(2 of 26)
The room given to Michael and Eileen is packed like a storage cellar with paint cans, a battered cocktail wagon, a shopping cart, cardboard boxes full of clothing, which serve as Michael's chest of drawers, suitcases and a single bed resting on remnants of red carpet.
"Michael's mother sleeps there."
"Where does Michael sleep?"
"On the floor under the bed. He likes it there."
"Why doesn't Eileen sleep with you?"
"I won't let her. I don't like her. I keep her here for Michael, but Michael don't like her either."
His reason for keeping Eileen in the house is to ensure that Michael, age 7, will not be taken from him again and given over to a foster home. That has happened three times, when Mallory left Michael alone in the house. Mallory was reported for neglect. He lets Eileen stay to make it appear as if the boy has a stable home, even though Mallory calls Eileen a bad mother, who will run off with anybody anytime. He cared for her once, he says, but now he cares only for Michael. He will buy Michael a bike for Christmas.
"He can read at a fourth-grade level." Mallory looks pleased again. "I taught him myself, by my own special method. If he don't know a word, I make him write it ten times. I make him read a book every night, until he's got it. I've been doing this for years. But Michael's teachers tell me not to teach him."
"Because of your method?"
"Yeah. It upsets what they teach."
"Does Michael find the two methods confusing?"
"No. He learns both ways. It's better. It's power." Mallory falls into a coughing spasm. He's had the flu for weeks, he says. At his job working as a messenger for the city government, they think that he is shirking. They want to fire him, says Mallory. But they won't get away with it. "Look at this." He produces an official letter of complaint from his employers, several pages of grievances, ranging from laziness to insubordination to petty thievery to poor hygiene and unkempt appearance. "They think they'll throw me out, but I've got a union lawyer. Let 'em try."
"Why did you seek help for Michael?"
"He gets into trouble at school. He fights a lot. It's his mother's fault. He don't have a mother, really. He's frustrated." Mallory looks troubled, puzzled. He is 48, stubble bearded, but he has the face of a fearful child. "I'd like to get married," he grins. "I'm sort of playing the field."
The doorbell rings, and Mallory admits two tall black men delivering a huge brown, metal free-standing closet. They struggle to angle the closet through the darkened hallway to place it in Michael's and Eileen's room. Mallory's plan is to rip out built-in drawers in the hallway, and thus widen it into a dining room. The immediate effect of the alteration is to make Michael's room impossible to enter. Mallory touches his head again. "Smart, right?"