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FOURTEEN
‘ARSONIST’S LULLABYE’ HOZIER
Gio
“Will you please call me once you find him?” Luce’s mother, Lucinda, implores me once more as I walk her up the steps to her home.
After Luce left the burial, Lexi and I stayed beside Mrs. Rametta. At first, I understood why Luce would leave because I too wanted to be anywhere but there. Knowing Maxine was lying in the eternal bed of silk, it felt wrong to watch them pour dirt upon her. All I wanted to do, still want, is to dig her out and make her wake up. It feels like we just left her there rather than laid her to rest.
Luce needed some time away from the scene, a moment to just be alone and grieve the way he wanted without the eyes of everyone on him, but it’s been almost eight hours of radio silence, and the worry has mounted exponentially.
“I promise you, I will.” I’ve always done my best to steer clear of false promises, so I don’t try to soothe her worry with pretty words, I just lay a kiss on her cheek and wait for Lexi to say her goodbyes.
“I’m truly sorry this is how we met, Mrs. Rametta. I wish I could tell you it was a pleasure, but perhaps in the future, yeah?”
Lucinda smiles, the look reminding me of Maxine so much that I have to look away.
“Do you love him?” She asks instead of acknowledging Lexi’s words.
“I-um,” she glances at me, “Luce is someone very important to me, but it’s still new.”
Lucinda nods her head, her eyes coming up to meet mine before sliding back to Lexi’s, “But you love Gio, no?” Before either of us can respond to her surprising question, she holds up her hand, “I know love when I see it. Luce loves very few, but when he does, he loves hard and fast. He’s a special man, my Luce, and it will take a special woman to stand beside him. I can see that you are already fitting that category well,” she gestures to me, hinting at the fact that she’s noticed a romantic bond between the three of us, “but do take the time to evaluate the undertaking before moving forward with my son, because he cannot take another loss.”
Lexi dips her head. “I understand.”
Lucinda gives her a watery smile before cupping her cheek. “Maxine spoke so well of you, dear. She knew you would be the puzzle piece both of my boys needed.”
She turns to me, pulling me in for one of her warm motherly hugs, kissing both of my cheeks before entering her home and closing the door. Even through her grief, Lucinda Rametta is loving and caring. She’s the mother I wish I grew up with.
Lexi and I walk down the steps of the Rametta home, neither of us speaking as I slip my hand in hers. I’ve always known Lucinda to be very observant and intuitive -a Taurus through and through as Maxine would often say- but now I’m wondering just how much her daughter took after her. Maxine was always carefree, a wild spirit who never struck me as someone who took the time to actually observe the people around her, but hearing her mother’s words, I’m certain she had me fooled.
Even in death, Maxine still manages to show up. Then again, death has no hold on someone like her.
My phone buzzes in my pocket, but I ignore it and open the door for Lexi, helping her slide into the passenger seat before walking around to the driver’s side. My phone stops buzzing but immediately begins again, so I answer this time.
“Hello?” I speak into my phone, sliding my key into the ignition, but Drake’s exasperated sigh has me stilling.
“I think we found Luce.”
I turn to Lexi, seeing the worry in the crease between her brows as I put the phone on speaker and start the car, the engine roaring to life.
“Where?” I growl, pulling onto the street and peeling out of the neighborhood.
“The bodega where Maxine died is on fire.”
Luce the arsonist is on the loose, and the city will feel the burn of his pain.
–
They say grief does strange things to people, but not many people are like my best friend. His way of coping is not to seek a higher power for strength, nor is it to curl up and wither away. No, those would be normal reactions, but Luce is anything but normal.
Breaking bones, digging graves, spilling blood…those are all child’s play in comparison to what Luce has planned, and I’m fucking here for it. I will stand right there beside him, a smile on my face and a song in my heart.
“Is it wrong that I want to dance amongst the flames?” Lexi asks as we stand across the street from the burning bodega.
I grin to myself as I wrap my arm around her waist, loving that she’s on the same page with me. “We’ll dance when Alan is dead.”
The firefighters begin to spray the three-story building, battling the flames that pour from the storefront windows. It seems like the whole borough is out watching the show, even a local news station is reporting on the scene. Revenge is capitalizing on today’s events.
