The Puppet Master

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 5

STIGMA

Boston

For the hundredth time, Jay Alexei scraped his knuckle on the sharp edge of the narrow mailbox.

"Dammit!" he muttered, looking at the piece of hanging skin.

Shaking his head at the row of chrome-colored mailboxes, he carefully slid his hand back in and tugged at the manila envelope, trying to free it. Apartment building mailboxes suck, he thought as the corner of the envelope tore. The letter carrier had shoved the envelope all the way to the back, with all kinds of junk mail stuffed in front of it. That didn't help, of course.

He'd rented the studio apartment on the fifth floor of this building in South Boston last September. That had been right after he and Padma had decided to go to the courthouse in Pawtucket and get married. Neither of their parents had shown up for the wedding. She'd been eighteen and already four months pregnant. They'd moved up to Boston right after that, and he'd gotten a job in a warehouse six blocks away.

The place wasn't great, but it was convenient. For now, at least.

It'd been a hard four months for Padma, though, living here. For him, it wasn't bad, but he wasn't pregnant.

No, this was a lot better than Jay had seen in the past. Jail, for instance. That had been no picnic.

Until hooking up with him, Padma had never had to worry about heat or phone bills or where they were going to get the money to pay this month's rent. She'd been the only child. Just as her name denoted, Padma had been the lotus, the goddess Lakshmi, in her parents' eyes. They were first generation immigrants from Mohali, India. Her father had come to this country for an engineering degree, gone back, married, and then returned to Rhode Island to stay. Her mother had spent her life taking Padma to piano lessons and ballet and all kinds of other extra-curricular activities. They adored and spoiled her. That is, until she'd gotten knocked up by Jay. Then, she'd been given a choice. Lose the baby and forget Jay...or stay with him and they'd disown her.

Luckily for him, she'd taken Door Number Two.

Deciding he needed to use two hands, Jay put the open box containing the computer on the floor to get a better grip on everything that was stuffed in the mail box.

The thing that twisted his heart day in and day out, however, was that she never complained. Sick as a dog during the whole pregnancy, she always had a smile for him. It didn't matter that her bathroom back home had been bigger than the entire apartment they were renting. She greeted him every night as if she were welcoming the king to his castle. And every morning, she sent him away, telling him that she was the happiest woman in the world.

He didn't deserve her.

The envelope came out with more junk, and he threw the ads and flyers into a trash can next to the door. He stared at the manila envelope and smiled bitterly at the word Mr. printed before his name. He checked the sender. It was from his old high school back in Rhode Island. He tore it open. It was his high school diploma.

"So I get a piece of paper after all." He shoved the diploma inside the computer box and picked it up.

Jay had skipped the graduation last June. There had been no point in going. At the time, he'd been a month away from turning twenty-one. He'd been too old to go to classes during the day, but the night classes had given him enough credits. Granted, the kids all knew him. He was famous in town, but everyone was too afraid of him or too embarrassed to say anything about his jail time. No, there'd been no point in going. It wasn't as if anyone in his family was going to be there, celebrating with him. That night, Jay and Padma had taken off for Newport to celebrate on their own. They'd spent the night huddled up in a blanket on the beach.