The basement, though, was full of empty tanks where the turtles, a corn snake, and two baby alligators from Florida had lived until one had snapped at Aunt Ida. The pets had gone away after that, and Aunt Ida had stopped coming down here when the boys had put up pinups. They put out cigarettes in the cast-off furniture Uncle Frank found on his sanitation route and had bought a stereo loud enough to shake the paneling, cutting through the stench of sweat and boredom.
“Yeah, but we’re losing,” Ray’s voice boomed. “Why else would they send more men?”
Gia held the banister, creeped out by the see-through steps.
“No, man, it’s over. They’re throwing more power to finish it,” Leo shouted back, pausing from rolling a joint, the table littered with tiny twigs. “The US doesn’t lose wars, man. It doesn’t happen.”
“Everyone can lose, man,” Ray shot back. “Everyone.”
“Shave my head—I’ll go right now.” Leo pointed at the READY FOR ACTION poster over the couch, stolen from the post office bulletin board.
Gia settled beside Tommy, whose hands were folded neatly in his lap, his hair combed to one side from church. He, like Uncle Frank, would find a way out of being drafted because where Leo and Ray were wiry and almost old enough, Tommy was younger and looked like the Gerber Baby. Aunt Ida still cut his meat and made his bed in the morning; he was too innocent to be anywhere near a gun, let alone fire one.
“What do you want to run around the jungle for?” It came out snippy, but she was curious. There were interesting things to explore in the jungle.
“C’mon, Gia.” Leo mimed shooting a machine gun. “Village raids. Bombs. Sweating on a boat. Free cigarettes. Canned meat. Cruising alligator rivers and rice paddies. And . . . you know.” Whatever he meant was lost on Gia, but Ray smirked and Tommy shifted. She should’ve known better than to expect an intelligent answer. He wouldn’t care about anything that lived in rice paddies. At least no one was teasing her about the clams.
“Crocodiles,” she said. “It’d probably be crocodiles because it’s hot there.”
“Same thing.” Leo popped a cap off a beer bottle with his back teeth, and Lorraine winced. Metal on teeth was worse than dentist cotton. “Point is, either one can snap you in half.”
“They’re almost dinosaurs,” Gia said. “Remember when Dad held you over the alligator tank in Florida? Why’d he do that?”
“Because I asked him.” Leo took a sip, smirking, and gathered the twigs into a neat pile. “I heard they jump. I wish we still had the other ones.” He pointed to the empty tanks. “We could’ve trained them to swim behind the boat and snap at morons we don’t like.”
He held up his hands and snapped at the air. Gia’s patience for the basement was running out.
“But you want to really know why? Because how else can I be a Hells Angel? You think they’d want some kid from suburbia? No one here would take a bullet for anyone else, not if dinner was done or Sullivan was on. No way. It does not happen here.”
Gia rolled her eyes. Who actually believed a Hells Angel was a good goal?
“What does your dad think about you being a Hells Angel?” Lorraine smirked. They all knew what the answer was. Leo took a long drag off the bottle and slammed it down.
“Same as he thinks about anything that isn’t food on the table.”
Leo looked at Gia, waiting for her to nod along and chime in, but she couldn’t because it wasn’t right, not when her father was doing the right thing. Annoyance flickered on Leo’s face, and then he licked the joint shut, closing Gia out with it.
“Lorraine, you are sunshine down here,” Ray said. She was perched on the couch arm, taller than the rest of them, her hair still damp from the canal. “Like the grand marshal of San Gennaro, ready for a parade car.” Ray waved to an imaginary crowd.
Lorraine rolled her eyes, tossed a pillow at him, scattering the twigs on the table. Tommy dropped the stray twigs into a candle burning on the shelf. Green bits sank into melting wax. Tommy liked everything neat.
“My friend’s been asking about you.”
“Not interested,” Lorraine shot back, hardening into a glimmer of the person she’d been by the canal before. “Tell him I don’t go out with trash.”
“You don’t even know who it is.”
“Doesn’t matter.”
The boys smirked. Gia smoothed her shorts, wishing they’d change the subject. Dating made her feel less like a real girl, at least here. It was different in Lorraine’s room with magazines spread over the comforter as she tried on the clothes Lorraine picked out for her. There, she was less of a wild-haired troll doll.
“You’re not seeing anyone, from what I understand,” Ray said slowly.
“What’s it to you?” Lorraine crossed her arms.
“Just curious.”
“When’s the last time you were ever ‘just curious,’ Ray?” But Ray only shrugged, eyeing Lorraine the way Gia’s father looked at wood before cutting. Measure twice; cut once.
“I’m gonna make it with Flora this year,” Leo said, lighting the joint he’d just finished rolling.
“That’s disgusting,” Gia spit. “Don’t say that out loud.”
“You know what’s worse?” Leo pushed on. “The way dumb Joseph looks at you. You see him? Staring over the fence?”
“Shut up, Leo.” Gia’s heart pounded. Why did he have to embarrass her like this when it wasn’t even true? She swatted at Leo, but it only amused him, so Gia hit harder until Ray cleared his throat.
“Well . . .” Ray took a small white rock out of his shirt pocket and put it on the table, grinning. It looked like something swept out from under the couch.
Leo turned it over in his hands, sniffed it. It was the size of his fingernail. “Where’d you get it?”
“I’m starting a little business,” Ray said.
“Ray.” There was a warning in Lorraine’s voice. “What kind of business?”
Ray ignored her.
Gia glanced at Tommy, because they were a year apart and he was usually as dumb as she was with these things, but Tommy was expressionless. If they waited long enough, they wouldn’t have to ask. Tommy sat back. The rock could’ve been a quarter or a deck of cards, only it’d be swept away if any parents came down for a can of tomatoes or something. That much she knew.
“I thought we’d give it a try on this lovely evening.”
“Well, have fun with that.” Lorraine stood. “I’ve got to feed my mother.”
Gia followed because she’d already let Lorraine down once today, but what was it?
“Just wait,” Ray protested. He had the look he got when he was dealing cards, doling them out in a circle as everyone scooped and flipped, knowing he’d somehow cut the deck in his favor.
“She’s not gonna feed herself.” Lorraine was already at the steps, her hand on the banister. Something had spooked her.
“It might help her too,” Ray mumbled, and Lorraine glared. “I’m serious. Timothy Leary says LSD opens up people’s minds. You’re gonna argue with a Harvard professor? Just watch for a second. Gia, just wait.”