The World in Reverse Read Free

bo dies.” The fat man stood up again. “Is there anything else to report? Did someone kill an entire elementary school or happen to piss off the CIA since the last time that we met?”
    “Like I said, if you help me , then I’ll make this go away,” the middleman reiterated.
    “With all that fancy education to that Ivy League school and all the fucking trouble you’ve caused with that specialty sex of yours, you’d better fix it,” the fat man said, walking down the steps to the bodyguards waiting on him. “Or I’m going to fix you.”

 
    1
     
    The oldest set of the Agosto twins’ birthday party had to be brought inside due to the ligh tning, thunder, and heavy rains beating against the house like water against a ship. The soggy, golf course-like knoll of their impeccable lawn was flooded, unfit for young children.
    It was a complete disaster.
    The forecast had originally anticipated only a twenty percent chance of rain with a slight overcast. It would have been a perfect day to play outside. The night before Nicola had stayed up setting up the yard’s birthday signs, a huge inflatable bounce house, and tons of benches and chairs - all for nothing.
    The rain had started at ten that morning and continued all day.
    Nicola stood looking out of the patio door at his masterpiece going to shit with a crooked grin on his face. That was life. At least, that was his life.
    His kids, of course, blamed him. “Why, daddy?” they had asked. He couldn’t give them a reason. “God wanted it to rain, so it rained,” he had said before he began carting things inside. Kids didn’t question God.  So, it was easier to incorporate Him in everything. 
    By mid-afternoon, over thirty children ran through the old Victorian home screaming and playing, four of which belonged to the Ag osto’s. However, despite the unforeseen weather, Nicola refused to let his boys’ birthday be ruined. He pushed the large leather couches to the backs of the walls, moved all of Ivy’s china out of the way and turned on the 60 inch television in the entertainment room to play SpongeBob on loop. The other parents chipped in as the normally impervious dining room was turned into a picnic table complete with red and white checkered tablecloths.
    Nicola emerged from the kitchen clutching a 52-piece Spiderman cake in his hands, while Ivy followed carefully behind him, coaching him with every nerve-racking step.
    “Don’t drop it Nicky,” she begged, hands ever so lightly touching the small of his back.
    “Baby, I got this,” Nicola answered, barely missing a little girl in pigtails, who came whir ling by with a squirt gun.
    “No honey, you can’t have those in the house,” Ivy said, turning from Nicola to chase the little girl down the corridor.
    Setting the cake in the middle of the table, Nicola stepped back and raised his brow. “It’s big, huh?” he said to his friend and colleague Moss, standing across the room drinking a beer and talking to his wife.
    “That cake is pure sugar, man. You’re going to have these kids hyper as shit. I’m leaving Malika here with you tonight. Hell, you can babysit her,” Moss said, walking over to the table to take a closer look at the red, blue and white cake. “They definitely supersized it.”
    “No shit,” Nicola said, a little surprised himself. “I just wanted to make sure that I had enough. You know the boys like Spiderman.” He crossed his hands over his chest and ran his tongue around his bottom gum line.
    “What’s wrong?” Moss asked curiously.
    “I’m bummed about the rain,” Nicola answered.
    Moss couldn’t help but laugh. “This is s upposed to be the twins’ party, not yours.”
    Nicola didn’t agree. “Hey, baby. Did you give little man his medicine? I hear him coughing again,” he called into the next room.
    Ivy stuck her head into the entryway with raised brows. “No, I thought that you did.”
    “Well, you better get it out,” Nicola said just as both sets of