Nobody's Fool

business was.”
    â€œToo early to tell,” she said. “Some of the regulars are going down to the donut shop for their morning coffee, or so I hear.”
    Sully nodded, ashamed. “They’ll be back.”
    â€œIf not, to hell with them,” Ruth said jauntily, meeting his eye directly.
    â€œYou get a good deal on this place?” Sully said, deciding a subtle change of emphasis couldn’t hurt.
    â€œThe best,” Ruth said. “I got a good price and used Vince’s money.”
    â€œCan’t beat that,” Sully conceded.
    â€œNope,” Ruth agreed. “It reminded me a lot of the deal Kenny Roebuck offered you twenty years ago.”
    Sully nodded, not so much acknowledging the truth of her observation as her apparent decision that they would quarrel. “I hope you’ll be as content with your decision as I’ve always been with mine,” he told her.
    Ruth couldn’t help but smile. “Your head must be made of solid granite.”
    â€œIt’s a good thing, too,” Sully said, “since everybody keeps kicking it.”
    â€œYou’re the one that keeps kicking it,” she assured him. “You’re double-jointed, and you don’t know it.”
    The front door opened then, and Janey, in a white waitress uniform identical to the one Ruth used to wear waiting tables at Jerry’s Pizza, came in, impatiently towing her daughter. Janey took in the situation at a glance, let the door swing shut behind them. Then she deposited the child and a small stuffed dog she was carrying into the small booth where Hattie used to sit. It seemed to Sully that he’d seen the animal the little girl was carrying somewhere before, but he couldn’t think where. The child was studying it with strange intensity, as if she suspected there might be a real live dog underneath the fabric. “You sit right here, okay?” Janey told her daughter.“Mommy’s just going over there, and Grandma’s here too, okay? You can see us both. Nobody’s going to leave you. You just sit right here for a minute.”
    Then she came over to where Ruth had begun to ring out the register. “Is she getting up?” she whispered.
    â€œNo, she’s sitting right where you put her.”
    â€œI can’t believe it. She’s getting better.” Janey slipped by her mother and around the counter, where she drew herself a soda from the machine. “Consider the baton officially passed.”
    â€œMake yourself at home,” Ruth told her.
    â€œI will,” Janey said. “And since you’re so nice, I’ll tell you I saw Daddy pulling in to the alley. He’ll be coming in the back any second.” She looked at Sully significantly here. “How you doing, Mr. Sullivan?”
    â€œWonderful,” Sully assured her. “Things just keep getting better and better.”
    â€œYou’re out of jail, at least,” Janey said, apparently unaware that this bordered on a personal observation. “Next they’ll be letting my husband out.”
    â€œThey better not,” Ruth said, glancing over to where the child sat. Sully followed her gaze. With the afternoon light behind her making a halo of her blond hair, the little girl looked unnervingly like old Hattie, who in the last few months had shrunken to near child size. “Not when we’re just starting to make progress.”
    â€œShe just did about half that old lady’s jigsaw puzzle yesterday,” Janey said, confusing Sully, who was still thinking about Hattie.
    â€œWhat old lady?”
    â€œYour landlady,” she said, causing Sully to remember where he’d seen the stuffed dog before. Then, to her mother, “Does he get up to speed?”
    â€œNot anymore.” Ruth grinned.
    Janey seemed to accept this as truer than true. “Hey, Birdbrain. Mama’s going to work now. You’re going to stay with Grandma, okay? Grandpa’ll be here in a minute, too. You gonna be okay?”
    â€œShe’ll be fine,” Ruth assured her.
    â€œBetter, you mean,” Janey said. “Better off with you than me.”
    â€œYou’re late for work,” Ruth said, glancing at the clock.
    â€œIt’s okay. The boss is in love with me.”
    All three heard the back door open then, and all three waited for Zack to appear, although Sully didn’t turn around. “We’re in here, dumbbell,”