Broken Bottles by Anthony Koranda

Author:Anthony Koranda [Koranda, Anthony]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tortoise Books
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Dear Drunk Mom,

We love you and we don’t want you to die. Tell HIM to leave.

- Dakota and Sonny

I had never seen anything like it. These fucking kids were really taking a stand. At first I was pissed, thinking Dakota was just trying to get me back for squeezing the orange in his eyes. I read it again, two more times, my heart sinking deeper in my chest. I slid my pants on.

“Where are my shoes?” I asked.

“Where are you going? It’s fine. You don’t need to leave,” she said, pulling from the bottle.

“This is fucked up,” I said, flipping to my stomach and looking under the bed. “Where are my shoes?”

“So you’re just going to leave now? You’re going to run off like a bitch?”

“I can’t stay here after that. I’m fucked up, but this isn’t the person I want to be. There’s a reason I’m not out on Wilson anymore.”

“I heard Rat King beat your ass and threw you out after you tried to fuck him,” she said, a smile creeping across her face.

“Who the fuck told you that?”

“Oh, shit, so it’s true.”

I walked to her with my fist clinched, grabbed her by the nap of the neck. “That’s a fucking lie,” I said. The bruises on her face were healing, fading now. She looked at me like she wanted me to hit her, really beat the shit out of her, kill her maybe. I let go.

“Where are my shoes?” I asked again.

“Fuck you,” she screamed, standing up, swinging an open palm that slapped loudly on my temple. She was small but swung like a seasoned boxer. “Get the fuck outta here! Get the fuck out!” she screamed.

I grabbed my jacket, walked down the stairs while she hollered at me from the top floor.

I walked down Sheridan, past Buttercup Park, but Javier wasn’t there. I went to our old studio, stood outside and looked up at the old apartment. I couldn’t see any light through the window. The tinfoil still covered the glass.

I walked a few blocks down to Montrose, stomped my bare feet on the pavement to the harbor. The entire skyline lit up in the distance. It was so close, but from where I stood, it seemed a hundred miles away.

I dipped my feet in the cold water. They went numb within a couple of minutes. I stared out into the city, full moon shining in the sky, masking a thousand stars. The waves crashed against the cement barrier, splashing up to my knees.

I curled up on the ledges of the harbor. It was the coldest I’d been in my life.

• • •

I still saw Shannon sometimes around the neighborhood. Most of the time she was with Dakota’s dad, the dollar-store shades covering her eyes. He draped his arm around her shoulders, wrist hanging above her chest. I noticed F-I-S-T tattooed on his knuckles. But sometimes she walked with Dakota and Sonny, each child’s fingers weaved like wicker in their mother’s hand.

Shannon never looked at me when we passed on the street.

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