In Darkness by Nick Lake

Author:Nick Lake
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Published: 2012-05-26T21:00:00+00:00

The next day, Biggie picked me up again. It was evening, in fact. Stéphanie was in the passenger seat this time, riding shotgun. In the Site, riding shotgun isn’t just an expression – she was holding the gun. I was surprised by that, cos I’d seen aid workers before and they didn’t usually have guns. I noticed that she was pretty, much prettier than I had realized the previous day. She had blue eyes and kind of light-brown hair, and her face was a little oval. She was young, also. Mid-twenties, no older.

— Salut, she said over the boom of the bass.

I said hello to her, too. My face was burning, cos looking at her made my skin tingle. Biggie turned and grinned at me, and I began to shake cos I was sure he knew what I was thinking.

— You still want to be a chimère? he said.

I nodded.

— Bon. Bon. Route 9 till you die, yeah?

— Yeah, I said.

— Those Boston motherfuckers, they killed your papa, n’est-ce pas?

I was surprised he remembered that, cos the day before it didn’t seem like he knew me from when me and Manman went to Dread for shelter.

— You remember that? I said.

Biggie laughed.

— I remember everything, he said. I know you were pulled from your manman by Aristide, too. I know Dread Wilmè lifted a tank off you to save you, even though he was full of bullet holes.

I didn’t tell Biggie that Dread didn’t pull any tank off me, he only got me out of the way of a tank, but it didn’t seem important, and anyway, I was pleased that Biggie knew who I was. It was like a famous person took the trouble to stop and talk to you when he noticed you. Like that. Back then, I thought Biggie was awesome. I thought he was a stone-cold gangster, g-star, cooler than the other side of the pillow. I was, like, Biggie’s groupie; it was fucking embarrassing, looking back.

Stéphanie sighed. It was something she did a lot, I came to know.

— Fucking UN, she said. Dread Wilmè distributed more food and medicine than we ever could, and they fucking kill him.

I don’t know what surprised me more. The way she could swear in Kreyòl, or the way she was criticizing the UN. I thought the UN and the blancs were the same thing. But I thought of the way that Stéphanie brought those tins of food and medical supplies into the Site and helped Biggie to give them out, and I thought she was pretty cool for a white person.

— If you want to be Route 9, you have to prove yourself, said Biggie. Do you know what I mean?

I didn’t know, but I nodded.

— We just got one thing to do first, he said.

Biggie continued to drive. As we turned onto different streets, I saw my map in my head, so when we pulled up outside a shack, I knew it was the address of a Route 9 chimère called Tintin.

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.