Saint Nicholas Read Free

searching through the mess of papers on the table.
    “Ma, I wasn’t doin’ that.”
    “Good, you’ll go blind.”
    I wouldn’t, but I didn’t say anything. I just watched as she searched high and low for those keys, dressed in a pretty, floral pattern dress. Her black hair was in curls and she had her fingernails painted red, like she did when she had a date. Our father had been gone a year, and for all intents and purposes, he wasn’t coming back.
    My heart sank. Most of the guys Mom dated were a quick fix. Sometimes she’d bring them up to the apartment, but most times I just caught her in the car out front making out with them. I couldn’t blame her. She had needs, and with Pops gone there was no one around to fulfill them for her. I got it, I really did, but that didn’t mean I had to like it.
    “What’s this Helena says you told her I have to play with her?” I walked over to the fridge and took her car keys off the magnet I put up there for her last week so she wouldn’t lose them again. I twirled them around my finger, and at the sound of them jingling she stopped and breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
    She rushed over and took them, keeping my hands ensconced in hers for a moment as she smiled at me.
    “What’s his name?” I asked.
    Her face fell and she looked away. “It’s not like that,” she said.
    “Uh huh, tell me—”
    “I gotta go to work. Gina called in sick and I gotta cover for her. C’mon Nicky, we need the money and I need a break.” She glanced at my sister, who by now was sitting at the table flipping through an old issue of Glamour.
    I nodded, though I couldn’t help but reiterate what I’d said at the beginning of summer when school let out. “Ma, I told you that Jimmy at the fruit stand would hire me on a couple days a week. I could—”
    But it was no use. She was already shaking her head and shushing me. “I told you to forget about that. No son of mine is gonna work in the Kitchen. Start that shit and you’ll never get out. Besides, you work hard all year long on your grades, you should be focusing on your schoolwork.”
    “But it’s summer.”
    “And you should enjoy it. That’s all I ask, huh? Just enjoy it. Trust me, when September rolls around I’m gonna be bustin’ your balls like you wouldn’t believe, and you’ll wish you had a job just so you can get away from me.”
    “I could get a job,” chimed Helena.
    I glanced at her and frowned, “Doing what? Rollin’ over Duke’s crew with your three-card Monte skills?”
    Don’t ask me how she did it, but my sister was aces at that game, and she didn’t even have to cheat. I think it was her small hands and the way she played fast and loose with the cards. One second you’d know where your ace was and the next, fuggedaboutit. She’d gathered many a penny from my jar and had them stashed away somewhere in her room.
    “Look,” Mom said seriously, guiding me over to where my sister was. She put her arm around the two of us and crouched down, kissing each of us on the cheek. “No kids of mine are getting jobs right now. Just be kids, okay, and let me worry about all the adult stuff. We’ll be okay, okay?”
    I nodded, but I knew that nothing could be further from the truth. I’d seen the bills, seen how far behind we were on rent. If it weren’t for my grandma Nadine sending Mom money each month, we’d be out on our asses living in a gutter somewhere. That was no way to live, but I respected the hell out of my mother for trying to hold things together as best she could, and it was for that reason only that I agreed to watch Helena while she went to her job at the pharmacy.
    “Pop by later,” she said on her way out the door, “and maybe I’ll hook you guys up with some licorice or something, okay?”
    “Sure, Ma. Love you.”
    “Love you, too, Nicky. Never forget that.”
    She left, and immediately my sister ran off to her bedroom and shut the door. I didn’t know what she did in there, but