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Brood of a New Age

84

It had taken until the afternoon for word of the new Dracon pet to make its way to Hoboken. Not another hour later, most of the children had raised such a fuss that two minivans were organized to drive the children to the estate where they could marvel at the monster. It was broad daylight and none of the wives cared enough to leave the coolness of Bunny's house to accompany them. For this one hour they would be in the care of the drivers Tony had generously sent. What could kids possibly do with a statue? They would want to get back home right away.

Sonny, like the other children, had heard that a gargoyle was now working for Tony. He had overheard his parents when his father had complained about this Dante who had broken his nose, and Sonny didn't even know how to feel about it. Part of him rejoiced a little. His father had hit him so many times - sometimes before it was common knowledge that he liked boys and then every few days. That now his father had gotten punched in the face was poetic justice. Sometimes Sonny had been hit just for letting his face show at the wrong moment. Other kids would hate their father for that. Would hate their mother for not intervening or hitting once in a while herself. Sonny knew he had never been a normal kid, never been a normal boy, and the fact that he didn't have a burning hatred for his parents was further proof of that. He didn't hate them ... he just felt a frustrated indifference toward them. He found them somehow ... sad. Like another species that just couldn't arouse his greater emotions like deep love or deep hate. That's why he found them sad. He pitied them because he couldn't love them or even hate them. His father above all. But even his mother. Maybe it would be different with his mother if she would come up to him and talk to him. Really talk to him openly. But that wasn't going to happen. He didn't care about them, just like they probably didn't care about him. He didn't even feel connected to his little sister. She was as social and normal as he would never be. He was not jealous. It was just the way it was. He didn't know if he would ever take a role in the syndicate - he didn't see himself as a criminal, nor did he think the idea was cool like the other kids did. Maybe it was just because he was older than them. He just didn't have that naiveté anymore.

So while at least a small part of him was happy that his father had received a beating, another part was worried that the same gargoyle was living with Graziella. She had said he was nice and cool - but hadn't gone into detail even though he had asked her. Everyone wanted to keep certain things to themselves - either to feel special or to hide that specialness. Who knew that better than Sonny. And now? Now Graziella had two gargoyles in the house. One adult who worked for her dad. And one of their cubs, who was said to be really more animal than anything else. He worried about Graziella. She was not stupid but she was still so young. Little children reached out to pet dangerous animals. What if the gargoyle bit off her hand? Discontent and hoping to see her in a moment and to urge her to be careful around her new "pet", Sonny got out of the wagon where the other savages ran into the house barely after the cars had stopped in the yard. Paola cried because she couldn't get her seatbelt undone and he unbuckled it and she ran after the others without thanking him. The two drivers also got out to smoke cigarettes. They didn't care about anything, they just had the job to drive the kids back and forth - which was quite a pain in the ass.

He even heard Alessio screaming while still in the house. His voice low-pitched and Maria asking about the gargoyle like a Quarrymen who needed to frisk this joint for the monster. He had seemed to have recovered from Graziella's thrashing. Or he had forgotten that she lived here too? If he got stupid with Graziella again, maybe it would come to an exchange of blows again. Sonny would gladly intervene. He found it difficult to fight back to protect himself. But for the bossgirl, he would be able to shake Alessio a little until his teeth rattled against each other. He would like that.

Sonny waited in the shadows of the main house while inside there was stomping and shouting. He felt quite sorry for Maria, but he didn't feel like calling the others to order. He just wanted to talk to Graziella. Of course he had the option of going into the house and finding her in her room, but he was pretty sure she would come down on her own. He eyed the traces of a welding torch on the cobblestones of the courtyard and the dark metal splinters in the cracks between where they had not been removed by a hurried pass with a broom. He lifted his head and saw a statue on top of one of the garages. With a beak. And on the head of this statue something moved. Slowly, with the flat of his hand shielding his eyes from the sun, he walked towards it. The large bird, which reminded Sonny quite vehemently of one of the birds of prey from the Bronx Zoo, watched his movements closely, then took off with slow, almost silent wing beats and flew away. The Gargoyle statue wore a well-fitting suit, also made of stone, and was the size of an adult. The employee Tony Dracons looked down at something on the roof on which he stood. Irritated, Sony went to the iron double door of this particular garage, opened one of them and stopped in the entrance, his gaze immediately going there to the ceiling. And above spots attached to the concrete ceiling was a plexiglass porthole above which the gargoyle towered, looking down here.

Sonny's gaze followed his. And there, in the middle of the garage, which had room for three mid-size cars was a cage. On a round, slightly raised iron platform that measured only a little more than a yard in diameter, another statue sat on a chair. A smaller gargoyle than the one on the roof but also with a beak. Iron bars as thick as his little sister's forearm with only ever six inches between them ended after barely 5 foot in another thick iron plate - an absurdly sturdy design for obviously being made for a gargoyle child. Or ... were even their children so strong that such a massive cage was necessary? Why would Graziella want such a thing as a pet? A few weeks ago she had been so unhappy at the sight of the animals in the zoo, and now here was a creature squatting in an even smaller cage. Just high enough that the gargoyle could stand in it if it were untied from the chair on which it was tied. And although it (he?- it looked like a he) had a beak, Sonny saw how unhappy, even downright horrified it looked at him from its pupil-less stony eyes. At him? No. Sonny cautiously stepped closer until he was standing in front of the gargoyle, where probably the person the gargoyle had been looking at at the moment he was petrified had been standing. This expression on his face. Horror but also ... what was that? What did they call this expression if it appeared on a human being? It wasn't so much fear. Disbelief? Deep hurt? Sadness? Yes. Like a child who had been told that their most beloved grandma had died. That's probably the closest it came.

He was strongly tempted to reach out and touch the gargoyle's beak when he heard screaming and stomping outside. He took a few steps back from the cage and stood a little to the side so that the wild horde of brats wouldn't run him down as they pushed through the open metal door. For two strange seconds they all stood there, mouths open and eyes widening. Then - as if they were less five independently thinking and acting children and more a separate but syncronically running organism of chaos and impertinence - the rigidity dissolved and they all burst into the room and around the cage.

"He looks SO freaky!" screeched Paola so shrilly that it was a wonder none was crumbling off the statue from that alone.

"Why didn't I bring my camera!," Fabio whined next, ruffling his hair.

"I'm freaking out!" Alessio shouted again and again as he hopped around the cage, forgetting because of this sight that he always wanted to appear either snarky or cool. His brother was calmer. Michael bent down a bit behind the statue.

"Oh, they put bricks under the chair so it won't break from the weight of the statue," he observed, confirming Sonny's opinion that he was still the most pleasant of the three devils. Not good - but minimally better if his twin brother didn't drag him into his shit.

"It looks creepy. Why is it wearing that shiny thingy around its neck?" asked Lakisha no one in particular over the jumbled mutterings and bleating of the others. Sonny stepped up to her.

"It's one of those electric shock collars. So you can restrain him even when he's awake," he said softly and wanted to put his hand on his little sister's head (partly because she was standing a little insecurely behind the others and had her thumb in her mouth again, partly as a praising gesture because she wasn't acting like a follower right now - if only because she was afraid of the thing in the cage). But no sooner had he touched her head than she dove from under his hand with a soft "Urrgh" of indignation and disgust. Yes - she never disappointed Sonny and was always quick to remind him why he didn't feel connected to her either.

"I don't believe it! This is so freakin' good!" Alessio gasped one last time before putting words into action. He stepped up to the door, which was embedded in the cage, and rattled the padlock, which, just like the bars, looked far too massive for the rather frail-looking captive.

"What are you doing?" asked Fabio his brother and Alessio showed his best pack leader snarl to the kids despite his nose, which already looked so much better but which still made Sonny think of his father and smile. But his words dispelled the smile.

"What do you think? Are you all stupid? There's a gargoyle here! And he's helpless against us! I'll kick his head off his shoulders and Castaway will give me a million! I'll be an honorary quarryman and get a medal!"

Sounds of admiration and disbelief (as well as requests to share that much money with them) went through the other brats where Sonny just rolled his eyes. Alessio would never make it into the cage and he would never manage to kick the head off a stone statue's shoulders. That batshit lunatic. Megalomaniac is what they would call him if he was an adult. Sonny didn't even know the word for a kid who talked that kind of shit.

"Fabio, do you have your lockpick set that Dad gave you for Christmas?" asked Alessio angrily after a few jiggles of the lock. His older brother shook his head. Sonny also doubted Fabio could have gotten the lock open. He had tried to pick the padlock on the shed in the house in Hoboken right after he got the lockpick set and had failed miserably.

"Idiot," Alessio hissed, stomping between the others pushing the smaller ones aside and stepping up to the workbench obviously looking for a good tool to break the lock.

"You should lay low. If it's true that it belongs to Graziella, she'll kick your ass if you break her pet," Sonny said, dumbfounded at how much seriousness he got out of that strange sentence. Pal Joey's son glared hatefully at him.

"Shut up, you fag. She was lucky to overpower me once because we were in the water. Next time I'll show her who's boss. No girl is stronger than a boy. You can kiss her ass if you think it's so sweet, but we won't. Right?" He demanded approval from the others with a cold stare and at least his brothers nodded wordlessly and with rather little vigor. He turned back to the workbench and continued speaking.

"Besides, she's stupid and just as big a freak as you are. A gargoyle for a pet! That's going to kill her. Boss Tony only cracked because I'm sure she batted her long eyelashes and wailed. She's crazy to want one of those things in her house and I'm doing her and Tony a favor by breaking that monster. And for real. A little puta ain't gonna keep me from a million dollars and fame and glory." He searched the perforated wall with his eyes, fueled by greed and malice, frantically pulling open workbench drawers and rummaging around inside.

That's when Sonny saw movement in the semi-darkness under the countertop of the table next to it. The light, though the garage door was open, wasn't really good and probably no one else noticed a small figure peeling out of a blanket there.

"AHA!" exclaimed Alessio, grinning gleefully as he returned to the cage with a hammer and a chisel. The others made room for him and he applied the iron to the padlock.

Sonny's eyes flew from him to the small figure that was sluggishly crawling out from under the table and back to him.

"Don't do that Alessio. Stop it," he warned as the first blow of the hammer hit the steel hoop of the bevel edge chisel. A loud noise that made all the kids flinch and had the side effect of spraying orange sparks. Then another blow.

And another one at which Alessio slipped, cursed, and after readjusting his tools, continued hammering under the encouraging shouts of the other kids. Sonny almost wished he would slip and ram the cutting edge of the chisel into his thigh, but Alessio would not be so lucky. Sonny stepped up to Graziella, who had just stood up, swaying a bit, and watched the scene with an expression that grew less dazed and confused and more angry by the second.

"He'll never get the lock open," Sonny assured her quietly enough that only she could hear him. He didn't even know why he didn't want Alessio to get the lock open and break the statue. He also thought that the gargoyle was life-threatening even if he wasn't tall and looked rather pathetic so tied up and with that expression on his face.

"Shit!" screamed Alessio shrilly after two dozen blows. His anger at his own incompetence caused all the kids to jump aside as he stepped to the front of the cage with his face contorted in rage.

"What are you going to do?" asked Lakisha.

"If I don't get his head, at least I'll get a pair of claws," hissed the self-appointed pack leader of the brats, shoving his arms, which held the hammer and chisel, through the bars. He could easily hold the now blunt chisel to the gargoyle's clawed toes and lift the hammer.

"Fuck!" spat Sonny and was about to rush forward when Graziella - so far unnoticed by everyone else - beat him to it.

A shrill, barely human scream like the harpy in The Last Unicorn came from her throat as she fought her way through the throng of children. And only that two-second time delay ensured that Alessio dropped his hammer and chisel, pulled his arms out of the cage, and didn't break both arms when she threw herself at him and went down with him.

"I'LL KILL YOU!" screeched Graziella hitting Alessio in the face with the flat of her hand so that his head flew to the side. Then she stretched her upper body, raising her other arm at the same time. In it gleamed a long butcher knife.

Sonny didn't know how he made it through the screaming children fast enough but he was suddenly with her, grabbing her wrist and lifting her off Alessio with his other arm,

She kicked in his arms as hard as she could and even though Sonny was so much stronger he had trouble holding her.

"Knock it off, Graziella! Stop, Boss Girl!"

One of her kicking feet hit Alessio on the chin as he tried to jump up and even though she was only wearing thin sneakers Sony heard his teeth slamming together. Alessio fell back, Sonny threw Graziella to the floor and grabbed Alessio by the collar, now lifting him up and pressing him against the bars that all his air was squeezed out of his lungs and that was the only reason he didn't scream. Blood ran from his mouth and ... Was one of his teeth chipped? Or broken in two?

"Listen to me, everyone!" shouted Sonny so loudly and in his most commanding post-voice-break pitch that all the frightened, excited screams died almost instantly. He glared at Alessio as he spoke (why was the boy, not even three years younger, so light?):

"Everyone listen to me now. The gargoyle belongs to Graziella. SHE is your boss. And my boss. You - Alessio, fell down and hurt yourself."

He glared at the other kids. "What happened in here?" he asked coldly.

"He - he fell down," Michael said, seeming to duck under his gaze.

"Very good. Did you get that, Alessio? You fell down." He increased the pressure on the latter's chest and the malefactor shook with old and new pain and the urge to scream and cry. But he was smart enough to just nod.

"Good." He let go of Alessio that he fell to the ground.

"Snitches got stitches. Remember that, everyone," Sonny said with clenched fists, and for the first time he really consciously noticed that he towered over everyone else.

Alessio began to cry, breathless hollow wolf howls, and his two brothers dragged him out of the garage. The two girls looked to Graziella who was standing next to Sonny breathing heavily, hair wild and gaze even wilder.

"Fuck off," she said, and on her command - thus cementing the new pecking order - they scurried out of the room.

Then Graziella collapsed, and only the bars she was leaning against kept her from crumpling into an indefinable heap on the cool concrete floor.

He went to the door and closed it, because he was disturbed by Alessio's howling and the assurances of the other children to the adults who had rushed out of the house that Alessio had fallen down. Now only the milky Plexiglas overhead light illuminated the room.

"Damn Graziella," Sonny muttered, looking in confusion at the little person squatting at the statue's feet, separated by thick bars. Now she seemed so frail. But he had seen her posture, her look when she had raised the knife. In that had been true killing intent. An eight-year-old should never have any killing intent. Wasn't there a natural law against that?

"You don't have to freak out like that. Everyone would have figured out it was yours even without the knife." He took a few steps toward her. "Come on, let's go in the house. What's with the blanket under the table? Is this where you've been all day?" He had meant it as a joke but when she lifted her head and saw the look on her face, he knew he had hit the mark. She looked bad. Still beautiful but bad. Pale, with a damp forehead although it was cool in here, glassy eyes and eye circles that stood out so much that one could think she had applied the wives' eye shadow there. Her hair seems not to have been combed for days and she wore jeans but her shirt was inside out as if she had changed without paying attention.

"I can't leave him alone," his boss said. "Alessio and the others are gone now but the adults could come anytime. I have to take care of him. "

"Alessio you have taught the lesson. And the adults won't do anything to the thing if Tony told them not to. I ... get that it's cool to have a gargoyle as a pet but -. But that thing is just a statue. A monster."

"He's not!" she nagged. "He's not," she repeated quietly, raising a shaking hand to her forehead. She wanted a pain pill so badly. Not a little sliver like Dante gave her but a whole one. To muffle the headache and all. It was too much. And she was so tired.

Sonny stared at her, stunned. His eyes moved to the gargoyle tied to the chair. Then to her.

"That's him," he said softly, and when she raised her belligerent eyes, he said it louder. "That's him? That's the one you were talking about. In the butterfly house. The special ... boy."

She didn't answer but just glared at him as if he were her enemy. As if the world were her enemy. She had the knife in her hand again, ready to use it too.

"Shit, Graziella. Shit. This is fucking crazy." Sonny felt a strange numbness in his legs all at once. Suddenly everything he had seen on TV, all the rumors he had heard, and all the demonstrations he had witnessed from afar were so real at once. And yet ... Graziella now here on the floor and the pathetic little gargoyle tied up in the chair so much more absurd. He moved slowly across the room, sitting down on the second workshop chair while the child, only half his age, crawled into a more semi-comfortable position with labored movements and a heaviness in her limbs as if she were an old woman. For minutes, no one said anything. They heard adult murmurs and discussions outside, and Graziella clutched the knife tighter and looked toward the garage door with bared teeth. But the children were obviously just being shooed into the two cars to drive them back. Perhaps the wives had been informed of Alessio's accident. Maybe he would be hospitalized. When the roar of the engines could no longer be heard but only the soft afternoon chirp of New York swallows reached them, Graziella slumped back and leaned against the bars.

"I've been sneaking out the last few nights ... "she admitted quietly. "-to be able to breathe. He saved me from some bad guys. They're not evil. They're not monsters even if they look like it. Nashville is my friend. I don't know why he followed me here but I can't leave him unattended. Your dad already had a gun on him when I got there and convinced Tony to let him live. But I can't trust them. I can't trust anyone. If someone breaks off a piece of him-. Or kills him when he's awake-. Gargoyles are the enemies of Tony and his people. But he's my friend."

Sonny had listened to her quietly. He hadn't guessed that she knew what Tony was doing and who he really was, but her words didn't leave much doubt. Others would have dismissed her babbling as children's fantasies. Such children existed - the ones who wished for big monsters as friends so they wouldn't have to face the world alone. In the past, his mother had often read him Where the Wild Things Are so he wouldn't feel so alone. Oh, how often he had felt strange and alone. How often he still did now, and perhaps would feel that way all his life. Others would have laughed at her quiet despair. Sonny didn't. His expression had changed from disbelief to pity. The way she sat there - so weak but ready to leap at any further danger. The thing in the cage was more than her friend. Sonny didn't know much about love but he wasn't stupid and he wasn't blind. He stood up, took a deep breath, and strode over to Graziella.

He held out a hand where she stared at him like a vicious dog ready to bite. "Give me the knife," he said.

"No."

"You need to rest, Graziella. You need to go inside and eat and sleep or Maria will be coming for you soon and won't let you out of her sight. I'll keep watch. I'll make sure no one hurts that thing. I mean him. That no one harms him."

"I can't," she said in a trembling voice on the verge of breaking down. Slowly, that she did not strike at him with the knife, Sonny reached out a hand and put it on her forehead. "You're all warm, Graziella."

She closed her eyes as if enjoying his touch. "And you're pretty cold," she said.

"I think you're going to be sick. Go inside and let Maria give you something."

"Painkillers?" she asked more attentively.

"I don't know. Are you in pain?"

"Always."

"I'm paying attention. I swear to you I'll do anything to protect him. You're my bossgirl, I wouldn't betray you. Sleep until nightfall. I'll get you then before he wakes up."

She blinked tiredly at him. Too worn out to be charming or witted.

"If anything happens to him, I'll kill you, Sonny. You know that."

"Yes. I know."

Slowly, Graziella stood up. Sonny held out his hand and she handed him her weapon. Again she looked at the statue on the chair. Then she shuffled out.

"If only you were a boy," Sonny whispered sadly into the cool silence of the garage. Then he squatted with his back to the cage and closed his eyes.

Thanks for reading, Q.T.