Joseph's wife was of a style long broken and flung into the past. Replaced in most households by a pantsuit and cellphone to tell the nanny to start dinner. Joseph's wife's best dish was lasagne. She used only the freshest ricotta and beef ground up by the butcher.

Joseph's children were nine and eleven, a girl and a boy. Sometimes he looked at the boy and thought of his brother Devin. Saw him point to the pile of blue that was their mother dead in the alley. He'd hear Satan whisper her many names into his ear.

He'd hug his son and shudder.