Moondogs - Alexander Yates [0]
Copyright © 2011 by Alexander E. Yates
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
www.doubleday.com
DOUBLEDAY and the DD colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Chapter icons courtesy of Rebecca Cullers
Woodcuts by Emily Bender
Jacket design by Michael J. Windsor
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Yates, Alexander, 1982–
Moondogs : a novel / Alexander Yates. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
1. Fathers and sons—Fiction. 2. Americans—Philippines—Fiction. 3. Kidnapping—Fiction. 4. Insurgency—Philippines—Fiction. 5. Philippines—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3625.A74M66 2010
813′.6—dc22
2010007947
eISBN: 978-0-385-53379-9
v3.1
for Terhi
HORATIO: O day and night, but this is wondrous strange!
HAMLET: And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.
—Hamlet, Act I: Sc 5
William Shakespeare
HURLEY: Back home, I’m known as something of a warrior myself.
—“All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues”
Lost, Season 1, Episode 11
Javier Grillo-Marxuach
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My deepest thanks to Arthur Flowers; George Saunders; Melissa Danaczko; Alanna Ramirez; Brett Finlayson; Tracey Levine; Tami Monsod and Toby Monsod; David Beaty; Rebecca Cullers; the Syracuse University Creative Writing Program and Summer Literary Seminars, Russia.
Thanks above all to my wife, Terhi Majanen.
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
Acknowledgments
Book One - Departures
Chapter 1 - Mr. Orange
Chapter 2 - After the Funeral
Chapter 3 - Rainy Season
Chapter 4 - The Boxer Boys
Chapter 5 - Three Strays
Chapter 6 - The International Date Line
Chapter 7 - Sampaguita
Chapter 8 - Task Force Ka-Pow
Chapter 9 - Howard’s Room
Chapter 10 - Dancer and the Green Dress
Chapter 11 - Efrem’s Curse
Chapter 12 - After Bilibid
Chapter 13 - The Square Window
Chapter 14 - Other Homes
Chapter 15 - Bruha
Chapter 16 - Dive
Chapter 17 - Pie and Pirates
Chapter 18 - Meanwhile, at the Blue Mosque
Chapter 19 - Arrival
Book Two - Moondogs
Chapter 20 - Contact People
Chapter 21 - Good Strange
Chapter 22 - The Villains’ Days are Numbered
Chapter 23 - Efrem’s Fathers
Chapter 24 - Tapsilog
Chapter 25 - The One with the Sun on Her
Chapter 26 - Killing Kelog
Chapter 27 - Saving Howard Bridgewater
Chapter 28 - Gecko
Chapter 29 - Ashes
Chapter 30 - Makati Medical
Chapter 31 - Surviving Ka-Pow
Chapter 32 - Dancer and Dogs
Chapter 33 - Summer
Chapter 34 - Reynato Waits
Chapter 35 - After the Funeral
About the Author
Chapter 1
MR. ORANGE
A man and a rooster exit a taxi idling on a crowded street. The man is short and thin, and the rooster is green, and the rooster belongs to him. The taxi belongs to him as well. He’s wearing a fresh shirt, the blood all washed out, and his polyester slacks shine a little in the afternoon light. He’s too young to be balding, but is. His mouth is a rotten mess, owing to bad hygiene and a shabu habit. His name is Ignacio. He and the rooster are villains.
Ignacio grips the open taxi door and stretches his legs. It feels good to be standing. The drive south from Manila should have taken only an hour, but he demanded that Littleboy—his idiot brother—make wrong turns so they’d be harder to follow. He’d barked instructions from the backseat, where he and Kelog pored over a soggy map and planned intricate double-backs. Kelog is the rooster. He’s named Kelog because he’s green, with red and orange in his tail, and a blood-red comb, like the rooster on the cereal. He used to be a fighting cock. He still would be, if not for the onset of blindness. He’s retired now.