Don, Your Regret Can't Keep Me novel · Chapter 8 of 32

Chapter 8: Sunday

On Sunday I drove to Packer Park with the brick on the passenger seat, wrapped in a dish towel.

The house looked the same.

Big brick, white columns, a lawn nobody ever sat on.

I still had a key.

I didn't use it.

I rang the bell, and the housekeeper opened the door and stared at me.

"Mrs. Sabatino."

"Not for long," I said, and walked past her toward the noise.

The dining room was full.

Twelve men, the long table, the good white cloth, the gravy boat my mother-in-law left behind when she moved to Florida.

Mauro sat at the head.

Gabriella sat at his right hand, in my chair, in a black dress with her hair pinned up.

Sergio sat at his left, carving the braciole.

The talking stopped one voice at a time.

The capo with the pinky ring was the last.

"Look who's back for dessert," he said. "Told you."

Nobody laughed.

They were all watching Mauro.

Mauro put his fork down.

"Giada."

I walked up the side of the table to the middle, between the gravy and the bread.

I unwrapped the dish towel.

I set the brick down on the white cloth.

Red dust spread on the linen.

"Somebody threw this through my mother's window at two in the morning," I said. "Then they dragged her dress form into the street and set it on fire."

Gabriella pressed her napkin to her mouth.

"Oh my God. That's awful."

I turned the brick over so the chalk faced Sergio.

The small circle with the line through it.

"Uncle Sergio," I said. "Your collectors drew on my brick."

Sergio looked at the mark.

He chewed.

He swallowed.

Then he laughed, a big warm laugh from the belly, the one he used at christenings.

"Sweetheart. Every kid on Passyunk has a piece of chalk."

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