And Sometimes I Wonder About You Read Online Free PDF Page B

marriage foundered sometime soon after that. After a year had passed, Gordo came to Sophie and asked her to marry him. She said that she wanted to but wouldn’t because it would break her sister’s heart. Sophie had promised Helen that she never did anything wrong with Gordo, so if they got married Helen would think that she’d lied.
    “Sophie?” I said. “I didn’t even know that you still talked to her.”
    “She called,” Gordo said, a little shy. “She called to tell me that Helen had died.”
    Oh.
    “I said I was sorry and me and Elsa went to the funeral over in New Brunswick, New Jersey. After the ceremony we sat with Soph at a pizza restaurant the family rented out. It was just a nice time, you know? But on the train ride home Elsa says to me, ‘You’re in love with that woman.’ I just laughed. I hadn’t seen Sophie in twenty years. I liked her. I liked her fine but the past was gone.
    “At least that’s what I thought. But that night I couldn’t go to sleep. I sat up remembering what it was like those three months I saw Soph every morning over coffee. Elsa was my nurse, she saved my life. I love her but there was something in my heart for Sophie that I couldn’t shake.
    “Maybe if Elsa didn’t say anything…But no. I would have been thinking about Soph after that.”
    For a moment my old mentor was lost in thought.
    Finally he said, “Two days later Elsa told me that she was going back to Germany.”
    “What did you say?”
    “I couldn’t say a word. I wanted to. I tried. But all I could manage was this miserable face. Elsa kissed me and a few days later she was gone.”
    “And then you called Sophie and asked her to marry you again?”
    “I’m eighty-three years old, LT. My time is nearly up. I should’a been dead from that cancer. I cain’t tell my heart what to do. Sophie asked me how was Elsa and I said she’d gone back home. Two minutes later I asked her to marry me and she said all right.”
    I knew Elsa. I hired her when I thought Gordo would die from cancer. She was a good woman but I could hear the love in Gordo’s voice.
    “Congratulations,” I said. “How’s Helen’s family feel about this?”
    “Most of ’em back down in Texas” was his answer. “I’m flyin’ up twelve of ’em to come to the ceremony.”
    “That’s a mighty big nut, G. You sure you can do it?” I knew he could. Gordo was a rich man. He was a brilliant trainer but his genius was real estate.
    “I gotta couple’a things I need from you, LT,” he said instead of taking the bait. I could tell from his tone that talk of love was over.
    “What’s that?”
    “I got this Chin’ee kid from Hong Kong can fight. Middleweight, you know. Fast as Sugar Ray Leonard with the bones of Marvin Hagler. Ain’t nevah lost a fight an’ been in the ring nineteen times.”
    “What’s his name?”
    “Chin Wa.”
    “Never heard of him.”
    “Never fought in the States or on TV. He think he the real deal but I believe that the competition was lacking.”
    “And?”
    “Fudge be on your bag all mornin’,” Gordo said. “Got him tryin’ to get some pop in them punches, so maybe you could do a couple’a rounds with Chin and see if he got the seven covered.”
    “Where’s Iran?” I asked. Iran Shelfly, a heist man that went to prison, partly because of my hidden perfidy, now worked for Gordo.
    “He down doin’ a undercard in Philly. I told him if he won I’d get him a real fight. Maybe with that Irish kid ev’rybody love so much.”
    —
    I went in a corner, shed my clothes, and donned trunks that Gordo kept in a drawer for me. The old man laced my gloves and I entered the center ring with no headgear.
    “He gonna hit you,” Gordo warned. I heard him but Marella’s spell of invulnerability was on me again.
    After a few minutes a young Asian Adonis came out of the locker room; only Gordo’s prospects, or “health club” customers, got lockers and dressing areas. The rest of us had to rely on