Carlo's first stop that day was the local bodega a few blocks away from his home. Located at the bottom of a five-story brick walk-up. It was a typical corner store with a big red awning displaying pictures of breakfast foods with the words “South-end Deli” written next to them. Above that were giant white letters that spelled out the name of the Deli again for the neighborhood to see. Like most Bodegas it was located in the center of most foot traffic, making it a hub for all to go to.
They were open 24/7. The morning staff was run by the Ahks of Middle Eastern descent. They were the very sociable owners of the store, often calling Carlo buddy at least three times in one sentence. The night staff were Latino men who did not like to talk to anyone but each other. This often led to a drunk customer at three in the morning yelling “yo Papi say something! I asked you to fry my chop cheese yo, that doesn’t seem like a wild request, my guy. I know you understand me!” Carlo did not talk to them and they liked that. They would even give him free snacks or drinks occasionally when he came in very late after hours of working in the lab. It was after Nine in the morning. So the day and night crews were swapping.
As Carlo came up towards the corner, a young man was walking out the front door holding a grocery bag. They recognized each other immediately. They both cracked a smile.
“Yo Crook, how are you man?” Kai said, giving out his right hand for a friendly dab. Carlo looked down at the gesture but extended his opposite hand.
“Pardon my left. I hurt myself the other night,” Carlo said, giving a quick nod to his right arm. Kai looked down and moved his groceries to his right before giving Carlo a dab followed by a quick knuckle bump.
“It's alright Crook. You good though B?” he asked, looking down at the rounded shape of the gauntlet pressed along the lining of his coat. Carlo chuckled.
“Yeah, hopefully, it doesn’t attenuate my optimal dexterity too much. You always hope this kind of injury falls into the realm of impermanence, but you never know with us Non-specials and our lack of cells MG-...oh I’m doing it again aren’t I?” Carlo stopped himself. He stared at Kai who was trying to hold back a laugh. “Was I being pestiferous again?”
“You mean using SAT words in a normal convo? Then yeah. Did you always talk like that?”
“Worse actually. I was castigated if by the nuns if they heard me even cuss let alone not sound like I read all the books they put in front of me”
“I thought nuns were supposed to be nice.”
“They are, if you're good. Never have been, unfortunately.” Carlo said. Kai Chuckled. “Actually, even if you were bad, singing a few sermons got you off the hook. Care for the morning hymn my brother?” Carlo cleared his throat. Kai raised his hands up.
“Oh nah Crook, not again, why you gotta always do-”
“-Aún no puedo asimilar lo que me ha sucedido!” Carlo bellowed out the whole first verse of Marcos Vidal’s “El Milagro” and leaned back raising his left hand with wiggling fingers as if he were trying to direct the holy spirit directly into Kai. The young man began waving him off.
“Whoa, golden pipes save it for Sunday alright. It's too early for all that,” Kai said Carlo put his arm around his shoulder, attempting to drag him into the song but the young man pulled away. “Man come on, I got enough to do today,” he said. Carlo chuckled, letting him go.
“Ahh, maybe another time.”
"Yeah maybe...probably not, but yeah.”
“hehe…So you're still in Beanie and Bigs’ business I see.”
“Hey, they keep me paid. If I could get a job like you-”
“-Eh, trust me, it's not...optimal.”
“You get paid well right?”
“Money isn’t everything Kai.”
“Says the guy making Cake. Why do dudes with money always downplay it? Like the rest of us wouldn’t want it.”
“Man cannot live on bread alone. You know what that means, brother?” Kai let out an obnoxious raspberry in response.
“I know a guy who walks around a cupcake on his chest and doesn’t seem to get what irony is.” Carlo let out an irritated snort.
“Good one, but no. Your soul. The statement is addressing what the cost of your soul truly is.”
“Well shit, I don’t know what kind of expenses you got, but mine are starting to pile up with laser tag trips.”
“Haily’s still infatuated with Freezeland?”
“Freezeland, Freezeland, it's all she talks about now. Mom isn’t going to take her so it's on me. Plus now my nephew wants to go too.”
“I could help with that,” Carlo said immediately, but Kai waved him off again.
“Nah Crook, It's not like when we were kids. Those laser tag guns you built us when we were kids are kinda popped now. No offense. People just want that real shit. ”
“What I used to give you kids was real. It made sounds, you could play with ten people. It even burned if I recall-”
“-and that's why they stopped letting it happen at the block parties. I mean like we have those anymore to begin with...No one wants to be outside for long these days.”
“Yeah...but I mean isn’t that my point though?”
“You ain’t really in any position to judge Crook.”
“I’am though. Don’t be me, I’m uh-washed. You know? My ship sailed a long time ago without me.”
“Oh so now you're self-aware?”
“Aware enough to know being washed is throwing bible verses at a teenager right before ten in the morning.”
“Yeah, that's pretty bad.”
“Look the term By any means takes a lot of forms is all I’m saying. I'm aware I’m wrong, but you don’t have to follow guys like Bigs and me into the fire. We’re the kids that burned ourselves on the stove. Don’t follow suit just because you’re feeling a Chill, Kai.” Kai let out a small chuckle at Carlo’s monologue. “I say something funny?”
“The irony thing again. It’s the baker telling the common man bread is bad for him.”
“I’m giving out bread so you can eat. But I’m not going to lie and tell you my pockets aren’t being lined or that it’s healthy. I’d be a charlatan,” Carlo assured him.
Kai was still skeptical. Carlo had been a part of the neighborhood since he was young. The local phantom, the mad villain of the Bronx who lived between the walls and under the street with an army of machines that could rival the police force. But when he would see him around the way, the reality was very different. He was a frail man with a lazy eye and slumped shoulders who always met him or any other kid with an awkward, but genuine smile. Growing older and seeing the city's filth for what it was, Kai finally understands guys like Crooked eye. Carlo wasn’t that different then any other criminal he’d met from the neighborhood. Just like the rest of them, he was struggling to keep his head above water.
“That’s your opinion as a holy man?” Kai said in jest.
“Or a devil that’s poor at his job?” Carlo quipped.
“I like that one…I’ll think about it, Crook,” Kai said.
“Good. Well, I’ve held you up long enough. Give my love to your family Kai. God be with you.” Carlo said, giving out his left hand again. Kai took it, then enveloped him into a quick hug.
“And with you Crook. Good looks,” he said before going on his way. Carlo looked back at Kai before with a feeling of disappointment. Kai was one of the many kids that had grown up around him in the neighborhood. He was Crook, big Crook, or Mr. Cooked. Everyone knew him, well enough that he felt safe to go to breakfast around these parts with a kill order on his head. They had a sense of what he did, but no one batted an eye, no pun intended. Carlo had become a strange part of the ecosystem, a mainstay of the neighborhood. He was part of their home. But that was over now. He would never know how Kai or any of the kids would end up. How they would grow, how they would live, or how they would die. This clouded his mind, but he didn’t show it entering the bodega door.
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