George Pelecanos: Right as Rain

This place had always been his. But now he shared it with a woman he'd kissed here on a clear and biting winter night.

Quinn closed his eyes and listened to the sounds of the train, felt the rush of the cars raising wind and dust.

He didn't come here for answers. There were no answers. There was only sensation.

No answers, and there would be no closure. Chris Wilson had been exonerated, but for Quinn nothing had changed. Because Strange had been right all along: Quinn had killed a man because of the color of his skin.

Strange walked down the drab, third-floor hall of the District Convalescent Home, passing a couple of female attendants who were laughing loudly at something one of them had said, ignoring a man in a nearby wheelchair who was repeating the word 'nurse' over and over again. A television played at full volume from one of the rooms. The hall was warm and smelled of pureed food and, beneath the mask of disinfectant, urine and excrement.

Strange entered his mother's room. She was lying on her side, under the sheets of her bed, awake and staring out the window. He walked around to the side of the bed.

'Momma,' said Strange, kissing her clammy forehead. 'Here I am.'

His mother made a small wave of her hand and smiled weakly, showing him the gray of her gums. Her body was tiny as a child's beneath the sheets.

Strange found a comb in the nightstand and ran it through her sparse white hair, pushing what was left of it back on her moley scalp. When he was finished, she pointed past Strange's shoulder. He went to the window and looked to the corner of the ledge.

A house wren had built a nest there and was sitting on her eggs. The small bird flew away at the sight of Strange.

Strange knew what his mother wanted. He tore off several paper towels from the bathroom roll, found some Scotch tape on a supply cart out in the hall, and taped the squares of paper to the window. His mother had done this every spring in the kitchen window of the house in which he'd been raised. She had explained to him that a mother bird was like any mother, that she deserved to tend to her children privately and in peace.

From her bed, Alethea Strange blinked her eyes with approval at her son, examining the job he'd done.

Strange brought a cushioned chair over to the side of her bed and had a seat. He sat there for a while, telling her about his day.

'Janine,' she said, very softly.

'She's good, Momma. She sends her love.'

'Diamonds…'

'… In my backyard. Yes, ma'am.'

Sitting in the chair, Strange fell asleep. He woke in the middle of the night. His mother was still awake, her beautiful brown eyes staring into his.

Strange began to talk about his childhood in D.C. He talked about his father, and the mention of her husband brought a smile to Alethea's lips. He talked about his brother, the trouble he'd had, and how even with the trouble his brother's heart had been good.

'I love you, Momma,' said Strange. 'I'm so proud to be your son.'

As he talked, he held her hand and looked into her eyes. He was still holding her hand at dawn, and the birds were singing outside her bedroom window as she passed.

George P. Pelecanos was born in Washington, DC in 1957. He worked as a line cook, dishwasher, bartender, shoe salesman, electronics salesman, construction worker, and retail general manager before publishing his first novel in 1992. He is the author of nine crime/noir novels set in and around Washington, DC. THE BIG BLOWDOWN was the recipient of the International Crime Novel of the Year award in both Germany and Japan; KING SUCKERMAN was shortlisted for the Golden Dagger award in the UK. His short fiction has appeared in ESQUIRE and the collections Unusual Suspects and Best American Mystery Stories of 1997. He is an award-winning journalist and pop-culture essayist who has written for THE WASHINGTON POST. Pelecanos served as producer on several feature films. As a screenwriter, he has written an adaptation of KING SUCKERMAN, and was co-writer on the recently completed feature PAID IN FULL. Most recently, he has written a script based on a team in the American Basketball Association for HBO Films.