Jim Shepard - Kiss of the Wolf

She had a TV tray set up in front of the sofa. It had a bowl of polenta on it. There was a pat of butter, unmelted, in the polenta. On the lamp table at one end of the sofa there was a big picture of Tommy Monteleone and his brother, Perry. Tommy was in a blue-plaid jacket and tie, and Perry was in his Navy uniform.

“Ma, we’re interrupting her lunch here,” Joanie said.

“No, come in,” Mrs. Monteleone said. She rubbed her temple with the heel of her palm. “You want some coffee? I’m making some coffee.”

Todd stayed where he was, a few feet from the front door. Nina waved her hand to tell him to come closer.

“I was just getting some—” Mrs. Monteleone said. She was heading toward the kitchen. She trailed off.

Nina followed her. “Lucia, don’t fuss,” they heard her say.

“It’s already made,” Mrs. Monteleone said from the kitchen.

Joanie sat on the edge of a recliner. She gestured with her head toward a big-backed maroon chair near the window for Todd.

“C’mon in here,” Nina called.

When they came into the kitchen, she was setting the table with plates next to the coffee cups. She put a glass tray of cookies in the middle and pulled off the Saran wrap. Mrs. Monteleone was scooping coffee into the coffee maker.

“Ma, we don’t need anything to eat,” Joanie said. “She shouldn’t fuss.”

“Just cookies,” Nina said. “Sit.”

They sat. Nina put milk and sugar on the table. She set two cookies on Todd’s plate.

“You want some polenta?” Mrs. Monteleone asked.

“We’re fine,” Joanie said.

Mrs. Monteleone was gesturing at Todd.

“Todd,” Nina told her.

“Todd,” Mrs. Monteleone said. “Some chicken? I got chicken in there.”

“No, thanks,” he said. “I got cookies.”

She sat at the table, her hands in her lap. The coffee was brewing.

They looked at her. It was like they had to.

“You’re sweet, coming over here,” she said. She looked at each of them.

Nobody was doing anything or saying anything. Todd lifted one of the cookies on his plate.

“ Tom my,” Mrs. Monteleone wailed. She covered her eyes and started crying.

Todd froze. His mother looked like she was lifting something very heavy.

Nina patted Mrs. Monteleone on the side of the head. She cried herself out after a minute.

She wiped her eyes and got the coffee.

She went around the table pouring it. Todd was still holding his cookie. He put it down.

His mother was rubbing her hands together like she was soaping them up. “We wanted to say how … sorry we were,” she said. He felt like he was going to fly apart.

Mrs. Monteleone sniffed and put the coffeepot back on the counter. Nina was looking at Todd and Joanie.

Mrs. Monteleone sat back down. Todd could hear a radio, on quietly in another part of the house.

“Do they have any more news?” Nina said.

Mrs. Monteleone shook her head.

“How’s Tommy Senior? He okay?” Nina asked.

Mrs. Monteleone shook her head again. Todd recognized the face: when you don’t want to move because you’re afraid you’ll throw up.

“How could they do that?” she cried. “How could they just leave him there on the road?”

Nina patted her arm and then squeezed it. Todd and his mother stared straight ahead in agony. Todd was looking at refrigerator magnets.

Nina stirred Mrs. Monteleone’s coffee for her. They listened to the sound of the spoon in the cup.

They heard a car in the driveway and then a car door slam. They all sat there, everything on hold until this new person arrived.

“Ho,” Bruno called from the front door. “Anybody home?”

Nina got up to let him in.

He came into the kitchen carrying a grocery bag. He looked upset. “I got some cake,” he said to Mrs. Monteleone. “Dominic’s was closed, don’t ask me why. I went to Stop and Shop. All they had was Sara Lee.”

Todd had no idea what Bruno was doing there. He was emptying the bag: more coffee, a plastic half gallon of spring water, a Sara Lee pound cake. While he put everything away Mrs. Monteleone got up and took some money out of a flour tin in the cabinet and held it out to him.

“Get outta here with that,” he said.

“Take the money,” she said. “How much was it?”

“Free,” Bruno said. “Special sale.” She tried to stuff it in his shirt pocket. He took it out of her hand and put it back in the flour tin in the cabinet.

She sat down at that, and sighed.

“How’d you know what she needed?” Nina asked.

“I was over here before,” he said. “She said she needed to go out for a few things, I told her I’d do it.” He crumpled up the grocery bag with a big noise.

Mr. Monteleone appeared in the hallway. He was wearing an old blue robe and his eyes were impossibly red.

“Hi, Tommy,” Nina finally said. “You want some coffee?”

He was wearing black socks and no slippers. He looked over at Todd and then at the sink. He cinched his terrycloth belt and left.

Bruno uncrumpled the bag like he’d done something wrong. Todd and his mother looked at each other.

“He want some coffee?” Nina asked Mrs. Monteleone.

Mrs. Monteleone shook her head.

Bruno went into the dining room and brought a chair back into the kitchen. He poured himself a cup of coffee and then pulled the chair up to the table.

“Where’s the other car?” Nina asked. “If Tommy’s here?”

“It’s in the shop,” Mrs. Monteleone said.

The doorbell rang.

“Now who the hell is this?” Bruno said.

“I didn’t even hear a car,” Nina said. She got up and went to the door. Todd kept his eyes on Mrs. Monteleone, who sat there as if all this was going on in another place.

Nina came back into the hall. “It’s the florist,” she said. “They won’t let me sign for it.”

Mrs. Monteleone got up and followed her to the front door.

Bruno spooned two sugars into his cup and stirred it by twirling the cup in his hand.

He was quiet. Todd had never seen him this way.

“What’re you doing here?” Joanie said in a low voice.

“What’m I doing here? What’re you doing here?” Bruno said. “I didn’t know you knew Tommy.”

Joanie shrugged.

“What’d you, just come over with your mother?” he asked.

She nodded. He seemed satisfied with that. He looked at Todd, and Todd thought for a second he was going to ask, You have anything to do with killing him?

He went back to his coffee. “So how’d you know him?” Joanie asked.

Bruno shrugged. “We were friends. We did some business.”

“Business? What kind of business?”

“What’re you, a cop?” Bruno said. “Business.”

Nina came back into the kitchen with Mrs. Monteleone.

“What’d they send?” Bruno asked. “Flowers?”

Nina looked at him. “It’s a florist,” she said. “Flowers.”

They sat back down. Nina got up to warm up her coffee. It looked like Mrs. Monteleone was going to cry again.

“Ma,” Todd said, “can I go outside?”

Bruno slurped his coffee and looked at him over the edge of the cup.

“Yeah, you go out,” Joanie said. “We’re only gonna stay a little longer. Mrs. Monteleone’s got things to do.”

He stood up. He didn’t know whether to say good-bye or not. Mrs. Monteleone smiled at him.

He went out the way he came in, the front door. He didn’t want to have to look at the Virgin Mary, so he walked down the driveway to the backyard. He’d never seen it before.

It was small and fenced in. The next-door neighbor had a yappy little dog that barked at him nonstop as soon as he came around the corner. It clawed at the fence to get at him.