Sal and Gabi Break the Universe (A Sal and Gabi Novel) by Carlos Hernandez

Author:Carlos Hernandez [Hernandez, Carlos]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Disney Book Group
Published: 2019-03-05T06:00:00+00:00

IT WAS NINETY DEGREES outside—ten thousand with humidity. Florida in August, man. Kill a Connecticut boy faster than you can say “sunstroke.”

At first, Gabi wanted to start the interview right there at Yasmany’s locker. But then she said she wanted time to process everything she’d seen—and to wash the raw chicken juice off her hands. I said okay; we could talk once we got to the Coral Castle.

But she couldn’t wait that long. About ten seconds after we’d left the school grounds, she asked, “So, you really are a brujo?” She used that TV-reporter voice that makes everything sound like the scoop of the century. Also, she looked completely, annoyingly, unbothered by the heat: no pit stains, no forehead sweat, no flushed cheeks, no nothing. The metal sorceress barrettes in her hair took turns blinding me. Also, she stuck her phone too close to my mouth to record my answer.

I eased her hand away from my face and, loud enough to be heard over the rumbling traffic, replied, “No.”

“No?” But she didn’t say that into the phone, so she brought the speaker to her mouth and repeated, with even more panache, “No?!”

“No.” I smiled. Sometimes, smiles are masks.

She harrumphed off the record, and then, struggling to be professional, followed up into her phone. “So let me get this straight, Sal. Despite the fact that you confessed to ripping a hole in the universe, despite the fact that you put your arms through solid metal and concrete to pull a chicken out of who-knows-where, and despite the fact that a weird lady popped out of the locker to get her chicken back, you maintain that you do not possess supernatural powers. Is that correct?”

That’s not what I said. But instead of correcting her, I deflected. “I didn’t take you for the superstitious type, Gabi. There’s no such thing as brujería.”

Gabi went suddenly quiet, switching her recording app off and watching her feet walk for a while. “I am not superstitious,” she said finally, more to herself than to me. “I am skeptical. I require evidence to support my opinions. But I have to admit, after what I’ve seen today, I believe in brujería! I mean”—and, suddenly remembering her job, she started recording again, glaring at me—“how else do you explain what happened today, Sal? It has to be brujería. You have to be a brujo. Do you deny it?”

Man, how do people walk around in Miami? I felt like I was being digested inside a dragon’s stomach. “I’m not a brujo, okay?” I snapped. “I don’t like that word. I swear, if you call me that again, we’re done.”

“Hey, take it easy! The whole reason I’m doing this is to give you a chance to share your side of the story.”

“If you hadn’t printed your story in the Rotten Egg, I wouldn’t need to give an interview in the first place.”

Now it was Gabi’s turn to get overheated. “So you think you can tear open the universe and pull chickens out of thin air and everyone’s going to be like, ‘Oh, that’s fine.

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