He Lost His Place Protecting Me, So I Took the Whole Family novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: City Island

Zef's driver came to the Kafe on the Friday after the hall, with his hat in one hand and a ring of brass keys in the other.

I took them over the counter.

They were heavy, and warm from his pocket, and they were the keys to two buildings and a truck.

"The old man says they are yours," the driver said. "To give or keep."

"Tell him I heard."

"He says one more thing. He says he knows he cannot ask for what he took."

"Then he knows," I said.

The driver nodded and went out.

I closed my hand on the keys.

That afternoon I rode across the Bronx with the keys on my knee and Luan at the wheel of the Ford.

He had been on a roof since six that morning and smelled of tar and cold air.

He took the Pelham Bay exit without a word, because I had told him where we were going and not why.

At the stop light by the bridge I turned in my seat.

"Hold out your hand," I said.

He held it out, palm up, off the wheel.

I laid the ring in it.

He looked at the keys for a long time.

"These are yours," he said.

"They were yours first."

"Zef gave them to you," he said.

"Zef gave them to me because I'm the one who can give them. So I'm giving them to the man who kept those rooms honest for twenty years."

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