Earthquake I.D.

Chapter Nine

174 EarthquakE I.D. Chapter Nine They had a bigger crew these days, with Jay’s mother. They had more on their hands than ever, really. Not that they didn’t go through another spell of cocooning, sticking close to home throughout most of the first four or five days after Mom and Pop came home from downtown. Immediately after the meeting, Jay and Barbara had themselves a long walk along the waterfront, a long walk and a talk, trailed at a crawl by a black sedan with Consular plates. But after that everyone tended to hole up in thir ten rooms above the Vomero, sorting out new responsibilities and shoving around the heavy furniture. The apartment could feel as if the Lulucitas had moved into the van they used to share with Kahlberg. But with that guy out of the picture, and with Roebuck keeping hands off, they were no longer at a tourist’s distance, staring one day at a fourposter bed draped in silk brocade, the next at a pair of household gods with oversized clay erections. Rather Barbara and the others got their hands dirty, working with more durable ore, creating a presentation with unmistakable message: This Is A Family. Their renewed commitment played a part in every decision, whether it was Jay accepting a new position at DiPio’s downtown clinic or the two girls agreeing to share their room with Grandma. Aurora would’ve set herself up in a hotel, ordinarily. A suite was more her style. But the new security team argued that their job would be a good deal easier if the old playgirl stayed home with the others. Then too, when it came to getting constructive—to getting rid of the wheelchair and pulling out the hammer—the primary banger was the grandmother. She loomed at the edge of everything, a brassy laugh in the next room or a painted face over somebody’s shoulder. Not that Barbara was talking to her. After the Consulate she gave 175 John Domini her mother-in-law a wide berth, or wide as the place allowed. As for the jagged edges inside, Barbara couldn’t do anything about those. First thing, back from the meeting Tuesday at two, she and Jay went to the kids. But once she’d handed out their passports, and once she’d let them see her resting her hand on her husband’s knee, how much more could Barbara reveal? What’d happened down in the Museo Nazionale, the last time she’d try to pull out her internal whipsaw? Anyway, the children had already arrived at the same conclusion as Mom and Pop and Attaché Roebuck. They wanted to stay. JJ and Chris were the first to say so, making arguments the parents had heard before. The oldest boy however kept glancing towards the balcony, where his grandmother was waiting, at Jay’s request. Aurora had shut the double-glass door, something else Jay had asked for, and settled into a lounge chair wearing a two-piece with a knotted bra. One look at that and the daughter-in-law understood what her children must’ve imagined about staying on in Naples. The kids saw this city as Adventureland and MTV, their own version of the Italian Romance. Barb understood, and her anger started banging around her ribcage—but what could she say to her nearly-grown boy? What warning could she give any of these kids about the yearnings of the flesh and their more psychotic manifestations, especially around this corner of the urban world? After all, Barbara herself had just given in to romance. Just like that, she was playing the sappiest makeup ballad in the jukebox. Eventually JJ and Chris finished their say. They looked to Dora and Syl, and the girls looked to Paul. The older boys too, after a moment: it was all on Paul. But the middle child agreed. He might’ve been the one who’d actually gotten burnt, while the others were still poking a finger or two into the fire, but he preferred to stay in Naples. Though the way he put it did sound awfully spooky: “There’s, there’s so m-much g-g-going on, we, we couldn’t get o-out even if we w-w-wanted to.” Jay and Barbara also sat down with the doctor, that first afternoon, but the report on their boy with the healing hands was the same as ever...