Chapter 5
When Drew and I get back, Jesse and his friend Danny have joined my parents in the kitchen. Danny is emptying miniature candy wrappers out of his backpack while Jesse shuffles his feet and talks politely with my father. He barely acknowledges Drew, who is his favorite person on earth.
“Everything okay, Honey?” I ask him.
“He’s just hungry,” my father says, poking in the refrigerator for something both of them, especially my father, might like to eat.
“He’s had too much candy,” my mother says. “This is a sugar reaction. You used to be the same way. I’d tell Angelina not to let you eat all that crap, but she never listened.”
My father glares at my mother. He may have agreed to give up Angelina, both as his mistress and as our housekeeper, but that doesn’t mean he wants to hear her criticized. Angelina was there for us when my mother wasn’t – and since it turned out that my mother knew all along what was going on, her moral high ground is subject to small earthquakes.
“Too much candy is too much candy,” she says, as if that should settle it.
I get the sense Jesse’s problem has nothing to do with his appetite. “Do you want to have a private talk with Drew?” I ask him softly.
His eyes flare open and his head jerks back. “Why would I want to do that?” he asks.
“Because, honey, a man died on our doorstep yesterday and that’s very upsetting. And Drew is a police detective who deals with that kind of trauma every day and he might be able to help you through this–”
“I’m fine,” Jesse says and he bites the words out. “Just stop staring at me. Everyone!” And with that, he bolts from the room.
“Something happen I should know about, Dan?” I ask Jesse’s best friend while my father stares up toward Jesse’s bedroom.
“Beats me,” Danny says. “He was pretty quiet today, but you know, that’s just Jesse. We got off the bus and me and Robbie were sort of wrestling, you know, just kidding around, and we fell on old lady Petroff’s lawn and she yelled at us, same as always, telling us she was going to call the cops on us. Same old, same old. And Jesse told us to knock it off, and we left.”
“Only. . .?” Drew asks before I can.
“Only Jesse ran up and touched her front step and stood there for a minute – or maybe like five seconds– before we left.” Danny looks toward the doorway like he’d like to escape.
“I’ve told all of you to leave Old Lady – Mrs. Petroff – alone. In fact–” Drew cuts me off before I can remind Danny (and Jesse who is no doubt listening at the top of the stairs) that they are expressly forbidden from having anything to do with the old crank.
“Did Jesse do anything at the door?” Drew asks. He’d better not have, since he’ll be grounded for a week if he did.
Danny shakes his head.
“Why do you think he did that?” Drew asks. “Run up to the door?”
Danny shrugs, and Jesse comes back into the room. “Why don’t you just ask me?” Jesse says.
Drew says, “Okay,” and repeats the question for Jesse who stares hard at Danny before answering.
“Because they dared me,” he says. “They always dare me, and this time I did it, right Danny?”
I watch the Adam’s apple in Dan’s throat bob.
“Everyone’s afraid of her,” Jesse says. “And we dare each other. Right?”
It’s like he’s ordering Dan to agree. And he does.
“Go home,” Jesse says abruptly. “Why don’t you all go home?” he shouts, and his voice breaks and he runs upstairs before any of us can see him cry.
“Where does that woman live?” my mother demands, going to the hall tree and grabbing her coat. “I’m going to give her a piece of my mind.”
My father covers his face with his hands. “Great,” he says. “Like she has any to spare.
