Fiction on a Stick by Daniel Slager

Author:Daniel Slager
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Milkweed Editions
Published: 2012-11-19T00:00:00+00:00

I started at shooting guard again that basketball season, and we won the city-league title. Hank came to every game. He threw a party for Betty and me after the season ended. It was the first time I’d been at his house. He lived in a rambling one-story rancher on Mississippi River Boulevard, above Hidden Falls Park. The wide picture window in his living room looked out over a long, sloping, winter-browned lawn to the Mississippi River gorge and the old stone of Fort Snelling. The party was a kegger, and Hank pretty much stayed out of the way after making sure we knew enough not to bother the neighbors. Hank’s daughter Tina flirted with me all night. She wasn’t as smart as Betty, but she favored lots of makeup and low-cut shirts with push-up bras, and she was pretty hard to ignore. Around midnight, Betty tired of this and pulled me outside for a talk. I protested that I’d done my best to stay away from Tina, and Betty and I ended up in my car. We were making love when someone knocked on the fogged-up driver’s side window. “Go away,” I said. The knock came again louder, the heavy thuds of the meaty side of a man’s fist. I cracked the window.

“Get out,” Hank said.

We scurried into our clothes, and Betty followed me from the backseat, smoothing the front of her shirt.

“Inside,” Hank said to Betty. She was spending the night with Tina.

“Uncle Hank—” she said, holding on to my arm.

“I just want to talk to him,” Hank said. “You go inside now.”

After Betty left, Hank reached into the backseat and picked up the wine bottle nested in the blanket there. He sniffed it, frowned, and took a sip. “Jesus, kid,” he said. “My niece should be drinking better.”

I laughed weakly. Hank leaned on the car, scratched his neck. “I have a dozen brothers and sisters in this town,” he said. “Cousins. In-laws. Last family reunion, we had over three hundred people. So I move to Wonder Bread Highland Park for the room and the view”—his hand swept out, taking in the darkness of the gorge, the lights at the fort—“and, of course, I’ve got people coming and going all the time. Then I introduce myself to one of my new neighbors, and the first thing he says is: ‘So how many families are living in that house, anyway?’ Beautiful autumn day, sky so blue you could fall into it forever, and I stand there thinking about using his head for a posthole digger. But that’s what they’d expect, see? I always tell my kids: You have to dress better than the gringos, or they’ll call you a dirty Mexican. You have to be smarter and more polite. So I smile with my big white teeth, and I say, ‘I’m blessed with ten fine children.’ The next weekend, I invite him over for barbecue.”

“That’s some story,” I said, not quite following.

“I’m not done,” Hank said. He leaned his face down into mine.

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.