Eddie Joyce - Small Mercies

“The one thing you can get on Staten Island, no questions asked, any time, day or night, is fantastic, out-of-this-world Italian food. And yet, you like Olive Garden.”

Kielty shovels some blue cheese into his mouth with a piece of celery.

“I like their never-ending pasta bowl with the spaghetti Alfredo.”

“That’s exactly what you need.”

The waitress drops off his beer in a fresh mug, thinly encrusted in ice. He hates this place, but the beer is damn cold. He orders another. If he has to drink alone, he’ll set a proper pace. He looks at television over the bar. He bet the second half over in the Florida State game, but it doesn’t look like much has happened. A dopey white kid with a floppy haircut sinks a foul shot. If the over comes in, he’ll lay one more bet, try to get flat.

“When are you opening up your bar?”

“Me and Denny Hogan were talking about that yesterday. Gotta pick the right spot. Would love to be on Forest, but maybe Victory could work. He looked at a place down by the ferry, but I don’t know with the projects and all.”

“Staten Island Yankees games could bring in business.”

“How many games do they play a year? Twenty, thirty tops?”

“It’s something.”

“Yeah, guess so. Maybe. I don’t know.”

He doesn’t tell Kielty that he still needs to come up with most of his end. He’s managed to save a little since he got off the blow, but he’s still almost sixty grand short. He was thinking about asking Peter for a loan, but the thought of the sanctimonious lecture that would accompany the money is too depressing. He can’t handle that bullshit. Plus, Peter might say no. He takes a sip from his mug. No sense ruining the day thinking about this.

The waitress brings another full mug to the table, places it behind Franky’s half-drained one.

“Hold on, doll,” he says before he empties his mug. “Save you a trip.”

“Thirsty boy,” she says as she picks up his discard. She isn’t bad looking after all. Her eyes are a little too big or maybe just too close together, and she has curly hair, which isn’t his cup of tea, but if you were in a poke, she’d do for a poke. Any port in a storm.

“They talk of my drinking, doll, but never my thirst.”

It’s an old line but reliable. She laughs.

“Next one’s on me,” she says over her shoulder as she drifts away.

He feels good. A little flirting never hurt the old confidence. And the rest of his day is wide open. Nothing to do but ease into the sunset. Maybe take a certain waitress home for some proper rogering.

He checks the score of the game. He needs seventeen more points. Five minutes left. Tough but doable. A Florida State player banks in a three as the shot clock is running down. He’ll take it. Fourteen points. Four minutes, thirty odd seconds.

His cell phone vibrates in his pocket. He checks the caller ID: Mom. Fuck that. She was out of line and she knows it. That why she’s calling. Let her stew in her own guilt.

The waitress arrives with their burgers. Franky was starving before, but the beers have dulled his appetite. He picks at a few fries, Kielty dives into his burger. Franky raises his empty mug at the waitress.

The other team, Kent State, is down twelve with three minutes. They need to start fouling and he needs ten more points. All he needs is a few made fouls shots by Florida State and some quick shots by Kent State. A Florida State player bricks the front end of a one and one.

“Goddamn it. Hit your fucking foul shots.”

The waitress deposits the mug in front of him.

“Good luck,” she says with a smile.

“I need all I can get, doll.”

Kent State misses a three, fouls immediately. Double bonus now. He still needs ten. Two and a half minutes. The same player — an enormous power forward with hands like stone — steps to the line. His first shot doesn’t even hit the rim. Air ball.

“What the fuck? Can’t anyone shoot foul shots anymore?”

Kielty struggles to rotate his head around the flabby mass of his shoulder so he can look at the game. He turns back to Franky, a sudden sincerity creasing his face.

“Franky.”

Stone-hands somehow makes his second free throw and the point guard on Kent State dashes up the court for a quick layup. Two minutes and change. He needs seven.

“Franky.”

“What?”

Kent State fouls right away. Television time-out.

“I think you were out of order before.”

“What?”

“I said you were out of order at the mall with that guy.”

Franky’s eyes shift from the television down to Kielty.

“Excuse me?”

“I think you went over the line. The guy was with his kid.”

Franky glares at him until Kielty looks down at his shoes.

“Jesus Christ, Kielty. You’re worried about the feelings of future terrorists? You are one sorry, misguided soul.”

Kielty takes a doleful bite of his burger. He can’t stay angry at such a pitiful fuck.

“Besides, you were a little out of order yourself.”

Kielty looks up.

“No, I wasn’t.”

“No, no, no, no, no. You insulted him a little bit. You were a little out of order yourself.”

Kielty stares at him, dumbfounded.

“ GoodFellas? DeNiro? The shine box scene?” Franky says.

“I never saw it,” Kielty says quietly before taking another bite of his burger.

Franky shakes his head in mock solemnity.

“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, Kielty. I mean, really. I don’t even know where to begin.”

He remembers the game, turns back to it, and does some quick math. He needs two more points. Thirty seconds left and Florida State has the ball, but Kent State isn’t fouling. Florida State is going to run the clock out.

“Oh fuck. You have to be fucking kidding me.”

“What?” says Kielty.

The game clock whittles down to single digits.

“Don’t do this to me. Don’t fucking do this.”

He’s gonna lose, be right back where he started the day, plus the vig. With three seconds left, the ball is passed to some benchwarmer, only in the game because the outcome is no longer in doubt. No one even bothers to guard him. He takes two lazy dribbles and nonchalantly flicks up a jumper from fifteen feet. Nothing but net. The second half over comes in.

“ Yesss! C’mon now, son.”

He stands and throws a halfhearted punch that smacks Kielty’s shoulder.

“Ouch. Jesus, Franky.”

Kielty rubs his shoulder, pouting. Frank leans in, hisses in his ear.

“Yeaaaaah, muthafucker.”

The waitress arrives with a fresh mug of beer. He takes a hearty pull, laughs at his own good fortune.

“Aren’t we a happy camper?”

Franky smiles.

“We are indeed. Sweetheart, you don’t, by any rare chance, have a cigarette I could bum?”

“Your lucky day,” she says, pulling a pack out of her waitress apron.

“It’s starting to feel that way.”

* * *

Outside, it smells like rain. The sun has disappeared behind a drift of smoke-colored clouds and the wind has some bite. Franky wishes he’d thrown on something more than a pair of gray sweatpants and a T-shirt. He takes a drag of the cigarette, looks out over to Fresh Kills, where the dump used to be, where they sifted through the remains from the towers, where the city is planning to put an enormous green space. There was a time when this whole area smelled like garbage, when people walked out of the crisp, air-conditioned mall only to have their nostrils invaded by the scent of rotting cabbage. Or worse.

The dump seemed like a curse at the time, its fetid stench drifting over the whole Island on hot summer days. But that time seems sacred now. Innocent. Before, well, before everything. Having to live with the smell of garbage seems quaint. Beats living in the shadow of things that once were.