Her Birthday Celebration Was My Exit novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: Elmwood Park

I sat on the bed holding that card for a long time.

His mother didn't write notes. She sent men to deliver them.

This one she'd written herself.

In front of the family meant the whole family.

The captains and their wives. The old men at the back table who decided who got buried.

If I didn't go, I was a thief who ran.

And thieves who ran had fathers with porches.

I went down to the kitchen.

Ryder was there, because Sunny had left her rock bag at our house again.

He was eating Tommy's leftover braciole straight from the container.

He took one look at my face and put the fork down.

I handed him the card.

He read it twice.

"November twenty-first," he said. "You're on the line that weekend."

"I know."

"Who's your captain?"

"You are."

He took out his phone and opened the schedule.

"Then I'm giving you my days off."

"You can't give me your days off."

"I can trade them. I've got eleven years of seniority and nobody's ever asked me for anything." He scrolled. "Done. You're off the twentieth through the twenty-third."

"Ryder."

"And so am I."

I stared at him.

"You're coming?"

He shrugged and went back to the braciole.

"I've never seen a mob engagement," he said. "I want to know if they really do the thing with the envelopes."

Sunny stayed with the landlady.

She made Ryder promise to bring her back a rock from Lake Michigan.

"A real one. Not one from the gift shop."

"There's no gift shop at the lake."

"There's a gift shop everywhere, Dad."

We landed at O'Hare on Friday night in sleet.

Pop was waiting at the curb in the Buick, with the heater roaring and a foil package on the seat.

He got out and looked Ryder over.

"You're the captain."

"Yes, sir."

"You fly her or she fly you?"

"Depends on the day, sir."

Pop thought about that.

"Get in the back," he said. "Lali sits up front. That's how it goes."

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