Endangered Species Read Online Free PDF

that should have been raked up in the fall and hadn’t been, covered them.
    In the intervening months, they’d been tramped down to a wet, sodden, slippery mass. The hand rail that had been installed to prevent falls had rusted out and was now lying across a patch of dead ivy. I’d been right about the steps after all, I thought pettily as I rang the bell. It was a good place to take a fall. Eli opened the door. Zsa Zsa raced in ahead of me. I followed. The house smelled of cheap beer and pine room freshener. He’d changed clothes since the afternoon. His paint-splattered jeans and a tight T-shirt underscored his soft belly.
    Manuel emerged from the living room. He was carrying a CD jewel case by a well known rapper.
    â€œWell,” I told him as I surveyed him for cuts and bruises. “It looks as if you’ve been able to escape injury so far.”
    Manuel bristled. “No thanks to you.” He spun the case around between his fingers. “I’ve been staying off the streets.”
    Eli hurriedly changed the topic. “I just hope Nestor hasn’t gone home.”
    â€œWhere’s home?” I asked.
    â€œDown in the city.”
    I rested my backpack on the floor and rubbed my shoulder. I really had to take some stuff out of it or I was going to start walking with a permanent slant. “The city’s a big place. Do you think you could narrow the location down a bit?”
    Eli flushed. “Nestor’s family lives down in Chinatown.” He shifted his weight from his left to his right foot while he thought. “Or is it Flushing? I’ll check. I’ve got it written down.”
    â€œHe’s Chinese?”
    The surprise must have showed in my voice because Eli asked me why it mattered.
    â€œIt doesn’t. Nestor doesn’t seem like a Chinese name is all.”
    â€œEli doesn’t seem Spanish,” he observed.
    â€œExcept,” I told him, “your name is Elazaro.”
    â€œWell, maybe his name is something else, too,” Eli pointed out. Then he went to get the address. Zsa Zsa trotted behind him. As she ran, tiny fragments of the leaves that had become stuck to the fur on her hind legs dislodged and drifted to the floor.
    I hung my jacket up in the closet and looked around. The place was different than I remembered it being, but then, given the remodeling, it would have to be. The hallway was gone. The living room flowed into a dining alcove, which in turn led into a narrow galley of a kitchen.
    I moved further in. Some waiting rooms I’ve been in have had more furniture than this place did. A large-screen TV took up one corner of the sparsely furnished living room, a tattered brown-and-green tweed sofa took up the other. Magazines, old newspapers, and piles of clothes lay on the beige carpet next to the sofa. Two white urn-shaped lamps sat on the floor. Batik tapestries hung on all four walls. A small bridge table and four folding metal chairs formed the sum of the dining alcove furnishings. It was piled high with books and papers.
    â€œNestor isn’t big on furniture,” Eli observed when he returned a moment later. He was holding a piece of yellow paper in his hand. “Between school and work I’m never here anyway, so I don’t care. I wasn’t going to buy anything. I got all I need already. I’m not wasting my money on stuff like coffee tables when I gotta be putting it away for tuition.”
    Manuel mimed, grabbing on to his love handles. “Or the gym;”
    Eli patted his belly. It jiggled a little under his caress. “The way I see it, there ain’t nothin’ wrong with having some meat on your bones. I figure a woman would rather see a man with some money in his pocket and extra pounds around his middle than a skinny loser with nothing.”
    Manuel stuck his neck out. “No, Mr. Pillsbury Dough Boy, what they like is someone who knows the moves.”
    â€œThe moves to the