Big Mango (9786167611037) Read Online Free PDF

receiver
scrape against something as Michael handed it to Jennifer.
    “Hello, Eddie. I’m sorry about that.
Michael’s getting a little hard to deal with these days and I just
thought it wasn’t fair the way he talked to you when you called
last week so I insisted he apologize. Anyway, don’t make too much
of it. I’ll give him his allowance. You know how teenagers are. I
hope we didn’t catch you at a bad time.”
    Jennifer always talked a lot when she was
working herself up to telling Eddie something she thought he
wouldn’t like to hear, so Eddie didn’t say anything.
    “Eddie? Hello? Are you there, Eddie?”
    “Yes, Jennifer, I’m here.”
    Eddie glanced up and noticed that Wuntz was
trying hard not to look like he was listening.
    “Look, Eddie, there is one other thing.”
    At least she isn’t going to take any longer
getting to it.
    “Franklin and I are going to Australia next
month.”
    Jennifer had married Franklin Pierce who was
a spectacularly successful developer of shopping malls a few months
after she left Eddie. While the timing was rife with unhappy
implications, Eddie had never dwelled on it, preferring to keep in
mind instead that Franklin was a pleasant enough man and that
Michael could certainly have done a great deal worse for a
stepfather.
    “Franklin wants to go diving on the Barrier
Reef.”
    “Uh-huh.”
    “Well, you see, since Michael’s school
holidays are next month, we’d like him to go with us.”
    So that was what Franklin’s latest kick had
to do with him. He had been just about to ask.
    “The problem there of course is that Michael
won’t be able to come to see you this vacation. There’s the
problem.”
    Jennifer paused a moment to let that sink
in.
    “Michael really wants to go with us, Eddie.
If you don’t mind, that is.”
    He damned well did mind.
    “I wish you’d talked to me about this first,
Jennifer. I can’t tell Michael now that he’s not going to Australia
because he has to spend his vacation with me.”
    “Well, It’s such a great opportunity for him,
Eddie. I knew you’d want him to go.”
    “Yes, but I’d also like to spend some time
with him, Jennifer.”
    “Next vacation, Eddie. Promise.”
    Eddie clicked his tongue against his teeth a
couple of times while he thought, although he supposed there wasn’t
all that much for him to think about.
    “I gather Michael doesn’t mind not seeing me
for a while.”
    “I wish you wouldn’t put it that way, Eddie.
This is just such an exciting opportunity for him, that’s all. So,
is it all right with you?”
    Eddie took a deep breath. “Whatever he wants,
Jennifer.”
    “Wonderful, Eddie. I really do think that’s
the right thing to do.”
    Eddie knew the conversation was over after
that, so he drifted politely along with the small talk until
Jennifer decided a decent enough interval had passed to break off
and hang up.
    When Eddie slowly folded up the telephone and
pushed it back into his pocket, he realized that Wuntz was looking
at him.
    “Your ex busting your hump, partner?”
    “One of them. And the other’s waiting her
turn.”
    Oh Christ, Eddie suddenly remembered, he had
never called Kathleen back. That was going to cost him.
    “You haven’t had much luck with the family
thing, have you, Dare?”
    Eddie tried not to think of it that way. He
figured that if he let it get too deeply set in his mind that he
was just plain unfortunate when it came to his personal life, he
would do the sensible thing. He would fold his cards and stop
trying to have one. And he really didn’t want to do that.
    “Is it Jennifer again, or the kid?” Wuntz
persisted.
    “It’s no big deal.” Eddie tried to shake him
off. “Mike is just going through a phase.”
    “Don’t take any crap from him.”
    The emotion in Wuntz’s voice was so plain it
startled Eddie.
    “My kid was ashamed his old man was a cop.
Started calling me a Nazi when he wasn’t even fifteen. Screaming
‘ Seig Heil! ’ when I tried