"Yeah!" Albert almost yelled. "But what about Mommy?"

Tommy winked conspiratorially. "This is for men only."

Albert clapped his hands. He felt himself starting to tear, but he didn't understand why. He was happy.

"Move 'em out!" Tommy chuckled as he briefly thought about spending more time with his younger son. Just as he was about to pull out of the space, he noticed Marie across the street impatiently waiting for traffic to clear. Albert saw her too. He stopped tearing, feeling cool water pouring inside, then in a last-ditch blurt, "Hurry!"

Tommy was startled. "Nah, we'll do it some other time." Albert started to whine, but his heart wasn't in it. As Marie made her way to the car, Albert moved closer to his father to give her room, then scrambled over the seat into the rear.

Marie cursed as she slid in and slammed the door. "Sonofabitch!" she fumed. "You know what that bastard doctor wanted to do?" She plunged her hand into her pocketbook for a cigarette. "You know what that sick freak wanted to do?" Tommy pulled out into traffic. "He wanted to put the kid in a psycho ward! Yeah! Howdya like that?" She tossed the match out the window, then twisted around to face her son. "Albert, how would you like to be in a nut house?"

"What nut house? What are you talkin' about?" Tommy demanded.

"Can Stony and Daddy come with me?"

She stared at Albert incredulously. "Maybe he's right. Maybe you should go!"

Albert had no idea what a nut house was, but if it was like Jacobi he might not mind. He played with a strip of torn vinyl on the upholstery.

"What he say, Marie?"

"Genius Jew doctor said Albert needs a shrink!"

"He said that?"

"Yeah, he said that!" Marie barked. The smell of Marie's perfume was putting Albert to sleep. For an instant he thought he saw big lipstick lips on the front window of the car. He blinked and they disappeared.

"He said Albert gotta go to a nut house?" Tommy honked up the rear of a beat-up Mustang. The driver gave him the finger. Tommy thrust his head out the window. "I'll shove that fuckin' finger up yer ass!" The driver calmly checked out Tommy in his rearview mirror and turned off the street. "What goddamn nut house?"

"How the hell do I know?" Marie yelled. "He said the kid needs a shrink. How the hell do I know what nut house?" She waved her cigarette hand around the car. Albert lay down in the back. He saw the lips again on the upholstered roof. Tommy cursed incoherently. Ran a red light.

"What he say to you, Marie, word for word!" He didn't know whom he was pissed at.

"I don't remember word for word. Whatta you drivin' me crazy for?" She tossed her cigarette out the window, glaring at her husband. "It don't make any difference anyhow. I'm not goin' back to that goddamn hospital. Buncha animals run that place." She rested her arm behind Tommy's head.