Page 24 of Two Marlboros

He infected me again with his laughter and his cheeks gained some color. When he was embarrassed, he shone in a different light.

A series of cackles drew my attention. It came from the black-tailed girl’s group; one of the boys shoved another, while big words were flying. Without a second thought, I ran toward the group of friends to reach the two quarrelsome men.

The guy next to Black Tail was insulting the one in front of him, bewildered and hiding inside the hood of his hoodie, who was trying to dodge as best he could the blows the other was delivering. Black Tail approached the guy standing next to her and tried to pull him away from the hooded one, but in return she only got an elbow that smacked her in the side.

“Ow! Somebody stops them, please!”

She backed away calling for help, but slowly the other friends were also backing for fear. I tried to separate them, but the quarrelsome boy tried to throw a punch at me, which I quickly dodged. He tried again a short time later and the punch, this time directed toward the hooded man, landed, causing the boy to land on the grass face down. I took advantage of that moment to encircle Black Tail’s friend from behind.

“What the fuck do you want, you? Get off me!”

The boy wiggled and tried to free himself from my grip, which I held firmly.

“Stop it, both of you!” I shouted.

I held back my legs at least as best I could, to prevent him from rushing back toward the other boy, who had meanwhile gotten up. Black Tail’s friend stopped pawing, so I gradually loosened my grip, without losing sight of him. His breathing was still swollen, but he merely glared at the guy in front of him, who had pulled up his hood again.

“Can you explain what happened?” I asked.

Neither of them breathed a word. They were too busy casting threatening glances at each other, so I tried to seek help from Black Tail, still shaken by his friend’s sudden reaction.

“Nothing, don’t worry about it. Thanks for stepping in.”

I cast another glance at the two fighters, but they seemed to have put aside their violent instincts.

“You’re welcome. Duty,” I replied to her.

I moved a few steps toward Nathan but I stepped on something sturdier than grass and bent down to pick it up.

It almost didn’t seem real to me: it was a club card, and as I oriented it toward the lamppost, there was a glimpse on the left of it of an animal that looked very much like the bull I had found in Michael’s drawings, the post office employee. I shifted my gaze to the name, but all I saw was the back of a hand, almost totally covered with a tattoo, which I could not make out.

“It’s mine, if you don’t mind.”

I barely had time to look up and notice the hooded boy slipping the card from my fingers; then he took off running toward the pavilion where the concert was to be held, only to disappear the next moment.

As I walked back toward Nathan, who was looking at me inebriated with that stupid cigarette of his in his hand, I realized that the bull on Michael’s notebooks might indeed represent the venue’s logo on the card, whose name I had unfortunately not gotten to read in time.

“Wow, congratulations. That was cool!”

Either way, though, my search narrowed dramatically, or at least it was a great start on that lead. If I could trace the club, I could track Michael down or get more information about him and the robbery.

“You were cool, really.”

...I had to get down to it and carry out the search as soon as possible. Maybe I could have spared Ashton and asked him to help me.

“Alan?”

...But not before I could get rid of Nathan. Couldn’t he keep quiet for a while?

“Yes?”

He looked at me questioningly.

“I was saying, you were great. That punch could have really hurt you.”

“Yeah, well ... no big deal.”

“So, let me get this straight,” Nathan replied again, “Ashton planned this?”

---