The Hilliker Curse by James Ellroy

Author:James Ellroy [Ellroy, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-59432-7
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2010-09-06T16:00:00+00:00

We exchanged gifts Christmas morning. I gave Helen a cashmere sweater and a tweed blazer. Helen gave me a fleece-lined bomber jacket. Barko got a shitload of beef-dipped bones.

Helen pointed to the last package. It was rectangular and festively wrapped.

She said the gift required some research. She expressed trepidation. She said, I hope you won’t be upset.

I unwrapped the package. I felt the frame and saw black-and-white flickers behind glass. I instantly knew what it was.

The L.A. Times photo. Quickly dismissed in ’58. Unheralded that Christmas. Frequently reproduced and perhaps over-scrutinized now.

I’m a doofus ten-year-old. I’m wearing a plaid shirt and light-colored pants. My zipper is prophetically half-down. A cop just said, “Son, your mother’s dead.”

Helen always cuts to the punch line. She asked me what I was thinking then and what I was thinking now.

I said, “Opportunity.”

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