Read Boy Kills Man for Free Online Page B

watch the sun sink behind the mountains.
    After that we just wandered through the
barrio.
We hung out by the pool hall, watched a dice game going on outside, and finished up eating cold chicken wings that Alberto bought for us both. I waited for him to tell me what had happened that afternoon, but either it was no big deal or he still had to make sense of it himself. I figured he would tell me all about it in his own time. I had never kept a secret from him, after all.
    â€˜What shall we do tomorrow?’ I asked, as I licked the grease from my fingers.
    â€˜Let’s just see what it brings,’ he had said, like he couldn’t be sure the sun would ever rise again. I caught his eye, thinking maybe he would tell me now. Instead, he tossed the box away, burped and patted his barrel-like belly. He was still wearing his money belt underneath, I noticed, though I didn’t need to be reminded of the gun he had in there with his ticket and all that money: ‘All I know is it’ll be one day less before the match, Sonny. One step closer to the greatest day of our lives.’
    My uncle had an attack in the early hours of the morning. I slept right through, the dope must’ve sent me down deep, but fortunately for him my mother was back. According to her, Jairo awoke shortly after she had turned in. He opened his eyes, saw the TV had been shut down, then tried to call out when it seemed his lungs had done likewise. Mamá had stirred when he crashed from his chair. She found him clutching at his throat as if supernatural hands were trying to strangle him. His inhaler saw off that demon, though when I heard what happened I did wonder if perhaps my father had come home in spirit.
    Old Jairo was still out for the count as I ate my breakfast, and so my mother and I spoke quickly and in whispers. I guess we each had our reasons for not wanting to wake him.
    â€˜Are you going to school today, Sonny?’
    She asked me the same question every morning, as if school was just an option. I hadn’t been inside a classroom for two years, and the more time passed the harder it became to give her the real answer. Alberto figured she preferred to fool herself because it made everything feel safer. That’s why I said, ‘Sure I am’ as I did every day. Only this time, I followed it with a question of my own. ‘Do you still think about Papa?’
    She was warming a pan of milk for the coffee. At first it seemed she hadn’t heard me. I realised I had kind of sprung it on her, but it was on my mind and I needed to know. My mother had rich chocolate hair that she only ever wore down after dark. Just then, as she poured the milk into two cups, I noticed grey licks coming through under the clips. It looked nice on her. Made her seem as old as the world, like she’d be here for ever.
    â€˜I pray for him,’ she said eventually, and nodded to herself as if at first she’d hadn’t been sure of her answer. ‘Just as I pray for you.’
    Alberto lived two floors below me. I could make it down there in six giant leaps, so long as I didn’t swing off the rail at the foot of each flight. If he didn’t answer when I banged on the door then I would often just let myself in. I had a copy of his key, just as he had one for our apartment. Usually it meant he was in but still in bed, but I was always happy to wait until he surfaced. His place looked just like mine, except it didn’t have my uncle in it. As a result, I was free to listen to the radio or spend time thinking without being threatened with a kick up the ass.
    Of course, I would never walk in without making a big noise. I didn’t want him to stir thinking that a thief had crept into the place, nor let him off lightly for being so lazy.
    â€˜Eh,
vagabundo,
it’s me! Stop drooling into your pillow and get your big fat pants on.’ I strode in chuckling to myself, only to catch my breath at the vision that shrieked