Chapter eighteen
A couple of weeks later, Tania came through the revolving door of her mother’s apartment building. Voting machines filled the lobby. She approached Johnny at the reception desk. He pointed to a sofa.
“Your mother’s over there.”
“Hello, Mommy.”
Her mother raised her eyes.
“Tania, help me up; let’s get out of here.”
“Did you vote already?” asked Tania.
Angela dismissed the question with a wave of her hand.
“To hell with that noise; they’re all a bunch of crooks. I just came down for a change of scenery.”
Tania pulled her mother up from the sofa. The two walked arm in arm.
“I made oxtails for dinner. You like oxtail, don’t you?”
“I do now,” answered Tania.
After they finished eating, Tania loaded the dishwasher. She scrubbed a Dutch oven and set it on the kitchen counter; Angela dried the inside of the cooking pot.
“Mother,” said Tania, “I’m sorry for any pain I ever caused you.”
“You’re right, Tania.”
She turned to her daughter.
“You caused me a lot of pain, but that’s over. Let’s have some ice cream. And watch Larry King.”
Mother and daughter entered Angela’s bedroom carrying bowls of vanilla Häagen-Dazs with Milano cookies stuck into the scoops of ice cream. Tania turned on the TV. Her mother sat down in an easy chair. John Potter appeared on the screen surrounded by cheering campaign volunteers. Peggy rushed into the frame with a glass of champagne in her hand. She flung her arms around Potter.
“I guess somebody voted for you, Johnny Boy, cuz I sure didn’t,” slurred Peggy.
On Sunday afternoon, Tania left the dressing room after the final performance of the showcase and stepped into the lobby of the theater. Her sister and mother were waiting.
“Tania, I didn’t know you were running for mayor,” said her mother.
“I’m not; I was acting.”
“Well, you had me fooled,” said Angela.
“Did you hear her scream when you fainted?” asked Maria.
“Yes, and I was glad you stopped her before she got to the stage.”
Tania noticed Dave Kerber standing off to the side. She beckoned him to join her and introduced him to her mother and sister. Angela leaned into Dave.
She whispered, “Tania may not look it, but she’s a hard worker.”
“I know,” responded Dave.
“You should have her bring you over for dinner,” said Angela. “Do you like short ribs?”
“Yes, I do,” answered Dave.
Tania turned to Maria.
“How have you been?”
“Much better since I stopped drinking.”
Angela asked Dave, “What about pork chops?”
Tania asked her sister, “How’s Joan?”
“She’s getting divorced.”
Dave said, “I like pork chops.”
“Loin or rib?” asked Angela.
Maria said, “She came home early from work and found her husband in bed with Pete the landscaper.”
“Rib,” answered Dave.
“I served a loin to Mr. Wildman once; he threw it on the floor. He was a wonderful man; took me all over the world.”
“Well the good news is you’re going to be a great-aunt,” said Maria. “We’re not sure who the father is, but I’m assuming it’s Yassim.”
“Who’s Yassim?” asked Tania.
“Joan’s boyfriend. He’s from Somalia. They met in a night class at Minneapolis Community. You’ll meet him at the baby shower.”
“What baby shower?”
“The one I’m having for my daughter and her baby and her baby’s father,” said Maria. “I want you to be there; I’ll drive down and pick you up.”
“You can ask my daughters; I always had help with the house,” said Angela.
She doubled over and looked up at Dave.
“Their father never wanted me to bend lower than this.”
She tilted her head toward Tania and Maria.
“Right, girls?”
Dave drove Tania home and pulled up in front of her building.
“Would you like to kiss me sometime?” asked Tania.
“Yes, I would,” answered Dave.
“Good,” said Tania.
She opened the passenger door and got out of the car. Then she poked her head into the vehicle.
“You didn’t have your dick shot off in Vietnam, did you?”
“No, but I do have sleep apnea.”
“That’s okay,” said Tania. “I have a mustache.”
She closed the car door and went upstairs.
That evening, Peggy was scrounging in the back of a kitchen cabinet for a bottle of booze when the phone rang. She picked up the handset from its wall mounting.
“Potter residence.”
She opened the door to the basement and called downstairs.
“Some guy named Ray’s on the phone for you.”
Peggy held the coiled phone cord in the air and watched the receiver spin until John came upstairs.
“I saw your wife make an ass of herself on my TV election night. Who’s gonna set her straight, me or you?”
John Potter pulled into the parking lot behind his campaign headquarters at 9 p.m. Peggy sat in the passenger seat. Ray walked over to the car; Potter lowered his window.
“Hey, John, go inside and take a leak; Mrs. Potter, you stay here with me.”
John unlocked the back door to the headquarters, and Peggy got out of the car.
“Who do you think you are ordering me around like that? Nobody tells me what to do.”
“I do; I’m your husband’s boss.”
Peggy moved in on him.
“What are you talking about? My husband’s an elected official.”
“Not really.”
She jabbed her index finger into his chest.
“Shut the fuck up! Do you hear me?”
Ray flicked her hand away.
“You don’t remember me, do you?”
“No, why should I?”
“I know you from the country club.”
“Indian Ridge?”
“Yeah, I worked in the snack bar.”
Peggy raised her eyebrows.
“Oh.”
“You’d order in French; I didn’t know what you were saying, so I got a Berlitz book from the library. By the time I learned enough to carry on a conversation, the summer was over.”
“Too bad you wasted your time on the ugliest goddamn language in the world.”
Peggy snorted.
“I wasn’t speaking French. I was sayin’ some shit I got off my father’s Piaf record. Je ne regrette rien; does that sound familiar?”
She roared with laughter.
“I remember you now. What made you think I’d go for a loser like you? You were a joke to me.”
“Knock it off,” said Ray.
Peggy raised her middle finger.
“Fuck you, loser.”
Ray flicked her hand away and walked to the back entrance of the campaign headquarters. Peggy came after him.
“Touch me again, you piece of shit, and I’ll yell for the police.”
Ray opened the back door; he swung around and faced Peggy.
“I said, knock it off.”
He turned to go inside.
“Who do you think you are? You’re nothing. Do you hear me? YOU’RE NOTHING!” screamed Peggy.
Ray stared at the ground and shook his head.
“Shut up, you stupid fucking bitch.”
He pulled out a gun and shot Peggy in the chest.
At midnight, Tania’s doorbell rang several times. She got up from bed and looked out her living room window. It was too dark to see who was below. The bell sounded again. Tania picked up a can of Raid and buzzed in the caller. She kept on the safety chain, held onto the Raid, and cracked open her front door. Jack climbed the stairs to her landing and smiled at Tania.
“I want to lick Louise’s pussy.”
“You what?”
Jack came closer, leaned on the doorjamb, and grinned.
“Mrs. Teagarden, may I lick your pussy?”
“Are you drunk? Are you high?”
“Maybe, but I can still lick your pussy.”
“No, you can’t.”
They faced each other in silence.
“Go home, Jack.”
Tania wasn’t asleep when her alarm went off at 4 a.m. She showered, dressed, and left for work. When she came out the front door of her building, Tania saw a Pizza Man delivery car parked at the curb. The passenger door was wide open; Jack was slumped over the steering wheel.
“Oh my God,” cried out Tania. “He’s dead.”
She dove into the front seat of the vehicle.
Wait a minute; he’s snoring.
She scrambled to get out of the car. Jack woke up.
“Hey, hey, wait,” he called out. “Are you dumping me?”
“Am I what?”
“Are you dumping me? Is there someone else?”
Tania put her hand on the roof of the Pizza Man car and leaned her head into the
front seat.
“Yes, Jack, there’s someone else, and that someone is ME.”
She started down the block. A taxi pulled up to the curb, and Mrs. Rosenblum got out.
“Tania, what a nice surprise,” she said. “I rode the Dog all night; that’s what the girls call taking a Greyhound bus. One of them gave me a discount coupon from an Efferdent carton. I don’t use the stuff myself since I have all my own teeth.”
“Is that meowing coming from your purse?” asked Tania.
“Well, I couldn’t leave my cat behind.”
“I never knew its name,” said Tania.
“Her name’s Karma,” said Mrs. Rosenbloom. “You know, what goes around, comes around.”
Tania walked to Hennepin and saw the lights of the 6U bus coming toward her. The vehicle’s door opened, and Tania heard the news report coming from Robert’s radio.
“Peggy Rawson Potter, wife of newly elected city council member John Potter, was killed late last night in an attempted robbery behind her husband’s campaign headquarters. Police are holding a suspect in his early twenties.”
