Pagan Babies

I'll be there."

"One o'clock sharp at the Frank Murphy. I know I told you."

"You did, I just don't have a suit. I have the Roman collar, one of Uncle Tibor's, and one of his Mandarin shirts has a little notch up here to show the collar. I tried on his suit. It was so shiny you could use it as a mirror to comb your hair."

Terry gri

"Fran, I could wear a dress, I'm still a priest."

"You scare me sometimes, you know it? Mr. Casual."

"Fr. Casual. I'll speak to him in Latin."

"You're not fu

Terry had already spotted the coffeemaker. He found a can of Folgers in the first cupboard he opened and was ru

"My car's here."

"How'd you know?"

"It's supposed to be here at seven-fifteen and that's what time it is.

Listen, Tell. Don't luck up, okay?"

"I won't."

"The wrong attitude alone could keep the indictment active."

Fran paused. "Buddy, I went way out on a limb for you. I said the Paio

"Why? I've got nothing to hide."

"That's good," Fran said, "that's the attitude to have. Any questions?"

"I can't think of any."

"You go

Terry said, "Sure," and turned the water off.

Fran hadn't moved. "I forgot to tell you, Joh

You don't want that asshole on your back."

"Joh

Fran said, "You can't help it, can you? Your normal reaction is to be a smart-ass. I imagined coming back from Africa, all you've been through over there, you'd have changed, become more serious…"

Terry nodded, waiting.

"… show a sense of responsibility, and gratitude. You know how much I sent you altogether, counting what I paid for the T-shirts?

Over twenty thousand dollars. You write and tell me about the weather and, 'Oh, thanks for the money.'"

Terry said, "You wrote it off, didn't you, as a contribution?"

"That's not the point. What about the cigarette money? With the three trips you must've taken off with fifty grand, counting the Pajo

Trying to find out if he had any money. Terry said, "Fran, I was over there five years." And that was all he wanted to say about it.

"I read one of your letters to Mary Pat, the one you opened up in a little more than usual, that had all the smells in it. I commented that you were starting to sound like your old self again. You know what Mary Pat said? 'Is that good or bad?'" Fran said, "You see what I mean?"

Terry wasn't sure, but nodded again, squinting just a little, showing Fran he was giving it serious thought, while Fran seemed to stare at him as long as he could before looking at his watch again.

"I gotta go."

Terry waited on the front steps until the Lincoln Town Car was out of sight. He went into the library, saw two numbers for Joh

Man, last night. Last night decided his future for him. It would have to come one day at a time, but the trip looked full of promise all the way.

Just talking about it, Debbie telling stories… First offering to twist one if he wanted. "A yobie? Sure, why not." She appreciated his name for it and said that's what she'd call a joint from now on, a yobie. See? Looking into the future together. They sat on her secondhand St. Vincent de Paul sofa toking and gri

"We'll get to that," Debbie said. "I think I told you, the first time he asked to borrow money he showed me a picture of his boat?"

"The one he didn't own," Terry said.

"That's right but what I didn't mention, it had my name lettered on the back end, DEBBIE, and under it, PALM BEACH. He said he renamed it because he was so crazy about me. And oh, by the way, could I spare a couple of grand."

"How'd he do it?"

"Wait. Okay, now this is later, after he wiped me out and took off.

It's been a couple of months and I'm in Florida visiting my mother. I stopped by the marina Randy was always talking about, looked around and there it was, a forty-six-foot cutter named DEBBIE with PALM BEACH under it. I asked in the marina bar if anyone knew a guy named Randy Agley. The bartender goes, 'You mean Aglioni?' A salty old guy sitting at the bar goes, 'Randy, that's the creep went around taking pictures of the boats. We ran him off.' I asked if they knew where Randy hung out. The bartender tells me to try the Breakers, where guys like Randy troll for rich broads. The old guy says try Au Bar, he saw him there a couple of times. Okay, at the Breakers I find out Mr. Agley is not allowed on the premises and Au Bar isn't there anymore, it's something else. I thought I'd struck out.

But then fight after, I have my room out to di

He has a drink in his hand and his sights on two women at a table.

They're dressed casually but you can tell they're Palm Beach, the hair, simple jewelry but the real thing. Randy waits till they've ordered their drinks before moving in, the cheap fuck. I'm watching-it's obvious they don't know him. He gives them some bulIshit for a couple of minutes, something like, 'Didn't I see you charming ladies at the Donald's last week? No? Then it must've been…' He ioins them. Pretty soon the women are laughing and he's not even fu

"He ioins the ladies," Terry said.

"And I'm with my mom. What do I do, warn the ladies? Pour a drink over his head and cause a scene? Not with my mom there. I told you she thinks she's A

Terry said, "I'd like to meet her."

"She's still there. What I ended up doing, I took mom over to the table and said, 'Mother, this is Randy, the bullshit artist who stole all my money.' My mother says to him, 'How do you do, Andy, I'm pleased to meet you.' She thought he was Andy Garcia. I got her out, raced across the bridge to the nursing home--it's right on Flagler-dropped her off, and raced back to Chuck and Harold's. I was sure he'd still be there because he'd have to clear himself, make up a long, involved story. Did you see My Di