Читать книгу Canoeing with Jose онлайн

21 страница из 81

“What the fuck,” José yelped, dancing out of the way. He tripped on a cardboard box, stumbled over a chair, and fell to the floor, surrounded by ink pads, manila envelopes, and computer cords.

He ignored my help, pushed himself to his knees, and rifled through the debris.

His knife was missing, replaced in his right hand by a long eagle-feather ink stamp he had uncovered among the office supplies. A group project from days gone by, the stamp was made from a rectangle of rough-edged steel. I saw beside it a shallow ink pad encased in tin.

“Let’s do those changes you came up with, dawg. But hit me with this first.” José rubbed the rectangular stamp in black ink and handed it to me.

“Hit me!” He slapped his sinewy left shoulder, flexing. “Do it!”

I took a breath and jabbed the stamp home. When I pulled back, an eagle-feather tattoo appeared near the top of José’s shoulder.

“Now you, dawg,” he giggled, smothering the stamp in ink.

I rolled up my sleeve and flexed.

José took three giant steps backward. “Hang on. I’m gonna do this.”