Lucky Dog 1 translations 09 Luchino route 06

Part 3: Daivan

Chapter 9

Reminiscence

Gian: What the fuck was that?  Shit…

I let the steaming waterfall beat against my scalp.

Gian: Fucking Yankee hyena.  Gonna blow his brains out…

I keep my head down as the water from the hot shower washes over me.  The pain from when I’d hit my head’s already gone.

The words that’d been shrieked from the shadows buck restlessly in my brain, round and round like a rodeo.  Luchino’s stricken expression is seared into the back of my eyelids.

Gian: Damn it…!!

I turn up the cold water and let it pummel my nerves senseless.  I feel marginally less likely to explode … I think.

…After we’d left the scene, we’d headed back to the hotel.  The first thing I’d done was shove the still-wraith-like Luchino into the shower to try to cool his head a little.

After that, he’d stayed in there for so long I’d thought he might’ve drowned…

Luchino: …Nn…ghh…

His bathrobe still draped over his shoulders, he practically hurls himself onto the sofa and doesn’t budge from his landing sprawl.  Before him’s a bucket of ice and booze…

On top of that … I can’t believe my eyes.  His suit and coat are just tossed willy-nilly over the side of the sofa.

Gian: …I’m done with the shower.

Luchino: …Mm…

Although, who cares if I’m out of the shower or not…

Luchino…

Luchino: …Shit.  Fucking shitty shot…

Gian: …

Ever since what happened today, he hasn’t been himself.  This isn’t Luchino.

Gian: S-Say…

I make to start a conversation, but I’m immediately interrupted by the clank clank of ice in Luchino’s glass as he throws back a slug.

I don’t tell the guy to stop guzzling brandy like it’s cola, nor do I tell him to drink up.  I take the paint and fill up his empty cup.

Luchino: What’re you doing…?

Gian: Huh…?

Luchino: Don’t be all straight when there’s a joe busy getting fucking bent beside you.  Here…

Gian: S-Sure.

Luchino plucks one glass from the pile that’d accumulated in front of him and presses it into my hands.  I help myself to some ice and booze…

Luchino: …Sigh…

Gian: Should … I grab some whiskey?

Glass emptied in quick order, Luchino refills the shot in lieu of a response.  …Drinking like this gets you nothing.  It doesn’t even taste good.

Gian: Say, Luchino…

Luchino doesn’t respond, but I plow on anyways.

Gian: What the Yank said … earlier…

Luchino: Yeah…

Gian: That monkey cried a lotta wolf…  …But that was all horse shit, right?

Luchino: …

…Hey there.  Why’re you clamping up now?

Gian: Don’t tell me you’re letting that baloney get to you?  Where’s the Luchino I know?!

A nerve in Luchino’s temple twitches at my question, but the displeasure’s gone with the next glass he throws back oh so tiredly.

Luchino: That jackass…  Next time we cross paths, he’s a goner.  Then it’ll all be over.

…I’d known Luchino’s wife and kid are gone.  But, what did that clown mean by what he’d said earlier … that Luchino’d let them take the fall…?

Luchino: The Yank’s a bastard from GD.  Name’s Bakshi.  I’d heard he was behind bars, but … he’s out and about now I suppose … here in our city…

Gian: Hahaha, then … next time I spot him I’ll be sure to pop him twice in the leg and leave the crowning shot to you.

There’s no answer on Luchino’s end.  Just tips another slug back yet again.  …Say something, you fucking shit.

Gian: …Say, your late wife and kid…  Were they … whacked … or something like?

Luchino: …

Gian: But, no way, they’ve got you, so … was it … maybe when you were behind bars on another rap … it happened?

Suddenly, the knuckles on the hand clenching his glass flash white.  …A moment passes.  Luchino sets the glass down and expels a bone-deep sigh.

Luchino: That’s not … not what happened.  They’re gone. Passed.  Dead.  I … couldn’t protect them.  No, that’s not quite right.

Luchino: I … stood by and … watched.  Hahaha, I suppose he’s got a point…!  I basically went and snuffed them out myself.

Gian: Huh…?!  How could—?  Which shithead did it?  Was it…?

The sickening creep’s howls echoes in my ears again.

Tell me the one who’d fucked them over’s sleeping with the fishes…?  There’s no way you’d let someone like that walk, right?!

I fill up the juice.  Luchino downs it without a word.

Gian: Say, mind if I ask…?  About … your, um … wife…

The silence settles for a moment. If this sends Luchino flying off the handle, if this cuts off the conversation … I’m cool with it.

But, instead…

Luchino: …Charlene.  She was a blond, tiny … I suppose she wasn’t no looker.

Luchino: She was about as far from my type as could be.  She was tiny, like a little girl … you know, the kind that gets their shoes snatched and stuck full of tacks, and she’d stand there, sobbing…

Luchino: …But … she was a damn fine woman.  The absolute best.  But now, she’s gone…  Brought joy to a man’s life…  She was such a damn fine woman…

Gian: You two even went so far as to have a kid.  I’m sure she must’ve been a good girl…

Luchino: …Yeah, the very best.  She … gave me Alice, my little angel…  And I … I threw the both of them … away…

‘Ali-che’…  Ah, ‘Alice.’  The name of the departed daughter…

Gian: …If I tick you off, please punch my mouth shut.  That before … about you standing by and watching your wife and kid die.  What’s that mean…?

Luchino: Oh…

Luchino fills his glass neat, forgoing any ice.  …He’s drinking too much.  The brandy I’d left in front of him’s getting gargled faster than cola before a porker.

Luchino: …Charlene betrayed me.  That’s why, I betrayed them.  And so … she and Alice got whacked…

Gian: …!  “Betrayed?”  What—?

Luchino: …That’s all there is to it.  It’s in the past.  Who gives a fuck.  So long as that prying monkey rooting up things long past gets bumped off, that’ll be…

Gian: You … think…?  No.  I still don’t get it…!  Betrayed?  Did she slee—

…I can’t do it…  I can’t ask Luchino, ‘Don’t tell me Charlene and another guy…?!’  …Not like this…

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