Ten Thousand Saints Page 0,117
starting a family of his own? Ravi was no substitute for his father, and Johnny was no substitute for his son. Was it money the kid wanted?
“Congratulations,” he managed to say as he arranged an inane smile on his face. “You’re going to be a father. And not long ago you were just a boy yourself.”
“I’m going to raise the baby,” said Johnny. “But Teddy is the father.”
Ravi ceased stroking his mustache. Johnny was wearing an inane smile as well.
“Edward?”
Johnny nodded. “Edward.”
The waitress brought his drink and served their food, and it cooled in front of them. A sixteen-year-old girl was going to have his dead son’s child, and Johnny had married her in order to raise the baby. The baby was due in September. Very soon! Johnny spoke of levirate marriage, and The Laws of Manu, but Ravi wanted to know the details. Where were they going to live? When could he meet the wife? When could he meet the child? Ravi’s heart was beating so fast that he was sweating. He stood up, took off his jacket, and hung it on the back of the chair. He wanted to call Arpita. Arpita was at the Epcot Center with her sister and her nieces. Remember the talk they’d had, after they’d found out about Edward, about no one carrying on the family name? (At forty, Arpita said her dogs would be her only babies.) Well, Ravi’s son, who had been a baby when he’d last seen him, was going to have a baby! Was it possible to call the Epcot Center? Had she left the number for their hotel?
“Well,” said Johnny, “we’d like to go back to New York.”
Ravi returned to his seat. “So far away?”
“We were staying with a friend in Vermont for a while, but we’ve been forced to relocate again. My wife’s mother—she’s not too hot on the idea.”
“Hot,” Ravi said.
“She wants us to give the baby up. She thinks I’m the father.” Johnny stabbed a tomato, then, reconsidering, withdrew his fork. “Everyone does, actually. We thought she’d be more likely to support our decision if she saw that we were serious about each other, that we wanted to be good parents.”
Ravi didn’t understand. “But why not tell her it is Edward’s? Teddy’s? It is a wonderful thing.”
“She’s going to find out soon enough. But first, we want to make sure we’re . . . protected.”
Of course. It was legal advice he wanted.
“You are married, my boy, yes?”
Johnny nodded.
“Good. You are a smart boy. Now, did she give consent? Your wife’s mother?”
“No, but it was in New Jersey. You don’t need it there if the girl is pregnant.”
“Then she has no legal recourse, none whatsoever. It does not matter who the father is.”
Johnny relaxed visibly.
“Unless,” Ravi said, “she sues for custody.”
“Sues for custody? She doesn’t want the kid. She wants us to give it up for adoption.”
Ravi smiled sadly. “Not your mother-in-law, my boy. Your wife.”
Johnny was tugging on his lower lip. On the inside, beneath his youthful gums, was a tattoo Ravi could not quite read. Why on earth would anyone put a tattoo there? “Why would she want to do that?”
He was still a boy, unschooled in the depravity of the fairer sex. Ravi would die for Arpita, but he had a prenup. When he got home, he would pray to Shiva that his grandchild would be a boy.
“Against women,” said Ravi, “we cannot protect ourselves enough.”
How much did he give you?” Rooster wanted to know.
“A lot,” Johnny said. “At first I said no, but he said it would be an insult.”
“You wouldn’t wanna insult the man.”
“He said it’s for the baby.”
“It’ll be a well-diapered kid.”
Johnny was calling from the pay phone in the McDonald’s parking lot in Vero Beach, Florida, where the band was letting off steam in the Ronald McDonald playground, pelting one another with the plastic balls in the ball pit.
He had told himself he wouldn’t call Rooster, not yet. But the excitement of meeting Ravi had sent him to the phone. He needed to share it with someone.
“How are you feeling?”
“If I tell you I feel like shit, will you come back to New York?”
“You know I can’t. They think I’m talking to some guy in Cleveland.”
“Why Cleveland?”
The recording interrupted to request another quarter, and Johnny complied.
“We’re supposed to do a show there.”
“Well, cancel Cleveland and come back to New York. Ain’t nothin’ you want to see in Cleveland, baby.”
Johnny closed his eyes and imagined the month that lay before