Lucky Dog 1 translations 10 Ivan route 09 best

Part 3: Daivan

Chapter 10 Best

Cool Down

There’s not a speck of street lamp or even window light in sight.  The only sign of civilization are the bright headlights and the sound of the engine.  When he put the car in park, Ivan put a stop to that as well.

We park on the corner of some dark highway.  A heavy silence.  Every now and then, the engine makes a squeal as it cools down.

For a while … neither of us open our mouths.  Neither of us move.

Gian: …

Ivan: …

Light shines past the cracked glass.  Moonlight?  Starlight?  Who knows…

On our way here, we’d rapped the owner of a gas station awake and had him fill the tank.  In the meantime, we’d grabbed some cola and soda water, too.  There wasn’t a phone there.

The owner’d been pretty freaked, but … when I’d gone out to see the car, man, was it in a real state.  Poked full of holes, glass blasted away…

It’s something, all right, for it to be moving at all.  If the tires’d gotten hit, we’d have been out.  …I guess I really am a lucky dog.

Gian: …We need to head back to the hotel.

Ivan: I know.

Gian: …Wonder if Honus and his lackeys’ll be lying in wait…

Ivan: They got pretty wild back there.  The guys at the CR:5’re probably showing ‘em what they’ve got right about now.  The fatso’s not stupid enough to chase us too far.

Gian: Then…  Time to head back?

Ivan: …

I turn on the electric lamp on the dashboard and squint my eyes.  The bright light instantly erases whatever light’s outside – moonlight and starlight both.

I pull out the stopper to the cola and offer it to Ivan.  Ivan lazily takes it.

Gian: Hey, that cut…  You all right?

Ivan: Hm?  Oh, yeah…  Doesn’t even sting.

I pull the stopper to the soda this time and splash it over a clean cloth.  …Wonder if the carbonic acid inside’ll work as a disinfectant…

Ivan: H-Hey?!  What’re you doing?

Gian: Don’t move.  You’ll get it on your clothes.

I wipe Ivan’s face with the scrap of wet cloth.  For some reason, wiping his sulking face … is kinda fun.

Ivan: …Ngh!  Agh, all right already!

When I reach the tiny scratch hidden in his hair, Ivan’s face scrunches up a bit before he catches my hand … and grips.  Hard.

Gian: Wh-What?

Ivan: N-Nothing.  Y-You didn’t get hit anywhere, did you?

Gian: Naw.  My brain’s still sloshing around up in the noggin, but that’s it.

Ivan flashes a smile before letting go.

Gian: Wasn’t betting on me worth it?  Not that we’re done with the match, or anything…

Ivan: We’re…

Ivan turns up towards the Mercedes’ ceiling…  He stares long and hard, like there’s something stuck on the ceiling that’s really, really important.

Ivan: …pals, right?

Gian: Yeah.  Quit making me repeat myself.  Gives me the jitters.

Ivan: …We’re for real, right?

Gian: …We shall forever be bosom friends, eternally linked heart to heart.  So long as the sun and moon endure, we will remain faithful to each other.  This I swear.

A second later…

Ivan: …You idiot!!  Quit cracking jokes while I’m trying to be serious here!!  …And seriously, stop that.  You make me wanna cry.

Gian: Sorry.

A frown takes over Ivan’s face as he stares up at the ceiling again.  He keeps quiet, and quiet, and quiet … long enough that I start feeling anxious, when he quietly speaks up.

Ivan: Hey…  Why don’t … we try starting one … on our own?

…He takes me by surprise.  They were just a few words, but…

Gian: S-Start one what?

Ivan: I don’t wanna get stuck under a mountain of trash, which is where I’d be with Honus.  But … I’m American.  I can’t climb any higher in the Mafia.

Gian: …That’s just…

I’m about to say more when my lips stop.  …I’m the next boss in the CR:5, which means, I’m in the way … of Ivan’s next step up…

Ivan: Why don’t we try making our own group?  Just the two of us at the top…  Not some shitty gang like GD,

Ivan: but a gang that works and runs its rackets right.  Doesn’t matter if you’re American or Italian.  There won’t be any stupid hierarchy or bloodlines.  We could make a one of those new combination gangs like—

Gian: No.

The words fly out my mouth before I even think about it.  Interrupted, Ivan stops short in his tracks … before his eyes immediately fly wide with irritation.

Ivan: Wh-Why the hell not?!  I mean, yeah, you’ll get to be the next boss, but … me … and my men…!

…Shit.  Something in my gut feels kinda hot…  …I almost feel like crying.

Gian: You stupid fucking idiot…!!  If you weren’t around, then like fuck if I even wanna be boss…!!

Gian: …You planning to leave me alone?  After all this?!

Ivan: Th—!  That’s not…  That’s why I said the two of us could—

Gian: …And that’s why you’re a fucking idiot!!  What about Old Man Alessandro?  Gramps?  And Bernardo and Luchino…?!  You planning on abandoning them, too?!

Gian: Are friends that cheap to you?!  That you can toss ‘em, just like that?!

Ivan: They’re … my friends…?

Gian: If they weren’t your friends, then we’d have been long gone on a one-way trip to the cleaners by now!!

Gian: Besides, if any one of us’d gone missing, then we wouldn’t have been able to break out of the joint in the first place!  …That’s all my luck really is!

Gian: If you think my luck’s like some rabbit’s foot, then you’re in for a big surprise!  The astrology corner in your daily news’d have a better chance of working!

Ivan: Y-You idiot!  That’s not what I meant!!  …Aagh, fuck!  Forget it!  I even went and…

Like he’s sulking up a storm, Ivan rolls over in the driver’s seat, turning away from me, and goes quiet.  …Sigh, this idiot is so…

A new organization with him in a new world…

…Saying that I can’t imagine it’d be a lie.  But I can’t betray them.  Which is why…

Gian: Fuck…

…Idiocy really is contagious.  I can’t think of any words to throw at him to scold him with…

…Instead, I move before I even think about it.

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The next chapter is NSFW!!  Proceed at your own risk!!