Breathe in Grace: A Zev Evans Novella by James Lepore

Author:James Lepore [Lepore, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Goodreads: 30558187
Publisher: Fiction Studio Books
Published: 2016-06-14T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 25

Grace’s heart stopped on the operating table. They revived her, but she died a week later. She’s being buried tomorrow in Farmington. I brought her sister up to Schenectady and filled her in on the way. I picked up Moishe Dayan while I was there. At home, I bought Moishe a bunch of cat toys, but he ignores them and just mopes and sleeps. He’s not even interested in going outside. Miguel is recuperating at Dr. Haines’ clinic. Jose is still at the Holiday Inn. Johnny accessed Asani’s accounts, and we spread the money around, to Jose and Miguel, to Joe Seritella’s widow, to Eva, to Edison, to Pete Flynn, to Grace’s sister, to Johnny’s boys (in trust till they turned thirty-five), to the Pound Ridge Community Center, to the NYC PBA Widows and Childrens’ Fund, to the National Kidney Foundation, to Carol Harris, to Dr. Haines’ clinic. We didn’t give any to Samad or Rashida, but we let them go after they extracted Asani’s kidneys. They understood completely when we said that we would have eyes on them for a long time. I hear from Johnny that his bureau is talking to them about working under cover. What was left of Asani’s money, about 200K, Johnny and I split.

Eva was in Nevada getting a divorce, so I had Donato with me too. I was lonely. Carol Harris had flown back to California. It would have been nice to have her around, but she had to get back to her husband and two kids. When I dropped her off at the airport, she reminded me of what I said when I came out of my coma in Germany. There was a beautiful breeze along the river. I wasn’t looking forward to going to Grace Carter’s funeral, believe me. If I picked up the flannel shirt I gave her to wear, I could smell her. If Moishe, who had not left her side in Schenectady, sat with me, I could breathe her in. Even Donato, who slept all day with Moishe, smelled of her. I was thinking of her funeral, and of breathing her in, and of the breeze along the river that night in Iraq, and then I was with Grace, stroking the butterfly tattoo at the top of her right breast. Then I was kissing her, but it wasn’t Grace; it was Donato licking me. I was on the floor in the kitchen on my back, sunlight from a skylight on my face. Moishe was on my stomach, looking at me. There was a funny taste in my mouth. I got up and Moishe jumped up to the refrigerator and watched me as I made coffee. Donato was following me around.

“What happened?” I said to him, “did I have a seizure?”

He barked, which usually meant he wanted to go out. I went over to the front door and opened it for him, but he stayed put. Moishe jumped down to the kitchen table. This was the most he had moved in the last five days.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.