Read Dead Dog in the Still of the Night Online
Authors: Archimede Fusillo
Tags: #Children's Books, #Growing Up & Facts of Life, #Family Life, #Friendship; Social Skills & School Life, #Emotions & Feelings, #Children's eBooks
Dead Dog in the Still of the Night (9 page)
‘What happened to Bambino?’ his mother asked the moment Primo entered the back door into the kitchen.
Primo stopped, then kept walking, dropping his school bag as he went. He’d been into school for an extra biology class on gene expression in eukaryotic cells, and his head was pounding.
‘Managed to get that prac paper in on time after all,’ he said, hoping to change her tack. ‘Getting these add-on classes during the break is a bonus, I guess, even if it sucks having to go in.’
His mother stepped away from the pantry where she’d been building a pyramid with cans of peeled tomatoes and looked hard at him. ‘Santo’s furious about something to do with your father’s precious little car. Did you do something to the car without telling your father or me, Primo?’ she asked.
Only then did Primo see Beth. She was standing behind her grandmother, among the food shopping bags, thumb in her mouth. She smiled at her youngest uncle.
‘Adrian and Stella have gone out for a chat,’ Primo’s mother said. She bent down and gave the child a pat on the head and gently pushed her toward the play mat that was spread out in front of the TV. ‘Nana got you the pots,’ she said gently. ‘You go along and play. Nana will come join you soon.’
The child sat on the mat but looked back at her uncle, sucking her thumb loudly now that Primo had turned his attention to her.
‘Hey, Beth,’ Primo said, waving at her. Beth giggled. She began lightly tapping on the array of kitchen pots and pans spread before her.
‘Santo wanted to surprise your father by turning up at the Home in Bambino,’ his mother went on. ‘You can imagine his surprise, and my shock, when he came running in here asking what had happened to it.’
She paused to hand her grand-daughter a slice of apple from a small plate with fruit on it.
‘I had no idea what he was even talking about, so he pushed and shoved me into the garage and showed me,’ Primo’s mother said.
Primo didn’t say anything.
Beth gave a squeal as she banged two lids together. The sound cut the air like a sharp peal of thunder. The apple slice lay untouched by her feet.
Neither Primo nor his mother reacted. They stood looking at each other.
‘So, what happened, Primo?’
‘It was an accident,’ Primo said finally, studying the palms of his hands. ‘But it’s all good. I’ll have the door repaired and it’ll be as good as new.’
‘Will it, Primo?’ his mother said softly. ‘Will it be as good as new?’
Primo frowned. ‘Yeah. Tone’s cousin is a bit of a mechanic and a panel beater. He’ll fix it.’
‘The car maybe,’ his mother replied and started stacking the cans of beetroot, tuna and corn from the bags around her feet.
‘Santo won’t tell Dad. Will he?’ Primo said, passing his mother the items from the floor one at a time, as he had done so often when he’d been a little boy.
‘I’ve asked him not to,’ his mother answered. ‘But it’s Santo, so …’ She shrugged.
‘Why is it
his
car?’
His mother didn’t answer.
‘Why is it automatically Santo’s car? Why not Adrian’s or Kath’s, or mine?’ Primo asked ferociously.
‘Why not
mine
, Primo? After all that I’ve put up with. After all the turning the other cheek that I’ve done, why isn’t it mine?’
‘You want Bambino?’ he asked feebly.
‘Do I want Bambino?’ his mother croaked. ‘No. No, I never wanted it. It wasn’t my dream, Primo. Just like shutting the workshop wasn’t something I was ever consulted about.’
For a long moment his mother just looked at Primo, her face blank.
‘I don’t hate your father, Primo,’ she said slowly, deliberately. ‘I’ve never hated him. I’m just very disappointed in him. In myself too, if the truth be known. What happened with the car, son?’
When Primo didn’t answer she reached out to touch him gently on the left cheek with the tips of her fingers. Then she turned, and pushing shut the pantry door, held a hand out to her grand-daughter.
‘Your father broke my heart, Primo,’ she said. ‘More than once. More than twice.’ She paused. ‘But that day, when he struck you for no reason, in the car, he came very close to crushing me completely, son.’
‘I shouldn’t of talked to him the way I did,’ Primo offered, and meant it as an apology. His mother shook her head slowly.
‘He didn’t mean anything by it, Primo,’ she said. ‘He’s confused. He doesn’t stop to think. He just says and does things. But before …’ She stopped abruptly, swallowed hard and broke eye contact with Primo.
‘Park, Beth?’ she said to the child by her side, her voice harried. ‘We go play in the park, love?’
Primo felt his chest tighten. He clenched his fists unconsciously.
‘Santo can have the car if he wants it,’ his mother continued as she waited for the little girl to decide. ‘God knows Adrian never wanted it.’
‘What about Kath?’ Primo cut in.
‘Seems to me Kathleen never figured in any reckonings over your father’s car.’ She looked her youngest son in the eyes. ‘And besides, Kathleen’s always had her own mind. She doesn’t want Bambino any more than I do, Primo.’ She smiled, her lips hard.
‘But you, my boy,’ she continued after a moment, ‘you can let Santo have it or not as you see fit. After all, there’s no written agreement as to who should have it. Just a nod between father and son apparently. Well, between father and one son at least.’
Her forlorn smile drew her face into a tight ball of pain.
But there was something else there too, Primo noticed. Dignity.
Primo swallowed, searching to find the words to tell her he understood, in some small way, about what she’d put up with, put up with still. But before he could, Beth reached up and grabbed at his trouser leg.
‘Park,’ she gurgled. ‘Park.’
Primo’s first instinct was to shake the hands free. Instead he reached down and patted the little girl gently on the crown of her head.
He couldn’t help but imagine what it might have been like if Beth had woken from sleep, gone to the front door and found a maggot-ridden dead dog.
Primo cringed. His stomach cramped. Adrian would have sought out anyone who dared do that to ‘his kid’.
Scumbags. Lowlifes. Degenerates.
He’d deal with them.
‘Primo?’ his mother’s voice was plaintive.
When Primo didn’t reply his mother cupped his face in her hands.
‘Don’t worry about Santo,’ she said. ‘I told him that something must have happened that your father never told me about.’
‘He believed that, you reckon?’ Primo said stiffly.
‘He believes what he believes, Primo. Whatever happened I don’t want to know,’ his mother said, her countenance grim. ‘Not anymore. I’ll sort Santo out. I always have, haven’t I?’
‘Park.’
Primo looked down. His niece was smiling up at him.
‘Nana take you to the park,’ he said and bent down to be eye-to-eye with the little girl. She moved her head forward and their foreheads touched lightly, sending a shiver through Primo.
Beth giggled, and turning in a tight circle twice, threw both arms in the air and yelped, ‘Park!’
‘Fix the car and let me know how much is owed. Apart from that, I don’t care to know any more.’
Primo looked at his mother and felt more ashamed than he could ever remember feeling. Did he think that by confessing to his mother it would all be okay?
The look on his mother’s face told him no. Redemption wasn’t that simple. Even for his father. His mother didn’t hate his father, but she had never forgiven him either.
Primo wasn’t sure which was worse: to be hated, or not to be forgiven.
There was a foul taste in Primo’s mouth. ‘Mum, there was this dead dog,’ he began. ‘There was this dead dog, and I shouldn’t have done it, but …’
His mother covered her ears with her hands and started to hum loudly.
Giggling madly, little Beth copied, cupping both hands over her ears and screeching incomprehensibly.
‘I better get her to the park before she howls the house down,’ Primo’s mother announced, scooping up the excited child. ‘If Santo gives you any bother, you come see me, Primo.’ She turned back in the doorway. ‘Oh, and Primo, whatever’s going on between you and that lovely girl Maddie, sort it out.’ She lowered her voice. ‘And you look like shit. I think that’s how you young people express any lack of spirit and drive.’
She grinned. ‘I’m glad you got that biology paper in on time, son,’ she said after a moment. ‘Year 12 is a big year. I’d hate to think how all this business with your father, with Adrian, is playing havoc.’
As she turned to walk out, she added, ‘Don’t be fooled by their bravado. Your father and brothers both, Primo. They’re more fragile than you might think.’
This was not a woman to be taken for granted, Primo realised with blinding clarity. No matter what her past manner might have suggested, she was no mere victim.
‘Kath!’
Primo turned to find his sister standing on the second step.
‘Mum. Hey, Primo,’ Kath said and finished her entrance. She tousled Beth’s hair playfully and kissed her on the top of her head.
‘My Kathleen. How wonderful to see you, unexpected like this.’ Primo’s mother wrapped his sister in a tight embrace and exchanged short kisses. Beth, caught between them, laughed loudly.
‘I’ve just come from seeing Dad,’ Kath said, allowing herself to be led to one of the chairs like some guest who was to be made to feel most welcome.
When she was seated, Kath smiled awkwardly.
‘It’s been a while since you just dropped in, Kathleen. It’s great,’ their mother said.
Kath nodded and smiled and made an excuse about how work and trying to do her share around the house just seemed to eat into her time.
‘Can you stay for dinner, love? Adrian’s out, and Beth is staying the night. It’d be terrific if you could.’
Primo gave an unconscious nod, caught himself, and covered it by flexing his shoulders.
‘I need to have a chat with Primo, actually,’ Kath replied. ‘But, yeah, dinner would be great. Make a change from having to cook.’
Primo saw his mother grin.
‘Well, I might take Beth to the park like I promised,’ she said. ‘We can catch up when I get back.’ She looked at Primo, her eyes keen. ‘It’ll be nice, won’t it, the three of us, and Beth.’
She left, holding her grand-daughter firmly by the hand.
‘You wanted to see me, Kath? Why?’ Primo asked the moment the door closed.
Kath rose, and Primo was reminded of how compact his sister was. Not short, just compact, like a neat bundle someone had carefully wrapped. There was something quietly able about her that Primo had failed to see before.
It was, he decided, as though the things he thought he most knew suddenly had new dimensions to them. Or was it that he was just paying closer attention lately?
‘I can get that money for you. And I’m not going to ask you why, though I’m hoping you’ll tell me.’
Primo felt a pang of regret stab at him. He wished he’d never approached Kath for the money. But, he figured, there were a lot of things he suddenly regretted doing, so this was just another to add to the list. Primo decided to tamp down the anger brewing in his chest.
‘I appreciate that, Kath,’ he said slowly. ‘I really do. But everything’s cool now, so I won’t be needing it anymore.’
‘It’s not a problem,’ his sister said. She reached out to touch Primo’s arm.
Primo backed off slightly and his sister pulled her hand away.
‘You didn’t bother answering any of my calls to your mobile,’ she said without reproach, as a statement of fact. ‘You never even replied to any of the texts. You had me worried. I almost came to see Mum about it.’
Primo tensed. ‘Well, you can see, I’m perfectly fine, yeah,’ he said. ‘And really, I don’t need the money anymore. But, thanks anyway, yeah.’
‘Hey, I just want to know you’re okay,’ Kath said, her voice just above a whisper. ‘I’ve been going round and round in my head about what my little brother might need a thousand dollars for, and …’ She shrugged. ‘Just tell me it’s got nothing to do with drugs, Primo.’
‘No, not drugs,’ Primo answered finally. ‘Not gambling. Not drugs.’
Primo didn’t know where it came from, but he reached out and held Kath in an embrace. When she hugged him back Primo swallowed deeply. He had a sudden urge to tell her about the dead dog, about Ari, but he feared fracturing the moment.
And besides, he reasoned, not totally convinced, he was probably jumping to conclusions about Ari anyway.
Stella arrived alone and unannounced to collect Beth.
‘One thing’s clear,’ Stella said icily as she stood with Beth in her arms, ready to go after less than ten minutes in the house. ‘My being pregnant is not reason enough to take him back.’
And they were gone, out the front door like visitors, rather than leaving by the back door and through the garden and down the driveway like family.
Two hours later and Adrian hadn’t arrived, and no amount of dialling his mobile could summon him.
‘Like Primo says, it diverts straight to his message bank,’ Kath said after one more effort on her phone.
‘He arranged a night in town tonight, just the two of them,’ their mother offered. She was seated on the sofa, puzzled and upset. ‘It was to be a surprise for Stella. He arranged for Beth to stay the night here, with us ...’ Her voice trailed off into heavy silence.
‘He probably needs time to sort through what’s happened,’ Primo said. ‘Ad’s deluded if he’s expecting Stella to just take him back without a fight.’
‘You were just starting school, Primo,’ their mother said, ‘when the last of the affairs came to light. But they were different times.’
As he watched her, Primo saw his mother’s eyes flutter. She drew a long laborious breath. ‘For better or worse, I’m cut from the old cloth. My generation didn’t walk away. We ought to have, but we didn’t. We stayed and stayed, despite the humiliation, the shattered trust.’
From behind Primo, Kath called, ‘Mum. Don’t do this to yourself, please.’
On the sofa, the ageing woman pressed the fingertips of both hands together and leaned forward, as though straining to catch a whispered conversation just beyond her hearing.
Primo stood, his arms by his sides, looking on disconsolately, silently daring his mother to continue.
‘She’s doing the right thing, I know that,’ his mother finally said. ‘Unless Stella takes a stand now, Adrian will walk all over her for the rest of her life.’
Primo only became aware that Kath had moved to stand next to him when he felt her head nuzzle against his right shoulder. Primo squared his shoulders to shake Kath off, but she barely noticed.
‘What your brother did was wrong,’ their mother said. ‘For Stella. For Beth. For the woman concerned. For us.’ She was on her feet now, and marching past her startled children and into the kitchen. ‘There’s good food in the oven,’ she said. ‘God help me if I’m going to let it go to waste.’
As Primo and his sister watched, their mother worked in a kind of focused frenzy gathering cutlery, pulling plates from drawers, and dragging glasses from cupboards.
She stopped only when Kath broke from Primo and wrapped her in a hug from behind, clutching the older woman’s arms to her chest and holding her until the room filled with a silence so intense it pummelled Primo in the chest like a barrage of clenched fists.
‘She came here,’ his mother announced, shaking herself free of her daughter’s hold. ‘She came here, to my house, to my home, asking after Adrian. That other woman.’
‘Oh, Mum,’ Kath said. ‘No.’
A hard lump dropped in Primo’s belly. Ari’s sister had come to the house?
‘Oh, Mum, yes,’ his mother went on. ‘Oh, yes. She came here screaming that she had to see your brother. But of course he wouldn’t go into the front yard to see her. And your father could hear all the commotion, the yelling, and Adrian cursing and threatening to do her and himself harm.’
‘Oh, Mum!’
‘Thank God your father didn’t understand any of it. He thought someone had the TV on too loud. I thought she was going to come bursting through the front door.’
Primo opened his mouth to say something, but his sister got in first.
‘But how did she know to come here?’ Kath’s question came with an intake of breath. ‘When did this happen?’
‘Stella told her where to find your brother, obviously. This poor woman stood yelling outside Adrian’s place, with Beth and Stella inside. Can you imagine it? Little Beth hearing this woman screeching and ranting, demanding that Adrian see her. And then she came here looking for him.’
For a few long moments no one seemed able to find words. Finally Kath asked, ‘You didn’t open the door, Mum? You didn’t go out, did you?’
Primo anticipated his mother’s answer by letting out a short sigh.
‘I’ve been that poor woman,’ he heard his mother say. ‘That was me standing in the front yard yelling and feeling pathetic and betrayed, so yes, I went outside.’ Primo looked up and caught her eye. ‘We just sort of looked at each other,’ she said.
Primo swallowed and held his mother’s steady gaze.
‘Adrian bolted for the back door the moment he saw me open the front one,’ his mother went on. ‘No real surprise there. But that woman just stopped all her ranting when I stepped out, and stared hard at me as if she was trying to work out what sort of mother has a son who drops a dead dog on a woman’s doorstep.’ She swallowed hard. ‘She said there was a dead dog involved.’
She waved a hand in the air as if she would conjure words to explain what she’d been told, what she’d seen, what she’d felt.
‘What else did she say? What did she want?’ Even as he asked the questions Primo realised his tone was panicky so he paused to catch a breath and added, ‘She didn’t come in, did she?’
His mother shook her head, the fingertips of her left hand rubbing her temple in rapid little pokes.
The enormity of what he’d escaped dawned on Primo. What if he’d been home and gone to the door?
That day with Tone outside the house, Crystal would have seen him talking to Ari. If he had been home and gone to the door instead of his mother, Crystal would doubtless have recognised him, put the puzzle together.
Primo felt weak at the knees, but steadied himself against the table before either woman noticed.
‘She looked sad,’ his mother said suddenly. ‘I know that look. Not just angry, but sad, like Adrian had disappointed rather than betrayed her. The same look Stella has.’
As Kath led their mother to a chair Primo fetched a glass of water. She waved it away, saying, ‘She wanted to know why Adrian had left a dead dog on her doorstep. That’s what she kept asking, over and over. I don’t understand.’
Primo felt his mother’s fingers close about his wrist. ‘Why would Adrian do that?’ she asked. ‘He wouldn’t do that.’
Fear rose like a thick ooze in Primo’s belly, coating his entrails, burning his throat.
‘She was going to wreck –’ Primo started, ready to offer up an excuse for what he’d done.
Kath interrupted, ‘What do you mean a dead dog?’ and the moment passed.
Primo pressed his lips into a tight line and stared at his mother.
‘Adrian won’t say,’ his mother said quietly. ‘He just let the woman stand in our driveway and call out the question over and over again, until I went out there and she left. But not before the neighbours got their fill.’
She paused and a tired smile creased her face. ‘It was like old times again. Like when I’d lock your father out and he’d stand there calling out my name and promising unending loyalty until I was forced to let him back into the house by the shame of the whole street listening in.’
‘Mum, don’t talk like that,’ Kath said and looked at Primo pleadingly.
Primo said nothing.
‘Don’t do this to yourself, Mum, please,’ Kath said.
‘Stella is a good mother,’ said their mother. ‘She’s stronger and smarter than I ever was. Like you, Kath. That’s why you had to get out. The men in this family …’
Kath bent down and wrapped her mother’s head in a hug, muffling the rest of the sentence, while Primo felt the fear well up.
‘It’s okay, Mum,’ Kath said.
She turned her eyes toward Primo, pleading for reassurance that everything would be okay. Primo knew he couldn’t give it.
He left the room. Moments later, he was rummaging in his mother’s purse for the keys to her car, and before anyone could bar his way, he was reversing out of the driveway. Primo dialled Adrian’s number as he turned into the street.
The dial tone rang out to silence.
Primo had a sense that Adrian would go to the dead dog house now that Stella had spurned him completely, now that his plan to win her back by scaring the other woman away seemed to have failed. Adrian was desperate, vengeful.
It made sense to Primo at least. Perfect sense.
Adrian didn’t like to lose at anything. He and Santo both. Adrian would not lose his family quietly.
Primo gripped the wheel and accelerated, the big car responding quickly, effortlessly. He had been a door knock away from being exposed. The thought made him want to dry retch.
When he came into view of the house, Primo was surprised not to find Adrian’s car there. He pulled up into almost the same spot where Tone had parked the hearse the afternoon they had run into Ari.
Ari. The thought of the much bigger man made Primo tense. He prayed that Ari was still in the dark over the dead dog, that Ari still thought it had to do with his drug dealing, with someone trying to intimidate him out of that territory. But now that Ari’s sister had come to the house he couldn’t be too confident about anything, least of all what Ari knew.
Primo crossed the road to the house and stood at the gate.
The short driveway was empty. The house seemed closed up, windows shut, curtains drawn. Primo looked up and down the street.
No, he thought, this was not the upmarket part of Fitzroy. No trendy ‘Free Tibet’ or ‘Save the whale’ banners in this street. No poky converted warehouses selling phoney bongs and realistic-looking spiritual gemstones here. Everything was purely utilitarian, from the plastic and metal bus shelter, to the bedraggled canvas awning hanging limply over the kindergarten sandpit across the road from Ari’s place.
This was not a place for discussions and compromises.
Adrian had to be here somewhere, he told himself. He had nothing left to lose.
Tentatively, Primo made his way to the veranda, listening hard for the sound of voices from inside the house that might betray what was going on behind closed doors.
But there was no sound. The house was wrapped in silence.
Primo had no real idea how long he stood there for, but it was long enough to bring a neighbour to the gate.
‘You right there, mate?’ A man’s voice, curious.
Primo turned and saw the man standing just inside his own front gate, eyes narrowed, taking in features he could remember later when it might be important. The man was short and stocky, with a halo of dark hair. His face was pinched and leathery, the neck of his T-shirt too tight, accentuating his large ears.
‘Can I help you, mate?’ the man asked, sticking his chin out and cocking his head. He had come around the low fence and was standing an arm’s length away.
Primo felt the fear seep into his bones.
‘What do you want?’ the man asked directly.
Primo found the voice to utter, ‘I was looking for someone. Must have got the wrong house.’
As he stepped past, the man knocked him gently but firmly with his left shoulder, making Primo sidestep awkwardly.
‘Need to be careful about the mistakes you make, mate,’ the man said, a threat in his voice. ‘Can’t just go onto people’s property for no good reason. So, who exactly are you looking for?’
Primo snapped, ‘My brother. I thought this was the address he gave me, but I guess I got it wrong.’
The man stared hard at Primo.
‘What’s your brother’s name?’ he asked suddenly. ‘Maybe I know him. Could be a neighbour.’
The man’s close-fisted stance told Primo he wasn’t trying to be helpful.
‘Tone,’ Primo replied after a fraction too long. ‘Tony. Tone.’
The man stepped forward, and one hand went out and pushed Primo hard in the chest, sending him backward, feet struggling to keep their hold.
‘I’ve told that good-for-nothing lout to tell his junkie mates not to come hanging round here looking to score,’ he threatened. ‘What more do I have to say before you scumbags understand, eh?’
The man was looming large in Primo’s face, his eyes angry and his breathing raspy.
‘You got it all wrong,’ Primo started, but the furious neighbour was lifting an open hand, pulling it back across his shoulders to carry his full weight upon Primo’s head. Primo managed to turn himself out of the man’s grip and the blow glanced off his ear, but it was enough to sting savagely.
‘You tell your mate Ari that I’m not going to put up with your kind turning up here at every hour of the bloody day, turning the street into a drug alley,’ the man spat. ‘I’ve had a gutful of you lot.’
‘Don’t get involved, honey, please.’ A woman’s plaintive voice at the man’s back. ‘Please, you don’t know what these people are capable of.’
Primo didn’t see the woman. He was cowering, hiding his face, shying away from the anticipated blows and the accusation.
‘They’re dirty bastards, the lot of them!’ the man shouted, and landed three hard jabs in quick succession on Primo’s torso. Primo dropped to one knee and a kick caught him in the ribs. He let out a sharp cry of pain.
‘Filthy druggie bastard!’
When Primo looked up, he was alone. His attacker was being led into his own front yard, the woman’s arms around his shoulders almost protectively. The man was cursing loudly, indistinct words punctuated with the woman’s soothing voice.