“He doesn’t have a lot of money. Senior has a lot of money.”
“Well, maybe he shouldn’t be driving around in that Cadillac.”
“His father gave it to him as a present for completing a big
project. They share their money: a join house fund. Senior oversees
it and delves it out as needed. They don’t hoard their own cash
supplies. They get what they need, what they want, and Senior
oversees the rest. That’s why they get along so well. Everyone
works together. It’s a team and that’s how a family should be.”
“It sounds like communism and I still think Tommy should buy you a
house. What kind of boy is fine with living in his father’s house
all his life?”
She sighed. “You don’t understand.”
“Frankly, it frightens me that you do.”
When they first got married, Tommy slept. He was relieved to have
someone beside him. They would go to bed before the sun set sometimes
and his brothers joked but they didn’t mind. He would sleep for
ten, twelve hours a night. He made up for all the sleep he lost
during his nocturnal summer. Many times Penny would read while he
slept if it was too early for her. She would read novels, textbooks,
the notes she had taken in class.
In the mornings, Tommy would get up when Penny was ready and drive
her to class. He would do heroin all day with his brothers with an
occasional trip to Washington to break the routine. He would pick
Penny up after her classes were over. In the evenings she studied.
They would go out to eat sometimes but most of the times they would
stay in. Penny would cook and Tommy would help. The maid would do the
dishes. The boys loved Penny’s cooking even more than their
favourite takeout and when she didn’t have to study she liked to
cook for them. She started to teach Tony how to make some of his
favourite recipes but he seemed hopeless. She sent him to her
mother’s to pick up some misdirected mail when she had taken off to
Vermont with Tommy for a few days. Her mother had been getting ready
to make tortellini and Tony had almost begun to drool at the mention
of the dish. She invited him in and he helped her make it. He wasn’t
received well by Penny’s father so he took his serving to go and
tipped her one hundred dollars. She didn’t tell her husband.
Tony visited Penny’s parent’s house from time to time in the
afternoon while her husband was away. He learned to make tortellini
better than Penny and surprised her with the dish one day. The boys
were all impressed but Penny was more uncomfortable than anything.
She knew she should be happy about the intertwining of their families
but she felt more uncertain than anything.
Tommy was becoming proficient in the kitchen too. Perhaps proficient
was too generous a word. On mornings that Penny had an exam Tommy
would get up when she did and he would make her breakfast as she
hurried around getting ready and cramming crumpets of information
into her brain. Tommy’s breakfasts were never extravagant:
scrambled eggs that were a little too runny but still somehow burnt,
topped off with the occasional crunch of eggshell tidbits. Penny
appreciated the gesture though. She was convinced she had the best
husband in the world though somehow he still felt like a boyfriend.
She felt like they were playing house and that it wasn’t real.
Things got real one day when for no apparent reason, two police
officers came to their door.
One presented a search warrant. They both began to overturn the
house.
Vincent and Tommy were gone to Washington when they came. Senior
tried to stall them with charming words as Tony tore into the kitchen
and tried to secure their recreational stash sprawled about the room.
The officers heard the scuffle and redirected their search. Maybe if
Tony hadn’t been high he could have been stealthier. Maybe if
Senior hadn’t tried to bribe them he wouldn’t have been escorted
to jail too. Maybe if Penny hadn’t been vomiting upstairs she
could have helped, she could have prepared tea for them in the
kitchen or at least pretended to, which could have covered Tony’s
poor hiding capabilities. Maybe if Vincent and Tommy hadn’t been
gone. Maybe if the circumstances had been different Penny wouldn’t
have come downstairs to an empty house.
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