Chapter 100

“It’ll come in time,” Tonio told him. “Honest. First a dust rag, then a broom, and pretty soon you’ll be hanging curtains on the windows.”

Kurt laughed. “Suzy Homemaker I’m not. Besides, we can’t do that, remember.” He paused, then said, “Thanks for cheering me up.”

“No problem. Between us, we’ll keep each other from going off the deep end when things get to us. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“Now go to sleep.”

Kurt saluted. “Yes, boss.”

As he fell asleep, his head on his arms, he smiled. He’s a nice man. I wish I’d known him before we died. Maybe things would have turned out differently. Okay, they wouldn’t have, because of David, but still a guy can dream.

* * * *

The first thing Sunday morning, Brody returned to the city long enough to ‘borrow’, as he put it, two old brooms and a dozen dust rags from the basement of the boarding house where they used to live. When he returned, they got to work cleaning the hayloft.