Nuyorican Obituary

I will be signing copies of Hit List: The Best of Latino Mystery at BookExpo America on Saturday, May 30, from 3:30-4:30 p.m., at the Javits Center. Maybe I will see you there. I’m at the point in my career where it would still be charming to have a stalker. Next year, I hope, not so much. So this would be the time.

Holy mama! I received a copy of the book featuring my first story in a book compilation, Hit List: The Best of Latino Mystery. But I’m at work in my cubicle, so I will not be able to shout in joy about it till  end of day.

In related news, I will be reading from and signing copies of Hit List at La Casa Azul Bookstore, 1651 Lexington Avenue (at 104th Street), on Thursday, May 14, 6–8 p.m., with my List cohorts Steven Torres, Carlos Hernandez, and Sergio Troncoso.

Phil, I hope you’ve ordered your copy already!

When our father emerged from the inside of the airport I recognized him more by his walk and the shape of his head. His face seemed unfamiliar, almost like a stranger’s. But his walk and his outline I knew. My sister and I yelled “Popi! Popi!” while my brother remained calm, suspicious, waiting maybe for proof that this man we had not seen in weeks was indeed our father.

Pop seemed happier than I remember seeing him in a long time. Maybe he was happy to be home. He shook Angel Luis’s hand and kissed my aunt and my mother on the cheek. “Hello, Ponce,” my father said. That was his nickname for her.

My mother went with Titi Evelyn and Angel Luis back to their car. The Skipper waited with us as our father drove up in a rented car. It was a small red hatchback. For us, it was a brand new car, different from the station wagon our father drove in Brooklyn. In a way it was like our father was brand new too.

We sat in the back. My sister scooched forward in the middle and tried to understand her father’s conversation with the Skipper in Spanish. She tried to tell him about the lizard we saw, but he kept talking in Spanish. My brother smiled, maybe because he was sure now this was our father, or because he thought the new car was cool.

Popi followed Angel Luis to a restaurant on the side of the road. In fact, the restaurant was also on the edge of a cliff over a river. The adults got drinks and gave us juice and soda. The adults had beers and drinks and talked to each other in Spanish. My brother and I found a window that overlooked the river. To us it was a gigantic drop to the rushing water below.

“Look how far down that is,” Rafael said.

I looked at the river, and I was impressed. Still, I kept turning around to look at my father, to make sure he was really there. My sister had decided that it was best to keep within two feet of our father to make sure he would not disappear.

My brother said the river would be nice to swim in. He said he bet the fish down there were big and colorful like the ones in the river Mami said was a pool. He wondered how far down it really was, and if he could dive off and live.

NEW poems for March 2009
“My Last Banana: The Testament of Travis the Chimp” by Xander Floss
“Last Letter from Socks Clinton (1989-2009)” by Kat Wopat
“Rock Hard Abs!” by Katharine Showalter
“The Midas Touch” by Wade Christian
“Mr. Happy and His Friends” by Daniel Thomas Moran
“Explaining Armageddon to My Wife” by John Grey
“christ on the streets of Los Angeles in 1977” by Jack Henry
“Cover Your Ass” by R.J. Clarken
“4 Thumbs Up” by Mas Mas
“Challenges” by Gene Tashoff

I was flipping through Patrick Shawn Bagley’s Bitter Water blog when I came across a reference to myself! Who doesn’t love that kind of stuff? Apparently, The Best American Mystery Stories 2008 (Houghton Mifflin), edited by George Pelecanos, was released in December. While I am not included in the main anthology, my short story “Roachkiller,” which appeared in Murdaland (RIP!)(*sigh*), did make Pelecanos and series editor Otto Penzler’s list of Other Distinguished Mystery Stories of 2007, in the back, p. 423. Hey Ma, check it out! This is a very good thing! I went out right away–I mean, I went further online right away–and ordered a copy to doublecheck that I was not dreaming and that Patrick was not shortsheeting me. (FYI: Patrick is a fellow editor of The Lineup.) Thanks, Bagley, for catching that, and thanks also to Pelecanos and Penzler for the nod. Drinks for everyone!