Read Online Triplines (9781936364107) by Leonard Chang - Free Book Online

you?”
    â€œOkay. How are you?”
    She laughs that whispery delicate laugh, and Lenny smiles.
    â€œI’m good,” she says. “I’m writing a paper for my psych class. Did I tell you I’m in college?”
    â€œNo,” Lenny says.
    Nancy is a junior at Hofstra University, and lives in one of the high-rise dorms near the highway, working nights as a waitress at an Italian restaurant. She tells Lenny she hopes to specialize in child psychology, which is why she accepted his collect call. “Any young kid who calls strangers like this has got be interesting. What’s on your mind?”
    Lenny doesn’t know what to say, and after a few moments she asks, “Okay, tell me one interesting thing that happened to you today.”
    He tells her that he was almost been suspended from school.
    â€œThat
is
interesting. Why?”
    When Lenny describes his fight with Frankie he finds iteasier to talk to someone he doesn’t know. She asks about what Frankie said to Mira, and when Lenny tells her, she says, “Oh! You’re Oriental?”
    â€œKorean.”
    â€œWhere are you calling from?”
    â€œMerrick.”
    â€œI didn’t know there were any Orientals in Merrick.”
    Lenny suddenly doesn’t like her knowing too much about him, and he hangs up.
    After practicing his kicks and punches in the back yard, he heads up to the train station but sees one of the neighborhood kids on a minibike, riding fast in the middle the street. They recognize each other, and the boy rides up onto the sidewalk to say hello. He introduces himself as Sal, short for Salerno, and asks Lenny if he wants a ride.
    Sal is tall and lanky, with an underbite that seems to slur his words. He wears an AC/DC concert shirt and dirty jeans with holes on the knees. Long scratches cover his arms, as if he fell into a thorn bush, and his fingernails have grease under them.
    The minibike looks like a lawnmower engine in a basic metal frame, the tires small and bald, and he controls the throttle with a shoelace tied to the springloaded switch on the engine. A thick cocoon of duct tape attaches the seat to the frame. Lenny asks him if he built this himself, and he replies, “Most of it. My dad helped. Get on.”
    Lenny climbs onto the back. Sal tells Lenny not to drag his feet, and they take off. There are no shock absorbers, so the ride is bumpy and erratic, and the shoelace throttle jerks them forward. Sal speeds down Wynsum Avenue, the enginewhining, and Lenny grips the back of the seat tightly. Sal yells, “Hold on! I’m opening it up!”
    He yanks on the shoelace and they lurch forward and speed about twenty miles an hour. Lenny starts laughing hysterically because he’s scared, but he’s also enjoying this, and when Sal brings them to a slow stop, using his sneakers as brakes, Lenny calms down. His hands hurt from holding the seat so hard. Sal shuts off the engine.
    â€œThanks,” Lenny says.
    â€œI saw your brother smoking weed last week.”
    â€œYeah?”
    â€œYou go to school with my sister?
    â€œNo. I go to Birch.”
    â€œHow come you go to Birch? We live right near each other.”
    â€œI’m on the dividing line.”
    â€œToo bad. You could’ve just walked across the highway to go to school. Take it easy. I gotta run.” He climbs back onto his minibike, yanks the engine alive with the starter cord, and then slowly tugs on the shoelace, the bike drifting forward. He says, “Let me know if you ever need to buy some weed.”
    Lenny asks, “What?”
    But Sal is already speeding away, his shirt flapping up his pale, bony back.
    Because this weekend is Umee’s doctor’s appointment, the mood in the house is strangely subdued. Yul, although drinking as usual, is solicitous with her, cleaning up the McDonald’s wrappers and washing the glasses in the sink. They talk quietly about closing the store, and Lenny