IMMACULATA sat across from me in the last booth. Max's woman. Mama was at her front desk with the baby, bouncing the plump little girl on her lap, telling her how things worked.
"It's okay now," Immaculata said, voice thick with something I didn't recognize.
"Sure."
"Max understands. He was just…hurt. That you left him out."
"I had to."
"I know."
"Yeah, you know."
"Burke, why be like this? You made a judgment… it was your call to make. It's over."
"But you think the judgment was wrong."
"It was just an ego thing, yes? It's hard to believe this man would have killed our baby just to make Max fight him."
I looked up. Her eyes were veiled under the long lashes but it didn't help. She couldn't make it stick.
"I have to stand with Max," she said.
I bowed, empty. Her eyes were pleading with me. "You still have your baby," I said.
She put her hand over mine. "You still have your brother."
The pay phone rang in the back. Mama walked past, the baby balanced on one hip.
She came back in a minute. Handed the baby to Immaculata, slid in next to her.
"Call for you. Woman say old friend."
A honeycomb of tiny bubbles in my chest. Flood. How could she have known now was the time?
It must have shown in my face. Mama's voice was soft. "No" is all she said.
I lit a cigarette, biting into the filter. The little bubbles in my chest popped- a tiny string of explosions, like baby firecrackers.
"Woman say old friend. Need to talk to you. Very important."
I looked at Mama. Her lips curled, short of a sneer. "Always important. Woman say to tell you Little Candy from Hudson Street. You know her?" Mama asked, handing me a slip of paper with a telephone number.
I nodded. It didn't matter.