Read Online Dead Nolte by Borne Wilder - Free Book Online

movement, whatsoever,
in his peripheral view. He’d developed this ‘tick/survival instinct’, because
of Mommy. Living with Mommy, one had to be prepared to duck ashtrays and shoes,
at any given moment. Mommy had a temper. A dust mote on a still damp, cherry
red fingernail could send all manner of things flying across the room. Mommy
had a temper and she hated to do things twice.
    Nolte, on the other hand, seemed doomed to repeat things.
Kids at school would offer Nolte their hand, yet, when he went to shake it,
they would jerk their hand quickly to their head, pretending to smooth their
hair. Leaving him ‘hanging’ was embarrassing enough, but this would also
produce an involuntary duck and fluttering eyelashes from Nolte. A flinch, a social
crime punishable by a sharp slug to the upper arm and humiliating finger
pointing. It would also produce peals of laughter from the other kids. Nolte
was a natural sucker. For some reason, he never wised up to the kids and was
always lured into the handshake trap. He’d hated those fucking kids. Nolte
would bet a sixteen-dollar bill, that not one of those laughing losers had ever
run across a shadow of this nature. Fuck Peter Pan, Nolte’s shadow was
dangerous, or at the very least, chancy. He wished those assholes were here
now, he’d see who was scared of shadows.
    Nolte’s shadow had a presence; he could actually feel it
watching him. He could feel its vibe. The thing also affected the hair on the
back of his neck, a sure sign that the ‘motherfucker’ was up to no good. Nolte
always obeyed the hair on the back of his neck. Neck hair was an extremely
reliable early warning system; neck hair alerted him to undesirables and
unwelcome situations before they had a chance to become problematic.
    The creepy feeling, he would get, the moment before he’d
turn to catch someone staring at him, was neck hair alerting him to unwanted
attention. It was better than radar. Although they would nervously divert their
eyes and pretended to be looking for something other than him, Nolte knew the
truth, his neck hair never lied. Neck hair saw through deceptive behavior. Neck
hair knew when people were watching and people were watching Nolte, of that, he
was absolutely sure. People always watched him. Nolte and his neck hair were of
the opinion, that people needed to mind their own fucking business.
    Sometimes, in crowded places when the hair on the back of
his neck was particularly active, or he was particularly drunk, he’d shout.
“Look away assholes! You can pretend you’re not looking at me, but I know you
are, motherfuckers!” This usually caused a stir, especially after shouting it
several times, in an attempt to flush out the culprit with the unwelcome gaze.
Then, without fail, someone, more than likely the perpetrator of the staring,
would involve the cops. And most of the time, through no fault of his own, his
'rights' would be violated and a scuffle with the police would ensue and Nolte
would end up hogtied and taken into custody. Not the assholes with the eye
problems, that couldn’t mind their own business, but him, the innocent one.
    These unjust arrests were mostly due to the fact, that by
the time law enforcement usually arrived, the assholes with the invasive eyes
had had ample opportunity to scatter into the wind like chicken-shits, and cops
being too lazy to investigate, or even wonder out loud for the truth, would
slap the bracelets on Nolte. Someone was going down, or it was a wasted trip.
    Nolte soon realized ‘staring violations’ were much harder to
prove in a court of law, than public intoxication, but it never stopped him
from hurling accusations of eye-rape whenever his neck hair sounded the alarm.
He had rights and he would defend those rights. Yes, neck hair had caused Nolte
some problems in the past, but to ignore the hair on the back of one’s neck
could get one killed, there are crazies everywhere you look.
    By the third day, not only could he see the