Halfskin Boxed by Tony Bertauski

Author:Tony Bertauski
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tony Bertauski

41

Limousines aren’t typically convertibles. But Marcus wanted one.

There’s room to stretch his legs. With his head nestled back, he’s mesmerized by the buildings scraping the blue sky. The electricity of Times Square flickers around him. Despite the traffic, his driver coasts through red lights. At one point they get stuck beside a delivery truck, and even though it’s pumping exhaust into the limo, he can smell grass.

When he was little, his father took them to upstate New York, where the hills rolled with green, to visit his grandmother. It was the year she died. They went to the park that afternoon and took the blanket and the basket and a Frisbee. Grandmother picked dandelions with him and they rubbed them under their chins until their skin turned yellow.

Yellow like the sun.

Traffic snarls near Grand Central Station. Pedestrians crowd the crosswalk with a mixture of tourists and anxious New Yorkers. A group of children flock around their mother, running by her side. The littlest one is wearing a red backpack.

Marcus sits up, but they blend into the crowd. They looked like his children when they were younger. Clifford was wearing the backpack. A prayer comes to his lips, one he utters when stress tightens his belly.

“I’ll walk,” Marcus calls.

The driver opens his door. Marcus walks down the middle of the street, standing in the intersection. Cars pass on both sides, but no one honks, no one shouts. He finishes the prayer, searching for a red backpack. His children are older now.

Still, he searches until he’s convinced he imagined it.

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