A Good Country by Laleh Khadivi

Author:Laleh Khadivi
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

The bus came and he got on and the driver saw his transfer and Rez went to the back. The only other person was an old lady, elaborate jewels and puffy gold hair and a large black Lab. The dog wore a vest that said SERVICE ANIMAL and the woman wore the dark glasses of the blind. For all of Rez’s low whistles and tongue clicks the dog did not move from his curled position and Rez turned his face to the window to stare at the faint outline of his reflection and then through that, to the just dark sea that told him, by its color, that it was early evening. Where to go? There was nothing at home but thinking and television and his computer, and all of that would remind him of Fatima, so fuck it. He checked his phone. A picture of Mavericks during a swell went bright and then dim. He rode the bus until Laguna and the shops and people walking around, and got off, walking the mile between where he was and Matthews’s house, where he would go, smoke a bowl, and kick it until it got dark.

He skipped the front house, skipped Matthews’s sulking sisters and his nosy mom, and walked around to the pool house, where the same Kanye record he heard at Javad’s now pounded out loudly through the glass of the windows and Rez heard the sound of people laughing. He listened to the song and picked up his pace, around the pool and the gazebo, to the closed French doors of the little house, where he saw two heads on the couch in front of the television and Matthews walking up and down reciting the lyrics of the song, a bong in one hand, a lighter in the other, enjoying the music, performing for no one.

Rez thought about turning around, going home. He hadn’t been close to Kelly, in a room that wasn’t a classroom, since all the shit happened so he stood on the far side of the pool and looked in. They were hotboxing the pool house, playing on the PlayStation, chillin’. The smell of herb seeped out of the house and Rez thought, Fuck it, and stepped toward the house and all its happy sounds and smells. Matthews hooted.

Hey, Rez!

Matthews, happy Matthews, easy, glad, all balloons and smiles Matthews. Rez bumped his fist and took the bong from him and knew his friend was so high he had forgotten that Kelly and Johnson hated Rez and that Kelly could at any moment bring up Paul or the cheating A Rash and no one could argue with him and his loss and Matthews didn’t know it but if Kelly wanted to be an asshole right now and throw a punch or spit on Rez’s shoes, no one could say it was wrong or bad or rude.

Johnson said, Whatsup, and Kelly gave Rez a cold, focused look and turned back to the game and smiled as he

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