George Pelecanos: Shame the Devil

“Beautiful. You know I like a good half-smoke with my eggs. And those grits had just the right texture.”

“It’s not gonna make you forget the Florida Avenue Grill.”

“Not yet. But you’re getting there, buddy.”

Stefanos lit his smoke. Darnell looked around the small lunch counter he had purchased from a Korean up on Georgia Avenue, near the District line.

“Anyway,” said Darnell, “it’s mine.”

“Dimitri and Marcus did you right, finding this place.”

“Yeah, and that Clarence Tate ran some real accurate numbers. They got a nice business, those three. Doin’ a good thing, too.” Darnell leaned on the Formica counter. “With Dimitri and me gone, and you leavin’ the Spot last month, wonder how it’s gonna work out down there on Eighth.”

“Phil will find some replacements.”

“You miss it?”

“Elaine Clay keeps me busy with work. The Spot wasn’t a good place for a guy like me, Darnell.”

“I heard that. How you doin’ with it, anyway?”

“So far so good.”

“You look good, man.”

“I’m trying.” Stefanos got off his stool and reached for his wallet. He left three on five and slipped into his sport jacket.

“Where you off to, all dressed like that?”

“Church,” said Stefanos. “Gonna say a prayer for a kid named Randy Weston.”

“Say hey to Alicia when you see her,” said Darnell.

“Gonna see her tonight,” said Stefanos. “I’ll tell her you said hello.”

Dimitri Karras and Stephanie Maroulis walked across the manicured grounds of the Gate of Heaven cemetery in Aspen Hill to the Walters family headstones. Stephanie said a silent prayer over the graves of Bernie, Lynne, and Vance Walters. They visited Karras’s mother, Eleni, and brushed debris off the nearby marker for Jimmy’s grave. Then they stopped at the grave of Steve Maroulis, where Stephanie’s adjoining plot had been purchased three years earlier. Stephanie did her cross, and they walked to Karras’s BMW, parked in the shade. Karras drove back into D.C.

Thomas Wilson was buried alongside Charles Greene at Fort Lincoln cemetery in Northeast. Stephanie held Karras’s hand as he stared down at Wilson’s grave.

“You okay?” she said.

Karras touched the knot of his tie. “Yes, I’m fine.”

Dimitri Karras lit a candle and did his stavro in the narthex of St. Sophia’s Greek Orthodox Cathedral. Then he and Stephanie went upstairs to the balcony and listened to the remainder of the service. They enjoyed the choir and took in the atmosphere of the church. Stephanie’s eyes were closed as she prayed for Dimitri and those who were gone.

Karras looked down to the nave, where the sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons of Greek immigrants and their families stood side by side in the pews. He noticed the graying hair of a man who stood alone, wearing a lightweight fifties sport jacket.

Karras smiled and whispered, “Nick.”

They waited on the stone steps of the cathedral as parishioners streamed from the front doors. Bells chimed, and a warm breeze came off Massachusetts Avenue. Men were lighting cigarettes, greeting each other with firm handshakes, and children were chasing one another and laughing. Karras saw Nick Stefanos emerge from the church.

“ Yasou, Niko!” said Karras.

“Dimitri!” Stefanos came to meet them. He kissed Stephanie on the cheek and squeezed her arm. He looked at Karras and smiled. “What’re you doing here, man?”

“I should be asking you the same thing.”

“Like I told you before: I’m just trying to figure it all out.” Stefanos squinted up at the bright, cloudless sky. “Nice day. You guys feel like taking a ride?”

“Where to?” said Karras.

“I was thinking of Hanes Point.”

“You go ahead, Dimitri,” said Stephanie. “I’ve got things to do this afternoon.”

Karras handed her his car keys and gave her a kiss. “See you later. Thanks.”

They watched her descend the stone steps and turn the corner toward Garfield Street.

“You’re a lucky man,” said Stefanos.

“I know it.”

“Come on. My ride’s parked out back.”

“We’re getting married,” said Karras as they drove along the Potomac, the wind rushing through the open windows of the Dodge.

“Congratulations, man.”

“I love her, Nick.”

“As you should.”

Karras looked out the window. “She wants to have a baby. I want the same thing. This baby’s not meant to replace Jimmy. No one will ever replace him in my heart. But I was a good father, Nick, and I didn’t get to finish. And I feel like, if Stephanie and I have a child, then our meeting the way we did will have meant something. That everything that happened to everyone else will have meant something, too. Does that make sense?”

“Yes, Dimitri. It makes sense.”

Stefanos parked the Dodge in the first set of spaces at Hanes Point. He and Karras got out of the car and walked across the grass to the concrete path that ringed the outer edge of the park. They leaned on the rail and looked out across the Washington Channel, the sun winking off its waters.

Karras loosened his tie at the neck. “It’s beautiful, man.”

“Yes, it is.” Stefanos looked over at his friend. “So what were you doing in church?”

“I made a promise to a friend that I’d give it a try.”

“And?”

“I kept the promise.” Karras ran his thumb along the thin scar that creased his forehead, thinking of his son. He smiled at the memory, looking into the channel’s brown waters.

“You still think you lied to Jimmy about God?” asked Stefanos. “I don’t know anymore. There are days when I’m certain that there is no God. And then I’ll have a day, every now and again, when I think it might be possible. That makes me like most men, I guess. Which is where I’ve been trying to get back to all along.” Karras frowned. “The question is, after what I did in the warehouse – after what you’ve done yourself – does God even care to save men like us?”

“I don’t know,” said Stefanos. “We’ll find out soon enough, I guess.”

Stefanos smoked a cigarette while the two of them looked across the channel.

“They used to call this ‘the speedway,’ ” said Stefanos. “You remember that?”

“I know everything about this place,” said Karras, pointing to the middle of the channel. “My mother told me that my father learned to swim out there on a day just like this, when he was a kid back in the Depression.”

“And my grandfather would bring me fishing down here when I was a little boy.”

“Lotta history.”

“Yes.”

Karras nodded to the restaurants behind the marina on the opposite shore. “Feel like grabbing a beer or something?”

“I don’t think so,” said Stefanos. “How about we just take a walk instead.”

Stefanos pushed away from the railing and headed down the concrete path, Karras at his side. They walked unhurriedly along the speedway, as those who had come before them had done so many times.