Chapter 68

As they reached the front door, he noticed the first step had been repaired. He remembered he was going to get to it before he was arrested. “Finally, the landlord fixed the stairs.”

“Yes, finally.” Chris laughed and winked. “And see, he changed the broken window in the door too.”

“You?”

Christophe climbed up the steps, and stopped at the door, turning to look down at Joe. “Well, come on now. Hurry.”

Dusk was here. The orange sun was sinking at the end of the street. His old street. Where Joe had played as a boy. A fatherless boy. And then later, years later, he’d stumbled up these very steps after a shift at the club, drunk and lonely, hoping to get past his mother’s bedroom without an argument. He could have been a better son.

Now his mother’s face was in the window, right behind the white lace curtains.

Joe froze, and then humbly waved at her.