Gotham Read Online Free PDF Page A

to the possibility of an entirely non-contentious topic. ‘People don’t always get that. You taken her to the granite slide they got in Central Park? Billy Johnson Playground, East 67th. My boy digs that. Polished by the asses of ten million kids.’
    â€˜It’s on my list.’ It’s true. I have a list, and it’s on it. ‘I’m actually writing a separate article—a travel article—on New York with an under-five.’
    â€˜No shit? Well, you gotta go.’ He looks towards Nati, as Nati finally relents and sits down again on the chaise lounge. ‘Take cardboard. You go faster with cardboard. If you got none you can prolly pick a piece up there. You tell Australia that. It’s a good tip.’
    Nati arranges himself with his elbows on his knees, his half-full glass held in both hands in front of him. His face has settled for a vague, less angry look. He could be a boy waiting for a bus he knows is still some time away.
    Smokey flicks to another image on his phone. It’s his son—a close-up of his face, all bright eyes and gleaming teeth.
    â€˜That’s my boy,’ he says. ‘Any time I put this thing down, I come back and it’s got new selfies on it. It’s a game we play now. Apparently.’
    I get my phone from my pocket. Ariel’s my wallpaper. The picture’s a few months old, but it’s a good one. She’s a dragonfly, with face paint and glistening wings and an emerald body. She looks happy, in the complete way that children can be.
    â€˜Delightful,’ he says. Not a word I expected, but a good one. ‘She could do with a little more meat on those bones.’
    â€˜She could.’ It’s there in the picture, if you look for it, if you aren’t distracted by the gaudy, glittery dragonfly trickery, as you’re supposed to be. ‘We’re working on that.’
    For a second I feel far away from her, here on this job while she’s sleeping in the fold-out bed at the foot of ours at the Beacon, jammed in there with her best monkey, Claude, sheets already kicked aside. Lindsey may be in bed by now, too, or watching TV in the living room with the volume down.
    â€˜Beautiful though,’ Smokey says. ‘Looks like a real sweet kid. Like a little baby angel in one of them renaissance paintings. What’s her name?’
    â€˜Ariel.’
    â€˜Sounds like you got that right. Sweet name for a sweet kid.’ He holds his phone next to mine. ‘My boy’s Eugene.’
    Eugene has cheeks like apricots when he grins, balls of bunched tissue with dimplesunder them, and perfect teeth. I’m working on something to say about him when a message alert lands on the screen. It’s Aaron.
    â€˜Okay…’ Smokey moves away from me, reads it, processes it.
    Nati looks up.
    â€˜How ’bout we just buy some shit another day,’ Smokey says, meeting Nati’s gaze with a look crafted to resemble nonchalance. ‘You can’t wear it all at once, LyDell.’
    Nati’s jaw muscles tighten. So does his grip on his glass. His head is full of ugly thoughts warring with better ones, and there is no room left for the guile that would let him hide it.
    â€˜Yeah,’ he says, with a sigh at the end of it, a valve releasing some pressure. He pushes himself into a position intended to look more relaxed, casual. ‘I’ll sign that form some day, come back and buy the whole place. But let’s get it under ten for now. Ladies?’
    â€˜No problem, sir,’ Andie says. She already has a printout of the items in her hand. ‘The purse would get you there right away or…’ She runs her glossy fingernail down the list. ‘You got four pairs of Alexander Wang cargo pants. Two of those would do it.’
    â€˜Well,’ he says, in a softer, smaller voice, ‘I’m keeping the purse.’
    Smokey steps across to the counter, and maybe it’s his