'It's costing you a lot more than that,' Regina said. She drained her drink and set the glass down. She turned to look at him. 'I took a took at your bankbook the other day - '
'You did what?' Arnie's eyes widened.
She flushed a little but did not drop her eyes. Michael came back and stood in the doorway, looking unhappily from his wife to his son.
'I wanted to know how much you'd been spending on that damned car,' she said. 'Is that so unnatural? You have to go to college next year, So far as I know they're not giving away many free college educations in Pennsylvania.'
'So you just went into my room and hunted around until you found my bankbook?' Arnie said. His grey eyes were hard with anger, 'Maybe you were hunting for pot, too. Or girlie books. Or maybe come-stains on the sheets.'
Regina's mouth dropped open. She had perhaps expected hurt and anger from him, but not this utter, no-holds-barred fury.
'Arnie!' Michael roared.
'Well, why not?' Arnie shouted back. 'I thought that was my business! God knows you spent enough time telling me how it was my responsibility, the both of you!'
Regina said, 'I'm very disappointed that you feel that way, Arnold. Disappointed and hurt. You're behaving like - '
'Don't tell me how I'm behaving! How do you think I feel? I work my ass off getting the car street-legal - over two and a half months I worked on it - and when I bring it home, the first thing you say is get it out of the driveway. How am I supposed to feel? Happy?'
'There's no reason to take that tone to your mother,' Michael said. In spite of the words, the tone was one of awkward conciliation. 'Or to use that sort of language.' Regina held her glass out to her husband. 'Make me another drink. There's a fresh bottle of gin in the pantry.'
'Dad, stay here,' Arnie said. 'Please, Let's get this over.'
Michael Cunningham looked at his wife; his son; at his wife again. He saw flint in both places. He retreated to the kitchen clutching his wife's glass.
Regina turned grimly back to her son. The wedge had been in the door since late last summer; she had perhaps recognized this as her last chance to kick it back out again.
'This July you had almost four thousand dollars in the bank,' she said. 'About three-quarters of all the money you've made since ninth grade, plus interest - '
'Oh, you've really been keeping track, haven't you?' Arnie said. He sat down suddenly, gazing at his mother. His tone was one of disgusted surprise. 'Mom - why didn't you just take the damn money and put it in an account under your own name?'
'Because,' she said,' until recently, you seemed to understand what the money was for. In the last couple of months it's all been car-car-car and more recently girl-girl-girl. It's as if you've gone insane on both subjects.'
'Well, thanks. I can always use a nice, unprejudiced opinion on the way I'm conducting my life.'
'This July you had almost four thousand dollars. For your education, Arnie. For your education. Now you have just over twenty-eight hundred. You can go on about snooping all you want - and I admit it hurts a little - but that's a fact. You've gone through twelve hundred dollars in two months. Maybe that's why I don't want to look at that car. You ought to be able to understand that. To me it looks like - '
'Listen - '
' - like a great big dollar bill flying away.'
'Can I tell you a couple of things?'
'No, I don't think so, Arnie,' she said with finality. 'I really don't think so.'
Michael had come back with her glass, half full of gin. He added tonic at the bar and handed it to her. Regina drank, making that bitter grimace of distaste again. Arnie sat in the chair near the TV, looking at her thoughtfully.
'You teach college? he said. 'You teach college and that's your attitude? "I have spoken. The rest of you can just shut up." Great. I pity your students.'
'You watch it, Arnie,' she said, pointing a finger at him. 'Just watch it.'
'Can I tell you a couple of things or not?'
'Go ahead. But it won't make any difference.'
Michael cleared his throat. 'Reg, I think Arnie's right, that's hardly a constructive atti - '