Tommy Monteleone: Todd was trying to picture him. He’d met him twice, maybe, at a wedding and a wake.
She was leaving the car running. What’s the rush? Todd thought. Is he still on the road?
It was another one of those times he imagined God peering down into his soul the way he might peer into an old garbage can.
“I’m going over there now,” Nina said. She revved the car, like she was demonstrating. “Let’s go.”
“Where?” Joanie asked. She shook her head like there was a fly around it. She was still holding the little three-pronged rake.
“Lucia’s,” Nina said. “Are you all right? C’mon. Let’s go.”
“I don’t think I should go,” Joanie said. “Maybe she doesn’t want to be bothered—”
“Get in the car, you don’t think you should go,” Nina said. “The woman’s boy is run over on the street, you don’t want to pay your respects? What do I tell her, you’re working in the garden?”
Joanie looked at the garden and then at Todd. “Isn’t it a little early? They just got the news.”
“They heard last night. We’re not gonna stay long,” Nina said. “Just stop over. I got some soup and some lasagna. They can heat it up.”
“I better change,” Joanie said.
“Go like that,” Nina said.
“I got dirt all over me,” Joanie said. She hurried for the back door. “I’ll be one minute.”
Inside the house, she called, “Todd, get the dog off Nina’s car.”
Todd took Audrey by the collar and pulled her down from the driver’s-side door.
Nina settled back to wait. She put her head against the headrest.
“Is he going to be able to get that helmet off?” she asked, nodding her head at Brendan. “Wait’ll Bruno sees everybody else wearing it but you.”
“How did you hear about Tommy Monteleone?” Todd asked.
“I called Lucia, I was trying to organize a bus trip,” Nina said. “You imagine? I’m calling about that, her son’s dead.”
Todd let go of Audrey’s collar. She shook herself and stretched and drifted back to the grass. “They know who did it?” Todd asked.
“They don’t know. What do they know? I didn’t hear a thing about it on the news,” Nina said. “Put the dog in the house. You gonna go like that?”
“Me?” Todd said. “I’m going?”
“Sure you should go,” Nina said. “It’s not gonna kill you. It’s a nice gesture. She’ll remember. We’re only gonna drop the food off.”
“Brendan’s here, and stuff. Maybe I should stay with him,” Todd said. He felt a rush of air that seemed to start at the top of his head.
Nina peered at him. “Did he just lose a son?” she asked. “What is it with you people today? Don’t start with me. We’re talking five minutes here.”
“He just came over,” Todd said.
“What’s he, live two houses down?” Nina said, exasperated. “Get in the car. Put the dog in the house and get in the car.”
Todd grabbed Audrey by the collar without calling her and dragged her toward the house. She thought she’d been bad and went limp, so she was harder to pull. Brendan watched him struggle, with a little smirk.
“Take the helmet off,” Todd said, frustrated. “I gotta go.”
“Can I keep it on till you get back?” Brendan said.
Todd’s mother came out of the house. She looked grim. “Let’s go, if we’re going,” she said.
“Take it off,” Todd said. “I gotta go.”
“You’re going?” Joanie said. “You don’t have to go.”
“He should go,” Nina said. “Don’t you start with me now. I just went through all of this with him.”
“Ma, what’s he have to go for?” Joanie said.
Nina swore.
“You got the other one,” Brendan said. “Why can’t I keep this one till you get back? You ain’t gonna use it.”
“Ma, he can’t go,” Joanie said.
“He can’t?” Nina said. “Why can’t he?”
Brendan was hitting his facemask with his palm from different angles. Audrey sniffed the air around him to try and sort out what he was doing.
“Get in the car,” Joanie said, angry. “Grandma’s decided you have to go.”
“I’m going,” Todd said. “I’m going.”
“So I can keep the helmet till then?” Brendan asked.
“Take it off,” Todd said.
Brendan yanked it off his head like someone pulling taffy. When he got it off, his ears looked like he’d been out three hours in the dead of winter.
“I’ll see you later,” Brendan said disgustedly.
“You can come back,” Todd said.
“Yeah. I’ll get right over here,” Brendan said.
Todd got in the car. Nina put it into gear. They backed down the driveway. They passed Brendan, who didn’t look up. “Now he’s mad at me,” Todd complained.
“Don’t worry about him,” Nina said. “Worry about me.”
They drove without anybody saying anything. Todd rolled his window down.
The Monteleones lived in Lordship, ten minutes away.
Todd’s mother was looking out her window. He was dizzy and a little sick. He had a fantasy that they had the body there and they were going to make him touch it.
Nina adjusted her side mirror, and he could see his eyes. He thought, What you’re doing now: this has to be some kind of sacrilege.
“You gotta move outta Milford,” Nina said. “You’re not near anybody. Milford. You know whose idea that was.”
She meant it was Todd’s father’s idea.
They went over the Devon bridge. The metal part in the middle made the noise under the tires he remembered from the Merritt Parkway bridge the night before.
“Lucia said they said he was dead before he hit the ground,” Nina said. “He wasn’t dragged or anything. Least he didn’t suffer.”
“Ma,” his mother said.
Nina shrugged. Todd closed his eyes so tightly he saw lights behind them.
“How old was he?” his mother asked. She was still looking out her window.
“How old could he a been?” Nina said. “He was born five, six years after you. So what’s that make him? Twenty-eight? Twenty-nine?”
They drove on. Bradlees’, Spada’s Blue Goose Restaurant, Avco-Lycoming Industries.
“It’s a sin,” Nina said.
“Have they told Perry?” Joanie asked. Perry was Tommy’s younger brother. He was in the Navy.
Todd’s hands were in his pockets. He heard one pocket starting to rip.
Tommy was coming back to him. He’d been an usher at the wedding. He’d been behind Todd in the line to use the men’s room. He’d said something to him. He’d had his jacket and bow tie off and his sleeves rolled up.
“Try WICC,” Nina said. “See if they got anything about it.”
Joanie fiddled with the stations. She got WICC. The local news opened with contractors and fraud on a municipal project near Seaside Park, a lot of money disappearing. It ended with a mention of the Bridgeport Rosary Society’s bake sale, still a week off.
“I don’t believe it,” Nina said.
They passed Sikorsky Airport and the decommissioned runway. Grass was growing through the cracks in the tarmac. At the light, they pulled up next to a terrier with one of its front legs in a splint, apparently waiting to cross the street.
“They’re probably waiting to make sure they notified the family,” Joanie said.
“The family knows,” Nina said. Todd flashed on all the crying and misery. He imagined himself in the middle of it, responsible.
The Monteleones lived on Spruce Street. There was only the one car there when they pulled in. “She’s all alone?” Joanie said.
“Maybe Tommy Senior went out,” Nina said. She shut the engine off and opened her door. She waited for a minute, listening. Then she got out. She leaned into Todd’s open back window. “Stay here. I’ll see if she’s in any shape. Give me the box.”