Milosz by Cordelia Strube Read Free Book Online Page A

my Billy. Your son should be in a special school for boys like him.”’
    â€˜Did you tell her there are no special schools?’
    â€˜Why bother?’
    With the laundry basket empty there is nothing left for them to share. He hopes she’ll offer him a glass of wine. They could sit at the kitchen table, conversing easily as the light fades.
    â€˜Good night, Milo.’
    â€˜Good night.’

ablo is lying on the couch covered in a blanket.
    â€˜What are you doing here?’ Milo demands.
    â€˜Sleeping over.’
    â€˜You can’t sleep over.’
    â€˜Vera said it’s okay. Just till things cool down with Maria.’
    â€˜Did she call you?’
    â€˜Not yet. Vera says give her couple of days.’
    â€˜You can’t sleep here for a couple of days.’
    â€˜I’ve got cash. Wallace paid me a bonus.’ Pablo hands Milo two twenties.
    â€˜Two nights. Claro? ’
    â€˜What happened to your pants? You spill something?’
    â€˜What?’
    Pablo points to Milo’s pocket. The moisture from Tanis’s underpants is spreading to his crotch. ‘What’s in your pocket?’
    â€˜Nothing.’
    â€˜It’s leaking, take it out.’
    Milo turns his back on Pablo as he removes the underpants but Pablo is off the couch and watching him. ‘ Coño , you stole her panties.’
    â€˜I didn’t steal them. I was helping her hang laundry.’
    â€˜They’re nice, cotton. That’s healthy. I don’t like those nylon, shiny kind. The pussy’s got to breathe, man. She’s married though, right?’
    â€˜Not exactly.’
    â€˜ Qué? ’
    â€˜He’s left. The husband’s left. It’s none of your business.’
    â€˜Don’t get testy. I’m happy you’re in love with a woman.’
    â€˜I’m not in love with her.’
    â€˜You stole her panties. Don’t be afraid to love, Milo. It is the one true thing. People afraid to love are lonely, always.’
    â€˜Would you mind? I just want to lie on my couch and watch TV .’
    â€˜ No hay problema .’ Pablo grabs his blanket and settles on the La-Z-Boy, Gus’s La-Z-Boy on which Milo never sits. The chair groans as the Cuban pushes it into the reclining position. ‘I love these chairs, man. I wanted to buy one for my mother but she died.’
    â€˜Maybe she’ll come back as a ghost and you can get her one.’
    The remote is not where Milo left it. He searches under newspapers, cushions and jackets.
    â€˜Looking for this?’ Pablo waves the remote. Milo snatches it and surfs: reality shows, hospital shows, cop shows, all bilge in which he is not starring. How depressing to be facing the black hole at the end of the tunnel and realize that your father was right. Had Milo embraced Krupi and Son Ltd. he might have found a wife and they might have had children and a Labradoodle. He wouldn’t be fingering another man’s wife’s panties.
    â€˜So, who you going to get to be Wallace’s date?’
    â€˜No one.’
    â€˜Oh, come on, Milo, he said he’d pay a hundred bucks. You could probably get him up to a deuce, split it with the girl, one of those nudie chicas from your art class. I’d like to see one of them.’
    â€˜You won’t be here.’
    â€˜Why, when’s she coming? You asked her already?’
    â€˜Would you please just go to sleep?’
    â€˜No problem.’ Pablo pulls the blanket under his chin and squeezes his eyes shut. A talk show is on. A starlet, throttled by cleavage, says she believes in reincarnation. The host compliments her on her breasts, how they’re real, how when she lies down naked in movies her breasts flatten out. ‘A lot of actresses,’ he says, ‘when they lie down they stick straight up.’ The audience guffaws. The actress asks the host if he believes in reincarnation. ‘Only if I get to come back with