“Now, what does he want?” he asked out loud.

He’s not calling me in the middle of the day just to say hi. He can do that after work.

Ivan called his brother back for a heads-up. They hadn’t spoken at length since their mother’s funeral months ago. And their relationship had been stormy before then.

Ivan took a deep breath and waited for his brother to answer his call. He had his whole conversation down already. It would be quick and to the point, until he could get back to his brother later.

OUT ON THE SAN DIEGO FREEWAY of Interstate 405, at the southern tip of Long Beach, California, Derrick David drove a gray Impala with the windows down while smoking a cigarette in his left hand. He drove the old car with his right, heading south. He had slightly browner skin than Ivan’s, with the same colorful eyes, and a longer growth of light brown hair. His dress code was more rugged, with the beige khaki pants, white tank top, and basic white tennis shoes that were popular within the urban street culture of South Central Los Angeles.

When his cell phone went off, he switched hands to drive with his left, answered the phone in his right, and held the cigarette tightly between his lips.

“Yeah,” he answered gruffly.

“What’s up, D.? I’m at work. What’s going on?”

Derrick frowned at his cell phone. He recognized his brother’s brush-off move immediately.

“I’m coming down there to see you, man. It’s been a while,” he responded.

“What? For what?” Ivan sounded disturbed.

Derrick began to shake his head. Momentarily, he took both hands from the wheel so he could flick the ashes from his cigarette.

“What’ chu mean, ‘for what’? To see my little fucking brother. I can’t see your ass no more? I should have brought one of your nephews with me,” he commented.

Ivan asked him, “You’re doing that right now?”

“Doing what?”

“Driving down here?”

“Yeah, I’m passing through Long Beach right now. So I should be there in, what, another hour and forty-five minutes?”

Ivan hesitated. “I mean…let me call you back in a few. But this might not be a good time—”

Derrick cut him off and said, “All right, I’ll just see you when I get down there. I’m just calling you to let you know. So I’ll probably go to one of the malls or stop through Horton Plaza downtown to pick up some pussy or something.” He laughed through his smoke and said, “You know, get me some of that wet Filipino pussy.”

Ivan heard that and cut the conversation off. “All right, I’ll call you back.”