Dispatches from the Peninsula by Chris Tharp

Author:Chris Tharp [Tharp, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
ISBN: 9789881516152
Publisher: Signal 8 Press
Published: 2011-07-05T04:00:00+00:00

INTERLUDE: JULY 9TH, 2006

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

I’ve just finished watching the last game of the World Cup. Italy beat France in penalty shootouts. The French side folded after Zidane head-butted that guy and was sent off. Craziness. To think that it’s his last game, and that’s how he’ll be remembered…

I woke up in the wrong house. Pauly stirred me and handed me the phone. Evidently Irish Ray and I got into it at his place after eight hours of straight whiskey drinking. There are flashes of clarity: slamming into the cupboards in his kitchen. Being ripped from him on his front lawn. Threats of police being called. Me screaming something about my father.

As Pauly insisted, I call Ray, but he isn’t having my apology. He has a black eye and is threatening to break my camera, which is sitting on his couch. He’s ranting in his Galway brogue about me costing him $15,000 in a commission that he’ll never collect. He’s a stockbroker and lives on image: a black eye just won’t do. The big meeting on Monday is evidently off.

So much for my happy trip back home.

I leave for Arizona in two days, first to Bisbee, to see my friend Ariel and his family, and then on to Glen’s place outside of Phoenix, for a quick reunion of the Brothers Tharp. As Bruce Springsteen sings, “Nothing feels better than blood on blood.”

My hatred for L.A. aches in my bones. I now remember why I left, and why I never want to return.

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