Chapter 5: Cereal

"Go home, Eli," I said. "When you have the guest's name, you can tell me."

"Mom, I'm trying to."

"Then try harder."

He stood there until I shut the car door, and then he walked back into the dark.

Two black cars were parked outside the brownstone when Alessia and I got home.

A man in a dark suit stood at the gate with his back to the street, and in each hand he held a heavy paper bag.

Dario turned around.

"You said send the cars," he said. "I figured you'd want something in the house to eat."

"I have food in the house."

"Not this food."

He followed me up the steps, and Alessia, who had been ordered to the sofa, called out from the living room.

"Mom? Who's the man with the groceries?"

"A friend."

"What kind of friend?"

"One who is leaving," I said.

Dario walked straight past the living room door into the kitchen without turning his head.

He put the bags on the counter and started to unpack them, facing the wall.

Alessia appeared in the kitchen doorway behind me, holding her ribs.

"Why is he talking to your refrigerator?" she whispered.

"I'm not talking to anyone," Dario said, without turning around.

"You were about to."

"I was about to unpack."

He took out a box of cereal and set it on the counter, then a second, then a third.

There were nine in all.

"What is the sugar one?" Alessia asked from the doorway.

"I don't know."

"You bought nine boxes of cereal and you don't know which is the sugar one?"

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