ORION MAGAZINE

Page 1

Luis Alberto Urrea

The Southside

RaZa

Image Federation

Corps

of Discovery A short story

S

o this was New Year’s Day. This was sunlight. Seventy-eight degrees. This was the sound of the barrio awakening from the party: doves mourning the passing of night, pigeons in the dead palm trees chuckling amid rattling fronds, the mockingbird doing car alarm and church bell iterations in Big Angel’s olive trees in front of the house. Junior pulled the pillow over his head — it was those kids with their Big Wheels, that bald shortie they called Taras Bulba making all that noise that hurt his head. Somebody knocked on the screen door. Junior groaned, rolled out of bed. He was in his plaid boxers. Yeah, he was skinny, but he was working out after school every day. Big Angel wasn’t worth much lately, but he did put cement in two co=ee cans and sink a bar in the middle so Junior could curl and get his guns pumped. He flexed in the mirror. Guns! More like derringers.

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Ra echel Running

Bam-bam-bam on the screen. “A’ight, guey! I’m coming!” The living room was covered in sleeping vatos. They were tangled on the couch and on the floor, and there were dead forties and vino bottles scattered all over. The TV was still on: ESPN 2. Junior shook his head. His big brother, Little Angel, was snoring. That damned Chango was on the floor. Junior gave him a little kick and shot Chango the bird as he stepped over him. “I seen that,” Chango warned, though his eyes never opened. They’d started arriving last night around ten. Poor old Big Angel’s first New Year’s without Moms in the house. He’d invited them to enjoy the fridge and the eggnog and had gone o= to bed. “Egg knobs?” Chango had said. “What the fuck’s an egg knob?” j a n ua r y

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