Authors: Jeffrey Littorno
“Okay, lemme see.” Joey stuck out his left hand palm up and said, “A little time on Easy Street?” He extended his right hand palm up and continued, “A whole lifetime on a warm, sunny… Throw in a couple of hot babes?”
Louis laughed and said, “With all the money you would have, I’m sure some female companionship could be arranged.”
Joey looked at his left palm as if seriously contemplating his alternatives. “Hmmm, a short time on Easy Street.” He turned his eyes to his right hand as he continued, “A whole lifetime on a warm, sunny beach with a couple of hot babes.” He raised and lowered both of his hand as if gauging the weight of the options. Finally, after a few moments of focusing upon his hand scales, Joey looked up at Louis and said with a grin, “You know, Louis, I think I’m gonna go with a lifetime on that beach!”
Stoaffer laughed loudly at Joey’s answer and then turned to me, “So how about it, Thomas? Surely, you cannot argue with the kind of logic applied by our friend here. After all, ‘logic is Satan’s enemy’, as they say.”
Although I had never heard anyone say
logic is Satan’s
enemy
, the idea sort of made sense. I mean, stories about the devil always had him tempting people with the things they desired with passion rather than any sort of logical thought.
Joey interrupted my thoughts by asking, “Whadda you say, Thomas? We can’t do this without you.”
“He is right,” Stoaffer said. “We can’t do this without you, Thomas.”
I must seem like the world’s biggest chump since I kept making decisions then changing them a minute later. I was about to give in to the others once again when the sound of the garage door opening interrupted me.
“Shit,” I hissed as I scurried around looking for a place to hide. My companions did the same. We needed for Theresa to come into the house without suspecting anything. Once inside, we could surprise her. None of the furniture seemed to offer even short-term security. Finally, I ran upstairs and crouched under the railing on the landing. From where I hid, I had a view of the living room and entrance from the garage. I did not know where my companions had gone. Once Theresa came in, she would notice things had been moved, realize someone had broken in, and run screaming from the house. Before I had a chance to consider the problem, I heard Theresa’s voice as she came in from the garage. The conversation sounded pretty heated. My heart jumped into my throat. None of us had even considered that Theresa might not be alone when she returned. More people put a new light on things. It would be much more difficult to keep two people quiet and under control. The image of a lifeless body of a man dumped along a road in Oregon reminded me of the talent Joey had for keeping people quiet and under control. Fortunately, none of Joey’s gifts were necessary as it became obvious that Theresa was on the phone.
Watching from above gave me a sense of being removed from the whole thing. Then a strange thought came to me. From this position, instead of being removed, I became a puppet master making everyone move according to my wishes. I could clean up this whole mess, get rid of my companions, and start a new life with Theresa The thought brought me a smile until Theresa’s entrance wiped away the slightest notion of me having any control.
Even from the upper floor, I was struck by her beauty. A sense of happiness wrapped me up. The warmth pulsed through my body, and I felt great. Luckily, I was out of sight so no one saw the ridiculous grin plastered on my face.
Theresa had the same book bag as earlier and was looking down reading something on her phone as she entered the room. Otherwise, she would surely have noticed that something was wrong and never walked right into the living room. She set the bag on the couch and sat down next to it without looking up from the telephone. The sensation of being watched must have caught Theresa’s attention, because she looked up to find Louis watching her from a few feet away.
Louis and Theresa stared at each other for a few seconds. All of a sudden, a spark of recognition or awareness or something else shone in Theresa’s eyes.
She muttered quietly, “Uncle Lou?” Then she jumped to her feet, and yelled, “Uncle Lou!” She closed the distance between Louis and herself in seconds and had her arms around him before he had time to react. From my position, I could not see Stoaffer’s face, but I imagined his blank expression melting into a smile against his will.
The two of them held the embrace for a few seconds before Theresa pushed back to look at the person in front of her. “Uncle Lou … I … I haven’t seen you in… My God… has it been ten years!” She started to move closer to him but stopped and said, “I haven’t seen you since...” Theresa looked down and stayed quiet for a moment.
Without being conscious of it, I had moved down to the middle of the staircase to get a better view of the young woman. Theresa wiped her eyes with the palm of her hand and sniffled. I still could not see Stoaffer’s face, but he stood still and quiet.
When she continued, Theresa’s voice sounded a bit colder than moments earlier. She asked, “How did you get in here, Uncle Lou?” She looked around as if searching for an entry point. Her eyes settled on me for a second. An expression of fear fluttered across her face, and her eyes flew away.
“I found an open window in the backyard and let myself in,” Joey’s cheerful voice came from somewhere near the bottom of the stairs. “Hope you don’t mind.”
He walked to the place where Louis and Theresa stood and stuck his right hand out to her. She stood motionless for several seconds regarding the hand offered. All of a sudden, as if she had been shaken from a daydream, Theresa took Joey’s hand and shook it.
“This is my friend Joey,” Louis muttered .
She managed to bring a trembling smile to her face as she said, “Hello, Joey. Sorry the house is such a-” Theresa stopped as she caught sight of the signs we had been searching the house. “I’m confused. Are you robbing me, Uncle Lou?” She stuck out her bottom lip to complete a pouting expression.
For an instant, I saw the little girl Stoaffer had known many years ago. Louis must have seen this also, because there was new brightness in his voice when he answered, “Of course, I could never steal from you, sweetie. My … my friend … and I are just looking for some things your mommy and daddy kept for me while I was away.” He moved closer to Theresa and as if he was about to embrace her, but she backed away from him.
At the mention of her parents, a mixture of pain and anger showed on her face. “I … uh … don’t think Mom would have kept anything which belonged to you.” A mocking, twisted smile formed on Theresa’s lips before she continued in a calm voice, “I guess maybe you never thought about the pain you left behind. Why should you? You were swept away to a place far removed from any responsibility or regret.” Theresa paused drying her eyes, wiping her nose on her sleeve, and trying to get herself together. Satisfied with the effort, she continued, “Let’s see. When you went away, my dad was dead. But you probably didn’t hear about Mom. After Daddy died…” Theresa’s voice was alternating between a tremble of emotion and a forced coldness. “Mom was terribly depressed. It didn’t help that her drinking binges became part of her daily routine. The doctor kept saying she was going through the normal grieving process and prescribing more sleeping pills.” Again, she had to pause to gather her strength before continuing, “Of course, looking back now and talking like this, I still can’t believe I was so blind. I mean, I should have seen it coming.”
Theresa started crying without holding back. I wanted nothing more than to go to her and offer some sort of comfort, but I fought the urge and instead stood silently watching. Finally, she continued, “Sorry, I didn’t think I would have so much trouble with this. Anyway, the police report listed it as an accident. I guess that was supposed to make me feel better. Obviously, the over-dose was what Mom had planned, and she never woke up. I was in fourth grade. I went off to school in the morning with my mother still sleeping just as I did many days back then. On this day, when I got home the paramedics and Mom’s doctor had already been there and left. The place was clean and quiet as if nothing was wrong. I walked into the living room and dropped my book bag on the couch before Aunt Cindy came out of the bathroom with her eyes all red like she had been crying. That’s when I knew something terrible had happened. But that’s all I knew until years later when I turned eighteen and a lawyer explained all of the details. I had been living with Aunt Cindy and her family since Mom’s death.”
She paused for a moment and looked of into the distance before continuing, “This place remained in my name and empty the whole time. So when I got my inheritance, I moved in here and started studying at San Pietro Junior College.” She smile and added, “So you see, Uncle Lou, there’s nothing here for you.”
Something about Theresa’s words,
there’s nothing here for
you
, stuck in my mind as I watched Louis step closer to the young woman and say, “I guess I made a mistake, hunh?” He stepped back and smiled broadly. “Well, no matter! It’s great to see you, Theresa. I have missed you.”
She returned the smile and said with only a slight tremble, “And I have missed you, Uncle Lou.” She reached out and touched his arm for just a second.
I was not sure whether Stoaffer pulled his arm back first or if Theresa broke their contact. Either way, the physical contact seemed to cause some pain to both of them. Louis grimaced as if he was being branded with a hot poker. For her part, Theresa’s face twisted like she had touched something slimy.
Before either of them had a chance to put their emotions into words, Joey spoke up, “Well, I hafta tell you how touched I am by this emotional reunion, but we gotta get down tuh bizness, Lou.”
Theresa was confused by Joey’s comment and started to ask a question. However, before she could get the words out of her mouth, Stoaffer said in his most fatherly tone, “Don’t worry about my impatient friend, Theresa. We will have time to discuss things in more detail later.”
Chapter 13
Things relaxed after that. The mood in the house was actually very pleasant. To anyone who happened to peak into one of the windows, the four of us would have looked to be a group of old friends spending time together. The topic of the money on the sink and counter was ignored. Instead, upon seeing that the kitchen had been searched, Theresa assumed we must be hungry and offered to prepare a meal. The offer was quickly accepted and together we scrambled around the kitchen helping to prepare what Theresa promised would be
the best spaghetti we had ever eaten
.
I had to admit the meal lived up to that promise.
Maybe it is true what they say about the company making the food taste better, because I don’t remember enjoying a meal as much as I enjoyed that one. Of course, the main reason for my delight was Theresa’s presence. She was truly enchanting. Every time that she looked my way I felt warmth spring up from deep inside of me. Her face practically sparkled with innocent beauty. I probably sound like some pimple-faced kid with his first crush, but I am just trying to describe how I was feeling in the best way I can. Everything that came out of her mouth struck me as incredibly clever and insightful. I am sure my behavior did not go unnoticed by the others. Whenever Theresa said anything even mildly amusing I laughed more enthusiastically and longer than anybody else. While I was certain Theresa enjoyed my attention, Louis was clearly irritated by my action and Joey had other things on his mind.
“That was some damn good spaghetti!” He said leaning back from the table and taking a drink from his wine glass. “Now, I hate to be the turd in the blanket here, but we hafta talk about some stuff. Right, Lou?” He looked over at Stoaffer who was focused intently on Theresa.
Joey’s direct question shook Stoaffer from his concentration upon the young woman. It was not an interruption that Stoaffer welcomed. He shot a look of extreme irritation at Joey before answering, “I don’t think we need to ruin such a wonderful reunion by speaking of unpleasant matters.” He turned his attention back to Theresa and smiled.
The awkward silence that followed signaled that the mention of
unpleasant
matters
had indeed shattered the enjoyable mood in the kitchen. Confusion showed in Theresa’s eyes and an uneven smile was stuck on her lips. Her voice trembled slightly as she asked, “What is he talking about, Uncle Lou?”
Louis gave her his fatherly smile once again and said, “Oh, there will be plenty of time to discuss those things later. Right now, let’s just enjoy getting to know each other again after all these years.” He leaned closer to Theresa and started to put his hand on her shoulder.
Just before Stoaffer’s hand made contact, Theresa leaned away and said, “What else could there be to discuss? I told you that my parents left nothing of yours here.” Her eyes had coldness in them that had not been there previously as she continued, “In fact,
Uncle Lou
, my mother hated you for killing Daddy. She used to flip out at just the mention of your name. Does that sound like someone who would keep something…would keep anything of yours?” The coldness had become the heat of anger, and she stood up from the table.