Page 47 of Alfie: Part One
“I’m good…? I’m great!” He sounded confused as to why I was calling, and no wonder. This wasn’t a habit. We’d given him a phone for emergencies. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I lied. “I suppose I just wanted to hear your voice and ask how your weekend is going.”
“Oh! Um, we’re going to churchwithoutNonna. She’s not there yet. Dad is taking us.”
I furrowed my brow. What the fuck was happening? Since when did Alfie care about church? Particularly if Giulia wasn’t guilting him into it. That was the only occasion we’d all attended Mass from time to time.
“It’s just you three?” I questioned.
“No, it’s, uh… I think Uncle Finn and Uncle Liam and all those people,” he replied hesitantly. “Um, I’ll ask.” By the sound of things, he was running down the stairs. “Dad? Is Kellan also my uncle? And Finn? He said I could call him that.”
For fuck’s sake.
I heard Alfie chuckle in the background. “It’s totally up to you. But you know how Nonna and Grandpa have cousins I call aunt and uncle? It’s kinda like that. When Finn said you could call him Uncle Finn, he’s just saying we’re all family.”
I stared unseeingly at the countertop, hearing what he was saying but not understanding a fucking word.
The boss of a crime organization had told my son he could call him uncle?
“Are you on the phone?” Alfie asked.
“Yeah, Dad called,” Trip said frankly. “I’ll be ready soon! I just gotta run up and grab my book.” The stomping on the stairs soon followed, and I missed Alfie’s response. Whatever it was, Trip replied, “Okay, I will.” He huffed and puffed, and then hewas knocking on a door, presumably Ellie’s. “Ellie! We’re leaving in two minutes!”
“I’ll let you go, son,” I said. “You’re busy.”
“Okay! Can we talk later? I was wondering if we can buy an ice cream machine, or if I can save up for one. Uncle Finn and Auntie Emilia have one, and it was so cool! I had two cones with lots of toppings, and Auntie Emilia even said I could have a third, but I was full. I asked Dad, but he said there’s plenty of ice cream places in the city, and it’s not the same thing.”
I didn’t know what got into me, but I straightened automatically and made up my mind right then and there. “Absolutely. We’ll go out and buy an ice cream machine next weekend.”
Fucking mobsters and ice cream machines. What universe had I fallen into?
“Oh,awesome!”
Trip’s excitement was so loud that I had to hold the phone away for a second.
It did the job, though. He drew a genuine smile from me, and I made a mental note to research ice cream machines.
At this rate, I’d pick up a donut maker for Ellie too.
“Well…have a good time at church,” I chuckled. “Do you have anything fun planned for later?”
“I don’t know about fun, but hopefully tasty,” he said. “We’re getting burgers with CJ and Eddie and Uncle Liam. CJ is very fun because he wants me to teach him stuff. He can almost float now!”
I didn’t know who the fuck CJ was.
Alfie hollered in the background, saying it was time to go.
“We’ll talk another time,” I told Trip. “I love you, son. Tell your sister I love her too, please.”
“Okay, I will. Love you, bye!”
The line went dead, and I sighed heavily.
This couldn’t go on. Fuck Alfie and all his lies; I was by no means ready to deal with that mess, but I needed to get some control back. I deserved to know who my own children called family.
At noon, I walked over to my parents’ house three blocks away.
If I wanted answers, I had to at least confront my old man.