some half-assed rebuttal. I watch both of them. Jenna bunches her hand into a little white fist—not much I can do about it, as I’m not going to shoot her—and hits Sweetness with a solid roundhouse to the nose. He saw it coming and let her do it. I hear it snap and his nose folds over onto the side of his face. Blood runs out of it, drizzles like a water tap with a bad gasket.
He doesn’t react or complain, just pulls a wad of napkins from a Hesburger bag, spreads them out on the table and leans over them, to keep from making a mess.
Jenna grabs the kossu bottle and chugs some more. “Fuck both you guys.” She takes the bottle and disappears into the bedroom they share with Anu.
I put Anu in her carriage, walk over to Sweetness and put a hand on his shoulder. “Sorry,” I say.
“Naw,” he says, “you did right.”
“Want to go to the hospital, or do you want me to set your nose for you? The hospital might leave you prettier.”
“Fuck it. Just set it. Gimme a stiff drink first.” Luckily, he buys kossu by the case.
I give him a couple of my painkillers and a half water glass of kossu. He drinks both down. He sits and bleeds for a few minutes, waiting for the combination to take effect.
“OK,” he says.
We go to the bathroom, where the light is good and the blood can fly and be easily cleaned up. I grab his nose with my thumb and forefinger and jerk. I hear and feel the grinding of cartilage, but it doesn’t quite make it. He doesn’t make any noise, but it brings tears to his eyes. I have another go at it, and I feel it almost snap back into place, but not quite. This time he winces and yelps.
“Goddamn,” he says.
“Sorry. I think I can’t pull straight enough with my fingers. I could stick pencils up your nostrils and jerk. That might give me the right angle.”
“Fuck that. Give me the bottle.”
The break looks clean, since his nose is folded over on the side of his face instead of crushed. “The trick,” I say, “is to lift your nose off your face, pull it out and over so it sits back where it belongs.”
I go get the bottle and he swigs deep. I have a gulp myself. He looks in the mirror, grabs his nose tight with the meat below his thumbs, and jerks it forward. Cartilage and gristle crackle. His nose settles back in the right place. “Fuck,” he says, “that feels better. That dope you gave me, at least with kossu, helps a lot, too.”
“Yeah,” I say, “it does. All of a sudden, I’m hungry as hell.”
“Me too,” he says.
He jams toilet paper up his nostrils to plug up the bleeding, then we go the dining room and scarf double cheeseburgers and fries.
“It’s not my business,” I say, “so feel free to tell me to fuck off, but don’t you and Jenna use birth control?”
He has half a burger stuffed in his mouth. It takes him a minute to answer. “Sure we do. The rhythm method. Usually the rhythm of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. They’re Jenna’s favorite fucking music.”
22
The sound of the door opening wakes me. I hear the trundle of suitcase wheels. Kate is home. I pull on sweatpants and go out to greet her. Her eyes are flat, lifeless. She looks like she’s aged ten years in a week. Milo is behind her, as if to cut off her escape. I hug her. She allows it, but doesn’t return it.
“I missed you,” I say.
She slurs, “Where is Anu?”
“In her crib, sleeping.”
“Would you get her for me?”
“Of course.”
I knock on the door, wondering what kind of scene I’ll find after Jenna’s anger and her TKO of Sweetness last night. “Come in,” she says.
I find them in bed, her head on Sweetness’s chest. It seems all is forgiven.
“Kate is home,” I say. “And Jenna, I think you have an impression otherwise, but I didn’t have sex with Mirjami. She just wanted to sleep in the same bed with me. Nothing happened.”
“Not my business,” she says. “Why tell me?”
“Because I don’t want some innuendo about me cheating on Kate slipping out unintended. I’ve never cheated on her.”
And then it comes to me. I intended to change the bedding. It will be redolent of Mirjami. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck.
I bring Anu to Kate. She takes Anu in her arms,