Repairman Jack [07]-Gateways Read Free

he wasn’t. Instead he felt a pang of regret, as if he’d lost something.
    A decade and a half ago, when Jack had dropped out of college, out of his family, and out of society in general, his father spent years tracking him down. Somehow he found someone who had Jack’s number. He started calling. Eventually he wore Jack down to the point where he agreed to meet him in the city for dinner. After that they got together maybe once a year for a meal or a set of tennis.
    A tenuous relationship at best. The get-togethers were always uncomfortable for Jack. Though his father had never said it, Jack knew he was disappointed in his younger son. Thought he was an appliance repairman and was always pushing him to better himself—finish college, get a pension plan, think about the future, retirement will be here before you know it, blah-blah-blah.
    Dad didn’t have a clue about what his younger son was about, the crimes he’d committed, the people he’d had to kill while earning his living, and Jack never would tell him. The old guy would be devastated.
    “Where’d you say he was?”
    “Novaton Community Hospital, and don’t ask me where that is because I don’t know. Someplace in Dade County, I’d imagine. That’s where he had his place.”
    “Where’s—?”
    “South of Miami. Look, the best thing to do is call the hospital—no, I don’t have the number—and ask for directions from Miami International. That’s where you’ll have to fly into.”
    “Swell.”
    “If he wakes up, explain to him that I’d be there if I could.”
    Sure you would, Jack thought. And then it hit him.
    “‘If he wakes up’?”
    “Yeah. If. They say he’s banged up pretty bad.”
    Jack’s chest ached. “I’ll leave as soon as I tie up a few loose ends here,” he said, suddenly tired.
    He hung up. He had nothing more to say to his brother.

4

    Semelee awoke alone in the dark. She opened her eyes and lay perfect still, listenin’. She heard the breathin’ sounds of her clansmen around her, some soft, some rough. She heard the creak of the old houseboat timbers as it rocked gentle like, the soft lap of the lagoon water against the hull, the croakin’ of frogs and the chirpin’ of crickets among the night sounds of the other Everglades critters. She jumped as someone nearby—Luke, most likely—made a coughin’ sound that turned into a snore.
    The thick hot air lay like a damp sheet on the exposed skin of her arms and legs, but she was used to it. This September was provin’ to be a hot one, but not like August. That had been a hot one, hottest she could remember.
    Why was she awake? She usually slept straight through the night. And then she remembered the dream—not the details, for they had vanished into the night like mornin’ mist before a storm, but the overall feel of movement…movement toward her.
    “Someone’s comin’,” she whispered aloud.
    She didn’t know how she knew, she just did. This weren’t the first time she’d had a second sight. Every so often, without warnin’, she’d get a sense of somethin’ about to happen, and then it did, it always did.
    Someone was comin’ her way. A him, a man, was on his way. She didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Didn’t matter. Either way, Semelee would be ready.

5

    “Such bounty,” Abe Grossman said, staring down at the half dozen donuts laid out in the box before him. “I’ve done what to deserve this?”
    Jack said, “Nothing…everything.”
    Abe’s raised eyebrows sent wrinkles like sets of surfing waves up his brow and into the balding bay of his scalp to crash on the receding gray shore of his hairline. “But Krispy Kremes? For me?”
    “For us .”
    Jack dipped into the box and extracted one of the crustier, sour-cream models, heavy with grease and glazed to within an inch of its life. He took a big bite and closed his eyes. Damn, these were good.
    Abe made a face. “But they’re full of fat, those things.” He rubbed his