A. Homes - Music for Torching

Paul taps on the door, then opens it. Willy Meaders's room is a generationless homage to being a boy-two twin beds, trophies, sports posters, hockey sticks, a trombone.

Daniel sits on one of the beds, his back against the wall. "We want you to come home. Dad is sorry about the lock," Elaine blurts.

Daniel stares at the fish tank.

"Sammy's back, and Jennifer is there. We're having a family night at home; we might rent some videos or just play a game-like Monopoly." Paul talks, not quite knowing what he's saying. "How's that sound?"

Daniel stares. He absently picks through loose bits of tile from a mosaic project.

"We're fixing up the house. It's going to be great," Elaine says.

"Look, I'm sorry about the lock. To be honest, it frightened me. It was like you'd become a stranger, I lost my head," Paul says. "I'm not perfect."

"None of us are," Elaine elaborates.

"I'm trying to talk to you honestly," Paul says. "Give me a break here, would ya, pal?" He stops and looks around at the posters on the wall, the fish tank bubbling, Willy Meaders sitting in the desk chair. Paul can't believe that the little Meaders is stupid enough to just sit there-doesn't he feel uncomfortable? He just sits there staring at them dispassionately as though they're a movie.

Finally Paul glares at him and says, "Willy, could you please excuse us?" and the boy leaves.

"You're making a scene," Paul tells Daniel. "How do you think it looks-your mother and I having to come here and beg you to come home?"

The longer it takes, the worse it gets. Moment by moment the situation becomes exponentially more humiliating.

"You're embarrassing us," Paul says. "It's almost seven-thirty, the Meaderses want to eat their dinner. You know how serious they are about things like that."

Paul is climbing the walls; he wants to box Daniel's ears,

knock his block off. He wants to haul off and yell, "Get in the fucking car right now, or I'm going to kill you."

Elaine sits down hard on the opposite bed; the bed groans. She is about to cry; in fact, she starts to cry, but knowing that it will only cause more trouble, it will only make Daniel less inclined to come home, she quits. Paul and Daniel look at her. She sniffles.

"What's for dinner?" Daniel asks.

"What would you like?" Paul asks.

Daniel doesn't answer.

"Where's your stuff?" Paul is trying to speed things up. "Is this yours?" He picks dirty clothes up off the floor. "Do you have a suitcase?"

Daniel points to the closet. Paul drags out an old Samsonite.

"Do you have things in this dresser? Where're your socks and underwear? Do you have other shoes? Jeans? T-shirts?"

Paul throws things into the suitcase.

"Do you have a dopp kit?"

"A what?" Daniel asks.

"Toiletries?" Elaine says, still on the bed.

"A toothbrush. It's in the bathroom, should I get it?" Daniel asks.

"You don't need the toothbrush," Elaine says. "We have one for you at home."

"What about your books, your schoolwork?" Paul asks. Daniel stuffs books, scraps of paper, sports magazines, into his knapsack.

"Ready?" Paul asks.

Daniel picks up a tile ashtray, three-quarters finished, gritty grout overflowing the rows. He hands it to Elaine. "This is for you," he says. "I made it for no real reason."

"Thanks," Elaine says, taking the ashtray, genuinely touched by the ugly artifact.

Paul, the escort, goes first with the suitcase; Daniel, the prisoner, is in the middle; and Elaine follows up, pressure from behind to make sure Daniel doesn't take a wrong turn, doesn't change his mind and bolt.

Mrs. Meaders stands by the swinging door to the kitchen holding a platter of food.

"Good-bye," Mr. Meaders says, tucking his napkin under his chin, not getting up.

"Take care," Mrs. Meaders says.

"See you tomorrow," Willy says.

Daniel's place has already been removed from the table.

"Thanks for everything," Paul says as the procession leaves the house. "It's been a rough time. We really appreciate all you've done."

"Thank you again," Elaine says, closing the door behind her.

Elaine is sweating. Whatever buzz she had before is gone. She feels as though they just put one over-on whom, she's not sure: the Meaderses, Daniel, themselves. Inside the house Paul and Elaine talked a good game, but it's immediately clear they can't live up to the promises. Not that they promised so much or that everything they said was a lie-more a fantasy.

"Monopoly, yeah, right," Daniel says, stretching out in the backseat. "We don't even have a Monopoly game."

"Don't we?" Paul says. "I thought we did."

"The Meaderses were having liver. Liver and onions. I hate liver," Daniel says. "Could we order some pizza and maybe rent movies or something?"

"Sure," Paul says.

"Of course," Elaine says.

They drive to the video store. Paul borrows the phone and calls the pizza place while Daniel picks out horrible movies: The Price of Misfortune and BadZone-A Place You Don't Want to Go with Anyone . At the pizza place Elaine jumps out, picks up the pizzas and two six-packs of Cokes. They make one last stop for ice cream. "Mint chocolate chip," Daniel screams at his father across the parking lot.

Paul waves back at him-"Gotcha."

The sky is fading fast, dropping down into a deep navy blue. Pulling into the driveway, the headlights land on Sammy and Jennifer sitting outside on the kitchen steps.

"I thought the house was fixed," Daniel says when he sees them.

"There are still a few problems," Elaine says.

"Sammy's afraid to go inside," Paul says.

"Retread," Daniel says.

"Hi," Elaine calls, getting out of the car. "We're home, look who's here."

"The Scout returns," Jennifer says.

"Is that supposed to mean something?" Daniel asks.

"It means hi," she says.

"Pizza anyone?" Paul says.

They all go into the house. "Don't close the door," Sammy says.

"Did you hear about the two-digit snacker?" Daniel asks Jennifer.

"Who?" Elaine asks.

"Montgomery kid," Jennifer says.

"Shhh," Elaine says, not wanting anyone to talk about it.

"Like we haven't heard," Daniel says.

"Who's the snacker?" Sammy asks.

"The Montgomery kid-he bites the fingers off little boys like you and eats 'em," Daniel says.

"Fake," Sammy says.

"Real," Daniel says.

"Sit and stay," Jennifer says.

"Stop," Paul says.

Paul puts the pizza boxes on the coffee table while Elaine lays out plates, napkins, Cokes, and Daniel pops in the video.

"The less violent one first," Elaine requests, thinking of Sammy-more than impressionable, he's like a sponge, absorbing everything.