A Cold Day In Hell

It would be good to be able to talk about stuff, Sonny thought. What was going on was hard. Angel was the best but he had his own crap to deal with.

He’d waited long enough to ask the big question. “Hey, I don’t want to pry, but you were majorly bleeding when Chuzah picked you up out of that swamp.” He twisted up his face. Swamps would never be big with him.

“Was I?” Aaron turned his head away, looking for another subject to distract Sonny. “I got to get rid of all the kids’ books in those shelves. Mom won’t let me toss ’em, but I can box ’em up.”

Later he’d go back to what happened out there. He wasn’t ready to talk about it.

“I’ll help you with the books,” Sonny said.

“Thanks.”

“I just about live over here. Your mom must get sick of it.”

Aaron looked back at him. “My mom likes you, even if you are an asshole around her most of the time. She doesn’t give up on people.”

“She will,” Sonny said and felt mad because he sounded like he felt sorry for himself. He wasn’t sure why he couldn’t loosen up with Eileen—except she was a woman. “Was your mom always on her own, before Angel came along? Except for when she was seeing the cop, I mean.”

“She worked at the shop. Same as always. And she had me and some girlfriends. She and Matt still get along.”

“No other men?”

“No.” Aaron sat up straighter. “You keep pushing about that. She’s never been the kind to look for men.”

“She’s pretty.”

“Yeah.”

“I can tell Angel thinks so, too. You’ve seen the way he looks at her?” Sonny was really warming up to the idea of Angel and Eileen being more than just friends because their boys hung out together.

“My mom’s quiet,” Aaron said. “I don’t think…Angel’s big and tough.”

“He’s not tough with her. I think he wants to be real soft and gentle with her.”

“What are you sayin’?”

He shouldn’t have mentioned this, Sonny thought. He cleared his throat and thought about the way his dad had taught him to say things carefully. “I just think Angel and Eileen would be a nice, er, couple. They don’t do much except work and look out for us. They ought to go out for dinner, maybe a drive.”

“Where would they drive?”

“Oh,” Sonny shrugged. “Around. You know. To some nice places. They could even go to Mississippi. New York’s great but it’s a long drive.”

“Okay,” Aaron said. “Quit pussyfooting around. You’re talking about them having sex. Go on, say it. You think your uncle’s horny and my mom’s convenient.”

Holy crap. “Watch your mouth. Don’t talk about your mother that way. I meant just what I said. They’re nice people and they could do worse than be real good friends. You ought to be thinkin’ what’s gonna happen to Eileen when you move on. Or are you sticking around Pointe Judah for the rest of your life? Maybe going to work selling hedgehog boot-scrapers at Poke Around?”

Aaron sighed. “When I get caught up with school I’m going to college. Okay, I’m sorry I got pissed at you. I just don’t like thinking about my mom having sex, okay?”

“Sure.” Sonny smiled to himself and wondered what Aaron would have done if he’d walked in on his mother having sex—with two men—and neither of them was his father.

“Angel’s okay.”

Sonny’s stomach flipped. “He’s the best guy I ever knew. Cares more about me than anyone else ever has.”

“You think my mom will come right back?”

I’ve got a big mouth. “Probably.”

Aaron scrubbed at his face.

Sonny drew in a long breath. “Chuzah said your clothes were too messed up to clean so he threw them away. That’s how you got to come home in a dress.”

He expected the elbow he got and laughed.

“Chuzah’s okay,” Aaron said. “He said we could go back there if we wanted to return the kaftan.”

“I don’t think I’ll want to.”

Aaron took a bit to say, “I’m going to. I like Locum. When I was a little kid we had a dog and he went everywhere with me. He was only a mutt, but he was the best.”

“What happened to him?” Sonny said.

Aaron frowned and sighed. “I don’t know. Ran off, I guess. One day he was there, the next he was gone. It was tough. Wouldn’t you like to have a sidekick like Locum?”

“He’s okay for a dog. There was blood on my clothes, too. I got it on me when Chuzah carried you back to his place. It was comin’ through his fingers.”

“Forget it, will ya? It must have been something from the swamp. It just looked like blood is all.”

“You were shot,” Sonny said bluntly.

Aaron didn’t answer him and Sonny sat up. He put on the bedside lamp and glared at the TV. Some black-and-white movie had come on. Loads of men in fedoras and ties hanging undone arguing with some guy behind one of those old-fashioned windows, the ones they used to have inside banks. Looked like a major heist gone wrong.

He touched Aaron’s side and saw how he recoiled. “So show it to me,” Sonny said.

Aaron got off the bed and shoved his hands in his jeans pockets. He paced back and forth.

“Look,” Sonny said. “We’re in this together. All of it. Whatever happens, I’ll be there for you.”

“And I’ll be there for you.”

“So show me.”

Aaron hauled up the left side of his T-shirt and walked close to Sonny. “Satisfied?”

Sonny sat on the edge of the bed and touched a round, brownish bruise on the skin just beneath Aaron’s ribs. Aaron turned slowly around to show a matching mark on the other side.

“Entry and exit wounds,” Sonny said. “Or that’s where they should be. That’s too freakin’ creepy.”

9