Thirst, Unquenchable
1716 Words
I was not in my memory palace anymore. I was in the bar, holding a shady piece of paper in my hand, a lot to think instantly, and obviously a drunk frenemy.
I didn’t expect that Durante would call for me. Logically he would be hating me, on behalf of my family. His calling me was quite a surprise. But yet I had to respond.
I told the guy, ‘Well, why not?’
He showed me the back exit, ‘A black Sedan is waiting for you, sir.’
I turned to Micah, ‘Hey, can you go back home on your own? I have to visit an old friend.’
She sighed, ‘Whatever, I am not jealous, not jealous at all.’
She started to walk away to the front exit. Why would she be jealous? What was there for jealousy?
I started following the guy to the back exit. The Sedan was quite familiar, I saw it the last time I visited here. Maybe that was different, maybe Italy had a common car to drive.
I sat in the back; the interior was quite royal. It was a new experience. I looked at the front, it was not so seducing as the back. The driving was white, maybe an immigrant trying to earn some bucks in this shady world.
I looked at him, ‘Do you have any jazz?’
He turned around, ‘Maybe, let me check.’
I looked outside. It started raining slowly, it was lower than a drizzle, but noticeable enough.
The music started playing, so did the car. The choice was good enough for me to relax a bit. Did Durante know about Lilith? He never loved her; he just had an obsession for her charm. He wanted to let everyone know that he would get what he wanted, a typical narcissistic approach. But Lilith did love him, she loved him a lot. Could he accept her after however she became physically?
I tried to give my focus to the song. Billie Holiday was happy to sing through the speaker. I knew the song, I loved the song so much, always.
I tried to sing with Billie, I knew the lyrics:
‘Angels have no thought of ever returning you
Would they be angry if I thought of joining you?’
Should they be angry? They shouldn’t. It was nothing to weep, they had no feeling.
The car stopped. It took a Billie Holiday song to come here. I could have come here walking in half an hour. These mobsters had one thing in common, they wouldn’t let go of their pride, no matter what.
I got out of the car, it was the same mansion. The vibe of fresh green leaves still came to me as an excuse to run away.
I didn’t run away before; I wouldn’t run away this time.
I was escorted to the guest room. I never saw this room. It was well decorated, just like somebody handpicked every item, decorated personally. It felt wonderful.
I sat on the sofa, waited for anyone to come, or to get a headshot. But truly speaking, that would seem fair to me. Durante nearly lost everything because of me. He had every reason to kill me, I had every reason to hurt Ranko. I did it eventually, why wouldn’t he?
A girl came by, ‘Sir has called for you to the dining room. You can leave the jacket here.’
I didn’t want to, but any rough behavior here would end up in vain. So, I left the overcoat.
The moment came, the moment when I would meet the guy for the second time. He was sitting there, quite devastated, he had the face of a dying patient. I couldn’t see what he hid underneath his skin, a plain invitation or a revenge in peace.
He looked at me, ‘Long time no see, Il Pugnale. Have a seat.’
I sighed, ‘You know you don’t have to call me that. I am not known for that anymore.’
He laughed, ‘No, of course not. You are now known as Il principe del cartello.’
What the hell! The prince of the cartel? From when?
He asked me to sit, ‘Remember the last words you said to me?’
I remembered. We were playing a game of chess. It was halfway down. He was too much aggressive, he was letting down his guards in every step. I told him to control his anger for the final throw. Before anything could happen, an unexpected happened.
‘Don’t waste your anger, pile up to throw for a bigger time. You said that. And yeah, I will admit, that was a great advice. So here we are.’
I sat normally. He couldn’t surprise me with anything. He could kill me, instantly or with pain. I would be free from everything. He could also leave me, destroy me emotionally. Either way, I wouldn’t care.
He picked up a box from the floor. I wasn’t surprised. But I was curious, what could be in that box?
He opened the box, there were chess pieces in there. It was surprising, I would have never expected that.
He looked at me, ‘Remember? Let's recreate the game. Let's end what we started.’
I had no choice. He started to arranged the pieces. He remembered that game even after all these years?
He threw his first move, ‘I’ll try not to be hasty this time.’
I moved my knight to the right, ‘Well, this wasn’t really the purpose of my visit.’
He backed up his bishop, ‘I know. You are here for Abiel, right?’
I wasn’t surprised, words could spread as any virus, could be deadly as a virus.
I forwarded my pawn, ‘So, what do you say? How did you think of my involvement in this murder? Do you have any clue?’
He threw his knight on my pawn, ‘Well, you couldn’t do that, I can say. You are too ethical to murder a guy who you don’t know at all. I mean, I know him. So that gives me a thousand untellable reasons to kill him. But you never knew his name before.’
It was true. I never heard of the name, neither I could recognize him.
I moved my queen two steps left, ‘So, is anything about him sharable to me?’
He paused for a bit, ‘Where should I start? I knew him since childhood. He was very good with numbers, and he was good in conscience. He wanted to be an administrator from childhood. But you know, we all have some shitty dream from our childhood. We usually end up laughing on how naïve those dreams were once we grow up. He was no less.’
He brought up a bottle of porn vodka. I knew how much he loved it. He took out two glasses, to show me some courtesy.
I wasn’t finished hearing, ‘So, when did it all go south? What could be the reason?’
He also started placing the pawn, ‘Well, it was his young days. We all were young. Me and Reno were the paper boys in the streets. We could dominate anything. Suddenly, one day, Abiel came to us.’
I backed up my queen. He continued, ‘He said he had some insecurities about something, he needed some unbiased decisions. He couldn’t ask me, as I already knew him, hence any of my advices would be biased. So, he went to Reno, I was convinced, Reno was capable enough. I had no worries.’
I knew that, grandpa already told me how he helped Reno achieving what he wanted. I could say when he lied.
Durante kept saying, ‘Abiel left Italy. He wanted to get a taste of American soil. We were happy, it was a happy moment. I thought Reno had knocked some good senses in him. But I should've known, Reno never could make anyone good. I then never saw Abiel, until two years ago.’
Two years ago? I wanted to know more. But there was an interruption.
A guy of Durante slowly walked into the room. He went to Durante and whispered something in his ears. I had no plan on eavesdropping. But it was quite a distraction.
Abiel laughed slowly, ‘Looks like we have a visitor. Bring in, so that my friend Lazio can see.’
He got visitor to show me? Ranko? Even after what I did to him?
It wasn’t Ranko. It was Micah, almost drunk, maybe confused. And I knew, I was in some different kind of trouble.
She looked at me, ‘I am sorry. I shouldn’t have followed. Why am I here?’
She was too drunk to understand anything. Why did she have to come here? I had to get her out of here.
Durante spoke in high voice, ‘A lovely lady, shouldn’t she set aside me to enjoy the game?’
He grabbed her hand and made her sit beside him. It was quite awkward for me.
Micah was too sensitive to understand any of that, ‘Lazarus, I want to go home.’
Durante laughed, ‘Right? Who doesn’t? But we have plenty of time, sweetheart.’
He looked at me, ‘So, where was I? Yeah, two years ago. It was the meeting with Taiwanese cartel. They had a new deal for me. The deal was like a grant access to the Asian mob side. It was wonderful. I heard they were sending their spokesperson. I was excited, as my previous cartel was snatched by Reno, thanks to you.’
So, he didn’t know about the blowup. Maybe Perez kept his mouth shut after the last incident. He had a deal with grandpa, so he had to.
He looked at Micah, ‘You know, this guy almost defeated me in our first chess game. How can you not leave him out of sight? He is a beast, in everything. It’s wonderful. You should know, right.’
He grabbed her waist from behind. She was surprised, but not so sober to protest. I was just sitting there, unable to do anything. It was his house.
I wanted to get up, but couldn’t. He looked at me, ‘So, the dagger, let me see how you can pierce through the game now.’
Suddenly my phone rang. I slowly reached to my pocket to check it.
No surprises! Just the thing I could have in this worse time. It was from grandpa.
- Writer
