Marie rubbed her nose, grunted and lit a cigarette.

***

When Tommy stepped out of the shower he heard Marie banging around in the kitchen. He cursed. He liked the dinette to himself for a few hours Sunday mornings so he could read the News, have a few smokes, a few cups of coffee, listen to the radio. He dried his blue black hair vigorously, wrapped a purple towel around his waist and leaned close to the mirror to inspect his new Fu Manchu. In the last year he had grown six different kinds of face hair including muttonchops and a real handlebar, but he liked the Fu Manchu best of all—it extended down each side of his mouth to his jaw in two thick black lines. He had to smile. That chick last night said, "Oooh, look! It's Jack Palance!" Chubby got jealous until she said he looked like Jack Palance too. Chubby looked like Jack Shit as far as Tommy was concerned. Jack Palance. He touched his high cheekbones, his rocky chin.

"Daddy, can I get in?" Albert's voice on the other side of the bathroom door jolted him out of his reverie. "I gotta pee."

Tommy opened the door and brushed past his son without looking at him.

***

"Hey, Thomas Junior!"—Tommy winked at Stony—"pass me the salt." Stony's fingers were greasy with butter and the shaker slipped onto his father's plate.

"I don' wanna eat any more." Albert had three Lucky Charm cereal bits glued with milk on his chin. He had only taken three spoonfuls.

"What?" Marie stared at him severely. "Don' wanna eat any more, hah?" She nodded and narrowed her eyes. "Don' wanna eat any more?"

Albert stared at his cereal.

"Where'd we go yesterday?" she demanded, not looking at him.

"Doctor Schindler," he answered meekly.

"What?"

"Doctor Schindler."

"I can't hear you."

"Doctor Schindler."

"I... can't... hear... you!"

Albert shut his eyes, lightly opened and closed his hands, his fingertips touching, then springing away from each other. Stony was about to jump up and smash his mother in the face when Albert blurted, "D—Doctor Schindler!"

Tommy looked up surprised for a second, then returned to his eggs. Marie lit a cigarette. Albert looked up at her mascaraed plumpness through the snaky haze of smoke.

"And what did Doctor Schindler say?"

"I weigh too little."

"How little?"

Albert's eyebrows were raised and his lips shaped words that wouldn't come. His stomach spun viciously. Tommy got up from the table, grabbed the News and split for the john.

"Where the hell you goin'?" Marie barked.

"I gotta take a crap. You mind?" Tommy shot back. She dismissed him with a disgusted wave of her hand. "Why don't the hell you leave the kid alone!" Tommy shouted, his face turning black. He held the paper in a giant fist.

"You know how much he weighs? Do you give a shit?" she shouted back. They were both standing. Albert started crying. Stony touched his brother's shoulder, made a funny face at his parents and winked at him. Albert rubbed away some tears with the heel of his palm.