The streets were empty. The boys had gone to Vinny’s for Beef-a-Roni. Bo hunched forward, her elbows on her knees. “Well?” she repeated. “What’s your favorite smell?”
Kate didn’t hesitate. “The Charles Street Laundromat.”
“The Laundromat?” Bo squealed. “That’s disgusting!”
“No, it isn’t.” Kate closed her eyes and leaned against the steps. The stone had been warmed by the sun. “Don’t you just love walking by when the dryers are going? It feels so warm and the smell is like babies.”
“Ugh.” Bo leaned forward, jostling Kate. She picked up a stone and pitched it into the gutter. “I hate the smell of babies. Gasoline. That’s my favorite smell.”
“That’s disgusting.”
“Uh uh. I adore the smell of petrol.”
Bo was a huge fan of Emma Peel and The Avengers and had taken on a sudden use of British slang. From anyone else, it would have sounded silly. From Bo, petrol and bloody well done came across as right.
Bo stood up and slung the jump rope over her shoulders. “C’mon. Let’s play Red Hot Peppers.” She ran down the steps, her ponytail flying and –
--another jet streaked the sky overhead.
Kate walked down St. Stand’s brick stairs, one hand on the iron railing, but she wasn’t seeing the steps anymore or the church to her left; she was seeing Bo. She was hearing Bo’s voice, high and sort of breathless, she was listening to the jump rope chant, “My mother and your mother were hanging out clothes My mother punched your mother right in the nose What color was the blood?/ ABCDEFG…”
In 1965, Chelsea was small, compared to Boston standards. The Chelsea Shipyard, a block away, was a child’s paradise of brown bottles, sea glass, fishing nets and boxes. The air was perfumed by the Atlantic and as Kate walked down Congress Ave, she longed for the scent of surf and fish, rather than the rancid exhaust that clogged her throat.
Logan was still a new airport, and residents complained bitterly about the noise, the pollution, the theft of land they considered their own. Back then, neighborhood women dressed in housecoats swept the landings and the sidewalks in front of their apartments. Over the roar of jets was the sound of Mrs. Girdis calling for her son, Wally, or the clamor of pots from Veducci’s Bakery. The alleys held the scent of cooking smells from a dozen different apartments and everyone on the block knew everyone else by name.
It wasn’t like that anymore.
The tall buildings on either side of St. Stand’s were dark, the windows closed, shades drawn. The gutters were choked with trash, paper fluttered over the concrete sidewalks. Weeds grew in the pavement cracks and the alleys smelled like urine.
It wasn’t like this before, but even as that thought occurred to her, another flittered across her mind like a sneaky whisper. Yes, it was, that voice said. It was always like this. Underneath.
Kate pulled her coat closer around her and tried to remember exactly where she’d parked her car. Two blocks down, she thought, where Schmolock used to live.
A hand grabbed her elbow and before Kate could react, a voice close to her ear said, “There’s room in my car, if you want a lift to the cemetery.”
Kate turned to see a tall man with black hair. His face was drawn, exhausted, his eyes rimmed in red. Still, he managed to smile at her. She pulled her hand away.
“I’m sorry,” she started, but the man was still smiling and his gaze held such tenderness Kate stopped speaking.
“God, Katie. You haven’t changed.”
It came to her just like that.
“Marcus?”
As if she’d spoken a magic word, Marcus opened his arms and she was hugging him as a dozen memories flooded her: the bike they called the crayon box because it was made of spare parts and was every color under the sun, running under the public sprinklers near the Soldier’s Home, playing army in the vacant lot by the Shurtliff School.
As she hugged Marcus, she looked over his shoulder and saw a woman with dark hair and a thin man in a gray suit.
Gina Fatecki. Vinny Polowski.
“Welcome home, kid,” Marcus said softly and the tears she’d been holding back finally came.
**
The service at the cemetery was crowded so Kate was able to hang back, away from the mourners on the grass.
Marcus stood with Gina and Vinny near the casket. Even from a distance, she could hear Gina weeping. Kate stood on the gravel drive, her hands thrust into her coat pockets, her eyes covered with dark glasses.
I wish I’d called you. I wish I had come down when you invited me last year. I wish…
But if wishes held any weight at all, Bo would still be alive.
There was a second funeral taking place on the other side of the cemetery. Kate could see the hearse from the corner of her eye, gleaming in the sunshine. The wind was cold. It sliced through her, whipping the coat around her knees. She shivered, waiting.
Kate didn’t hear the final prayers, but thought she saw Alex bless the assembled. She was glad she’d stayed. The crowd began breaking up, heading for the cars parked along the gravel edge.
That’s it. It’s over.
The thought was a stone dropped in her chest. The pain near her heart twisted, grew heavier. Denser, somehow.
“Hard to believe, isn’t it?” Marcus’s voice had changed over the years. The accent had smoothed over, the vowels clipped. “It’s so damn hard to understand…” his voice wavered, died.
Kate stepped back, putting distance between them. She pulled her coat tighter.
The mourners were leaving. Cars pulled away from the curb, headlights dark now.
“Did you keep in touch with her?” she asked. It was hard to say Bo’s name.
Marcus blew on his hands. “Yes,” he said simply, but there was something in the one syllable answer that made Kate look up at him quickly. Color touched his face. “I saw a lot of Bo, but then, a few months ago, we …separated.”
Separated? Kate opened her mouth to ask, but Vinny and Gina joined them and the moment was lost. Gina hugged her first, then Vinny threw an arm over her shoulders and gave her a squeeze.
“Wish you was home for something happy.” Vinny’s breath was hot, beer-scented. “We were just talking about you a couple of months back. Me, Alex, Bo, Gina…talking over the old times, you know? And Bo said she was gonna call you.”
“She didn’t. I wish she had.”
“Well, she was thinking of you.”
Vinny hadn’t changed as much as the others over the years. His dark hair was cut shorter and his face held more lines, but his grin was the same. He was dressed in thin gray slacks with a silver MAC truck belt buckle. He wore a black onyx ring on his pinky finger. Kate glanced from Vinny to Gina. If she had passed Gina on the street, she never would have placed her. The Gina she remembered was heavy, with plump cheeks and thighs that rubbed together when she ran. And she remembered Bo again, seeing her in her mind.
“Poor Gina,” Bo breathed in a whisper as she watched Gina eat her third Milky Way in five minutes. “She is never going to be pretty.”
But Bo was wrong. Gina was beautiful. She’d been weeping. Her nose was red, her face pale and drawn, but despite the grief that lit her features, she was stunning. She tried to smile, but it was a sad thing. “How have you been, Katie?”
“Good,” Kate replied automatically. “Busy.”
“Kids?”
Kate shook her head. “No. Dana and I talked about it, but it just never happened.”
“How is Dana?”
“We’re divorced. We split up about two years ago.”
Gina’s eyes widened. “I am so sorry. I had no idea.”
How could you know? Kate wanted to ask. How could anyone here know? It was a mistake to come back. A mistake to think she could honor a childhood promise. “Swear,” Bo had said, her eyes huge and solemn. “Swear you’ll come back and say goodbye.”
Kate closed her eyes and tried to swallow the lump in her throat. It was foolishness
to think anything she did now would matter at all.
“We’re going to--” Gina began, but Kate cut her off.
“I’m sorry,” she said swiftly. “I’d love to catch up with you all, but I have to head back. It’s a long drive.”
Marcus touched her sleeve. “Before you go, there’s something I have to tell you.” His cell phone rang, interrupting him. He glanced at the caller ID and excused himself. Kate wasn’t sure she should wait, but before she could come to a decision, Vinny stepped closer.
“We’re going to the PAV. Why don’t you stop by? I mean, it’s been what? Fourteen, fifteen years since you were here last? Last time you came down was when Marcus’ Dad passed, right?”
God. The PAV. How long had it been since she’d thought of the brick meeting hall for Polish American Veterans? A lifetime.
Gina touched her. “I’d love to visit with you. We used to be so close.” Her eyes brimmed with tears, but she blinked them away. “I told Bo’s mom I’d help with the food and everything. If you can stop in, even for a minute, Katie, I know Mrs. Caveleska would appreciate it. You were like another daughter to her.”
“I’ll try.” But even as she spoke the words, Kate knew they were a lie. She’d get right into her car and head for the highway. And the place she now called home. Gina hugged her once more, leaving a lingering scent of Calvin Klein perfume. She whispered, “Call me sometime, okay?” and then she was gone.
Vinny stomped his feet and hugged his arms around his body. “Cold’s a bitch, ain't it?”
The wind lifted her hair, blew it around her face so she was seeing Vinny in stripes. “How have you been, Vin?”
“Perfect. Great. I got my own business now.”
Maybe Kate looked surprised, because Vinny smiled and blew on his hands. “I know, I know, you never thought it was possible, but hey, me, I always knew it was in the cards. A matter of being in the right place at the right time. Know what I’m saying?”
“What kind of business are you in?”
“Trucking.” The word was a boast. “I got my own fleet now. We haul damn near everything. Trash to treasures. That’s my slogan. Maybe you’ve seen it on the trucks.”
“I don’t think I have.”
“Ah, shit, what am I saying? You live way the hell up north now. What, Maine or Vermont or something, right?”
“Right.”
“Well, then, you ain’t gonna see my trucks. We do most our business south. Connecticut, Rhode Island, Virginia…”
Kate glanced over Vinny’s right shoulder. Marcus was standing next to a black Ford. He had a phone to his ear. His black trench coat flapped in the wind. He looked…lost.
“I keep thinking about what you said to her,” Vinny was saying. He tried to laugh, settled for a shrug. “It’s so frigging weird.”
“What is?”
“What you told Bo.”
“What I told her?” Kate repeated. “I haven’t seen Bo in years, Vinny.”
“I’m not talking about last week or nothing. I’m talking about when we was kids.” He looked around quickly, as if checking to make sure no one was listening. “You know,” he lowered his voice, “that time with the board.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
But of course she did. How could she ever forget? She’d gone over that day so many times the memory had taken on the quality of a myth.
We were in the Forest Field playing and it was Gina’s idea to tell fortunes. It was dusk, the time of day Daddy called magic because it was between the death of today and the birth of tonight. It was spring and we were waiting for Alex because Alex had the bases and we wanted to play another game. But Alex was late, and after a while, we decided to play something else.
And now Kate could see it, a movie played to her mind’s voice…
The stone foundation was all that was left of a building on the lot. It was a perfect playground because the crumbling walls made a cool fort and the weeds offered up a sense of privacy. They were sitting near the back of the lot, hidden from the street. Bo had her back against the wall and she looked…tiny.
“Come on, Katie, just five more minutes, okay?”
Katie looked up at the sky. “My mom will kill me if I’m home late again.”
“She said you had to be in when the streetlights went on. You got a couple of minutes. Come on, Katie, I want my fortune too. You did everybody else’s.” Bo leaned forward, took Katie’s hand.
Vinny was throwing a ball into the air and catching it. “Yeah, Katie. It isn’t fair if you don’t do Bo. You told the rest of us.”
“Yeah,” Gina giggled. There was a smear of dirt on her cheek. “And I bet you’re real glad, Vinny. You’ve got jail in your future.”
“Hey, I’m gonna be framed, remember? Katie said it ain’t gonna be my fault.”
Bo scooted forward so that her knees touched Katie’s. She picked up the board printed with letters in an arc and placed it on their knees. She put her fingers on the planchette. “Come on, Katie. I want to hear what I’m going to be when I grow up.”
“Do it with Gina.” All of a sudden, Katie didn’t want to do Ouija with Bo. She wasn’t sure why, except that when she looked at Bo’s fingers on the plastic piece she got cold inside and a strange darkness seemed to swell in her. It wasn’t a game anymore.
“I don’t want to do it with Gina!”
“Hey!”
“No offense, Gina, but you don’t have the gypsy genes that Katie has. My mom said Katie’s grandmother was psychic. And besides, Katie does it best. It moves quicker and we don’t have much time.”
Katie looked up at the sky again. It was brushed with pink and brown, the color of Hershey’s chocolate milk.
“C’mon, Katie!”
Reluctantly, Katie put her hands on the piece and as soon as she touched the plastic, the unease inside of her turned black and exploded.
“Katie?”
Katie lifted her eyes to look at Bo, but Bo had changed, grown darker. There was a ring of crimson light around her, as if she’d been outlined in red marker. The stone behind her wasn’t gray anymore, it was scarlet. And the light…the light was different, too. A shade of sun and shadow that she’d never seen before.
“Katie?”
Katie could see Bo’s mouth moving, but the words were lost in the sound of the wind and something else. The sounds changed, babble, voices talking all at once and someone was crying and someone was laughing and Bo’s mouth was moving again but her words were lost, lost, lost because…
Someone was coming,
No. Not someone. Some thing.
The shadow was on the wall and it was black—
“Kate! Kate!” Kate’s head jerked forward. Vinny was staring at her. “You okay?”
“I’m fine.” Kate rubbed her forehead. “I was just remembering.”
“Yeah, I guess. You were lost in space for a couple of seconds, kiddo. But hey, it happens, right?”
“Right,” Kate said weakly. “I guess.”
“Anyway, when I heard about Bo, I freaked out. I mean, how could you know something like that? I never believed in premonitions or any of that shit, but I remembered that day in the Forest Field and I got cold all over. A ghost walking over my grave or something. Son of a bitch, you called the whole damn thing. You told Bo she was going to die a violent death and damn it, she did!”
“I didn’t know anything,” Kate’s voice was harsher than she intended and she tried to soften it. “We were kids, Vinny. We were fooling around and I said something stupid. For heaven’s sake, that was more than 25 years ago!”
Vinny was watching her face as she talked and Kate saw the blush that started at his neck and moved up his cheeks. “Yeah, it was a long time ago, but if I remember right, you told her that, too. I even remember the words you used – you said she’d die ‘in a quarter century.’”
“It was a joke,” Kate said. “It certainly wasn’t anything mystical, Vinny.”
“Ah
geez, I’m sorry Katie. I didn’t mean to get you worked up. Christ knows this is hard enough. It’s just that you said so much that came true! I keep wondering if this is like destiny. Fate.”
Kate stepped off the curb. “There is no fate,” she said coldly. “Bo died and it had nothing to do with fate. Nothing.”
“Yeah, but the way she died.”
Kate stopped.
“It can’t be just a coincidence.”
She didn’t turn, but something in her body language must have changed because Vinny’s tone grew softer. “You don’t know, do you?”
“Know what?”
“How Bo died.”
Kate hesitated and it was enough.
“She was found in one of those old sewers. You remember – the ones that run right down to the harbor.”
The sewers weren’t really sewers at all, they were more like tunnels that snaked beneath the city, emptying into the Atlantic. It was Alex who had told them that the tunnels were sewers, “from the olden days,” he’d said.
“National Grid guys found her. They were putting in new cable. Nobody knows how long she’d been down there. At least a week, they figure. By the time they got to her, well, you can imagine.” Vinny shook his head and his throat worked. His eyes wouldn’t meet hers. “Rats.”
The shudder started at the base of her spine and worked its way up the back of her neck.
“You remember them, don’t you, Kate? The sewer rats? We used to pitch cans at them down at the ship yard. The thing about it is, poor Bo had been lying there hurt who knows how long? I mean, it’s not like you could hear her with the damn jets every two minutes. Once she fell in, she couldn’t get out.”
Marcus was still on the phone. He had his back to them now, as if giving himself privacy. Kate could tell by the way his shoulders hunched forward that he was deep in conversation. She and Vinny might as well have been alone. Kate shivered again. A thought, we’re the last three here came to her and something about the words made her shudder.
“She fell through one of those old grates. Goddamn city was supposed to cap all those freaking things over, but I guess they missed one. Someone fucked up and I’m willing to bet the guy who did it won’t admit it. Chicken shit will point the finger at someone else.” The skin around Vinny’s nose was pinched white, as if the anger in him were a physical mass, just below the surface, pushing its way out. Kate’s expression must have changed because Vinny looked at her quickly then shook his head. “You do something stupid, okay, but tell the truth, for Christ sakes. I’m telling you, Kate, every damn time I think about what Bo must have gone through, I want to kill somebody.”
Sons of Dust Page 2