Like Son by Felicia Luna Lemus

Author:Felicia Luna Lemus
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: General Fiction
ISBN: 9781933354217
Publisher: Akashic Books
Published: 2007-04-01T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

9 November 2002.

I woke totally buzzed and bright-eyed with a cultlike “I adore life” and “The world is love” sort of optimism. Fuck knows where the burst of energy came from, but I was stoked for the change. For the first time in days, I showered and combed my hair and dressed in clean clothes that weren’t designed to be slept in. Gliding around all giddy with my feet barely touching the ground, I tidied up the apartment. I opened the windows wide for fresh air and leaned out to take in the view. Hello Gorgeous Autumn Day! And greetings to you, Mr. Bluebird sitting in your tree. Then I moved the tiny television from its depressive-viewer position on the nightstand and put it back on its typing table home near the kitchen. What a good little television you are, thank you for taking such good care of me. I picked up dirty clothes off the floor and even dusted some surfaces with a more or less clean sock. Look at you, you pretty little counter, all nice and shiny! Careful to not tear it—Don’t worry, this won’t hurt a bit—I peeled the jewel-encrusted altar foil from the wall. I’d just started scraping the nasty food remains from the altar plates into the garbage, when the phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Frank, I’ll be gone longer than planned,” Nathalie said.

Wait a minute, there was a plan? I didn’t recall being included in any planning. Had Nathalie shown me an itinerary or projected goals or whatever would go into this sort of plan? Just like that, piss on the parade, my fizzy pep burned out.

“I went grocery shopping this morning,” she said, and paused for effect.

By “shopping” she meant that she had wandered up the delivery dock of a health food supermarket and filled her bag with produce and deliveries—she was genius at this, at being so obvious and outrageous that she was beyond reproach.

“So I was shopping,” she continued, “and then I realized this other kid was shopping too …”

I resisted reminding Nathalie she hadn’t qualified for the moniker “kid” in many years.

“… we wandered off in the same direction and started talking. He’s meeting up with some friends tomorrow and they’re headed to Tennessee …”

Just to torture me more, of course the other person had to be a dude.

“I’ve always wanted to go to Nashville,” she added.

Nathalie wouldn’t make it to Tennessee. She’d end up somewhere else and I wouldn’t know where she was. I was beginning to realize this was part of the plan.

“Nat, you realize Thanksgiving is coming up?”

“In two weeks.”

“It’s our seventh anniversary.”

“I know.”

My silent and? sat heavily on the line.

“You plan to be home by then?” I finally asked.

“Promise,” she said.

Swing music played in a faint echo through the phone.

“Frank? What’s that?”

“Just the phone,” I said.

“It’s spooky.”

“Not really,” I said.

“I love you.”

“Love you too.”

I kept the phone to my ear long after Nathalie had hung up. And I stared blankly at the retablo on the kitchen table. Nahui had been witness to everything that happened in the apartment.

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