“I was thinking,” she said, “maybe after school today, we could go to the Post Mall, get you some new shoes.” She could spare a little of that cash she had tucked away.
“I don’t care about new shoes,” Matthew said. “I just want to be able to stay here with you.”
“You want to hang around the house after school today?”
“No, I mean, all I want is to be able to keep living here.”
“What on earth are you talking about?” Keisha said. “You’re losing your tiny mind.”
“We never have a vacation,” Matthew said. “We should go someplace. Just me and you. We could go visit your cousin in San Francisco.”
“Yeah, well, Caroline may think the world of you, but she hasn’t got much use for me,” Keisha said. “You need to get moving. Go brush your teeth.”
The boy took one last bite of toast and bolted from the kitchen. Keisha sighed and turned her eyes toward the television.
“We got off kind of easy with winter so far, not too cold, but that’s going to change starting tomorrow and continuing through the weekend as temperatures dip below freezing. And we’ve got a warning that even though it’s getting colder, people should stay off ponds and small lakes, that the ice hasn’t gotten all that thick yet and—”
The doorbell rang.
Keisha left the kitchen and walked to the front door. Standing there, one hand shoved in his pocket, the other texting on a phone, was Justin. His stepfather, Dwayne, was parked at the curb in his Range Rover, engine running to keep the heater on. He waved.
“I told Dwayne I wanted to come by and say thank you,” Justin said, ending his text conversation and devoting all his attention to Keisha.
“Come on in,” Keisha said, and motioned for him to follow her into the kitchen. “And keep your voice down. My boyfriend’s asleep.”
Justin nodded, glanced around the living room as he stepped in, his eyes stopping briefly on the four oversized mag wheels on the rickety-looking shelves. He walked over to examine them, ran his finger over one, checking for dust and finding none. The shelf wobbled slightly.
“We have books on our shelves,” he said.
Keisha said, “Come on into the kitchen.”
“Police are investigating two liquor store robberies in Bridgeport last night. For a report, let’s go to . . .”
“So,” she asked, “how’s it going?”
“Good,” he said, nodding. “Like I figured, they got me seeing a shrink. Mom wants me to see her a couple of times a week for like a month. But I can ride that out. Great thing is, Mom’s being so nice to me. Buying me stuff, some video games, DVDs. I just got the whole original Star Trek on Blu-ray.” He nodded and smiled, impressed with himself. “Things are good. But she’s still kinda tight with the cash.”
Keisha swung open the freezer and took out the Tupperware box. “Here’s your share.”
“Huh?” he said, looking at the frozen container. “What’s in here? Lasagna?”
She ran the tap until it was hot, took the lid off the container, and ran hot water on the bottom. The sauce came out in one solid chunk. Keisha kept it under the hot tap until the sauce melted away, revealing the sandwich bag stuffed with cash.
“Man, you’re like a spy or something.”
Keisha opened the bag, took out the cash and handed it to Justin.
“In other news, a Milford area woman who went missing Thursday night is still unaccounted for.”
“Awesome,” Justin said, pocketing it just as Matthew walked into the kitchen.
“Who are you?” he asked.
“I’m Justin,” he said.
“How many apps you have on that?” the boy asked, seeing the phone in his hand.
“A whole bunch.” He held the phone so the kid could see the screen. “I got lots of games.”
“Take my picture,” Matthew said. “My mom says she doesn’t have any good pictures of me.”
“Matthew, please, the man—”
“It’s okay,” Justin said. He opened the camera app, took a shot of Matthew. Then he asked Keisha for her email address and sent the picture to her, the phone making a barely audible “whoosh.”
Keisha handed the boy a paper sack that held his lunch. Matthew threw on his coat, ignored his mother’s pleas to zip it up or put on his mitts and hat, and went out the front door.
The kid gone, Justin said, “You remember what I was saying to you before? That we could try something else? You and me? I mean, we did good together, right? It was fun. I should have job-shadowed you on careers day back in high school.”
“I told you, this is it with us,” Keisha said. “You had a good idea, it paid off, and now we’re done.”
She didn’t want anything else to do with him. Something was wrong with the wiring in his head.
“Yeah, well, okay.”
On the television, a man, his arm around a young woman, was talking about his wife. How he wanted her to come home. That if anyone was watching, who knew anything at all about what had happened—
“So, anyway, thanks. I better go. I keep Dwayne waiting any longer—”