Nobody's Fool

things in this world that you don’t understand and never will.”
    Peter was staring at her now. “That’s good food,” he pointed out.
    She followed the squash with the potatoes and the green beans. “Why save them?” she said. “Who’s going to be here to eat leftovers?”
    â€œWhat about Ralph?”
    â€œWhat about him,” Vera said, turning on the disposal, which thundered into operation, shaking the sink. Apparently a bone had found its way in with the rest of the scrapings, and it rattled around the disposal like a stone. When Peter reached for the switch above the sink to turn it off, she grabbed his wrist, clutching it fiercely, refusing to let go, even when he tried to pull away. She surrendered him only when she’d regained a tenuous grip on herself and turned off the disposal. “You treat him as if he didn’t exist,” Peter said quietly.
    For a moment Vera was unable to respond. “I don’t mean to,” she finally managed. “I mean, I do mean to, but I don’t know why.”
    Neither said anything for some time.
    â€œEverything’s coming apart, isn’t it,” she said when she could finally locate her voice.
    â€œWhat, Mom?” Peter said, not bothering to disguise the frustration in his voice. “What’s coming apart?”
    â€œMe,” she told him, grinning now. “Can’t you tell?”
    She stared out the kitchen window into the street of her life. The street lamp was doing a better job now. It had to get really dark before such man-made illumination did any good. “Remember what a pretty street this used to be?” she asked her son. “Remember how it was when you were a boy growing up, how we could let you wander the neighborhood and be completely safe? Remember how it was before the invasion?”
    Peter was frowning at her. She didn’t even have to look at him to know that. “What invasion, Mom?”
    She made a sweeping gesture at the street, the world outside her kitchen. “The barbarians,” she explained. “Open your eyes.”
    Peter looked out the window, noticing the pickup truck at the curb for the first time. “Huh,” he said, puzzled, as if he might actually see her point. “That’s Dad, isn’t it?”
    That possibility had not occurred to her, and Vera was about to say no, it couldn’t be, when that certainty was replaced by its opposite. Of course, she thought, as her son pulled on his coat and started down the driveway to investigate. She watched Peter as he went around the truck to the driver’s side and peered in. She saw him knock on the window, then try the door, saw the truck rock gently in response to his efforts. Of course, she thought to herself. With the whole wide world to die in, and the days lined up all the way to eternity, wasn’t it just like Sully to die on Thanksgiving in the very shadow of the home she’d managed to build in his absence?This was a bitter, vengeful thought, and so the tears that welled up in her eyes took her by surprise.
    In Sully’s dream he and Rub and Carl Roebuck and a famous television judge were sitting naked in a tiny sauna, arguing. Sully explained all about the job he and Rub had done for Carl Roebuck last August, and also Carl’s steadfast refusal to pay them for it. When called upon, Carl admitted to nonpayment, but explained that Sully had hooked up the pipes all wrong. Anymore when they flushed the toilet, shit came out the water faucets. “It’s put a terrible strain on my marriage,” he added by way of explaining his countersuit. When the judge asked Rub what light he could throw upon the affair, Rub recited the Carnation Milk jingle flawlessly and challenged Sully to do the same. During the entire testimony, Sully had been distracted by someone banging for admittance at the sauna door, and, when challenged to repeat the jingle, Sully found himself unable to. He couldn’t remember how it went, despite the fact that Rub had just recited it. “I’m going to find for the defendant,” said the judge, who brought his gavel down hard on Sully’s knee. At this moment the sauna door flew open and Toby Roebuck appeared, also naked. Rub focused first on her breasts, then on her loins. He screamed. A gun materialized in Toby’s hand, and she pointed it at her husband. “Don’t take the law into your own