The Groaning Board

blossomed.
    Bill Veeder said mildly, “I’d prefer
you didn’t—”
    The judge stood up and smacked the
joint out of Todd’s mouth.
    “Oh, dear, oh dear, oh dear.”
Tilghman Cameron snatched the cigarette from her lap, where it had landed,
still smoldering. She dropped it in an ashtray on the coffee table.
    Todd’s mocking laughter filled the
room as the judge apologized to Bill Veeder and Wetzon.
    “What happened to your ear, Todd?”
Veeder asked.
    “Poor Toddie was mugged,” Tilghman
said. “They tore off one of his earrings, right through his earlobe.”
    “Mugging,” Wetzon muttered. “That’s a
good one.”
    “Tilghman,” the most honorable judge
said, “I’d like our son to answer the question. Todd? What do you have to say?”
    Todd smirked.
    “Is this it?” Bill held up the little
gold cross. He came around to the front of his desk. “You have a voice, son.
Speak for yourself.”
    “Why should I say anything? You’re
all talking for me.”
    Were she standing, the venom in
Todd’s voice would have made Wetzon step back. But it didn’t faze Veeder.
    “Toddie!” Tilghman Cameron stopped
wringing her hands long enough to take the cross from Bill’s hand. It was
obviously a match to Todd’s other earring. “It’s yours, dear. See. Thank you
for returning it, Mr. Veeder. Where did you get it?”
    “From Ms. Wetzon.”
    “It was Ms. Wetzon who was mugged,
Till.” Judge Cameron lost what was left of his patience. “Our son here tried to
throw Ms. Wetzon off a roof at the Barrons’ anniversary party.”
    Todd churned to his feet, his fists
clenched, face in Bill’s. Bill did not move.
    “Sit down, boy,” his father said,
getting up himself.
    “Lies, all lies!” Tilghman cried,
standing now too. “Tod-die’s a good boy. I won’t let you slander my baby like
that!”
    “Go on, Bill,” the judge said.
    “We’re not going to press charges,
but let this be a warn-ing—” Bill caught Todd’s arm as his fist came at him and
with a twist forced him grunting to his knees.
    Todd shot Wetzon a look of such
undisguised malevolence that she felt her hackles rise on the back of her neck.
    “I mean it, son,” Bill said.
“Straighten out your act.”
    “Sure,” Todd said, scrambling to his
feet. He snatched the little cross from his mother’s hand and left, slamming
the door hard behind him.
    Bill sat down at his desk. “I think
you’re going to have a problem, Doug.”
    “Don’t I know it. I don’t want to
spend my declining years sitting in a courtroom having you defend my son for
something he’s done to get back at me.”
    “How could you, Douglas?” Tilghman
said, dabbing her eyes with a tissue.
    “You see how his mother is—”
    “It’s that girl’s fault. He was
always such a good boy.“
    “What girl?” Veeder asked.
    “The one from school, the nice one.
What’s her name, Till?”
    “Ellen Moore. She’s not nice, Douglas. Since he’s been with her, Toddie’s been getting into trouble.”
    The judge heaved a sigh and put his
arm around his wife. “Not true, Bill. Todd’s been in and out of trouble for the
last four years. I wish that girl had more influence on him. She’s a nice kid,
doesn’t dress crazy, gets top grades in school. She’ll get into one of the Ivy
League schools while my son’ll get his education at Rikers.”
     
    “I’m sorry you were there,” Bill
said, taking her key from her and unlocking her door. “That kid’s an ugly piece
of crap.“
    “From an obviously dysfunctional
family.”
    “We’re all from dysfunctional
families, but we came through, didn’t we?”
    “Each in his own way. Watch out for
the mad dog,’ Wetzon warned. She dropped her bag and briefcase and scooped up
Izz, got a big wet smooch, set her down again. “Okay, okay, dinner.” She went
into the kitchen and filled Izz’s bowl with dry food, then gave her fresh
water. “Todd scared me,” she admitted to Bill. “Micklynn once asked me if I
believe in evil.”
    “Do you?” She watched him put her
keys in his pocket. He knew what he was doing.
    “Yes. It hasn’t happened often, but
sometimes when I meet someone, I’ve gotten a kind of atavistic feeling of revuh
sion as if for some ancient evil. Once felt it years ago in an apartment I
looked at before I bought this one. I felt it in Sheila Gelber’s apartment
too.” She sighed. “Micklynn felt it, but we all attributed her behavior to
drinking. Do you believe in evil,