We filed out of the room and down the stairs, and as we hit the bottom, a loud voice boomed throughout the house.
“FENNEC.”
We all spun around to find Serj in the doorway of the living room, coming in from the terrace outside. Jasmine was pulling on his arm.
Serj. Angry as a bull. Heading straight toward Fen.
“Get out of my house!” his father shouted, pointing his finger at his son.
“And hello to you, too,” Fen said in a dark voice.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing? You aren’t allowed here. I should call the cops. I knew I should’ve filed a restraining order on you.”
“Serj!” Jasmine snapped. “I invited him here. Control yourself. Think about your blood pressure and what the doctor said.”
“And what is this?” Serj gestured in my direction.
“Did you leave your brain behind in the city?” Jasmine complained. “It’s Eddie’s girlfriend, Jane. You met her at the lodge.”
Serj frowned and grumbled, “I know who Mad Dog’s girl is—”
“I’m not—” I tried to protest, but my small voice was lost under the boom of his.
“—I just don’t know why she’s here.” He lifted his head and made a sour face. “And why in the name of heaven does it smell like shrimp in here?”
“We’re merely having lunch,” Jasmine said, sounding exasperated. “Donotembarrass yourself.”
“I just want to come home to peace and normalcy,” he bellowed.
“Don’t worry, Mama, I’m leaving,” Fen said, snatching up a ring of keys from a side table. “Mr. Important here can return to untangling his favorite son from whatever snafu he’s landed himself in overseas.” His voice was slathered in acid.
Serj started to walk away, then turned around. “Just once, could you have some compassion for your brother?”
“Compassion?” Fen snorted.
“Maybe just once you could try for a little class. Try to think of him and not you.”
“Oh, I’mfullof compassion for Eddie. Overflowing with it. In fact, we’re all on the edge of our seats, waiting to hear what that charming rascal has gotten himself into now.”
“He’s locked up in a jail in the Philippines for drug possession,” Serj shouted at Fen. “Does that make you happy? Go on, then—gloat.”
Fen looked as shocked as I felt, as if someone had slapped both of us in the face.
Jail. Eddie was in jail. In a foreign country.
Everything Fen told me was true. About Eddie.
About Serj being a shouting, angry jerk.
But mostly about Eddie.
Serj shrugged and gestured dramatically, as if he’d used up his allotted anger and was now just very tired. “How do you like that? What a fucking embarrassment,” he muttered, running his hand over his head. “Drugs. Of course it was drugs with him. He promised me that he was done with it, but that was a lie.”
Oh my God.
“Papa,” Jasmine warned, looking at me. At the twins. At Ms. Makruhi, who walked up behind them, holding a platter of cake in her hands and looking as if she might collapse.
But Serj kept talking, more to himself than Fen. “Do you know what they do to Americans who get caught with illegal drugs over there? He’s facing twelve years in prison. Minimum!”
