Read Online Calamity by J.T. Warren - Free Book Online Page A

exchange.
    “You alright, son?” Dad asked. Whenever he added son or daughter to a question it meant he was genuinely concerned.
    Recognition registered on Brendan’s face and he relaxed, then smiled almost convincingly. “Yeah,” he said. “I’m fine. Sorry.”
    “You sure you’re okay?”
    He nodded.
    “You take Pillie Billy?”
    “That name is so stupid,” Delaney said.
    Brendan nodded again.
    An uneasy silence settled in the room. The scrape of Delaney’s fork across her plate made Tyler twitch and even the smell of the coffee, so wonderful and life-giving at first, had adopted a sour stench, which turned his stomach.
    “And no,” Brendan said, to which everyone responded with sudden concern—did he mean everything wasn’t alright? Was he sick? Had he overheard Tyler on the phone last night? Was he writing out everything Tyler said in that composition book? Was he going to tell everyone right now what Tyler had done? “I don’t think Delaney’s scary enough to frighten the birds. Maybe a squirrel or two, though.”
    The tension snapped with a huge laugh from Dad that was out of proportion to Brendan’s joke. Still, it felt good to laugh again and Tyler joined in. Delaney did too until she felt the laughter had gone on too long and then she got up from the table. She was wearing her comfies: gym shorts and a T-shirt with a heart on it.
    “But vit that outfit,” Dad said in a Count Dracula voice, “vatch out birds, cats, dogs, maybe even small children.” He held up his hands in a mock-vampire attack gesture straight out of those old black and white horror movies. “You even make Dracula recoil vit terror.”
    “Really funny,” Delaney said in her most un-amused voice. “I need to get ready and then I need the car to get to SAT prep.”
    Still in the Dracula voice, Dad said, “First you can tto st you ake your brother to bowling.”
    “Enough with the voice, Dad.”
    “Vhat? This is how I talk.”
    “No wonder Mom won’t come out of her room.”
    Though Dad continued to hold the vampire posture, arms up, hands arched as if to attack, his face lost the Dracula impersonation and no one laughed. Delaney glanced around, mostly at the floor, and when her eyes found Tyler’s she quickly looked away. “Anyway,” she said.
    “Okay,” Dad said without the accent. Delaney left.
    “I’ll take him to bowling,” Tyler said after a moment.
    Guilt weighed on Dad’s face. “You don’t have to, I can do it if your sister is running late.”
    “No big deal,” Tyler said. “I’ll take him.”
    Dad nodded, and started washing the pan he used for the eggs.
    “When does bowling start?” Tyler asked Brendan, but the kid had turned back to his composition book. What the hell was he writing?
    One way or the other, Tyler was going to find out.
     
    5
    Anthony had almost forgotten about the guys in the suits and their First Church of Jesus Christ the Empowered, but after he cleaned the frying pan and started to load the dishwasher with the kids’ plates, which they left on the table, he found the flier the men had given him.
    The cover was of a painting of Jesus on the cross with blood trickling from all his wounds and his rheumy eyes heavy with the misery man had inflicted upon him. Inside the pamphlet, which was about the size of a mass market paperback, a picture of a gathering of well-dressed men (suits) and women (modest-colored blouses and knee-length skirts) splayed across the bottom of the page. A man stood at a podium before a microphone, Bible open in his hands. A preacher, presumably. The spectators appeared rapt and every ethnicity seemed to be represented. Even an Indian woman with the red dot on her forehead. In large block letters at the top of the page it read: JESUS WANTS YOU TO BE EMPOWERED.
    And beneath that: In today’s day and age when every organized religion is claiming the rightful path, it can be confusing to know which direction is correct. In fact, it can be disheartening.