Julie and Romeo Get Lucky Read Online Free PDF

way,” I said, and started walking up.
    â€œI’ve never seen the upstairs of your house,” Father Al said brightly.
    â€œRomeo?” I said quietly as I opened the door and brought our company into my bedroom.
    The clothes on the floor of the entry hall looked bad—a shirt, a sweater, two pairs of pants, all those shoes touching laces—but maybe that could be written off to very poor housekeeping. In the bedroom, however, the underwear told a different story. The underwear was intermingling on the floor. In one deft move, I kicked it under the bed.
    Romeo looked like he had frozen into the last moment I had seen him. Every muscle in his face, the way he held his arms, everything about him was exactly the same.
    â€œOh, Romeo,” Father Al said, and shook his head at the sight of so much pain.
    Dominic, on the other hand, didn’t seem to be bothered at all. “Didn’t see you at Mass last week, buddy,” he said. “Your mother must be lightening up on you.”
    Romeo’s eyes opened into slits. He made a sound that was clearly intended to be “hah” but it didn’t quite come out as “hah.” It sounded more like a sharp exhale.
    â€œHorsing around with a back like yours.” Dominic shook his head and starting rummaging through his bag of tricks. “We’re not kids anymore, Romeo.”
    â€œYou shouldn’t give him a lecture when he can’t even talk back to you,” Al said.
    Romeo gave a small smile.
    â€œYou think he can’t talk back to me now, just you wait.” Dominic tore open a little foil packet and pulled back the sheets enough to rub an alcohol swab over a small spot on Romeo’s hip. Then he fixed up a shot. “You know the expression, ‘You made your bed, and now you’re going to have to lie in it?’ Well, that’s the story. You stay exactly where you are. The only other place you’re going to be going is to the hospital for surgery.”
    â€œHe’s going to need surgery?” I asked.
    â€œMaybe not, if he can stay still and let himself get better.” He slid the needle into Romeo’s hip, and I winced, though Romeo never seemed to notice.
    â€œWhat is that?”
    â€œDemerol and Phenergan. It will knock him out and keep him from throwing up. It’s a terrible thing to throw up when you’ve broken your back.”
    â€œI broke his back?”
    Both Al and Dominic turned to look at me, and Romeo used his last word to whisper, kindly, “No.”
    â€œWe won’t know for sure without an X-ray, but chances are he has a compression fracture. Just think of it as two of his vertebrae moving a little closer together. At least that’s what he had ten years ago, and when you have one, it stands to reason you’re going to have two. But it’s nobody’s fault.” Dominic stopped and reconsidered this. “Well, it’s his fault. Whatever he was doing, it’s pretty safe to say he shouldn’t have been doing it.”
    I was so distraught, I wondered if there was anything left in that vial for me. Then we could be laid out side by side, Romeo and Julie, the star-crossed aging lovers who fell prey to their own passions.
    â€œHow long does he have to stay in bed?”
    â€œIt could be a week, it could be considerably more. It depends on how he heals up. Even when he’s up, he’s going to mostly be down. You have to keep him in bed.”
    â€œI’ll try my best.” Standing there naked in my tatty bathrobe, the comment felt tawdry.
    Dominic patted me on the shoulder. He could have made any number of jokes and had a nice laugh at my expense or Romeo’s, but he took the high road and gave me a pleasant smile. “I’ll swing by in the morning to check on him. You take good care of him. If you need something, you call me. We go all the way back. We always felt sorry for Romeo being an only child—we used