Friday, January 06, 2006

chapter 13.

Julio has been in bed for weeks. He spits blood, coughs, watches television.

Lizaveta takes care of him.

She brings him water and oranges.

Julio calls for his brother Tuco.

Tuco goes into the dark room. Tuco sits on a wooden seat holding his hat.

Lizaveta stands in the door.

Julio says to Tuco, "Brother I am dying. There is something wrong with my body, I will expire soon. Please give mother this note: The note says: Dear Mother, My brain has been exhausted. I cannot take the blood of the goat no longer. There are men who have come, they have come with guns. And put holes in me. They have taken my gold. I will be evicted. The blood of the hamster bleeds from my soul. My soul flies like doves and eagles and robins and blue birds mother. There are no sounds anymore. A dumb ackward silence pervades the land. A commercial comes on and tells me to buy soda. Another tells me to buy soap. Lizaveta cries at night drinking vodka. Remember during the Algerian War when they ripped my finger nails out. Remember the hot water. The white beaches and chupacabras. The chupacabra mother, have come for me. They are in New York City on the upper east side. Beware of the chupacabra."

Tuca reads the note and puts it in his pocket.

Julio goes on, "Brother, you must listen to me. I have buried the money in Florida. When I first came over. I buried it, I dug the dirt, and laid it down, and it is the ground. It is in Florida, beneath a Dominoe's Pizza. You must blow up The Dominoe's Pizza, then dig. Are you listening Tuco? There is another though. A dark other, who wears a black hat and Nike Airs. He has many guns and a big truck. He will ride from the west, and you and him and Lizaveta go with him. There will be time and a place and everything will happen for a reason and I love you because you are my brother and tell father I am sorry."

Tuco looks at his brother in silence still holding his hat.

Julio says his last words, "Take Lizaveta Tuco. She is a good woman. Her heart is in the right place, sometimes she will get drunk and throw things and break shit that is expensive. But we all do, so it is normal. Soon I will close my eyes, and be gone. That is fine. I am tired of watching of Seinfeld reruns."

Julio dies.

Tuco reaches over and pushes down his eyelids.

Lizaveta drinks Vodka.

Lizaveta goes into another room.

She comes back with a skateboard and rope.

Tuco looks at her and says, "What the fuck are you doing?"

"I'm going to tie him to the skateboard, then lasso a dog, and the dog will take him away."

Tuco looks confused but goes, "That sounds good."

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