by A. J. Downey
“You ready?” Oz asked from the mouth of the hall.
“As I’ll ever be,” I murmured, staring for a fraction of a moment at the painting of my sister. God, I miss you, Mia… but I think I am going to be okay, I said silently, before snapping out the light.
Oz gave me a quick kiss in the hall and with a brave smile, took my hand and led me out to the living room. Golden stood from where he had his butt leaned on the back of my couch and looked up from his phone.
“What the hell is that thing?” he asked, waving in my general direction.
“Art supplies,” I said.
He raised his eyebrows and said, “Okay, better hang on. Looks like that thing’ll drag you right off the back once you catch some air.”
I frowned. “He serious?” I asked Oz.
“Naw, he’s just a dick,” he said and Golden barked a laugh.
I shook my head and took up my purse, awkwardly slinging it across my body over everything else, the strap riding awkwardly above and against the framework of the easel but not too badly to make me want to fix it. I mean, it was as secure as anything else.
I locked up with a heavy heart and we left the front stoop, returning to the bikes parked under what seemed the lone working streetlight on the block.
“You’re gonna come back feeling as good as new,” Golden said, sitting astride his bike and pulling on a pair of gloves.
“I don’t know about all that,” I said dubiously. “The break will be nice, though.”
“You’ll see,” he said with a wink and I put on the helmet Oz handed me.
“Right now, I just want to get some sleep,” I said.
“Me too,” Oz echoed. I think we were both mentally and emotionally drained from the day.
We rode to a nicer part of the city. A part that ten or even twenty years back hadn’t been so good at all. Now? Now it was flipping beautiful, the street idyllic, lined with old-fashioned streetlights – or at least replicas, in front of huge beautiful old brownstones on both sides of the street.
“Come on down into the garage!” Golden called and we waited, turning down a steep drive into a lower-level garage, just big enough for Golden to pull a tight turn to face out. There was no way for Oz to do the same, so he just pulled down into it nose-in and parked beside Golden.
“I’ll let you out in the morning,” Golden declared, hitting the button on the nearby support post for the garage door to come down.
The door to the inside of the garage opened, a woman with dark brown hair and brown eyes like mine smiled from it and said, “Hi, I’m Lys.”
“Hi, I’m Elka,” I said getting off the bike.
“Hombrecito asleep?” Golden asked.
“Yes,” Lys rolled her eyes. “Almost couldn’t get him to go to bed once he found out his Uncle Oz was coming over to spend the night.”
“Is he here then?” a young man’s voice asked from behind Lys.
“Yeah, I’m here, but you’re supposed to be in bed!” Oz called.
“Uncle Oz!”
A boy no more than nine or ten flew past Lys and into the garage in his pajamas, holding out his fist in ‘rock’ fashion. He and Oz did some kind of elaborate hand shake that made me rear back some.
“Wait, do that again, I couldn’t catch how you did it,” I said. The boy smiled and turned to me eager.
“Wow, you picked a pretty girlfriend, Oz,” he said and I laughed a little, blushing. “Okay, hold out your fist.”
The boy eagerly walked me through it twice, but it was still almost too much.
“Hombrecito, it’s a school night,” Golden reminded the boy. “C’mere and give your Tio Rodrigo a hug goodnight and get on up to bed.”
“Awww, but they just got here!” the boy whined.
“Hombrecito!” Golden’s tone turned admonishing.
“Okay.” The boy gave an exasperated moan.
“We’ll see you in the morning before school,” Oz promised him, giving him a hug.
The boy nodded at me politely and hugged Lys on his way by. She hugged him back and kissed the top of his head. “Get some good sleep, Manolo.”
“Night, love you,” he said.
“Love you, too, buddy!” Oz called after him.
“Sorry about that,” Lys said with a chuckle once he was out of earshot.
“Takes after his uncle,” Oz said side-eyeing Golden with a sly grin.
“Isn’t that the truth?” Lys rolled her eyes and stood aside, holding the door open for us.
We filed past as soon as Oz grabbed my bag for me.
“We’ll have to stop at my place tomorrow on the way out of town,” he said.
I simply nodded.
“As I was saying,” Lys said when it was my turn to pass her, “my name is Lys. Welcome in.”
“Thanks,” I said with a smile. “I really appreciate it.”
“It’s no worries.” She smiled brightly. “Oz can lead the way.”
Golden nearly attacked her, smothering her in kisses and causing her to shriek, laughing as she fended him off with lighthearted slaps against his leather.
“Missed you, baby,” he murmured and she smiled against his mouth, kissing him.
“Missed you, too.”
The scene warmed my heart.
“You guys have a good night, now,” Golden called after us and I looked back and said, “Thank you.” Having to keep myself sideways almost as it was to keep from scraping a wall with my easel.
The hallways widened up more upstairs, which I was grateful for, and I loved, loved, loved, their brownstone. It was beautiful inside and I had visions of regency era ladies descending the staircase all a flutter at the latest gossip, which I know was funny… regency era was likely long before this place was built. If I had to say, I would place it around the turn of the twentieth century, maybe a little earlier. I would get a better sense during the day.
We climbed the stairs to the first floor, then went up the big, impressive staircase to the second floor and crept down the hall.
“Goodnight, Oz!” Manolo called from his open bedroom doorway as Oz paused outside what I presumed to be the guest room’s door.
“Night, buddy, now go to sleep before your uncle finds out you’re still up messin’ around.”
Manolo laughed and Oz sighed and shook his head letting us into the room and closed the door behind us. “Swear to God he’s just like his uncle Golden. My momma would have whooped my ass by now – or had my pops do it. Mm-mm, that woulda been worse.”
I smiled and said, “Once or twice Mia and I would collect a wooden spoon across the ass. Depending on how far we pushed it.”
“We had to pick our own switch off the damn tree in true southern momma style,” he said and I giggled, tangling myself up when I tried to remove the easel before my purse.
He laughed and said, “Hold still; let me grab the light.”
The overhead light was harsh after the near perfect dark, but he got me untangled and unburdened, which felt wonderful.
We were too tired for any sexual shenanigans. Simply opting to strip each other down to basic underwear and crawl into bed. Oz snapped out the light and got in beside me, pulling me into his chest and I laid myself across him, cuddling up to his side, my leg over his, my head on his chest.
I was usually the one that took a thousand position changes and a sacrifice to the gods to fall asleep, but not tonight. Tonight, I think I was asleep faster than he was, even after the benefit of a nap in the middle of the day.
29
Oz…
“Oz! Oz! Come on, wake up! You said you’d see me before I went to school!”
“Manolo!”
I was already up, pulling open the door for the kid as Ellie put a pillow over her head and groaned.
“Whoa! Hey, little man!” I caught him before he could charge into the room and disturb Ellie any more than he already had. That, or see something he shouldn’t. “Take it easy, and let’s take it out into the hallway now,” I s
aid steering him in the other direction, shutting the door behind me.
Golden was just finishing up climbing the stairs and lit off in his nephew’s ass in a string of Spanish. I smiled and rattled off at him right back, “Come on now, he’s just being a kid.”
“Yeah, he’s just being a kid who won’t listen. Now get your little butt back down those stairs, pronto.”
“Awwww, Tio Rodrigo!”
“Now, Hombrecito!”
“Fine, sorry, Oz.”
“We’re cool, buddy. Just listen to your uncle sometime, huh?”
“Okay,” he said sullenly and went back down stairs.
“Sorry about that, brother.”
I waved G. off and said, “Nah, it’s fine.”
“She still sleepin’?” he asked.
“No, but she wants to be!” Elka called out from behind the closed door with an exasperated groan.
G. and I both chuckled and he said, “Come on down when you want breakfast.”
“Thanks man, we’ll be down in a little bit.”
I went in to see to my lady. She took her head out from under the pillow when I entered the room and sighed, hugging it to her chest and propping her head on it as she lay on her stomach.
“Mornin’ sunshine.”
“Mm, morning,” she said and she looked exhausted.
“You sleep at all last night?” I asked, sitting down on the edge of the bed, laying my hand on the smooth skin of her back.
“I did,” she said, “but I sure don’t feel like it.”
“You need some coffee,” I said with a smile.
She nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I do.”
“Wait here, I’ll go get you some.”
I pulled on a pair of pants for both Golden and Lys’ benefit and padded downstairs in my bare feet. I found them both in the kitchen, Manolo still putting up an argument.
“Didn’t I just talk to you about listening to your uncle not five minutes ago upstairs?” I asked. “Gol-lee, kid! My momma woulda slapped the holy hell shit outta me if I still sassed her after a talk like that.”
Manolo’s mouth dropped open. “Nuh-uh!”
“Yeah-huh!” I turned to Lys and gave a wink asking, “I get a cup of that coffee for my lady?”
“Yeah, yeah! Absolutely. Rough morning already?” she asked with a smile.
“Just a rough wake-up call,” I said fixing Manolo with a look. He had the grace to look embarrassed.
“Car, now,” Golden ordered. “I’ll run him to school. Be right back,” he said and went around to kiss Lys goodbye.
“Good deal, see you when you get back,” I said.
“Yeah, man.”
“Will I see you?” Manolo asked.
“Next week, at the Cuban block party – for sure.”
“Aw, man!” he gave an exasperated kid’s melodramatic sigh and grabbed his backpack off the counter.
Golden made a rage face, crossed his eyes, and mimed wanting to strangle the kid and I laughed silently.
“Man, you are killin’ me!” G. said putting a hand on his nephew’s shoulder, catching up to him.
“Can we take the bike to school?” his nephew asked.
“Sure as shit ain’t dropping you off in the patrol car,” he said.
“Well you could have taken Lys’s car.” You could hear the eye roll in the kid’s voice from all the way down the hall.
Lys and I stifled our laughter.
“He is just like G.”
“Tell me about it,” she said grinning.
Her face lost its easy smile as she handed over two mugs of coffee and she asked, “How is she doing?”
“Eh, I think we’ll both do a lot better once we’re on the road. I think we both need some serious distance from this shit.”
“I can’t agree more,” Lys said with a sigh. “I may not have been around for it, but I’ve heard enough first-hand accounts from Lil and from Chrissy to say I hope I never get my fifteen minutes of fame. Especially for something so tragic.”
“You ain’t lyin’,” I said as I finished doctoring the coffee up. “This is some bullshit.”
“Take your time, I’m working from home on the books today. I’ll fix you something to eat whenever you come down.”
“You ain’t have to do that,” I said.
“You’re right, I don’t, but you’re family and I like to feed my family – okay?”
I smiled at her and shook my head at her. “You and G. are a perfect match.”
“Why thank you,” she said.
I went back upstairs to find Ellie up and mostly dressed; she dropped heavily onto the end of the bed and stared at the coffee cups in my hands with longing. I held hers out to her and she took it from me with both hands. God, she did everything, even the smallest movements, with elegance and grace.
Even now, sleep tousled, exhausted, and crabby, she was beautiful to me. The type of beautiful that made my heart feel funny in my chest. Like it was simultaneously heavier than lead and lighter than air at the same time.
There were times I looked at her like this and I got choked up. Choked up for no reason at all other than it hurt to look at her because she was just so damn pretty.
“What?” she asked staring at me over the rim of her coffee cup as she took a slow drink.
“Nothin’,” I lied, unable to put it into words for her anyway. I mean, I could think it, but saying it out loud was a whole different thing. One I just didn’t think I could do.
She arched one brow like she didn’t believe me and I smiled, chuckling lightly and said, “Just shut up and drink your coffee.”
“I didn’t say anything!” she cried.
“Yeah, but you were thinking it.”
She rolled her eyes and shook her head.
“Whatever.”
“Yeah, don’t you ‘whatever’ me.”
She scoffed and I laughed.
“In other news,” she said. “When are the others supposed to get here?”
“Who, Narcos, Driller, and Everleigh?” I asked.
“Thanks for that. I have a hard time with all the weird names sometimes.”
“Road names, not weird names, and they’ll be here when they get here,” I said shrugging. “Them three run on their own time.”
“Mm, how long is the ride?”
“Long. Longer than any ride you’ve taken with me, so far. Something like four and a half to five hours. You’re gonna be saddle sore after this one.”
“Fantastic,” she said with a sigh.
“Antsy?” I asked.
“Yeah, I’m beyond ready to go.”
“Well, let me call and see where they’re at.” I picked up my phone from the nightstand and switched it on.
“Oh, no, don’t do that,” she said.
“It’s cool,” I said, ignoring her and phoned up Narcos. It rang and rang and went to voicemail which meant one thing – well, maybe two.
“Either they’re on their way or they’re fuckin’,” I said.
Elka nearly spat coffee through her nose.
“Wow, and you’re up on their sexual proclivities how?”
“They ain’t exactly shy about it,” I told her. “Those three are freaks.”
“Good to know,” she said laughing.
The three in question showed up not long later. We had breakfast, thanks to Lys and Golden and we packed up my bike down in the garage. Ellie, suited up as best she could, and ready to go, was chomping at the bit to get the fuck up outta Indigo City and I couldn’t say as I blamed her. I was right there with her.
The ride was just what I needed and by the time we pulled up in front of what was supposed to pass for a cabin, I felt much more like my old self. I eyed the ramshackle hut on its stilts and cut the engine to my bike.
“What kind of white-bred, dueling banjo, Deliverance kind of shit did you two fuckers just get me into?” I demanded as soon as the last bike engine had cut.
The guys and Everleigh laughed it up, but Ellie sma
cked me on the shoulder and cried, “Oz!”
“What?” I demanded.
“That’s so – so –”
“What?”
“Racist!” she sputtered.
“Mm-n-mm,” I said patterning the sound after ‘I don’t know.’ “Kinda hard for me to be racist,” I sniffed and she climbed off the bike.
“Oh, and how is that?” she asked pointedly.
“I got a color T.V. at home same as you.”
Her mouth dropped open and the guys fell out laughing all over again.
Everleigh whispered in Narcos’ ear and he looked at the two of us, me and Ellie, thoughtfully for a minute saying, “We could do that.”
“Do what now?” I asked, standing up and stretching.
“Nothin’,” he said with a reckless grin. “You two can head on down and around back that way,” he said pointing out a dirt track. Twin ruts had been worn into it over the years, the center humped and grassy. “River is down there. We’re going to head on in and open things up, air it out and the like.”
“Copy that. Fancy a walk?” I asked Ellie. She had shrugged out of her easel and was pressing her hands to the backs of her hips, arching in a luxurious stretch that made me think of a cat.
“I would love to stretch my legs,” she said and took up her satchel, looping her arm through, and dropping the strap over her head. Her easel she hefted by the loop at the top. “Lead the way,” she said.
We took the track, walking slow, bandanas down around our necks, pulled down from our faces. We’d left our helmets back at the bike, and I had my sunglasses on, while Ellie had perched her safety glasses on the top of her head.
“How you feelin’?” I asked when we got about halfway down the track cut into the hillside.
“Better,” she said. “Like a thousand-pound boulder’s been lifted off my chest.”
“Yeah? That’s a good way of putting it,” I nodded sagely.
“Is that how you feel?” she asked.
“Yeah, actually. It was a good idea to get away from the bullshit, even if it is only a short reprieve.”
She sighed heavily as we came around the bottom of the cabin and I hated that I reminded her that we would be back in it come Monday morning.