Page 110 of On the Ropes
“He’s starting a program that provides boxes of food once a week for a lot of seniors around here. People like you said, who don’t have a lot of extra money lying around. Food’s expensive. Least we can do is help out a few older folks.”
“Like the Kozlowski sisters, maybe?”
I lifted a shoulder. “Yeah, sure.” I made sure he was still looking at me. “You could get one of those boxes too. If you needed a little extra. Doesn’t mean Mom and Midge wouldn’t still bring you lasagna every time they made it. But it could help you worry less, if you got one. I know this shit sucks to talk about,” I lowered my voice. “I hope you know you can talk about it with me. Because I love you too, Eddie.”
He looked out to the street, jaw clenching. I let him think it through. When he finally answered, it took me a second to realize he was speaking in Italian. He hadn’t done that since I was a kid. “Sometimes…sometimes it’s easier to help other people than yourself, yeah?”
I answered in Italian. “I’ve got some experience with that myself.”
He sighed. “I always worked real hard. Always had a job. Never, ever thought…”
I waited. He sniffed. “You don’t think toward the end of your life that you might not have enough money when all you’ve ever done is what’s been asked of you.”
I squeezed his shoulder. “We ask a lot of people. Then we expect them to do more with less.”
He squinted, handing me the leftovers and shaking out a cigarette. “Edna gets a little embarrassed when I bring her food, but she doesn’t have to be. What are we gonna do, let her fucking starve?”
I shifted the food as he smoked, the smell of tobacco and worn leather taking me back to sitting on his stoop in the summer with Rowan. “Do you remember when I was in fifth grade and Mom was out of work for, like, six months?”
He nodded. “Yeah, she had some shit boss at the time.”
I pressed my lips together. “You and Alice brought us food all the time. ’Cause we needed it. Having extra made it so that we didn’t have to worry.”
He grinned. “When did you get to be such a clever smart-ass?”
“Takes one,” I said, matching his expression.
He chuckled, stubbing out his cigarette and taking back the leftovers. “If Rowan has a box I can have, weekly, I’ll take it. But I don’t need all of it, so I’ll share with a few folks on Tenth Street who might want some.”
Relief washed over me. “I think that sounds good.”
Rowan poked his head out the front door, and Eddie raised a hand in greeting. “I delivered him to your doorstep,” he said, back to speaking English.
I jammed my hands into my pockets and spun on my heels, walking toward Rowan. “Say hi to Edna for me.”
“Yeah sure,” he said. “I’ll see you tomorrow anyway. I know we’re gonna find a way to get that park back.”
I went still. “So you’re optimistic, now?”
“Tabitha convinced me,” he said. “She’s real smart about these things.”
A host of complicated emotions jammed at the back of my throat, making it hard to swallow. The way she’d said Absolutely in her usual singsong voice as I was leaving, but her eyes shone with tears. And I’d walked out like an asshole.
“She’s very smart,” I said. “The rest of us are just trying to keep up.”
Eddie left, and Rowan held the door open to the rec center for me. His smile was as cocky as ever. But I didn’t miss the concern in his eyes.
“You wanted me delivered here?” I asked.
He closed the door behind us, and we walked down the hall toward his office. “I did. I heard some rumblings about a fancy developer and Tabitha leaving tomorrow and one sighting of Dean Knox-Morelli at Al’s coffee shop, sittin’ with two dudes in suits.”
I rolled my already tightening shoulders back. “I need to talk to you.”
“I bet you do.” He kicked out a chair for me next to his desk. I sank down into it. When he set his gaze on me, the concern there had doubled. “There’s no other way to say this. You look like shit warmed over, dude.”
