“No, why did Mom tell you and Ronnie not to come over?”
“She said it would give you a chance to be alone with Dad. She said it would force Dad to talk to you. So did he?”
“A little.”
“Well, that’s good, right?”
“I found a note from Mom to Dad.”
“What?”
“I found a note from Mom to Dad.”
“Okay. What did it say?”
“I’ll just read it to you.”
“Go ahead.”
I read him the note.
“Shit. Go Mom.”
“You know he won’t be taking the television back now, right?”
“Not after the Birds won today.”
“Yeah, and I’m worried that Dad won’t be able to meet the demands.”
“Well, he probably won’t, but maybe he’ll at least try, right? And trying would be good for him—and Mom.”
Jake changes the subject by mentioning Baskett’s catch in the second quarter, which turned out to be his only catch of the game. My brother doesn’t want to talk about our parents anymore. He says, “Baskett’s coming along. He’s an undrafted rookie, and he’s getting catches. That’s huge.” But it doesn’t feel huge to me. Jake says he’s looking forward to seeing me next Monday night, when the Eagles will play the Green Bay Packers. He asks me to have lunch in the city before we tailgate with Scott and the fat men, and then we hang up.
It’s getting late, and my mother is still not home.
I begin to worry about her, and so I do all the dishes by hand. For a good fifteen minutes—with steel wool—I scrub the pan my father burned. And then I vacuum the family room. Dad had splattered some pizza sauce on the couch, so I find some cleaning spray in the hall cabinet and do my best to remove the stain—dabbing lightly and then wiping a little harder in a circular motion, just like it says on the side of the bottle. My mom comes home as I am on my knees cleaning the couch.
“Did your father tell you to clean up his mess?” Mom asks.
“No,” I say.
“Did he tell you about the letter I wrote him?”
“No—but I found it.”
“Well, then you know. I don’t want you to do any cleaning, Pat. We’re going to let this place rot until your father gets the message.”
I want to tell her I found the “Pat” box in the attic, how hungry I was today, that I really don’t want to live in a filthy house, and I need to take one thing at a time—finding the end of apart time first and foremost—but Mom looks so determined and almost proud. So I agree to help her make the house filthy. She says we will be eating takeout, and when my father is not home, everything will be as it was before she wrote the note, but when my father is home, we will be slovenly. I tell Mom that while she is on strike, she can sleep in my bed, because I want to sleep in the attic anyway. When she says she’ll sleep on the couch, I insist she take my bed, and she thanks me.
“Mom?” I say when she turns to leave.
She faces me.
“Does Jake have a girlfriend?” I ask.
“Why?”
“I called him today, and a woman answered the phone.”
“Maybe he does have a girlfriend,” she says, and then walks away.
The indifference Mom shows regarding Jake’s love life makes me feel as though I am forgetting something. If Jake had a girl friend Mom did not know about, she would have asked me a million questions. Her lack of interest suggests that Mom is keeping another secret from me, maybe something larger than what I found in the “Pat” box. Mom must be protecting me, I think, but I still want to know from what.
The Asian Invasion
After a relatively short workout and an even shorter—and silent—run with Tiffany, I hop a train to Philadelphia. Following Jake’s directions, I walk down Market Street toward the river, turn right on Second Street, and follow the road to his building.
When I reach the address, I am surprised to find that Jake lives in a high-rise that overlooks the Delaware River. I have to give my name to the doorman and tell him who I am visiting before he will let me in the building. He’s just an old man in a funny costume, who says “Go Eagles” when he sees my Baskett jersey, but my brother having a doorman is sort of impressive, regardless of the man’s uniform.
Another old man wears a different sort of funny costume in the elevator—he even has on one of those brimless monkey hats—and this man takes me to the tenth floor after I tell him my brother’s name.
The elevator doors open, and I walk down a blue hallway on a thick red carpet. When I find number 1021, I knock three times.