AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“That’s okay,” I say. “I’m not thirsty.”
“Did I ask you?” Grandad looks at me sternly. “You take a cup, you drink it, and then I’ll make up a bed for you in the spare room. Don’t you have school tomorrow?”
“Yeah,” I say, chastened.
“I’ll call them in the morning. Tell them you’re going to be a little late.”
“I’ve been late a lot,” I say. “Missed a lot of classes. I think I’m failing physics.”
“Death messes you up. Even a fancy school like yours knows that.” He goes into the kitchen.
I sit down at the table in the dark. Now that I’m here, I feel a calm settle over me that I can’t explain. I just want to be here, sitting at this table, forever. I don’t want to move.
Eventually there is a metallic whistle from the kitchen. Grandad comes back, setting down two mugs. He flicks a switch on the wall, and the electric lights of the chandelier glow so brightly that I shade my eyes.
The tea is black and sweet, and I’m surprised that I’ve finished half of it in a single gulp.
“You want to tell me what’s going on?” he asks finally. “Why you’re here in the middle of the night?”
“Not really,” I say as forthrightly as I can manage. I don’t want to lose this. I wonder if he’d even let me into his house if he knew I was working for the government, no less that I blackmailed my brother into joining me. I’m not even sure they allow federal agents into the worker town of Carney.
He takes a slug from his cup and then winces, like maybe his doesn’t have tea in it. “Are you in some kind of trouble?”
“I don’t think so,” I say. “Not anymore.”
“I see.” He stands and shuffles over to put his ruined hand on my shoulder. “Come on, kid. I think it’s time for you to get to bed.”
“Thanks,” I say, getting up.
We go into the back room, the same room where I slept when I spent the summers in Carney. Grandad brings in some blankets and a pair of pajamas for me to sleep in. I think they might be an old pair of Barron’s.
“Whatever’s eating you,” he says, “it’s never worse in the morning.”
I sit down on the corner of the mattress and smile wearily. “G’night, Grandad.”
He pauses in the doorway. “You know Elsie Cooper’s oldest son? Born crazy. He can’t help it. No one knows how come he turned out like that—he just did.”
“Yeah,” I say vaguely. I remember people in Carney talking about how he never left the house, but I can’t recall much else. I look over at the folded pajamas. My limbs feel so heavy that even thinking about putting them on is an effort. I have no idea where Grandad’s story is supposed to be going.
“You were always good, Cassel,” he says as he closes the door. “No idea how you turned out that way—you just did. Like the crazy Cooper kid. You can’t help it.”
“I’m not good,” I say. “I play everybody. Everybody. All the time.”
He snorts. “Goodness don’t come for free.”
I’m too tired to argue. He switches off the light, and I’m asleep before I even crawl underneath the covers.
* * *
Grandad calls school to tell them I won’t be there for classes today, and I basically just sit around his house all morning. We watch Band of the Banned reruns and he makes some kind of turmeric beef stew in the Crock-Pot. It comes out pretty good.
He lets me stretch out on the couch with an afghan, like I’m sick. We even eat in front of the television.
When it’s time to go, he packs up some of the stew into a clean Cool Whip container and hands it to me along with a bottle of orange soda. “You better go study that physics,” he says.
“Yeah,” I say.
He pauses when he sees the shiny new Benz. We look at each other silently over the hood for a moment, but all he says is, “Tell that mother of yours to give me a call.”
