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SIX
BIG BROTHER TAKES THE HEAT
Lea
“Matthew…” Nonna’s voice was a heated whisper.
At the head of the oval-shaped table, Nonno had frozen in his seat. Beside him, Matthew simply stared at his plate, holding his shoulders in an unnaturally upright posture. He was clearly forcing himself not to meet our grandfather’s imperious stare or shrink back in any way.
“What do you mean, you gonna drop out?” Nonno asked, the sudden thickening of his Neapolitan accent the only evidence of his rising temper. “What you mean, college is no for you?”
Matthew swallowed thickly. “I only mean—maybe it isn’t working out.”
“No working out.”
I winced. Nonno didn’t yell. But when he repeated things like that—things that he obviously thought were idiotic—it was a sign that trouble was brewing.
And my brother undoubtedly knew that.
“I just don’t see the point.” Matthew speared another piece of pasta onto his fork, then immediately shook it back onto the plate. “I’m not going to use any of these classes. Who cares about art history or the Napoleonic wars or any of the other dumb stuff they’re making me learn?”
“Dio, no,” Nonna murmured, crossing herself quickly, as if to prepare for the impending wrath of God. Or, at the very least, her husband.
With a nervous glance her way, Matthew continued. “I don’t need a degree to get a job, Nonno. Writing papers and reading a bunch of textbooks isn’t helping the family. I can do more here.”
“Do more like what?” Nonno asked in a dangerously even voice.
“I don’t know. Work in the shop, maybe. I can replace brake fluid and rebuild an engine or two. And God knows you need help in the office. Lea only helps with the books two nights a week, and that’s only because you don’t trust the boys alone with her. You wouldn’t have to worry about that with me. We could expand, make Zola Auto into a franchise, you know?”
Out of the corner of my eyes, I caught Michael’s glance at me when Matthew mentioned my name. I ignored it, too caught up with Matthew’s proposals.
“And you think you’re gonna get big money there? If the shop was gonna make us rich, we would be rich, no?” Nonno shook his head, clearly disgusted. “All this time. All this school. What do you think happens to boys like you che no go to school? Too many kids in the tiny apartment. Work themselves into nothing, if they lucky, or else they get into no good, I tell you! They do bad things, Matthew, they end up?—”
Abruptly, Nonno cut off his own diatribe, though he wasn’t able to keep from cutting his gaze directly at Michael. Our guest had also stopped eating and was watching the exchange along with the rest of us, though his fork still rested between his callused fingers.
“Like me,” Michael finished softly, though with a rumble like one of the engines he worked on. “He means they end up like me.” He blinked around the table as something clearly occurred to him. “That’s why I’m here, isn’t it? I’m someone you can help, but maybe also an example to your family. What could happen if they take the wrong path.”
“No, Michael,” I started to protest.
He continued like I hadn’t even spoken, his voice almost meditative as he turned his water glass back and forth on the table, making a bit of light reflect onto the shiny wood top.
“It’s all right. I don’t mind being the example. Because that is what happened to me. I dropped out at fifteen. Ran off from the last group home six months later. Barely got my GED, and that was only because I was in prison with nothing better to do the last two years. Before that, I spent my time rolling with my boys, up to no good. And they never had my best interests at heart. Not like your grandparents have for you. I never had a family like that.”
He took a sip of water. Matthew opened his mouth as if to argue. But before he could, Michael kept going.
“It wasn’t ‘if’ I was going to get into trouble,” he said after setting his glass back onto the table. “Just a matter of when. Now I’m paying for it. Struggling to make ends meet because one dumb move is going to follow me around the rest of my life. Meanwhile, the people I thought were my friends dropped me like a bad habit the second I went in.” He shook his head. “I got nothing today but a minimum-wage job and a room above a garage, thanks to your grandpa here, and dinner that’s not day-old pizza, thanks to his lovely wife. And I’m grateful because when I leave, I’ll be right back where I started. I’ll go to that breakroom couch and stare up at the ceiling, thinking of how the hell I got there. And believe me when I say I won’t wonder if a midnight joy ride was worth giving up my whole future—I can tell you right now it wasn’t.”
He took a bite of manicotti, chewed with relish, and swallowed before speaking again, seemingly unaware of the way my entire family was hanging on his every word.
“Take my word for it, Matthew—you don’t want to go that route. Listen to the people who love and support you. Finish school. Get a job that doesn’t pay by the hour. Set up house and build a family of your own, if that’s what you want. But don’t cut off your own feet before you even start the race. Do yourself at least that much. Do them at least that much. Do better than me.”
Michael went back to quietly eating his pasta as if he hadn’t spoken at all. His features were placid. The only sign he was affected was the slight flush rising over his cheekbones and the way his ears pinked at the tips. It took at least three solid bites before anyone spoke again.
“Scarrone,” Matthew said with a wide-eyed, shocked expression. “I, uh, wow. Honestly, man. I didn’t even know you knew that many words.”
One corner of Michael’s mouth ticked upward. “Guess I was saving them up for you.”
“That was a big speech,” Joni remarked to Marie.
