Page 70 of A Week Away
“Why aren’t the two of you in the kitchen helping out?”
“We’re feminists.”
To Cass I said, “You’ve got a couple of aunts in the kitchen. Is one of them…”
“Yes, one of them is our mother,” Carla said. “What does that have to do with your finding Dominick Reilly?”
“Carla, we shouldn’t have come here,” Rose said. “You know they don’t want us around. You know they think we’re liars.” To me she said, “We’re not liars. We would never lie.”
“Don’t say anything else, Rose.” Carla stood up. “We only came because of you, Cassidy. If you need anything let me know, we’ll do what we can.”
Rose stood up. “Can we go around the side? I don’t want to walk through the house.”
“Of course we can.” To me, she said, “Our little family dramas have nothing to do with whatever happened to Dominick.”
Then they walked around the side of the house. When they were out of earshot, I asked Cass, “Do you know what’s going on with them? I have the feeling it has something to do with their brother, Luca.”
“I think he used to do stuff to them.”
“What stuff?”
“You know… stuff.”
“Like the stuff he used to do with your mom?”
First cousins weren’t supposed to mess around. It wasn’t a big leap to think he’d done the same sort of thing with his sister. But that didn’t seem to be it, Cass gave me a confused look, and said, “I don’t think he ever beat up my mom.”
Violence, bullying, maybe more. Whatever happened it wasn’t going to go away. The two women who’d just left weren’t going to let it go away.
Cass was standing there very still, like he was making an effort not to move. At that moment, he was like a fawn in the woods being hunted. If he stayed quiet, didn’t make a move, grief might not find him. But it would find him. It found us all.
“They’re wrong, you know. About my mom.”
“Who’s wrong?”
“Josette. And, well, everybody. They didn’t know her like I did. She was scared mostly. She didn’t think she was pretty or smart or anything, really. She didn’t think anyone liked her. There was no one to love her. Except me.”
I wasn’t sure how much of that I believed. It did explain the Xanax. If she told all that to a psychiatrist and added a few tears she’d likely have gotten a prescription. It sounded like manipulation. But then, I had to admit that people often used the truth to manipulate others. Maybe she did feel all those things and only ever talked about them when it was to her benefit.
I still had to say something to Cass about all this. I went with, “You were a good son. I’m sure she knew that.”
He wiped his nose. I could tell he was trying not to cry. Without much thought, I said, “None of this is going to help, you know.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Finding out what happened to your dad, finding out who killed your mom. It won’t help with the pain you’re feeling. It’s going to hurt like hell no matter what happens.”
“Why do you have to say shit like that?”
He walked into the house. Which I suppose was a good thing because I didn’t really have an answer to his question. Did I really think telling him how shitty things were going to get would help him? Weren’t we all better off pretending things were better than they were no matter how bad they got?
No. I didn’t think we were.
I decided the best thing to do would be to eat. I went back inside, hoping they’d put out something that wasn’t a hundred and fifty percent sugar. I was in luck, a pasta dish had come out, along with an antipasto. I picked up a paper plate—the good kind that didn’t flop—and waited in the short line. I watched as two of the older women filled plates and then brought them over to the living room.
When it was my turn, I filled the plate with cheese and meats from the antipasto and took a healthy serving of the pasta dish which was rigatoni in a red sauce with eggplant. The dining chairs had been pushed up against the walls, so I sat down in one and started eating.
I wondered where Cass had gotten to. I was tempted to set aside my lunch and go find him, but it might not be a good idea to seem so attached to him. Heaven forbid people got the wrong idea. Actually heaven forbid they got the right idea.
