He craned his neck and narrowed his eyes then spotted the monastery and the landing strip next to it. It’s okay, he thought. For a minute I had a feeling that Santoli mighta skunked us.
Then the voice of the flight attendant came on again. “We have just been advised that due to extremely icy conditions, we will be unable to land at Monastery airport. Instead we will be landing at Wallonia City airport thirty miles away.”
Junior and Eddie looked at each other. Eddie pushed back the hood of his robe. “Whaddaya think?”
SHUT UP, Junior scribbled furiously.
“You will be bussed immediately to St. Stephen’s Monastery,” the flight attendant chirped happily. “We do regret this inconvenience, but your safety is our first concern.”
“How do we go through customs?” Eddie was trying unsuccessfully to whisper. “Are the passports okay if they really look at them under a special light or something?”
SHUT UP, Junior scrawled. Maybe it’s okay, he thought. Maybe it’s on the level. He looked around, searching out the faces of his fellow passengers. Most of them were deep in their prayer books.
THE PASSPORTS ARE OKAY, he wrote. IT’S YOUR BIG MOUTH I’M WORRYING ABOUT.
Eddie leaned over him to look out the window. “We’re over the mountain. Look! There’s the village. Look! I bet I can pick out Mama’s house.”
His voice was rising. To cover the sound, Junior began to cough violently. Immediately the hostess was at his side offering water.
I need a drink, he thought wildly. If we get back to Long Island, I’ll tear Charlie Santoli apart limb from limb.
The plane landed, taxiing to a halt a good distance from the terminal. What Junior and Eddie saw out on the tarmac rendered them both more speechless than any vow of silence could ever have accomplished.
In the midst of dozens of uniformed Wallonian policemen, a lone figure was jumping up and down and waving vigorously.
Mama Heddy-Anna.
Junior shook his head. “She don’t look like she’s dying to me.”
Eddie’s face was puzzled. “She looks so healthy. I can’t believe it.”
“We took this trip for nuthin’, and now we’re gonna spend the rest of our lives in jail.”
The door of the plane opened and four policemen raced down the aisle. Junior and Eddie were encouraged to get out of their seats and put their hands behind their backs. As they were led away, their fellow passengers began removing roman collars and nun’s veils, and burst into spontaneous applause.
At the foot of the stairs, they were enveloped in one of Mama Heddy-Anna’s bear hugs.
“The nice policemen came for me. They said you were coming home as a surprise. I know you’re in trouble, but good news! Papa was just made head trustee at the prison where you’ll be staying from now on.” She beamed, “All three of my boys together, nice and safe, where I can visit every week.”
“Mama,” Eddie sobbed as he laid his head on her shoulder. “I been so worried about you the whole time I was gone. How do you feel?”
Heddy-Anna patted him. “Never better.”
Junior thought of the estate on Long Island, the limo, the money, the power, and Jewel, whom he knew would have a new boyfriend in two weeks. As Eddie’s shoulders shook with emotion, all Junior could think was, How could I have been so stupid?
On Christmas Eve morning, Billy and Nor were lingering over the breakfast neither one of them had any interest in touching. The distracting reality that it was both Christmas Eve and Marissa’s eighth birthday hung over them, a dense, oppressive blanket of pain.
The sudden steady ring of the doorbell startled both of them. Billy ran to answer it.
A beaming Marshall Frank Smith boomed, “Grab only what you need. You’re booked on the 12:40 flight to New York, and if you want to catch it, you haven’t got a minute to spare.”
On Christmas Eve, Nor’s Place usually enjoyed a pleasant flow of lunch customers. Some were last-minute shoppers, stopping for a quick bite. Others, more organized, came in for a quiet lunch before the religious and family celebrations began.
Today this place feels downright eerie, Dennis thought, as he surveyed the room from behind the bar. He shook his head. At least Nor had agreed that it was pointless to stay open on Christmas Day.
“I guess you’re right, Dennis,” she had admitted. “Only ten reservations! Those people would be better off at a place with a little life in it.”
We’re pretty much at the end of the line here, Dennis thought, as he was handed an order for a single beer.
Just then the bar phone rang. He picked it up.
“Dennis!” It was Nor’s voice, buoyant and energetic. “We’re at the airport, on our way home. We’re in the clear. The Badgett brothers are gone, locked up for good,” she exulted. “Get a birthday cake for Marissa for tonight, and phone our usual Christmas people. Tell them Nor’s Place will be open for Christmas dinner and it’s on the house. But don’t let Marissa know! We want to surprise her.”
From the moment she opened her eyes on Christmas Eve and whispered to herself, “Today I am eight years old,” Marissa began to lose faith that Sterling would be able to bring Daddy and NorNor home. She had been sure they would be there when she woke up, but now she realized it was going to be like all the other times.
She had promised herself they would be back for Easter, but they weren’t. Then she had been sure they’d be home when school closed for the summer… Then when it opened in September… Then for Thanksgiving…
It’s going to be just like that again today, she thought, as she got up and put on her bathrobe. Tears kept trying to flow from her eyes, but she pressed them back with her hands. Trying to put a smile on her face, she went downstairs.
Her mother and Roy and the twins were already at the kitchen table. They all began to sing “Happy Birthday” when they saw her. There were presents next to her cereal bowclass="underline" a new watch; books and CDs from Mommy and Roy and the twins; a sweater from Grandma. Then she opened the last two boxes: ice skates from Daddy and a new skating outfit from NorNor.
Now she was absolutely, positively sure they wouldn’t be coming home today. If they were, wouldn’t they wait to give her the presents when she saw them?
After breakfast Marissa carried all her gifts upstairs. When she reached her room, she dragged the chair from her desk over to the closet and stood up on it. She lifted the boxes with the new ice skates and the skating outfit and put them on the top shelf. Then, with the tips of her fingers, she pushed them back as far as she could, until they were out of sight.
She never wanted to look at them again.
At eleven o’clock she was in the living room, reading one of her new books, when the phone rang. Even though her heart stopped when she heard Mommy say, “Hello, Billy,” she still didn’t look up.
But then Mommy came rushing over to her. She didn’t give her a chance to say, “I don’t want to talk to Daddy,” before the phone was at her ear and Daddy was shouting, “Rissa, want to go to Nor’s Place for your birthday dinner? We’re on the way home!”