Glimpse: The Broken by Nicholas Martellacci (book club recommendations txt) 📕

father had a tradition to take the boys out to a late night diner on midnight of their actual birthdays.

 

 

Maxwell’s heart broke last year when his father wasn’t around to wake him. His mother asked if he still wanted to go, but without Giovanni, Maxwell’s adoptive father, it would not have been the same. On Maxwell and his brother Antonio’s real birthdays they always were able to go to their favorite places in the world. Antonio always picked some hunting range where the boys and their dad would take turns shooting guns at targets all day. Maxwell always did something he loved for his day. He went to the billiards hall.

 

 

Jaxon’s car pulled into the parking lot of the billiards hall, holding Maxwell and company. Maxwell’s friends from work met him in the parking lot, they got out of the car and carried their cases into the room. They chose a table and Maxwell pulled out his prized possession, a stick his father invented and designed. It was beautiful and one of a kind, nobody he knew had one even similar. “Maxwell Amelletti” was engraved on the side in a deep blue, contrasting the jet black of the shaft. A silver butt on the end screwed open and held his own chalk. It was a design his father put together, an automatic pool stick with a power gauge on the side. You would push the stick into the shaft and pull a trigger to release it, allowing you total control of the shot. Maxwell was an amazing player. He could play with a broomstick and still clean house, but with this thing, he was unbeatable.

 

 

The group played pool for hours, Maxwell teaching his friends about english, how to jump, and how to masse shots. He angled each shot perfectly one after another. He only lost once in the hours they played to Luna, because he scratched on the eight ball. A man approached from the neighbor table, just as Maxwell waved off his friends from work, thanking them for coming out. Maxwell didn't know anything about this man but didn't like him straightaway. He wore a checkered hat, a toothpick resting between his smirking teeth. He wore sunglasses even though it was dark in the room, and held a look of smug overconfidence that made Maxwell’s neck hairs stand on edge. He removed his sunglasses, attaching them to his shirt, Maxwell very aware of the gaudy rings he was wearing. “Name’s Tyler,” he said to Maxwell and friends in a sly con artist voice. He sounded as if he was from New York, or at least was pretending to be. “Whaddya' say we play a game of doubles,” the New Yorker said, dropping twenty dollars on the table. He smiled cheekily, toothpick held perfectly in place, and pointed to a mammoth of a man sitting at an end table where Tyler came from.

 

 

“You and Goldilocks over there,” Tyler indicated to Jaxon, making fun of his long h1air. “Versus me and my man Blue.” Blue was the size of a refrigerator, with arms like ham hocks. “I wouldn't put so much confidence in yourself there champ,” Jaxon said cockily. “And tell Meathead that when you guys lose he better behave, we know the owners of the place.” Maxwell eyed up both of their competitors, so sure they were going to win... so foolish. Maxwell pulled out a fifty dollar bill, sitting it on the table beside the man’s twenty. “Make it fifty, and I’ll play one handed,” Maxwell replied. Tyler smirked and placed a fifty to match Maxwell’s. “It’s a bet, rack em kid.” The smart mouthed Tyler said.

 

 

Tyler and Blue lost their fifty dollars within a couple minutes. Jaxon shot making one ball, Tyler followed making two, and Maxwell cleaned the table. The large man, Blue, did not even get a chance to play. “Well played kid,” Tyler stated as he handed the bill over to Maxwell, pulling it away just as Maxwell reached for it. “Awful nice necklace you’re wearin’ though, what say we play one more double or nothing on it,” Tyler suggested, reaching out to lift the necklace in his hand. “No deal,” Maxwell said, pushing the man’s hand away. “It was a gift from my girlfriend,” Maxwell said as he pointed to Luna. Luna shocked at first, but quickly smiled when she realized what was going on.

 

 

Maxwell smirked, “Besides I think fake gold is more your style friend.” Maxwell said, causing his entourage to laugh. “Not to mention I don't think the chain would fit around Juggernaut’s neck,” Jaxon added loudly. Blue snapped a stick in the background. “Calm down Blue, wouldn't want to make a scene,” Tyler said putting his hands in his pockets. “Enjoy the rest of your night kiddos, you get a brain and change your mind let me know,” he finished and turned to walk away.

 

 

Maxwell and friends were having such fun, they almost used up the man’s entire fifty dollars on songs from the jukebox, drinks and snacks by the time all was said and done. It was rounding ten at night now. Maxwell and his friends hopped into Jaxon’s car and started driving over to Luna’s place. “You are a real crack shot man, I still think you should go for pro,” Jaxon remarked. “You know he makes a point, I’ve never seen anyone play like you,” Luna said. Maxwell looked out the window, thinking about everything that had happened the two previous days. Has it really only been just over twenty-four hours that he received this strange necklace, and everything occurred at the Trish’s trailer? He focused on the present and tried to make his way back into the conversation. “Thanks guys, but I don’t think playing pool professionally is for me.

 

 

“He’s right you know,” Faelynn said. Faelynn was a fortune teller by trade, Faelynn the Magnificient. She had her own little business she had set up right across from the mall. She sold fortune-tellings, tarot card readings, incense, herbs and the like. Jaxon swears on everything he holds dear that she was legit, but Maxwell was never quite convinced. Maxwell couldn’t hold very much of what Jaxon said to be fact, he certainly wasn’t a very good touchstone when it came to judging ones sanity. Maxwell was pretty sure Jaxon would believe he was werewolf if he wanted to mess with him, hell he could probably even say he was the one who did that to Trish. Jaxon was just that type of guy, too gullible and friendly for his own good sometimes.

 

 

“What do you think his fortune is?” Luna asked. It was unclear whether she bought into all this or if she was just going along with it to be a good sport. “I can’t really tell... Both you and him have two of the most bizarre auras I’ve ever felt,” Faelynn explained. How convenient, Maxwell thought. “Well whatever his fortune is, I know what he’s going to be doing tonight,” Jaxon sang with a smirk playing across his mouth. “Yeah? Have it it Sir Jaxon the fantastic, what does the universe tell you this fine day? Or do you need some goat’s bones or some shit?” Maxwell suggested, snickering jestingly. Faelynn glanced back at Maxwell, obviously irritated at him mocking her profession. “Getting crunk, son!” Jaxon announced, playfully. Even Faelynn couldn’t help but laugh.

 

 

The group was lucky Lacey, Luna’s roommate, was working late that night. As the four of them pulled the couch around back from the porch and started to enter the woods behind Luna’s apartment, Jaxon realized he forgot the alcohol. He ran back into Luna’s apartment, returning with several bags with bottles clinking in them, Maxwell could make out cinnamon whiskey and apple ale. He knew what this meant. Luna and Jaxon had a thing they loved to do where they would take a mouthful out of the apple ale and pour a double shot of the whiskey in and mix it up, sinful apples they called them. “You know how messed up I got on those last time!” Faelynn shrilled. “Yeah, but Maxy made the mistake of saying that he loved them last time we drank em,” Jaxon uttered excitedly. “To be fair,” Maxwell began, “I had four of them in me before saying that Jax, I would have probably said I loved horse piss at that point.”

 

 

“Hey man, whatever you want to drink in your free time is up to you! I wont judge ya,” Jaxon joked. Before long, they were deep in the woods, barely able to see light from the complex Luna lived in. “Alright guys this is far enough,” Luna said nervously. They sat around drinking several sinful apples, talking about aliens, and what they each thought it would be like to live on another planet. Before long it was so late even the traffic from the highway in the distance was no longer heard.

 

 

“Woo!” Jaxon yelled, as he stood up and began pouring whiskey on the couch. His speech was quite slurred by this point, it was hard what he was saying. “Hey, hey we need to gets the matches,” Jaxon said, stumbling on his own legs like a newborn fawn. “I have a lighter Jax,” Maxwell said in reply. He pulled out his lighter, lit a cigar and handed it to his friend. “Alright, hey guys, guys!” Jaxon began loudly. “Come check out the thing, this thing, the thing we’re going to do here guys.” Jaxon was making an ass out of himself, but was fortunate enough that Faelynn was hunched against a tree beside Luna, snoring. Luna smiled, still with a drink in her hand, as she pulled her ear bud out of her ears. “Well, we’re all waiting buddy,” Luna said. Maxwell sat down beside her and handed her his cigar as she took a large drag.

 

 

“Is Faelynn ready!?” Jaxon barked to the group. Maxwell lifted Faelynn’s limp hand and pushed his mouth into his shirt, mocking her voice. “I am ready Sugarcake, by the way, you lookin’ good,” Maxwell mocked. Luna and Maxwell laughed loudy in sync. “God it’s freezing,” Luna said as she rested her head on Maxwell’s shoulder and scooted her body closer to him. “Whatever jackass,” Jaxon grunted to Maxwell. “When she asks why we didn’t wake her up so she could watch the fire, you tell her!” He argued. Then he lit the couch aflame.

 

 

It caught quickly, fire lapsing all over the cushions and back. It was hastily fueled by the kindling that made up its legs and frame. The couch burned all over, producing a tremendous amount of heat, so much that it caused Maxwell and Luna to move back a couple feet. They dragged Faelynn’s body along. Jaxon laughed maniacally, as if he was a criminal mastermind that had gotten away with the loot. He danced around the fiery couch for several laps, until the whiskey caught up to him, his dizziness causing him to slump down beside a tree a couple feet away. He still held half of a bottle of cinnamon whiskey. “By the way buddy! I almost forgot!” Jaxon declared happily, pulling out the buttery, aged scotch for Maxwell. “Thanks Jax, I appreciate it man, you shouldn’t have,” Maxwell said taking the bottle.

 

 

“Well since you have that, you definitely won’t be needing this!” Jaxon said, holding the bottle up to salute his friend. He began chugging the rest of the cinnamon whiskey. Within minutes he was slumped, drooling on himself, as Luna and Maxwell struggled but managed to move him over to Faelynn, who still snoozed undisturbed. Luna’s head had fallen from Maxwell’s shoulder and moved to his chest, as he put his arm around her body to keep her warm. The couch’s original liquor filled inferno slowed to a steady crackling roar of flame.

 

 

“Well looks like we’re camping tonight,” Luna commented. Maxwell looked to his drunk, slumbering friends. Their bodies still stacked upon each other like logs. “Yeah, looks like it,” he replied.