Midnight Taxi Tango Read Online Free PDF Page B

pigeon heads, and then flock away in a huff. Ain’t much going on, really.
    â€œI ain’t got shit,” Riley says.
    Baba Eddie opens his eyes. “Me neither. You might wanna find a better assignment. This park’s boring.”
    â€œBut I will say this.” Riley leans in, and so do Baba Eddie and I. “There something going on with you, homeboy.”
    I scrunch up my face. “Me?” I’m not in the mood for this shit.
    â€œYeah, bro. You seen yourself recently?”
    I have no slick response to this, so I just give him dead eyes.
    Baba Eddie nods. “You losin’ weight, papi.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œAnd I’ll tell ya something else,” Riley says. “You look like shit.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œI mean, metaphorically
and
physically.”
    â€œThe fuck you talking about, Riley?”
    â€œYou ain’t well, C. That’s what I’m talking about.”
    I actually laugh. What else can I do? “I feel fine, man.”
    â€œI’m happy for you, but you ain’t. You been off for, like, a few weeks now, by my count. What you say, Baba E?”
    I look at Baba Eddie. He squints one eye and then the other, calculating the duration of my fuckedupness, I guess. “Since the girl,” he finally says, and I laugh.
    â€œYou guys, listen.” A jogger passes without headphones on, and I pause until he’s out of earshot. “Ain’t shit wrong with me. I’m okay. Yes, that was fucked up, but I ain’t still fucked up about it. Period. Punto. Fin.”
    â€œListen,” Riley says a little too gently, “we all been hurt, man. It’s okay to feel pain. I mean shit, she was carrying your child. You ain’t seen her in what, four months?”
    â€œSix months and seven days.”
    Riley leaps up. “See? That was a test, and you failed. You counting the days, man. Just be upset and be okay with being upset.”
    â€œThat is the best way,” Baba Eddie muses. “The first time Russell and I broke up, I shut down for like three weeks. You couldn’t find me for nothin’. I’m not gonna say I cried, but . . .”
    â€œC’mon!” Riley reaches across me and jabs Baba Eddie with his ghostly arm. “You cried a little.”
    Baba Eddie looks thoughtful for a moment, retrieves another cigarette. “Niagara fucking Falls.”
    â€œWord up,” Riley says. Baba Eddie lights his cigarette and sighs.
    â€œSo I need to cry is what you’re saying?” I have a series of brutal accidents to unravel. I have my past to uncover. I don’t have time for this shit. I can tell Riley’s not gonna let me off easy though.
    He shrugs. “All I’m sayin’ is: whatever it is you need to do to get right, do that.”
    Baba Eddie nods and stands. “I’m late as fuck now, and Kia is going to kill my ass, but, Carlos, I sincerely hope you deal with your shit. Let me know if you ever want to talk or you know . . .”
    â€œI don’t want a reading, Baba, but thank you.”
    He doffs his baseball cap at both of us and strolls off toward Bushwick.
    I look at Riley. “You happy?”
    â€œAlways, partner.”
    I sit back and, as we watch the day stroll past, let a simple melody slip from my lips.

CHAPTER FOUR
    Kia
    A ll the way down the bustling avenues of East Williamsburg, bright and audacious with hot new sales, Dominican cats throwing game, old ladies selling mango, and bachata on ten, Gio stays with me. If I turn around quick, maybe I’d catch him, that flash of a second before he vanishes again into the ether. I have some trippy drum ’n’ bass shit in my ears, a new track from an underground DJ out of Jersey I downloaded last night, and it moves me along at a steady strut, past the cavernous prison facade of Woodhull Hospital and into Bed-Stuy, and Gio remains. It is a friendly haunting, this; got none of