The Engagements by J. Courtney Sullivan

before the officer hit the siren. When the blue lights flared, his heart began to thump. There were no other cars anywhere nearby.
    “Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck,” he said under his breath. So that was it, then. He pictured Sheila getting the call from the cops. He was a thief now, and he’d been dumb enough to steal from a patient, which meant that in addition to being a criminal, he would also be out of a job again.
    James pulled to the right. He thought he might vomit when he had to roll down the window and act like everything was normal. The cruiser picked up speed, getting closer and closer before zooming past him.
    He exhaled. Unclenched.
    He was still exhausted, but he felt artificially hopped up. The ring was like a living thing in his pocket. He could swear it had a pulse.
    James felt disgusted by the whole episode now. How had it all the way back to Massachusetts.8al his inheritancel. The even happened? Maybe he ought to mail the ring back in a plain white envelope. But mail it back to who? If he pawned it, he’d get the money, and no one would ever be the wiser. If he mailed it back, they might somehow trace it to him.
    By the time he arrived at his mother’s place, it was close to eight. James tested the front door, and was grateful to find it locked. He knocked, and waited, listening for her footsteps.
    She came to the door in her housecoat.
    “Merry Christmas!” she said. “Come in out of the cold. Take off your boots! I’ve already had a call from your brother.”
    “That’s weird. It’s like five in the morning out there.”
    “They get up early, I guess.”
    A stupid phone call meant so much to her, and yet his asshole brothercould only manage it on her birthday and Christmas. James could hear the radio in the next room. He half wanted to stay, feeling now, as he sometimes did, the pull between his old family and his current one.
    “I’m late getting home to the boys,” he said. “I should get a move on. Do you want to come over and watch them open their presents?”
    “Now?” she asked. “Oh no, my hair’s a mess. Besides, that’s something you four should do on your own.”
    He felt relieved. “Okay, if you’re sure.”
    James picked up something wrapped in foil from the coffee table. It weighed a holy ton. He wondered if maybe Doris Mulcahey had stopped by after seeing him. It was only twenty-four hours earlier that he’d met her in her driveway, and yet it felt like months.
    “The Oriental girl across the street brought that over,” his mother said. “Wasn’t that nice?”
    James set the package down. “What is it? A cinder block?”
    “Fruitcake, I think.”
    “Ahh.” He kissed her cheek before heading back outside. “I’ll be back at eleven forty-five to pick you up for Mass.”
    “Make it eleven-thirty,” she said. “I want to get a seat up front.”
    “Okay. Merry Christmas, Ma.”
    She stood in the doorway and watched as he quickly shoveled the steps and the path. His back felt like it might snap in two, but he was pure adrenaline, and the rhythm of the shoveling calmed him some. When he got in the car for home, he told himself to relax. He couldn’t have Sheila wondering what was up when this was supposed to be her day. He would pawn the ring first thing tomorrow, and explain the extra cash by telling her that he won some major sports pool at work. She’d be pissed that he was gambling again, but hopefully so happy about the money that she wouldn’t care.
    By the time he got home, Connelly had already been by and plowed the driveway. As James pulled in, he could see Parker jumping up and down through the window. He laughed.
    The ring he had gotten Sheila that looked s

2012
    From every corner, the house was blaring. In the downstairs bathroom, May ran the blow-d long time ago.” people. They Nicole ceilingryer at full blast. Her two sons sat on the staircase, fighting. In the shower, Dan sang a song from an old cartoon he once saw on
Pee-wee’s Playhouse
,