It was Sunday and the house was quiet except for the sound of a car in the driveway next door. “Tap the horn, Peter.”
“For God’s sake, Sam. Everybody doesn’t get up at the crack of dawn.”
“Well, maybe they should. It would do them good to get up and go to church. Especially that bunch next door!”
“If I was the defense attorney I could offer cogent argument to oppose your reasoning, but if I was the presiding judge, I would have to say you have merit.”
Upstairs a window opened. “Dad? Celina doesn’t have her Sunday school money. She’s trying to borrow from me.”
“I lost it, Daddy.”
“She didn’t have it. She spent it! Now she wants to get mine.”
“No. Daddy, honest I didn’t. If I did, it was by accident.”
“It was on purpose.”
“Honest, Daddy, it was a mistake.”
“You admit then that you did it!” Dino insisted.
“It was a mistake, Daddy.”
“All right, puss. I think I can manage a small advance.”
“Thank you, Daddy. I love you better than the whole world.”
“You shouldn’t let her get away with that, Peter.” Peter’s wife Samantha believed in tough love for her children. “She must learn to be truthful. I worry about her. She makes believe too much of the time.”
“Sam, she is eight years old. At that age she lives in a world of her own.”
“I just want her to be happy. Normal.”
“She will be, Sam. We’ll see to it.”
“I’d like you to speak to her about hanging out with that bunch next door. I saw her over there talking to that girl last week.”
“She’s done her time, Sam. Give her a chance. I never believed she did it in the first place! If you ask me Rex probably did it and blamed it on the girl. Or the brother, or a burglar. We don’t know. It could have been an accident for all we know. We need to give her the benefit of the doubt.”
“Maybe so, but until we know for sure, I’m not comfortable with Celina going over there.”
A door slammed. Feet pounded. Marianne crouched.
“Quiet, children. People are asleep next door.”
“Why doesn’t everyone go to church like we do, Mama?”
The car drove away.
The sound of the motor faded in the distance and the house was quiet now. Then a dog barked and that started all the dogs in the neighborhood barking. First in one direction, then the other, farther and farther away. Then a man’s voice shouted abuse at the dogs and one by one they quieted.
All day on Monday she had no chance to think about Michael. Mavis was home and she kept a watch on the street.
“It was like a parade all day long,” she reported to Rex in a whisper voice when he came home. “First Helen walked down the street on her walker, bold as life and didn’t even turn her head. Where do you think she went?”
“How the hell am I supposed to know where she went?” He was terribly irritated.
“I’ll tell you if you stop interrupting me. All right, all right, Rex, she went to the Facinelli’s. What do you say to that?”
“She’s never been there before yesterday and now she goes there two days in a row.”
“I know that makes two days in a row,” Rex bellowed.
“Why are they getting so friendly all of a sudden?”
“Maybe they’re just getting unfriendly with us.”
“And that was just the beginning.” Mavis was talking with her mouth open so she could cry.
Rex got a fresh can of beer from the refrigerator then went to the living room and switched on the TV. It was very loud and he tuned to the sports network. Baseball, basketball, football. It seemed there was a never ending line up that Rex just had to watch.
Marianne had watched the parade too. Mrs. Fultz stayed at the Facinelli’s for almost an hour. Then she went home, looking straight ahead. As soon as she went into the house, Mr. Fultz came out, though at that time of day he should have been making the rounds of his coffee shops, collecting the money to take to the bank. Then the next thing that happened was, Peter Facinelli, who never came home for lunch, came home. He slammed the brakes hard, rocking the car, and jumped out. The back door of the house opened right away for him, and he went straight in. Then Mrs. Facinelli, her back very straight and her lip caught up in that sneer or wound or whatever it was, came out and went over to the Fultz’s where Mrs. Fultz let her in. Later Mrs. Facinelli went home, and Mr. Facinelli drove away in his car.
When the doorbell rang, Marianne saw hope jump into Mavis’ face. She thought they were coming to invite her to the party. Against all the evidence, that is what she hoped for.
Then Mrs. Fultz was at the door on her walker. Mavis hurried to let her in. They went to the kitchen and Mavis poured her friend a tall glass of iced tea. The two of them sat at the Formica table and sipped their tea. Mrs. Fultz was the first to speak.
“Mavis, we have been friends and neighbors for a very long time. You know I love you as though you were my own flesh and blood and Marianne as though she were my own daughter. I never believed bad of her in spite of all that has happened.” She stopped and took a long drink of her tea, wiped her mouth with a napkin and went on.
“Mavis, I wanted to throw a little ‘Welcome home’ party for Marianne but no one in the whole neighborhood wants to come. They all have their doubts about what really happened to Shelby but they don’t want to become friendly with your family. I’m sorry.” She looked to see if Rex was listening. Feeling he was engrossed in the sports program, she lowered her voice and went on. “The way Rex drinks and everything, and the way he becomes so loud and argumentative, they just don’t want to get involved. They especially don’t want their children to get involved.” She turned to Mavis and extended her hand to Mavis shoulder. “I talked long and hard and told them about how Marianne had seen a psychiatrist and even if she did something once, she most likely would likely never repeat those actions again. I couldn’t get any of them to agree.” The two of them sat in silence for a very long time sipping their tea.
Mavis finally broke the silence. “They can all go to hell! If they want to be so opinionated they can just go to hell!”