Five Boroughs 01 - Sutphin Boulevard Read Online Free Page B

catalyst for me bonding with Nunzio in the seventh grade. We’d sat next to the chain-link gate during recess, comparing bruises and battle scars. My dad hadn’t been around all the time, but Nunzio didn’t have the same lucky break. His own parents were awful.
    After realizing that Nunzio lived across the park from us, my mother had practically adopted him.
    “You can’t be serious.”
    “I don’t have to ask you for permission. This is my goddamned house.”
    I didn’t raise my voice, but I did stare at Joseph like he’d lost his mind somewhere in the last six-pack.
    “How the hell is this your house? Half is in your name, but you’ve lived here for a grand total of four months if I put all the days together in the past two decades. Just because Mami let you come in and stay the night every time someone kicked you out doesn’t mean you’re entitled to anything.”
    “Michael, stop it. He’s your father.”
    “The hell he is.” I shouldn’t have been surprised that Aida was taking his side, but I still was. She’d always agreed that he was an absentee bastard who hadn’t even bothered to take care of my mother toward the end, but he was her younger brother. Not that their oldest brother was any better. “He didn’t take care of us. All he did was show up and try to convince my mother to give him the money for our Christmas presents.”
    “That was one year—”
    “No, it fucking wasn’t. All you ever did was use my mother and treat me and Raymond like crap. If you think I’m going to fall for whatever sob story you have now, you’re bugging.”
    Aida put a hand on my father’s arm and nodded, giving him the signal to unleash his complete load of bullshit on me.
    Except, it wasn’t bullshit.
    Joseph spoke for the next twenty minutes without interruption. He told me all about needing a stable place to live while battling the aggressive nature of his cirrhosis. He also told me about the effect it was having on his body, and all the ways he was starting to fall apart. At times his voice was unsteady and thick enough to wring an ounce of compassion from my heart before my eyes settled on the beer still clutched in his hand.
    He didn’t want a place to stay while trying to get healthy. He wanted a peaceful place to drink himself to death. He didn’t want help with getting treatment or rehab, he wanted a dark hole to retreat into, even if that meant asking his children to watch another parent slowly die. It was so apparent, and so unbelievably selfish, I couldn’t find the words to express how disgusted I was with the entire display. I wondered if, on top of everything else, he really had come to beg for money but knew better than to ask at this point.
    By the time Raymond returned to the kitchen, I was staring down at the table and thinking about that last conversation with my mother. Give him another chance , she had insisted. Promise me you won’t shut him out of your life forever. And I had fucking promised.
    “Listen, mijo, I just want us all to try to be a family again,” Joseph said after several minutes had gone by without a word from me. I was picking at the plastic tablemat, trying my damnedest to peel the little coquí frogs from the center. “Your Tío John is coming by tonight to eat with us. Aida cooked and everything.”
    “She always cooks.” Raymond pointed at me. “And I bet he’s going back to Manhattan. He don’t wanna be here. He has to prepare for his big Italy trip with Nunzio and leave me here to deal with your stupid ass.”
    “What Italy trip?” Dollar signs were likely popping up in Joseph’s head. “You have the money for something like that?”
    Raymond had the decency to look regretful for spilling my business. I didn’t even bitch at him. The chair scraped along the floor when I stood.
    “I’ll take the train.”
    “You haven’t seen me in months and you’re leaving?” For a moment I thought I saw a glimpse of dejection in Joseph’s eyes, but then