Monday morning I walked into the union hall behind Aurelio with his ledger under my arm and my torn sleeve pinned shut.
The hall smelled like coffee and wet wool, and every man in it turned to look at me at the same time.
Aurelio: Stay behind me. Keep the book open. Don't smile at anybody.
He went down that line slow, saying names and numbers like a man reading out the weather.
He never raised his voice once. That was what kept the room so quiet.
Zeno was in the corner with his right hand in a cast, and he had a mouth on him even with his hand broken.
Zeno: Look at that. The little sister carries his book now. Nice work if you can get it.
Zeno: You suck his cock for the debt, sweetheart, or does he let you pay it off on your back?
The hall went so quiet I could hear the radiator ticking behind me.
Aurelio: Say that again, Zeno. Slow, so every man here gets it.
Zeno looked at the men on either side of him and found nothing, not one face that wanted to stand next to him.
Zeno: I was joking. It's a joke, that's all it was.
Aurelio: On your knees.
He didn't rush it. He just waited, calm, like the floor was going to do the work for him.
Zeno got down. His knees hit the boards hard enough that I felt it in my own legs.
Aurelio: Say her name.
Zeno: Veda.
Aurelio: Now say sorry to her. Loud, and say it like a man who wants to keep his teeth.
He apologized with his head down and his voice shaking, and forty men stood there and watched him do it.
I held that ledger so hard my fingers went white, and my face burned like I was the one on the floor.
Aurelio: Next time I hear her name in your mouth, I break your jaw. Get up. Get out.
When Zeno pushed up off the floor I stepped back without meaning to, and my sleeve caught a nail and tore right up the seam.
Aurelio's eyes went to that tear and stayed there one beat too long, and then he walked on like nothing happened.
Back in his office I pulled the sleeve off over my wrist and tried to pin it straight, and I stuck my thumb twice.
I could feel him watching from across the desk and I kept my head down like that would help.
Aurelio: Give it here.
Veda: I can do it myself.
Aurelio: I know you can. Give it here.
He took a needle and thread out of his desk drawer like that was normal for a man, then sat down beside me with his knees almost touching mine.
His hands were steady. One knuckle was split open from Zeno's mouth and he didn't seem to notice.
He pushed the needle through slow and even and held the cloth so close that I could feel his breath on my wrist.
Aurelio: You flinched today.
Veda: A man got on his knees because of me.
Aurelio: Because of his own mouth.
Aurelio: You want a normal life.
Veda: I want my shop back, and one day where nobody bleeds in front of me.
Aurelio: Then stay where I can see you, and I'll keep the blood off you.
Veda: That's not the same thing as normal.
He bit the thread off with his teeth and ran his thumb along the seam until it lay flat, and it looked almost new.
He didn't move his hand after. He left it on my arm like he was checking the work was still real.
Aurelio: There. Nobody would know. Nine o'clock tomorrow.
I walked out with my hands still shaking, touching the little row of stitches on my arm.
He could put a man on his knees in front of forty people and then fix my sleeve himself, gentle as anything.
I walked home wanting my old life back, and I still didn't know which of those men I was supposed to be afraid of.