they could all see me.

I went over to their restaurant two or three days a week - just sat down and ate but talked to no one. Teddy came over one night and asked me why I was doing it. I told him, "I really love her, Teddy. I don't know what to do. It just hurts so damn much." After that I never went back to the Athens. I think I was starting to look pathetic. One thing I didn't want was pity.

One thing I did do was send her an album and circled one of the songs, "Talk to Your Heart" by Ray Price:

"When you're alone at night with the world locked outside
Have a talk to your heart about me
And if you're told that it's right that we stay apart
Then let me come in and talk to your heart."
I never heard anything about it so I didn't know if she even played it.

This went on for about six weeks then one night I was playing at a dance club. It was salsa, not jazz but I could play about anything. I looked out and saw Jaci dancing with that smarmy Greek guy that I didn't even like the looks of. They were dancing too close and talking with animation. They stayed late and I don't think Jaci even noticed me … even when I played several hot solo riffs with my trumpet.

When the second set was over - my friend would be back for the third and final set - I walked down to their table. They were still talking to each other and I stood there unnoticed until the waitress brought them another drink. Jaci looked up, saw me and turned deathly white. In a foul and jealous mood I spat at her, "Yeah, I guess your love was really something special. I see it didn't take you long to find someone new!" I turned, with my horn still in my hand and went back to the dressing room, changed clothes and left by the back door.

I got home and about half an hour later my phone rang but I was in no mood to answer it. I gave up on Jaci then. For the next couple of weeks I stayed away from the telephone. I loved her like I knew I would never love anyone again. I was in a lot of pain and started drinking too much. I got careless on the hours on my bank job and started doing more gigs. My boss got after me for coming in late too often and I resigned.

I started doing more gigs - jazz only now - and started looking for a group I could play regularly with … maybe do some recording. My life had changed abruptly over just a few weeks and I wasn't sure I wanted to stay in San Francisco. A buddy was trying to get me to move to New Orleans and my uncle wanted me to come back to Norman and take over the club.

Then about ten weeks after my life had gone south, there was another knock on my door. It was Teddy, of course. I didn't even bother to say hi. I just walked down the hallway to the kitchen for a couple of beers and met Teddy in my den. I was assuming he'd closed the door.

I tossed Teddy his beer and held mine up in a half-assed toast then guzzled it down and went to get another. He sat there, a sad look on his face, looking down at the floor. Finally, he looked up and rocked my world.

"There is just no easy way to do this, man, so I'm going spit it out. Jacinda is pregnant." He must have seen a look on my face, because he continued, "And don't even hint of asking if it's yours. If you do I swear to God I'm going to beat the living shit out of you! I'll wrap that trumpet around your head and neither you nor it will ever play again.

"She is about two-and-a-half months along. We found out two days ago when she missed her second period and went to the doctor. We've gone around and around with this. Bottom line, there are two choices and you are the lucky one who gets to make the decision. Jaci will go along with what ever you want to do.

"What I want is for you to get married. I know you love each other and it's the right thing to do. It would be a civil marriage now and possibly a church wedding later. The other choice is she goes back to Greece to have the baby and if that happens she will probably stay there. She says she can't live here without you. Man, there has been a lot of crying around our place."

"I'm confused. A few weeks ago I saw her dancing with a guy and they looked real close. That's when I gave up and dropped out. I even quit my job at the bank. How can she say she loves me?"

"Oh, that was Adonis. He's like a third cousin and he and Jaci have known each other all their lives. She puts up with him but she really doesn't like him. She was out dancing because mom and dad got after her for staying in her room all the time. She came home and cried for a week. I guess something happened, huh?"

"Yeah, something happened. Well, hell. This is quite a shock. I'm telling you right now that no matter what happens I want the baby in my life. I'll move to Greece if I have to so make sure everyone is clear on this."

He nodded, like this is what he expected of me.

"Okay, Teddy, what's next?"

"Well, we set up a meeting at our house in the living room. It will be you and Jaci with me as a chaperone. You can say anything you want to each other - and I'll try not to listen. But no touching - you cannot touch each other. Dad doesn't want this to be a decision made in the heat of a moment of passion."

So I found myself two weeks later in the parlor of the Nikopolidis house. I was a few minutes early, so I sat there with Teddy, both of us nervous and both of us nursing a beer. Jacinda came in, escorted by Elissa, who was crying.

Jaci looked like she was trying to keep from crying herself. "Jimmy, I have to ask you something important to me. Elissa thinks you hate her for telling my father what she saw."

I could see the ball was in my court. I looked at Teddy, then at Jaci and finally at Elissa. I walked over to her and gave Jaci's sister a hug. Teddy didn't say anything so I guessed that was okay. "Elissa, I want you to be my sister too, and I want to be around to help us love the baby. Can you do that?"

She jumped up and kissed me on the cheek and ran out. Now Jaci was crying too.

I didn't care what Teddy said. I was going to do this my way. I had the ring in my shirt pocket and I slipped it out and knelt before her. I put the ring on her finger and asked, "Jaci, I love you more than life itself. Will you marry me?"

She fell on her knees and kissed me wildly. "Oh, yes, Jimmy, Oh, God, yes!"

I stood her up and taking her hand, said, "Please take me to your father. Now."

She looked like she didn't want to do it but finally nodded her head. I looked over at Teddy, again. "Could you come along and translate? I figure he could probably understand, but I don't want any confusion."

We walked back to the kitchen. I held up Jaci's hand so her parents could see the ring.

"I love your daughter, Jacina, with a deep and forever love. I promise to take care of her and our baby. I will never interfere in whatever she wants to do with her family. I understand how important that is to her.

"Sir, I would like your blessing on our marriage." I could see tears in her mom's eyes while Teddy was still translating. When he finished her dad looked at me for a long moment and then stepped forward and gave me a hug that liked to break three ribs.

Then everyone was hugging and kissing and I heard her dad say something about ouzo. There were suddenly small glasses full of a colorless liquid and everyone but Jaci drank to a toast her dad made. I tipped up the glass and started having second thoughts about being tied in with a Greek family … at least one that drank ouzo. It about took my head off.

It was a long, crazy night. I was given a few minutes alone in the living room but neither of us wanted to talk at that time. We just held each other tight until it was time for me to go home.

She did tell me about the record I sent her, "I listened to that song over and over and I did look into my heart. If I had any doubts that erased them. I tried to call you but I think you were too mad at me to answer."

We were married at a small ceremony in the restaurant several weeks later. It was simple and I think everyone was just relieved that it was all over and that it had worked out okay. We moved into my apartment for the short term and a couple weeks later went on a honeymoon to Greece. We spent a week in Athens with family, followed by two weeks on Mykonos where some third or fourth cousin owned a small inn.

We talked everything out - how we had felt and the misunderstandings. It was a good beginning for us and for all the years of our marriage we were able to sit down and work out our problems. Jaci decided she wanted to be a grade school teacher and she successfully pursued that. I did hook up with a good band and we had all the work we could handle. We did some recordings that were quite successful.

I insisted that we only travel one month during the year and one week of that was at my uncle's club. That was always in the summer time and Jaci and the kids would come along.

*

EPILOGUE

I was sitting in the front row at Balboa Park, above the Greek Americans' bench. Teddy, at fourteen was the youngest player ever to play for the Greeks. Early in the second half he scored a goal on a long free kick that curled in to the upper right corner of the net. He had zero musical interest or inclinations and wanted to play professional soccer in Greece in a couple of years. Elissa, our daughter, was a tall and willowy twelve and wanted to be a model.

Jaci and I sometimes talked about the rocky beginnings to our marriage but we both agree that we became closer because of it. We had no tendency to become complacent in our love. We realized it was a gift from God and something to work hard to make good. And it was very good.

And, yes, since you ask. I did learn to speak Greek. In fact I became fluent and I treasured our vacations to Greece every year. I had a few clubs where I could drop in and play and I enjoyed it immensely. Jaci always referred to me as "her American trumpet player."