Five Boroughs 01 - Sutphin Boulevard Read Online Free Page A

a totally new development. I wondered what was wrong.
    Nothing looked out of place besides the fading paint on the house’s vinyl siding and the lawn that was looking increasingly shabby since our mother’s death in March. Merengue was playing through the dented screens in the windows, and when I stepped inside, I caught a whiff of my aunt’s arroz con gandules.
    I’d made it three feet before Aida swept in with a big smile.
    “Hey, Titi.” I kissed her cheek. “¿Bendición?”
    “Dios te bendiga.” She pulled away and nodded at the rack by the door. “Take your shoes off.”
    I complied, even though I was only wearing flip-flops. She made rules for us even when she was in our house.
    “What’s going on? Where’s my father?”
    She returned to the bright yellow kitchen, where my father stood by the counter, cracking open a can of beer with a fierce glare on his face. Joseph Rodriguez looked the same as always—lean and tall, salt-and-pepper hair falling in waves down his neck, and wearing a torn-up jean jacket. After her cancer diagnosis, my mother had aged rapidly, but it seemed like Joseph always stayed the same.
    His presence unfurled a sense of loathing deep inside me, but along with it came a vexing reminder of the promise I’d made to my mother as she wasted away in the hospice. She’d wanted me to give my father another chance. Until the end, she’d worried more about him than her own well-being.
    “Nice to see you too,” I said flatly.
    He took a gulp of beer and jerked his chin at Raymond, who was glowering by the back door. “Your brother has been talking shit since I got here. Acting like this is his house.”
    “This is my house.” Raymond looked coiled to spring, fingers tucked into his palms and malformed knuckles ready to fight. “You ain’t staying here.”
    “Raymond.” Aida slapped her hand against the counter. “Cállate.”
    “No, fuck that. This piece of shit thinks he can come waltzing up in here like king of the castle every time he needs some dough, but it ain’t like that no more. Mami ain’t here no more, Joseph. It’s a wrap.”
    My dad looked ready to toss the beer at my brother’s head, but Aida intervened. “Raymond, go outside so I can talk to your brother.”
    Raymond muttered something inaudible and pushed away from the counter. The screen door slammed shut behind him when he stormed out into the backyard. Even covered in tattoos and drenched in bad attitude, Raymond fit in more with the family than I ever had. I was oddly adrift without him in the room.
    The sense of not belonging had set in the moment I’d hit puberty, but had grown more pronounced with each year I’d spent living away from my mother and the house, not seeing the rest of my family as I’d created my own life away from them all. I was an outsider, disconnected from the family and off living some foreign lifestyle in Manhattan while Raymond stayed at home like a good son. He’d never worked a real job or bothered with school, but still… he was the one who had been deemed loyal.
    I rubbed the back of my neck and looked at the stove instead of the simmering rage brewing inside my father. The makings of a large dinner were in the works, even though it was the middle of the week, and Aida didn’t look like she planned on staying the night.
    “What’s going on?” I asked finally.
    “I’m coming home.”
    “Home,” I repeated.
    “Yes. I’m moving back in.”
    Joseph said it like it was the most natural thing in the world, even though he hadn’t lived in the house for years. After middle school, he had only dropped in for a few weeks at a time. My mother’s continued acceptance of his presence in our lives had always been a complete mystery to me. Especially since he’d always shown up reeking of booze and ready for a fight. He’d only been beaten in the mean department by Nunzio’s asshole parents.
    The black eye Joseph had given me on my thirteenth birthday had acted as a