Free Once Upon A Wish : Book One by Richard Poche

many witnesses and too little options
for a quick exit.
Nestor scoped out the topography around
Darcy’s. He liked the parking lot. They could get things done at
long range.
Cisneros' gift of the new rifle would be
very useful.
     
Nestor drove the two miles down to Ana's
apartment. He found the creepy quiet of her apartment building to
be a stark contrast to the cacophony of noise that surrounded Fast
Eddie’s place. He could imagine the police investigators going in
and out of the room. Questioning an inconsolable old woman who hid
her head in the sand at her granddaughter’s lifestyle. They would
tell her that questions would be uncomfortable but necessary
because they were only trying to help.
He looked at his watch. Midnight. The
lights were still on in Ana's apartment. Maybe the old lady could
not sleep as she waited for a call from a police detective that
would never come.
Nestor took out his wallet and fingered the
picture of his mother. He thought of the little boy and how he
would face life without a parent. He would go to school and sing
songs in class. Play dodge ball and run with the other kids. But
deep down inside, he would be numb. Nestor realized that there were
certain things you cannot recover from. The loss of a parent may
not kill you physically. Just the person that you used to be. Or
that you could have become.
The light inside Ana's apartment window
shut off. The door opened and out stepped young Antonio.
He hung by the railing of the apartment,
looking down, staring down at the streets. Nestor thought about how
many times the young boy must have seen his Mom come home with her
make-up smeared. With dried mascara tears on her cheeks and her
hair mussed up. He wondered how long it would take before the boy
looked back on his past and realized the kind of mother he
had.
Nestor got out of his car. He looked over
at the boy and noticed how much different he looked from when he
first saw him.
The boy’s face looked blank. He folded his
arms on the railing and laid his head on his tiny forearms.
He waited for his mother to come home.
Nestor looked at his Mom's picture and
folded it back into his wallet.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

CHAPTER 10
     
The droning thump from Darcy’s nightclub
rattled the windows of Nestor's truck.
The air around the place seemed as tense as
Nestor. He hated bars and dance clubs. With his facial scar and
rat-like features, he could never fit in. Not even if he had money
to toss around.
Darcy’s stood at the end of the Jack London
Square strip and overlooked the estuary. A barbershop next to the
club shut down after the owner was robbed and murdered a month
earlier. Next to the barbershop stood an adult video store, long
abandoned. A spray-painted penis decorated its shuttered
doors.
Nestor checked his watch then sat up in
attention as a black Infiniti glided into the lot.
    “There he is, amigo .” Nestor took out
his gun and checked the clip. “And taking up two parking spaces
like the entitled asshole that he is.”
Hernan stared with hooded eyes as the
parking lights clipped off. His gun dangled from his long arm as he
massaged the handle with his thumb. A nervous twitch. Then he
checked his own clip and inserted it back in slowly, as if it were
a sacramental gesture.
“This scumbag may have more than one woman
with him,” Nestor said. “Plus the driver.”
They watched as the driver stepped out of
the vehicle. He opened up the rear passenger side door.
“We have to take out his entire entourage.
The driver. The girls. I don't care if he has a puppy dog in
there.”
“What if there is a kid?”
Nestor said nothing as he watched a Puerto
Rican woman with long blonde curls exit the vehicle. He could smell
her perfume twenty yards away. She wore a tight fuchsia dress,
matching the streaks of pink she had in her hair.
Fast Eddie exited after