Mario - A Story - 5

A week later, with the help of his sister, her husband, and two of his friends from work Mario had moved into the duplex. He had been surprised and gratified by the fact that Maria’s friend Stella had been so eager to have it happen quickly.

Jonah had shown up at the restaurant once, in the middle of the week, but luckily at the time he did there were no free seats in Mario’s section of the counters. He had stood for a long time as he waited for one to open up but finally had given up and left. Not however before he’d managed to stop Mario long enough to say he still wanted to talk with him. Mario just shook his head and walked away.

“Daddy, look.” Wil tugged Mario’s hand. “I got a big window in my room.”

“I have,” Mario said automatically as he followed his son to check it out, even though he already knew it. Then he helped Wil unpack his belongings and put away his clothes in the dresser. As he did he reminded himself to put guards on the window as he had in the old apartment so Wil couldn’t open it more than a few inches.

“Daddy?”

“Umm?” Mario turned from what he was doing to look at Wil.

“Can I get a kitty?”

“Mmm, maybe. We’ll talk about that once we get settled in. Okay?”

“Okay. I’m hungry.”

“Me too,” Mario said with a laugh. “Want to order pizza?”

Wil nodded vigorously. “With lots of sausage.”

“You got it.”

* * * *

A few hours later Wil was safely tucked into bed in his new room upstairs. Mario was exhausted but too hyped up still from the move and what it meant to go to bed quite yet. He knew he wouldn’t sleep until he’d wound down which made him very glad that tomorrow was Saturday so he didn’t have to work.

He dug through one of the boxes which still sat to the side in the living room and took out a couple of his favorite jazz CDs. After he loaded them in the player he returned to the sofa to sink down gratefully into its soft cushions.

“Home,” he murmured as he looked around. The duplex was, in his estimation at least, much nicer than the apartment they’d moved out of. Just the fact that it had two floors made it seem more like the sort of house he’d grown up in. Hardly as large but still a house in its own right.

‘Now if Jonah would just vanish into the ether things would be perfect.’ That thought of course made him worry again. What if Jonah had in some way found out that he was moving? What if he had taken to watching the apartment, unbeknownst to Mario, and saw the move happen, and followed him here?

Mario shivered at the thought. Immediately he jumped to his feet to check that the security alarm, which had come with the duplex, was on and that all the windows were closed and locked.

‘He wouldn’t attempt to break in,’ he tried to convince himself, unsuccessfully, as he sat down again. ‘He’s not that stupid.’

On the other hand, given that he would show up at the restaurant and now the park…

Mario drifted off into a restless sleep as his exhaustion finally took over. His dreams were varied and nightmarish ones of being attacked and beaten, or, the worst of all of them, having to watch while a shadowy figure destroyed his son. From that one he awoke, shaking violently. It took an hour, a hot shower and a double dose of aspirin before he could get back to sleep again, this time in his own bed.