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He felt a stab of disappoint”

She flicked the still-burning cigarette onto the driveway “Francis brung me his report card yesterday It was the best present a et”

Angel fought the iet the best of him It had always been this ith his olden boy, her fair-haired child Francis the good and pure, Francis the altar boy Her ticket to Heaven And Angel was her shit-kicking, hell-raising mistake How many times had she told him she “shoulda had an abortion”?

“You wanna drink?” she asked, still eyeing him

“Sure, Ma,” he said tiredly “I’ll have a drink”

“Martini?”

He knehat her in and two ice cubes “Fine”

Without another word, she turned away from him and headed for the kitchen

Reluctantly he followed her into the e la carpet A faded bronze velour sofa was pressed against the fake-wood-paneled wall Press-board end tables were littered with celebrityof ash on the floor beside a black Naugahyde La-Z-Boy

Angel sat down on the sagging sofa Within seconds hisin her hands He tried not to care that she didn’t speak She didn’t want to talk with Angel, didn’t want to be with him, but she always had time to drink with him

Back when he was a kid, ten, eleven, she’d started him on the road to alcoholism with a motherly shove She’d wanted soel was the perfect choice—as long as he didn’t talk much

It was pathetic how much he’d valued that time with her For a while it had felt as if she’d chosen hirade, he understood the truth She’d share a drink with Adolf Hitler if he stopped by at “cocktail hour” Anything or anyone to prove to her soggy brain that she was a social drinker

For the longest time, they sat there, he on the sofa, she on the La-Z-Boy, drinking silently The rattling ice and sing gulps seeel wanted to tell her what he caood-bye—but he couldn’t face the look in her eyes when he said the word She’d know instantly that he was running fro she’d ever said about him

After a while, he heard a car drive up The engine roared, sputtered, died Footsteps clanged up the metal steps

Ma put down her drink and flew to the door, wrenching it open She threw her arht “Frankie!”