Broken Machines by Michael I. Leahey

Author:Michael I. Leahey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-04-07T16:00:00+00:00

It was too late for anything but sleep. I got up slowly and stretched, checking my watch. It wasn’t my birthday anymore. I was three hundred and sixty-four days away from turning forty. Great. I wandered down the hallway, picked up the house phone, and dialed the lobby.

“Yo!” It was a voice I didn’t recognize.

“Who is this?” I asked.

“Who da fuck’s this?”

In the background I could hear laughter. Obviously the dominoes game was still in full swing. Most nights, Manny Santos and his neighborhood pals sit in the lobby drinking Colt 45 and playing dominoes until dawn.

“This is Donovan,” I began. “Put Santos on the phone before I decide to come down there and kick your butt.”

There was silence on the other end, so I tried the command in Spanish. I could hear the listener repeating my threat for the benefit of the group, after which I heard raucous laughter.

“Yo, gringo, what’s the matta, you havin’ a bad bertday?”

It was Santos.

“Can it, Manny,” I growled. “I’m not in the mood. I called to let you know that Dr. Koulomzin and I are taking a ride out to Brooklyn tomorrow afternoon. I want you to bring the car around at three o’clock. You got that?”

Silence.

“Manny, I said have you got that?”

“I hear you, Don-O-van,” he said slowly, slurring his words a bit. “I just don’ bee-leaf you. The doc ain’t goin’ no place inna daytime and he ain’t ridin’ wit you!”

Manny immediately began to translate his disbelief into Spanish, which caused a great deal of excitement. Among other things, Santos runs the local numbers game, but his group will bet on anything. I’ve seen them trade odds on the length of time it would take a cockroach to climb a can of soda. The news that Boris might leave the building before sundown had created a market.

“Manny? Manny, are you there?” I asked.

He didn’t come back on the line.

“Manny!” I yelled, getting frustrated.

It was no use, he was too busy making book. Just before I hung up the phone, I heard him offer odds of fifteen to one.

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.