The Cut (Spero Lucas) by George P. Pelecanos Read Free Book Online

job.”
    “What about you, Spero?” said Eleni, her eyes slightly unfocused. “How’s things?”
    “I’m busy.”
    “Working on anything in particular?”
    “Nothing serious,” said Spero, not wishing to worry his mother. “A little bit of this and that.”
    THE MEN had cleared the table and were sitting back out on the porch. Eleni was in the kitchen washing dishes, nipping at another glass of wine. Dark had come to the backyard, the lights from the candles moving across their faces with the passing breeze.
    “So who was that woman at your apartment when I called?” said Spero.
    “Girl name Kyra. She’s all right.”
    “Stray cat or house cat?”
    “Stray.”
    “What about that teacher at your school?”
    “We still hang out,” said Leo. “You seein that lawyer?”
    “She’s not a lawyer yet. I like her.”
    “How much?”
    “We’re having a nice time.” Spero looked through the open French doors of the screened porch to the kitchen. “Mom’s hitting it pretty good tonight.”
    “She’s happy we’re here.”
    “You think it’s that? That this is a special night for her and she’s having an extra couple of glasses to celebrate? Or do you think that it’s like that
every
night for her?”
    “I don’t know,” said Leo. “Gotta be hard for her to navigate her life without Dad. To figure out where it’s going next. I think you oughtta, you know, lighten up some. Let her flounder a little if that’s what she needs to do. If that means an extra glass of wine or two a night, so be it.”
    “If Dad was here, the TV would be on right now. Mom would be with him, watching one of his westerns or karate movies, keeping him company. Even though she had no interest at all.”
    “
Chinese Connection
,” said Leo. “
That
was one he liked.”
    “Pop loved that fight in the yard between Bruce Lee and Robert Baker.”
    “He was into Baker. Maybe ’cause he looked a little like him.”
    “But the best fight scene was the locker room fight in
Game of Death
,” said Lucas. “Bob Wall played Carl Miller, remember?”
    “That picture was some bullshit, though,” said Leo. “Bruce Lee was dead when they put that together. Matter of fact, they cut in doubles for most of that movie, man. That’s Scott Baio, or whatever his name is, fightin in that locker room scene. It sure ain’t Bruce.”
    “Yuen Biao,” said Lucas. “I’m sayin, that was Dad’s favorite fight because of what Bruce says after he wastes the guy: ‘You lose, Carl Miller.’ ”
    Leo chuckled. “That’s right.”
    “Pop would say that to us when we were playing hoops in the driveway. After he’d score or block our shots. ‘You lose, Carl Miller.’ ”
    “I remember.”
    Spero folded his hands across his midsection. “I went and saw him the other day.”
    “Yeah?”
    “I go by there pretty often.”
    “Uh-huh.”
    “I’m still…”
    “What?”
    “I still struggle with it, man.”
    “I know you do.”
    “Him being there and all.”
    “I know.”
    “All last winter, when we got those big snows, and I’d think of him buried under it. Frozen. Or when it rains real hard, and I know the ground is full of water…”
    “Spero.”
    “I see him, Leo. Inside that dark box.”
    “Stop.”
    “You think I’m nuts.”
    “No. But you gotta get right with this.”
    “You never go to the cemetery, do you?”
    “I haven’t been since the funeral,” said Leo.
    “Well, I didn’t get to go to his funeral,” said Spero. “I was in Iraq, remember?”
    “Wasn’t any way for you to get back. Me and him talked about it. He understood.”
    “Maybe that’s why I keep visiting him. I didn’t get to say good-bye.”
    “Look,” said Leo. “Do you know why I don’t go to Glenwood?”
    “I think so.”
    “Damn right you do. You been hearing Father John and Father Steve preach about it our whole lives. The reason I don’t go to that graveyard is because Dad’s not there. I don’t stress on him being cold or wet,