Chulito (11 page)

“Bring me some, too.” Julio snapped his fingers, then answered the phone.

Brick handed them their waters and took a seat next to Chulito.

“That poster’s dope,” Chulito said.

Brick craned his long neck to look back at it. “Thanks.”

“Was it fun to do?”

Brick nodded. “It’s always fun working with Julio.”

Julio smiled and covered the receiver. “Gay boys from all over were booking their cruises with me. Great for business.” Then he returned to his call.

Brick leaned toward Chulito over the chair’s armrest. “And I make good clean money here. I don’t have to be risking my life.”

“So it’s worth all the shit the fellas be giving you?”

Brick snickered. “In the big scheme of things those fellas don’t matter. Half of them don’t work, and they definitely don’t sign my paycheck. Besides Julio is good people, and good people are good people. Period.”

Chulito felt defensive. “Well, Kaz’s good people and he got my back.”

“No doubt. You a cool cat, but you playin’ a dangerous game. You may be tough enough to be in it, but you can’t think about just you, you gotta think about the people in your life, especially the ones closest to you.” Chulito remembered how Brick usually walked around with his daughter on his shoulders. He had a family with Jennifer and her son from a previous man, and he helped with the neighborhood barbecues and block parties. Whereas Kamikaze didn’t reveal whether he had family and as far as Chulito knew, he was the only close person in Kamikaze’s life. He imagined it was because of that danger Brick had alluded to.

Chulito nodded. “Right now, it’s just me and my mom.”

Brick leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on Julio’s desk. He wore flip flops and the nails on his long toes were clean and clipped. Strong veins ran up his feet, across his ankles and up hairy shins.

Julio slid an envelope to Brick and shoved his feet off his desk with one hand and handed papers to Chulito with the other. He then raised one finger signaling him to wait a moment.

Brick counted money from the envelope, then folded and pocketed the bills. He flashed Julio a bright smile. “A pleasure doing business with you.” He extended one of his large hands and offered it to Julio to shake. When Julio shook it, Brick bent over and playfully kissed Julio’s hand. Julio pulled his hand back and hung up the phone. Chulito wondered how clean that money was and if he were being paid for more than just maintenance and handiwork.

“You’re a fucking tease, a fucking bugarrón. I only put up with you because you make me wet.” Julio smiled as he tore off the receipt and handed it to Chulito.

“You wish I was a bugarrón.”

Chulito didn’t know what bugarrón meant, but he wondered if Brick might be gay on the low. He seemed comfortable and playful with Julio, and Chulito didn’t know any other man who behaved like that with a gay guy.

“Check the tickets, Chulito, to make sure everything is O.K.,” Julio said.

Chulito nodded. Brick sat on the desk and put his bare foot on the chair he had just been sitting on. The flip flop remained on the floor. Chulito checked the tickets and stole glances at Brick’s bare foot.

“Get your ass off my desk,” Julio said playfully.

“Chill, Julio. I’m bouncin’,” Brick said with a smile. Chulito had never seen Brick so relaxed. He usually walked around with a scowl.

Jennifer, Brick’s woman, popped into the shop mid-smile. “Brick, how long you gonna make me wait, it’s hot out here.”

“Be right there.” He flashed her a stern look—a look that Chulito was much more familiar seeing on him.

“What the fuck are you doing? Did you get it?” Jennifer asked.

“Yes, I’ll be right out.” Brick turned to Julio. “Sorry.” Then he gave Julio a kiss on the cheek and left. Through the travel agency’s large window covered with posters, Chulito watched Brick and Jennifer continue to argue. Their voices were muffled and the loud, rattling air conditioner made it difficult to make out their words.

“What took you so fucking long, Brick?”

“Enough, Jennifer. Ya, let’s go.”

“If you don’t want to go shopping, just give me the money and you stay here. I don’t care. Crystal needs shoes.”

Julio talked to Chulito but watched the argument. “Have a good trip and tell your mother to call me if she needs anything.”

The fellas from the corner walked up and pretended to pass by but watched the spectacle.

“Jennifer, don’t raise your voice to me.”

“I’m not raising my voice,” Jennifer shouted. “I just want to go and you’re sitting in there hanging out and taking your time. Just give me the money and let me go.”

“Jennifer, chill.”

Chulito felt like he was trapped in the agency by the argument. “Brick’s woman is pretty tough.”

Julio nodded. “To be with Brick, a woman has to be strong.”

A small crowd had formed.

“Fuck you, just give me the fucking money so I can go,” Jennifer said.

Without warning, Brick’s large hand swiped Jennifer’s face. For a moment she stood there stunned. The crowd recoiled. Julio ran out front. Jennifer’s eyes narrowed and she lunged at Brick. Brick lifted his hand.

“Brick, no!” Julio cried out, but Brick’s hand came down on Jennifer and she fell to the ground. Crystal wailed and ran to her mother. Jennifer’s mouth was bleeding and her teeth were red.

“Let him go, you motherfuckin’ faggot,” Jennifer yelled. “Don’t hurt my baby.”

“Brick!” Julio shouted.

Brick gave Julio a look that warned him to stay out of it.

Chulito took two steps toward the door and Julio stopped him.

Someone yelled, “Call the cops!” Jennifer got up and pulled Crystal to her.

Jennifer looked at Brick with defiance as she walked past him with her child sobbing. He glared at her with his hands balled into fists.

Jennifer spit at Brick. The red bloodied glob landed on his cheek right below his eye. He flinched as if to lunge at Jennifer, but held back. The spit slipped down his face and stained his white T-shirt. Brick’s eyes were closed and flickering as if he were having a seizure. Jennifer walked toward their building.

Julio led Brick back into the travel agency. He sat on the couch, covered his face with his big hands and cried, his whole body shaking. The crowd peered into the shop through the posters. Chulito wanted to chase them away but he couldn’t take his eyes off Brick. He’d never seen him so broken and vulnerable, and at the same time Chulito despised him for hitting Jennifer. He wondered if his own father ever expressed such remorse after hitting his mother. If so, Chulito never saw it. He mainly remembered his father’s anger, depression and drunkenness. And the times his father hit Carmen, he would always leave the house in a rage.

Brick put his head on his knees and held himself with his strong arms, sobbing and shaking, no one dared to touch him, not even Julio.

“I can’t believe I hit her, Julio. I can’t believe that shit. I broke my promise.” He looked up at Julio, his eyes were red and tears dripped off his chin and made small spots on his T-shirt next to the blood stain. Brick saw Chulito watching him and covered his face.

Chulito wanted to do something. He went to the water cooler and got some water for Brick. Julio smiled at Chulito, took the water and gestured for him to leave.

A police car pulled up to the travel agency and the crowd dispersed as quickly as it had assembled.

The fellas swarmed Chulito as he came down the block.

“Yo, what happened?” Davey asked, licking his lips.

Chulito shrugged and continued to walk toward the corner with the fellas. He was too stunned by what he’d witnessed and the look of horror on Brick’s face to speak to anyone.

“She shouldn’t have mouthed off like that to him,” Papo said.

“What you talking about?” Chin-Chin asked. “A man never hits a woman. Didn’t your mother teach you that, Papo?”

“Not unless she deserves it. A chick like Jennifer needs to be smacked down, especially if she’s disrespectin’ you out on the street and shit,” Papo answerd.

“Yo, the cops are in Julio’s place,” Looney Tunes said as he ran over to them. “Do you think they gonna arrest Brick?”

“They could, if Jennifer presses charges,” Chin-Chin said.

“She won’t,” Papo said. “She loooves him. And besides they have kids.”

Chulito noticed Carlos walking down Hunts Point Avenue and enter the pizza shop. I dig you, and not like when we were kids. That phrase was on constant replay in his mind.

“Did you see the way he hit her?” Davey asked.

“That shit was foul,” Chin-Chin said shaking his head. “I got heated when I saw that.”

Papo noticed Chulito’s silence. “Yo, Chulito, you O.K.?”

He’d been staring at the doorway to the Bella Vista Pizza Shop way down the block. “I’ll be right back fellas. I’m gonna get a slice.”

“Yo, bring one back for me,” Looney Tunes yelled as Chulito jogged across the street.

As he reached the pizza shop, Chulito’s heart raced, his mouth got dry and his footsteps became slower. On cue, Catalina came out of the nail salon, next door to the pizza shop and intercepted him.

“Hey, Chulito, you finally coming around to see me?” She smiled and looked dark and beautiful in the orange glow of the sun. “I haven’t seen you since you went out with the fellas and I know I was pretty pissed then, but I’m ready to talk to you now.”

“Wow, Catalina, you look great.” Chulito walked toward her and as he passed the pizza shop, he looked out of the corner of his eye and saw Carlos sitting at the counter eating a slice.

Chulito adjusted the baseball cap to block the setting sun out of his eyes, but he knew pulling down the hat made him look sexier. “I’ve been busy and giving you your space. I called you, right?” They stepped away from the entrance to the nail shop and Chulito positioned himself so that he could face Catalina and watch the doorway to the pizza shop.

“I got your messages.” She looked beneath his hat brim to see his eyes.

“I meant what I said about wanting to go out with you for my birthday. I just didn’t know the fellas had made that big surprise, and then like I said, I’ve been busy with Kamikaze. But maybe we could go out in a few days or I could take you shopping?” Chulito flashed a smile. He was on automatic pilot. Like many of the fellas, he knew when to smile and how to look seductively into a girl’s eyes. But he was distracted every time someone walked out of the pizza shop.

“Well, I’m going to the Dominican Republic for the summer and since we haven’t talked I was wondering where we stood.”

They had only gone out a couple of times in the previous three months. They had dinner at the G-Bar near the Grand Concourse, he took her to see her favorite band, Aventura, at the United Palace in Washington Heights, but the intimacy of the last date freaked him out a little. He’d taken her to the movie theatre in Parkchester, the same theater he always frequented with Carlos. He felt wrong about that, as if he’d betrayed Carlos by bringing her to their theater.

Afterwards, she and Chulito walked over to the big fountain. They talked and stared into each other’s eyes a lot. Then, he made out with her on one of the benches. He got turned on so he touched her neck and shoulders and felt her stiff nipples through her black silk blouse. Even though they didn’t seal any deals, she acted like they were together ever since. Out of a sense of obligation, he’d bought her jewelry since that date, stopped by the nail salon a few times, and walked around the neighborhood with her one or twice on one of her breaks. Chulito loved the props he got from the fellas, but the more into him she got, the more he stepped away. He had wanted to do enough to keep her interested, but not so much that she would get hooked. But Carlos changed all that. He didn’t see himself going out with her again.

“I don’t know, mama, our schedules don’t click. You work all day and my work is mainly evenings and weekends.”

“Oh, so we don’t go out with each other because it’s a schedulin’ problem.” She laughed, touched his cheek then ran her hand down his neck, shoulder, arm and laced her fingers through his. Chulito began to sweat because he didn’t want Carlos to catch him holding Catalina’s hand. She looked over her shoulder at the fellas who watched from the corner and were blowing kisses and sarcastically saying, “Oh, how cute.”

Chulito shook his head and smiled. “Those sánganos.”

Catalina laughed.

He squeezed her hand. “But since you going away, and I’m gonna be going to P.R. with my mom, maybe we could take it easy.”

Just then Carlos emerged from the doorway. Chulito dropped Catalina’s hand and the playful smile was suddenly gone from her face. As Carlos approached the couple, Chulito made direct eye contact with him for the first time since they’d talked. Carlos had on a bright red T-shirt, which gave his skin a smooth glow. He slowly looked away from Chulito and shook his head with revulsion.

Catalina took no notice. Instead she lit into him. “So, where is this coming from? What? Next are you gonna say that you want to see other people? You probably got your eye on somebody else? My girls keep telling me that you a big ass playa.”