* * *
They practiced three times a week through February, Saturdays in the Cellar and Wednesdays and Sundays upstairs, and on Sundays, after practice, Russ started coming home with Wally for supper.
He didn't decide to. The first time, Augie told Wally's mother that the Kubiak kid's old man was in Green Bay for the Packers game, which was a lie, the Packers had been done since December, and Helen Nowicki looked at Augie and then at Russ, standing at the bottom of the stairs in his sweatshirt, and said, "Get in the car, both of you," in the tone of voice that ended conversations.
Busia met them in the kitchen. She looked Russ up and down. He was nearly a foot taller than she was. He stood there in the doorway dripping snow on the linoleum, with his hands jammed in his pockets, looking like a big dog that has wandered into the wrong yard and is waiting to be yelled at.
"This is the one?" Busia said to Wally. "The one who said the thing?"
Wally had not told Busia about the thing. He had not told anyone. He looked at his mother, who looked at the ceiling.
Russ's face went dark red. He said, "Ma'amโ"
"Sit," said Busia.
He sat. She put in front of him a plate of pierogi, potato and cheese, fried in butter in the cast-iron pan that was older than Poland, with onions on top and a spoonful of sour cream, and a glass of milk, and she stood over him with her arms folded until he picked up a fork.
He ate it all. She gave him more. He ate that too. Wally had never seen anybody eat like that. He ate like it was the first hot thing he'd eaten in a week, which, Wally realized, watching him, maybe it was.
When he was done Busia took the plate away and looked at him for a long time across the table, her small hands folded.
"Your grandfather," she said, "was Stanisลaw Kubiak? From Lincoln Avenue? Had the gas station?"
Russ blinked. "Yeah. He died. When I was little."
"He was a very hard man," said Busia. "Everybody knew. Hard like a stone. His wife, your grandmother, Jadwiga, she came to church with sunglasses on in December." She paused. "I am sorry. I am sorry for your father, that he had such a father. And I am sorry for you."