“What are you fussing about there?” his wife asked, having come up from the basement.
“Well… I can’t find my wallet.”
“You lost your wallet?!” his wife shouted.
“Well… I didn’t… I didn’t…” Lolo searched around the living room with his eyes. “It must be in the car…” he said, and took the keys from the dresser and went out to the car, which was parked in front of the house on their peaceful street.
“Moron!” said his wife and returned to the kitchen.
Sayash and Lucky were dozing in the shade. Lucky only opened his eyes half-way when he heard Lolo’s noisy wife, and Sayash didn’t even move.
Chapter 85
The Grasshopper turned on the camera above the command desk and called Erivan.
“Mr. President… Mr. President…” he said with a exhausted voice.
“Grasshopper! What’s going on?!” shouted Erivan in a panicked fear, seeing the entire operations room on his screen with bodies on the floor.
“Don’t worry… Everything is alright… please, don’t worry…” the Grasshopper whispered.
“What do you mean ‘alright’?!” Erivan asked hastily, but with a calmer voice. “You’re wounded, Grasshopper!” He shouted again when he saw Grasshopper’s bandaged body. “Is it a serious wound? Will you survive? Where are the rest?!”
“I’ll tell you everything… sir… let me just catch my breath…”
“Alright…”
“I carried out your orders…”
“Did you? Really? Congratulations, Grasshopper!”
“But…”
“But — what? Speak up!”
“I’m trying… I’m exhausted… so…”
“Alright… alright… take it easy, but what?”
“I was attacked by… my…”
“Who? Your people? Why? Impossible!”
“Possible… possible… Mr. Presid…”
“Did you manage to kill them all?
“I did… don’t be angry…”
“All five of them?”
“Yes…”
“And all the rest in the Command?”
“Yes… don’t be angry… I was defending myself…”
“How can I be angry? As long as you are alive, Grasshopper! Is it a serious wound? Who will help you? Who will treat you if you are alone in the Command? Will you bleed out?”
“I won’t… don’t worry… I’ve already gotten the bullet out…” The Grasshopper moaned as he bent over to lift the bullet and show it to Erivan. “And I’ve sown up the wound…”
“You operated on yourself? Without anesthesia? You’re a hero, Grasshopper!”
“My loyalty to you… my upcoming mission… it gives me superhuman strength, Mr…”
“Grasshopper, Grasshopper!… do you see that it was the right decision to send you up there?”
“I see… Mr…” Grasshopper passed out. In doing so he hit the command desk with his forehead, right on the wrong icon, and he disconnected the link with Erivan.
Chapter 86
Lucky raised his head, opened his eyes wide and looked at the Inspectorate armored vehicle coming around the corner. He rushed towards Lolo’s house.
“Hey, Lucky! What’s the matter with you?” Sayash shouted. “Lucky, stop!”
Lucky started manically digging up flowers in Lolo’s wife’s garden.
Lolo didn’t find his wallet in the car’s glove compartment. He had just squatted next to the driver’s seat and was running his hand underneath it, when Sayash rushed into his wife’s garden.
“And who are you?” asked Lolo, catching the red-and-yellow squares of Sayash’s three quarter pants in the corner of his eye.
“Ah, you peed,” Sayash said while catching his breath, having run up to Lucky. “What is this new thing of yours, Lucky? Showing off with your front paws when you pee?”
Lolo had gotten up and was headed towards the house. He saw Lucky digging up his wife’s flowers and Sayash smiling cheerfully.
“What now!?!” Lolo shouted, already annoyed because of his missing wallet. “You bum, you’re insane!”
“Lucky, where are you going? Wait for me, Lucky!” Sayash panted while running after Lucky, who was sprinting down the street.
“Come back, you bum! You’ll pay for this! You and that mutt of yours!” It would have taken Lolo only another step to reach the clumsy Sayash, when the Inspectorate armored vehicle fired a shell and blew up his out-of-season car.
Lolo first stumbled from the explosion, then stopped and turned around. He watched in shock as his car disappeared in the flames.
“Hey, Lolo!” shouted inspector Marlon, peering through the turret of the armored vehicle. “Sorry, buddy, I had to. It’s war, no messing around. In any case I spared you the trouble of driving this heap of junk to the Inspectorate. You’re buying beer tonight at Legends. See you, buddy!” Marlon greeted his buddy Lolo and lowered the hatch after him.
Lolo didn’t say anything to him. He turned around and looked down the street, but Sayash and Lucky were nowhere to be seen. He stood there on the sidewalk for a while, in reflection. And then he ran to his veranda, where standing next to each other were his wife in curlers and Bruce in red gloves.
“Did you see that?” the excited Lolo told his wife. “Do you get what happened? That bum… and his puppy… How did they just disappear? Do you get it? They saved my life! That’s why he was digging in your flowers! To make me run after them, to get me away from the car! They saved my life, woman!”
“Stop the nonsense! There’s nothing wrong with my flowers,” Lolo’s wife said.
“What do you mean ‘there’s nothing wrong’?!” said Lolo looking at the garden where all the rows were perfectly neat. “What do I care?” he shouted, still very excited. “I saw them! And I know that they saved my life! Without them I would have been squatting behind the car and Marlon wouldn’t have seen me!”
“Did you find your wallet, buster?! That’s what I’m asking you! Tell me that!” his wife interrupted him.
With a short and lightning-fast blow of the fist Lolo hit his wife in the chin, turned around and ran down the street.
“Damn, now that’s a direct punch!” shouted Bruce, while Lolo’s wife was going down next to him. Bruce knelt next to her and started counting: “One… two…” But it didn’t seem that the missus would be getting up and continuing the fight. “Ten!” shouted Bruce, and got up — glowing. “Classic knockout!”
“That’s the beauty of boxing, Bruce,” thought Lolo while running down the street. “You count to ten and you know exactly whether it was a knockout or not. And not like this: you persistently count the months, years, decades… and it still isn’t clear to you that you were knocked out long ago.”
“How could they disappear so quickly?” Lolo was taken aback when he reached the Legends café, which the Company sector for catering opened at the sport center nearby, following a written request by the former boxers.
“People! People! They saved my life!” Lolo shouted while bursting into Legends. “And they disappeared! They disappeared!”
“Who did, Lolo?”
“How did they save your life?”
“What are you saying, Lolo?” his friends jumped to their feet.
“Oscar, can I stay with you? For a few days, until I find a place?” Lolo asked.
That is how the legend of the Saint and his Dog was born, in the namesake café.