“But not to anybody it would be like a problem, hmm? You wouldn’t be dishonoring anyone in the...”
“No, Ida, how could I do that?”
“Listen, you dated Tony’s daughter, who knows what you could do?”
“It’s not anybody’s wife like that.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
“Who said there’s a problem?”
“Well, you’re so secretive about her...”
“I told you, Ida, she’s married. I can’t go blabbing all over town about her.”
“Of course not,” Ida said. “But this isn’t all over town, Andrew, this is me. Ida. Remember me, honey? Your cousin Ida? Remember?”
“No, who are you?” Andrew said, and smiled.
Ida returned the smile.
“Is she married to anyone else could be a problem?” she asked, still smiling.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“I don’t know. Someone who could be a problem.”
“Like what kind of problem?”
“I don’t know. You’re the one being so secretive, I figure there’s got to be some kind of problem.”
“She’s married to a lawyer, there’s no problem,” he said.
“What kind of lawyer?”
“I don’t know. He works for the city,”
“Doing what?”
“I don’t know.”
“What’s his name?”
“I don’t know his name, tell you the truth.”
“Well, what’s her name?”
“Come on, Ida.”
“What’s the big secret? All I’m asking you is her name.”
“I’m not ready to tell you that, Ida.”
“When will you be ready?”
“When I know.”
“When you know what?”
“Whether she’ll marry me.”
“Did you ask her already?”
“I asked her.”
“So what’s taking her so long to decide?”
“Well... she’s got a daughter, Ide. It isn’t easy.”
“How old? The daughter?”
“Twelve.”
“You’re ready to take on a twelve-year-old kid, Andrew?”
“Yeah. I am, Ida.”
“And this isn’t serious, huh?”
“It’s very serious.”
“Then you better discuss it with some other people before you make a final decision,” Ida said.
“Why?”
“Bringing someone into the family? It should be discussed with Petey. And with Bobby. They should know about this. If you really decide to marry her.”
“That’s what I’m hoping, Ida.”
“Then you have to sit down arid talk to them about it. That’s what Bobby did when he wanted to marry me. He talked not only to my father but to your father, too. And to Petey. It isn’t as if you have no obligations, Andrew. This has to be discussed, you understand what I’m saying?”
“Well, I’ll see.”
“What’s the problem?” Ida said.
“No problem.”
“I think there’s a problem,” she said, and nodded wisely.
“I’m telling you no.”
“Then sit down with them.”
“When I’m ready.”
“I think you’d better do it now. Before she says yes and surprises you.”
“I hope to God she does, Ida.”
“I hope so, too,” Ida said, and lifted another spoonful of sauce from the pot, and tasted it, and said, “But talk to your people first, hmm? Get their opinions. Show them the proper respect. You’re a very important man, Andrew. This has to be dealt with in the proper manner. Sit down with them. Talk to them,” she said, and tasted the sauce again.
“Well, I’ll see,” he said.
“Does this need salt?” she asked, and extended the wooden spoon to him.
In bed with her husband that same Sunday night, Ida said, “I don’t think he’s hiding anything from you.”
“What’d he say about the husband?” Bobby asked.
“Only that he’s a lawyer.”
“That’s all? What kind of lawyer?”
“He doesn’t know. All he knows is the guy works for the city.”
“He doesn’t know the guy’s a DA?”
“I don’t think he knows,” Ida said.
“Is he protecting her, or what?”
“I don’t think so. I told you a hundred times already I don’t think he knows. Now go to sleep.”
“Because if he knows...”
“Mm-hmm.”
“... and he’s not telling anybody about it...”
“Mm-hmm.”
“... that could be serious.”
“Yeah.”
“That could be very serious,” Bobby said. “I wish you coulda got him to open up more.”
“I did all I could,” Ida said, and rolled over. “Go to sleep,” she said. “Tomorrow’s another day.”
The baby-sitter was in the living room at the other end of the apartment, watching the Sunday night movie on TV. Mollie and Winona were in Winona’s room, next door to her brother’s room, which he still used whenever he and his wife came home to visit. Max’s bedroom was cool, with a full-length poster of Tina Turner tacked up on the ceiling over the bed, and pennants for all the major league baseball clubs and NFL football teams on the walls, and a Mason jar full of pennies alongside a model of the Kitty Hawk on his dresser. Winona had found his marijuana stash on the top shelf of his closet, in a metal box containing fishing tackle.
Winona was rolling a joint now.
She kept spilling marijuana flakes all over the bed.
“I don’t think we should be doing this,” Mollie said.
“I think we should be doing it,” Winona said firmly. “Don’t be so chickenshit, Moll.”
“How do you know it’s still good? How long has it been in the closet?”
“It doesn’t go stale,” Winona said. “In fact, it gets better with age.”
“Who told you that?”
“It’s a known fact. Anyway, this isn’t old pot. Max smokes every time he comes home.”
“Doesn’t it stink up the whole house?” Mollie asked.
“He opens the windows. There,” Winona said, and triumphantly held up a messily rolled but nonetheless reasonable facsimile of a cigarette.
“Suppose what’s-her-name comes in?”
“Fat Henrietta? She won’t come in. She never comes in. She thinks my mother pays her to come watch television.”
Winona began rolling a second joint. Mollie watched her intently.
“So what do you think I should do?” she asked.
“Smoke it and shut up,” Winona said.
“I mean about France.”
“Did they tell you for sure the trip’s off?”
“Yeah. He said he had too much work to do, and my mother starts going for her doctorate soon as school lets out.”
“Which is when?”
“The tenth. Same as us. I told them we’d been planning this whole thing about our two families being in Paris at the same time, because you’re going to the Riviera in July, which is when we were supposed to be going to St.-Jean, and you and I were so excited about being there together, the two of us, in Paris...”
“True,” Winona said, her head bent studiously over her task.
“... and now they tell me we’re not going. I told my father that was cruel and unusual punishment, and he knew it.”
“What’d he say?”
“He said we weren’t going away this summer, and that was that. And he threatened to send me to camp if I didn’t get off it.”
“Camp!” Winona said. “Jesus!”
“Yeah. So what do you think I should do?”