Lucky Dog 1 translations 09 Ivan route 05

Part 3: Daivan

Chapter 9

We’re All Together in This

The conference finally ends when it starts getting really late.

     

The moment we get back to the room … as expected, Ivan’s pacing back and forth irritably like a wolf trapped in a cage.

Gian: Just calm down.  You won’t get fat just from missing a bit of exercise.

Ivan: That’s not it, stupid!  …Fuck, of all times…!  I can’t even go out to clean up the streets!  Fuck!  Shit!!

Automated doll that spits out ‘Fuck’ and ‘Shit,’ on sale today!

As I watch the show, I give yet another sigh.

After the conference…

…it was decided that we’re gonna be kept shut in here.  There’s some directors who’re standing fast behind wanting to give us a harsh punishment, and some even wanted to execute us … but Luchino’s picture was the clincher.

Final result?  The Board’d settled with deciding that we’re gonna be off the job for a while.

…As for me, I was more concerned with Bernardo.  I’d seen him talking with the cleaner after the end of the meeting.  …They weren’t talking about us, were they…?

Ivan gives a stool a fierce kick, sending clatters and crashes through the room.

Ivan: Fuck, where’s the phone?!

Gian: There, but is that OK?  Bernardo told us to pass aaall the calls through him.

Ivan: Fuck…!!  I can’t call the girls at the shops then!

This idiot is seriously…  I head to the bathroom to keep myself from accidentally hitting him when I catch myself in the mirror.

Gian: Shit, I look horrible…

My face’s wasted so badly even I gape at myself.  …Guess it’s to be expected, though.  Today was the worst…

…I hate baths, but this one time I was thankful for a hot soak.  When I sink myself in all the way with the water over my head and my eyes closed, I can feel something dark and black in my stomach seep out.

…What a shitty day…

     

I find a fluffy towel and wrap it around my waist before leaving the bathroom.

Gian: …Phew.  Ivan, you should try taking a bath, too.

Ivan’s…

…bending over on the sofa by the window and dismantling his piece over a towel he’s laid out on the low table.  He also has a cleaner brush and oil.  Don’t know where he got those from, though.

Gian: So, taking care of that piece comes first.

Ivan: …’course.  If you don’t take care of your gun, it’ll break and crap up lickity-split.

Gian: ‘s that so?  Guess it’s the same as with that other ‘piece!’

I suddenly glance out the window.  …Holy shit wow, wow, and wow.  What a beautiful night view.  I just noticed it now.  After all, Daivan’s not something worthless.

I see, so this is why this room’s top class.  It’s not worth a mil, but the night view could go for 160 grand.

…But … instead of having a beautiful lady beside me, I get the infamous idiot.

Suddenly, a knock flies from the door.  Ivan and I both stare at it.

Ivan: …Who is it?

Ragtliffe: Oh, it is I, the janitor.

…Huh?  The four-eyes…?  Why this late at night…?

Gian: …Wh-What’s up?  We don’t need a janitor to clean up this room yet…?

Ragtliffe: No, that’s not why I am here.  I am here to deliver something on behalf of Mr. Ortolani.

…Ortolani?   …Oh, right, he means Bernardo…  I’d forgotten.

Ivan: What…?  …Come in, and do it slowly.

Ivan calls back, cautious as a stray cat.  His fingers move automatically to put his pistol back together again, minus the sight, and stuff the bullets into the chamber.

Ragtliffe: Excuse meee.  …Oh my, what a beautiful room.

The cleaner who’d appeared so suddenly … enters the room hefting two huge paper bags.

Ragtliffe: These are your late-night meals.  Please, help yourself.

Ivan: Wha…?  We didn’t ask for anything like that!

Ivan finally lets go of the gun, and I’m starving, so at the same time, we rip the paper bags apart and peek inside.

Ivan: These are … hot dogs from the butchers by the station?!  You do an awesome job sometimes, cleanerman!!

…I see, so this is Bernardo’s work?  This was what he’d been talking to the janitor about?  Thank you, Bernardo!

Ivan happily peels off the paper wrapping and, still scrounging around the bags, he starts scarfing it down.  The smell of grilled fat and tomatoes hits me in the gut.

I look into my bag, and there’s… …At first, I wonder why it’s filled with rolls of leather.  …Then I look closer and see a whole mountain of cukes.

Gian: What … is this…?

Ragtliffe: You must eat your vegetables.

Gian: Yeah, but still.  Why so many cucumbers and only cucumbers…?

Ivan: Not touching ‘em.  I’m no beetle.

Ragtliffe: Aren’t beetles just delicious?

Gian: …

Ivan: Bugs are even more off-limits, stupid!!  …Shit, people are eating here!

Ragtliffe: Oh, no.  I meant after they are properly cooked.

Gian: …I don’t think that’s the problem here…

I grab my own hot dog and a bottle of beer from beneath the other dogs and devour it, still standing.  The deliciousness of the cold meat and ketchup sink into my stomach.

Ragtliffe: Then, I shall take my leave.  I will bring up more food again tomorrow morning.

Gian: Huh?  Is that OK with you?

Ragtliffe: Yes.  I’ve been given the orders and budget to do so.

Gian: Sorry ‘bout this, making you do all this gofer work that’s got nothing to do with you.

Ragtliffe: No need to apologize.  No corpses have appeared yet, so I have free time.  Once I get a job request, I wouldn’t be able to go shopping in the city in the first place.

Ivan: Heh, if you like bodies that much, you might just get along with someone like Giulio.

…I think Giulio likes the process of creating more dead bodies more than the dead bodies themselves, though?

Ragtliffe:  Oh no, not so much.  The only deceased I like are the Presidents printed on the bills!

How to put this…  Can’t tell if he’s strange or crafty.  I can’t get a grip on him.

Ragtliffe: Now then, I will bring something up tomorrow morning.

A bow in farewell, and the grinning face of the janitor disappears.

Ivan hauls his paper bag to the sofa by the window.  …Of course, the cucumber bag is left behind.  I take one out and, crunch, chomp…

Gian: Oh!  Heey, thif ifn’t vat bad!  …  It’s kinda sweet and juicy.

Ivan: Right.  Then you can have all of it.

Probably ‘cause Ivan’s gotten a hold of some food, he’s in a great mood.  I munch on some more cukes.

Gian: It’f great that ve von’t have to worry ‘bout foov and all, vut what’re we gonna vo from now on…?  …  Don’t tell me we’re gonna be roommates for the rest of our lives!

Ivan: Don’t say something so disgusting, you idiot!  Hah…!  When the war with the other gangs gets so bad no one’s gonna be laughin’ about it, they’ll come callin’ even if we don’t want ‘em to!

Ivan: …What can they do on their own?  Fuck!

Gian: There’s still Giulio and Luchino.  There’s Bernardo’s men, too, and he’s got a few.

Ivan: You still don’t get it?  They’re not enough.  The GD’s different from aaaall the Mafias the family’s faced ‘til now.  They’re an American gang!

Ivan: We can’t win against the new gangs while we’re still happily being tied back by the Italian traditions and honor and shit.  That’s … why the Boss said I was here…!

Ivan looks like he’s remembered something and suddenly looks at something really far away … and then he suddenly goes back to being the fuck-and-shit-spitting doofus.

Ivan: But then what do those idiots do?  They shut me up in this shitty place at an important time like this!  Now we can’t win the fights we could’ve won in the first place!!

Gian: ‘s no two ways around it.  That bastard Honus’s welcoming you and shit.  If you randomly go out, it’ll just be what they want.

Ivan: …!  What?  You’re suspicious of me, too?!  Ya think I’m gonna wag my tail for that pig, too?!

…Jeez.  He’s practically self-combusting.  Is he … what’s it called again … that ancient ever-burning Greek fire thing?

Gian: No one’s saying or thinking anything like that.  Who do you think you are, some melodramatic tragic heroine?  Give it a break, you idiot.

Ivan: What’d you say, you fucker?!

Gian: Honus, and the GD bastards, too…  Their strategy isn’t really getting you to their side so much as separating us at the core of our family.

Gian: And even with that goin’ on, you wanna go out on your own and wander about when they’ve got their sights set on you?  Don’t make everyone worry so much…

Ivan: You call that worry?!  Hah, that’s a pretty story.  You mean they just think I’m in the way, right?  And you do too, right?!

…Crap, he’s really snapped.  …Rather, now I feel like crying.

Today at noon, we’d seen everything together…  At the time, we’d been thinking the same thing, and even at the trial earlier, I thought that, if it’s for him, I’d…

Gian: That’s why you’re such a fucking idiot!!

Ivan: What’d you say, you fucking traitor?!

Gian: Bernardo!  Giulio!  Grampa Cavalli!  And Luchino!  Me!  Did you forget what happened at the trial earlier?!

Ivan: …!  Wh—

Gian: If we really did think you were just ‘in the way,’ Ivan, then we’d ‘ve all teamed up and raised our hands and voted you guilty!  And the janitor would be happy dandy in the middle of a great job right now!

…Looks like even Ivan’s managed to remember how things were at the conference earlier.  He guiltily turns his eyes away and starts pacing.

Gian: At times like this, you shouldn’t stew over things yourself and should just lean on the others around you.  We’re all together in this, aren’t we?

Ivan: Wh-Wha…  That’s … annoying.  I’ve always … done fine on my own!  I don’t … need to play make-believe with friends after all this time…

Ivan: Shit!  …Just do whatever you want, fuck…

…What’s he all embarrassed about?  He starts grumbling with his back to me.  I can’t hear what he’s muttering before he burrows into the bed.

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