America's King of Poetry

Chapter 42

"Gina is not my daughter."

Carter Gustavo sat there quietly, and told Arthur the ending when he first told the story.

Only the best storytellers dare to reveal the ending at the beginning and still have the confidence to attract the reader.

And it was Carter Gustavo who first attracted Arthur.

He was wearing the worn white undershirt with two holes in the waist.The undershirt was tucked into the elastic band sweatpants on the lower body, and the white paint line on the seams of the trousers had peeled off and mottled.

There is thick down on his forearm, he has a pair of big feet and a pair of big hands, thick ankles and thick knuckles, proving his identity as a laborer.But at the same time, his hair was combed neatly, his cheeks were clean-shaven, and his chin was a little blue.He has neat and white teeth, and he should not smoke at ordinary times, and there is a faint fragrance in the house.

Arthur could smell it, and it was the scent of honeysuckle, which Gina had told her, and she liked to wear honeysuckle perfume and keep the house clean.This is different from those girls of the same age. It seems to be a good habit inherited from her father Carter.

No, Carter said, Gina was not his daughter.

"I was born in Brooklyn in 1950, adopted by a convent, I was an orphan. I don't know who my parents were, I was brought up by the nuns in the convent, I went to school in the convent, and then in 1970, when I was 20, I left the convent and joined the army and went to Vietnam. In Vietnam I met a friend..."

When Carter talked about the Vietnam War, Arthur's heart tightened, and he thought of Russell.Carter spoke of a friend of his, and Arthur immediately asked, "What's your friend's name?"

"...I can't tell you that, he is my comrade-in-arms, and I saved him on the battlefield."

"Is he still alive?"

"Yes, he is still alive."

Carter said that his friend is still alive, so it should not be Russell, but someone else.

Carter went on to say: "In 1973, the war ended. I retired from the army and returned to New York. I couldn't go back to the monastery. I needed to work to support myself. I was a stevedore on the docks, the same job as now. I was the best stevedore in Brooklyn. Container distribution and placement at the docks was not an easy task. When I was 24 years old, I met my first wife, not Gina's mother Grace, but another woman. We lived for a year and had no children. Divorced. At the age of 26, a friend I met in Vietnam came to me, asked me to do something, and gave me a very high salary. I quit my job on the dock and followed him all over the United States. I did a very special job. Because of this job, I met Grace. She was 16 years old. I still remember that it was 1977. When I met her, she was pregnant. Gina was in her belly. I fell in love with Grace at that time, and I left with Grace with the help of my friends. , went back to living in New York. Grace had Gina, and she was a beautiful girl, but she was not my daughter. Sometimes I loved her, and sometimes I hated her. Of course, Grace was different, she always hated Gina."

Carter narrates past events in simple, plain language, in which he hides many, many details.For example, what kind of work did his friend introduce him to do, and why did he meet 16-year-old Grace?Also, where did Grace and Carter leave together?And, who is Gina's father?Carter didn't make it clear.

When Arthur continued to ask, Carter shook his head and said: "I have already said a lot, and some things are better not to know. After Gina left, I looked for her, and I know that she lives with you, a child of the Luciano family. I know your father, Luther Luciano, and the Luciano family also had some business contacts with us. Of course, I have not been in that job for a long time. Grace was too young when I was with me, and she was full of unrealistic fantasies. I love her, Also loathing her, we loved each other passionately and hated each other deeply, and we have never had children except for Gina because she didn't want to have children."

Arthur could see that Carter Gustavo's seemingly ordinary exterior concealed a strong emotion.This emotion should come from the life he has experienced.He used to live with those ascetic hermits, living a life away from the world.But one day when he grew up, a certain coincidence, a strong primitive impulse made him break free, joined the army and went to Vietnam, with the ambition of making contributions, to that sweltering, humid, cruel tropical hell where iron and blood coexist.

There, the anguish and lust that the soldiers had nowhere to vent turned into bullets, poisonous gas, and explosions, spraying them at the Vietnamese enemies hidden in the vast rainforest. They were constantly creating and enduring death.Carter Gustavo must have gone crazy there, from the peaceful and peaceful gods to the territory of Satan, how can it not make people crazy.

He finally made it out of Vietnam alive and returned to America only to find that everything was different.He is not a war hero, but a massacre executioner. The monastery is no longer his home, and he has to live on the pier where coolies are sold.He's the best container handler, but he also has to hang out with rough dock workers.Her first wife may be the same, a good-looking but uneducated, simple-minded waitress, found Carter, a maverick man with a unique temperament, among a group of smoking and drinking workers, so they made a private appointment for life in a Motel room on a drunken night.

But unsuitable is unsuitable after all. The life of necessities quickly wiped out the enthusiasm at the beginning, endless quarrels and financial constraints made the relationship go to pieces, and the marriage that started hastily ended in a hasty end.When Carter felt his life was at a loss, a friend on the battlefield extended an olive branch. He provided Carter with a well-paid but somewhat special job.Carter hesitated and agreed to the job.

The old man might not have accepted such a job, but the war and failed marriage had changed him, he needed money, he needed recognition.He took the job and met Grace, a beautiful, fragile, angelic woman.At that moment, Carter must have started to examine his heart, he began to flog his soul, he was thinking, what made him fall, let a girl like Grace fall.

Once a man falls in love, he will be blindly arrogant, thinking that all the suffering is caused by himself, and he has the responsibility to bear and eliminate it all.After learning that Grace was pregnant, Carter not only didn't feel disgusted, but felt that it was his chance to save Grace.He found his friend, exchanged his life-saving grace for the freedom of himself and Grace, and left there.

And when his daughter was born, looking at the face that didn't look like him, Carter realized that some things are not something that can be borne.His heart is dominated by the purity and nobility left in the monastery, as well as the destruction and death branded in the war. Sometimes he loves, sometimes hates, sometimes passionately, sometimes indifferently.Until all the good things related to love were burned away by time, Grace left, and he found another waitress who was the same as his first wife. She was simple-minded and vulgar, but she could have children with him and live on.

As a result, he became what he is now, a middle-aged man dressed in rustic clothes, with a bad figure, but with a calm and elegant air.He can quarrel with his wife for two hours over $10, and he can speak rudely, and he can also say some love words that only experienced people can say about a beautiful female high school student.He maintains the decency of a poor life, and he does not forget to put a beautiful daffodil in the old ceramic vase.

Arthur looked at Carter Gustavo and compiled in his mind everything he might have been through.Because this kind of life is what Arthur has experienced, and no one understands the feeling better than him.

"Gina is with you, I am very relieved. I am not a heartless person, but I can't give Gina happiness, and my ability is limited. Therefore, Gina is entrusted to you, Arthur." Carter looked at Arthur and said to him in the most sincere tone.

Arthur nodded, but he didn't come here to take over Gina's custody. He said: "If you really want Gina to be happy, then you should stay away from Gina's friends. That's right, I'm talking about Jenny. You shouldn't get along with her. Gina knows, she's very sad."

There was a hint of surprise on Carter's face. He scratched his head and smiled wryly: "I was careless, but I have never had sex with Jenny, not once. I just drank tea with her, chatted, watched two movies, that's all. I saw Jenny when I was watching a school team game. At that time, I felt... It felt like I found a youthful impulse. Do you know? I have been impotent for many years, and it is impossible for me to be with her."

Seeing that Carter told himself his unspeakable man's secret, Arthur had to believe it. He wanted to ask Carter "Why don't you take Viagra", but then he thought, Viagra hadn't been invented in 1994.Another big business opportunity, write it down in a small book, maybe you can make a fortune from it in the future.

After clarifying the situation, Arthur took out the four playing cards from his pocket and showed them to Carter, but Carter couldn't see a single word.Hell, it turns out he has no link to playing cards.So where does that feeling come from? Is it fake?Have a problem with your sixth sense?

Arthur scratched his ears, and asked Carter again what kind of job he was doing back then, but Carter refused to tell, and Arthur was so angry that he almost pulled out a gun to his head and forced him to question him.But thinking about it, this is also his nominal father-in-law, so he can't use it so forcefully.He thought for a while, then asked suddenly, "Do you know old Larry? Larry Hargrove?"

Carter's face froze, he hesitated for a moment, and said eagerly: "Yes... yes, I know, I know him."

Speaking of this, Arthur knew a little bit about what kind of work Carter was doing back then.

At this moment, his pager rang, and he took it out to see that it was a message from an unknown number, with only one word, "Anna".

(End of this chapter)