| Two
This was me hoofing it up Vine, rushing over to Murk with five dollars to my name and my eyes narrowed against the glare of the shrill and slowly setting sun. The heat made it hard to breathe, hard to move. But I didn't let it stop me. I was looking for Dante and found him at the corner with his friends. Like, whoa. This was Marcus speaking--thirteen and like all Dante's boys so in love with me although I was twenty-two and not having it. What the fuck, man?! This was Marcus yelling as Dante kicked him in leg and told him to back off. Dante: my baby brother, my little man. I rubbed his hair. I told him the situation. I thought of him alone with you all those years I was gone. Only got five. Can I come along? I told him to keep his money and that I'd be okay alone. And though inside I was worried, not knowing what I was going to do, I smiled. Well, you be careful, he said as he turned from me and moved back over to his friends. (Reluctantly. They were on their way to jump the barrier at the spot where the elevated train came out the ground and follow the unused tracks up into the air. Fun, Dante had told me, but very little to see. A bearded man soaking his feet in a yellow basin, a girl watching a black and white TV alone in a room. Told me that it wasn't just boring, watching people through uncurtained windows, through half open shades, but made him sad to think that everywhere, in every room, things were the same.) Page two |