Chapter 3 - The Trip Home
Nora refused to stay while Victor performed another argument. “Rosie needs dry clothes,” she said. “We'll talk tomorrow.”
Sal asked his driver to bring the car around. Nora said no. She took a cab, with Rosie on her lap and Captain Sunday tucked into a grocery bag to protect the torn stuffing.
On the way to Queens, Rosie asked whether Sal was really her grandfather.
“Yes,” Nora said.
“Why didn't we go to his birthday?”
“I didn't know when it was.”
“Everybody has a birthday.”
Nora stared at the green numbers on the taxi meter. “Sometimes families stop visiting.”
“Because they're mad?”
“Sometimes.”
At home, Ben Ward stood in the kitchen wearing grease-stained work pants and one sock. He had come off shift early when the dispatcher told him about the truck. He was making toast because it was the only food Rosie had agreed to eat after late nights lately.
He opened the door and saw the mud on Captain Sunday. Then he saw Nora's face.
“Where were you?”
“Blue Hour. I went to talk to Victor.”
Ben glanced down at Rosie. “With her?”
“I thought it'd take five minutes.”
“Five minutes where?”
“Ben—”
“Outside a nightclub?”
Rosie flinched at his voice. Ben saw it, softened immediately, and crouched. “Hey, pumpkin. Go put on your pajamas. I'll be right there.”
“Are you and Mom fighting?”
“We're figuring something out.” He kissed her forehead. “Go ahead.”
When her bedroom door closed, Nora told him everything, including the moment Rosie said Sal had picked up the bear.
Ben gripped the edge of the counter. “You promised we'd stay away from them.”
“And you promised not to say yes when Victor wanted the van for his deliveries.”
“I didn't.”
“Then how did he get your truck?”
“He sent security to the private lot and wouldn't open the gate. That's why I called you.”
Nora lowered her eyes. They had spent the day snapping at each other over money. She'd imagined that solving it alone might make her look capable. Instead she'd put their child outside a club in freezing rain.
Ben put the toast on a plate and forgot to eat it.
“Do you want to know what scared me?” he asked. “It isn't that you saw your father. It's that you were afraid to tell me you were going.”
Before Nora could answer, the doorbell rang. A courier stood downstairs with Ben's work badge and a stamped notice from Victor's company.
The notice said the truck would be sold to recover fees if the account remained unpaid.
May you like
The deadline was Friday.
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