Old Ghosts by Nik Korpon

Author:Nik Korpon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Down & Out Books

A torrent of whispered curses as my hands led me around the room, finding clothes without waking Luz. I saw a story once, about how mothers in dire circumstances tap into their unconscious abilities, lifting cars and other superhuman sorts of things. I wondered if this situation applied, at least maybe in my extraordinary ability to make the absolute worst decision to try to preserve what I had. Luz shifted in bed, letting go a long exhale I thought to be her unconscious objection to me leaving.

I leaned down and kissed her stomach. Her lips bent into a slight smile, made a few sleepy noises.

“I love you,” I said. “And I will be back. I promise. This ends today.”

I kissed her hand, left a note explaining work had called early and went outside.

The rising-sun light that had made Luz so beautiful as it fell across her faces gave Chance the complexion of a corpse.

“This is stupid. This is so fucking stupid. I shouldn’t even be here,” I kept saying as I hoisted myself into the waiting passenger van. Delilah squeezed between the two of us on the bench seat like we were on some grotesque road trip. Tinted windows left the back in permanent midnight, the slight texture of carpet on the floor. No seats, no belts. In the movies, this van would be a pedophile’s pride and glory. The whole thing felt very conspicuous for only picking up a few bricks.

Chance looked out the window. “If it makes you feel any better, I can tell you I would’ve shot you and your wife if you hadn’t come.”

“What the fuck?”

He reached over to me with Dunks in hand as if he was Clark Fucking Griswold. “Coffee?”

We cut past the early-morning joggers tracing the perimeter of Patterson Park, people in suits and overcoats walking dogs, a few club kids stumbling home. The sky slowly turned the color of watery blood. Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning. Chance headed down Eastern Avenue, turning right on a one-way street. It struck me as familiar, then disconcerting when I realized this was the same place I saw Del for the first time in seven years. That was two weeks ago, or it was five months. The concept of time did nothing for me anymore. Every minute with Chance was a moment lost with Luz and the baby. He pulled over and Del climbed across me and out of the van before it even stopped.

I pointed at the house she ran into, said, “What’s this?”

He grinned, and I could see where gum overtook teeth. “You haven’t been out of the game for that long, have you?”

Normally, I would’ve advised them to have the house’s foundation repaired. Stress cracks from settling webbed the corners. The concrete around the edge of the porch pulled away from its base, leaving a quarter-inch of air between it and the formstone exterior the color of dirty sand. Walking up the stoop, I could see that the windows were single-pane and would triple the electric bill.

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