Read Online Deadside in Bug City by Randy Chandler - Free Book Online Page B

was involved. Better to keep her alive till the bruises faded, then give her the pillow trip to heaven—or hell. And in the meantime, Daisy Winter was going to enjoy life, live it to its fullest. That was what the music of the bell was about. Life was as transient as each chime of the iron bell and you had to wring all you could out of your life before you went to your fucking doom. It didn’t make too much sense when you tried to put it into words, but in its immaculate ringing, the bell was saying it all. Without words. The bell spoke directly to her soul. She was not going to be a stupid cunt and deny its mystical message. Her stupid-cunt days were over. She intended to live with cunning, with her revitalized cunt (the word cunt, she knew, had originated from the same root word as cunning , and only in recent history had come to have a negative connotation).
    She rubbed the moist button at the mouth of her cunt faster and faster, and cried out when the orgasm rang her like a flesh-and-blood bell.
    Then she drifted between worlds, floating on the iron bell’s celestial chiming.
    * * *
    James “Slim Jim” Winter nearly ran off the road to let the ambulance pass him, and he hooted as his tires kissed the edge of the gully running beside the blacktop. “Hooo-eeee! That was close.”
    “No shit,” said Josh. “I thought it was gonna hit us for sure. Where’d the asshole learn to drive?”
    “Ambulance school. I dunno. Did you catch my wheel man action? Just like Jeff Gordon.”
    “Who the fuck is that?”
    “You know, the race-car dude.”
    “I don’t watch that crap. Too boring.”
    “I don’t either, but my mom loves that shit. Dad used to take her to the track and they’d get tanked up on a cooler of beer and be at each other’s throat when they got home, but while they were there they had a hell of a good time. That’s what she says, anyway. Who knows. She’s pretty fucking weird lately.”
    “No shit,” said Josh.
    “Shit, is that all you can say?”
    “What? No shit?”
    “Yeah. No shit.”
    “Shit, I don’t know.”
    “You don’t know shit.”
    “No shit. Shit’s all you do know.”
    They laughed. James socked Josh on the shoulder. Josh socked him back, not as hard. James rolled his window down.
    “Whadja do that for? It’s hot out there,” said Josh. “You’re letting out all the cool air.”
    “So I can hear that bell.”
    “It’s just a fuckin’ bell. What’s the big deal?”
    “I dunno. I just wanna hear it. And find out who’s ringing it.”
    “And you think your old lady’s weird?” Josh reached for the volume button on the radio.
    James swatted his hand away.
    “Hey! What the fuck, man?”
    James said, “I told ya, I wanna hear the bell. Can’t hear it with the radio on.”
    “Jeez.” Josh crossed his arms over his chest and sulked against the passenger door.
    James turned right at the corner of Vinewood and Willow. A man, completely naked, was crossing the street in their headlights and James swerved to avoid hitting him.
    “Holy shit! Look at that crazy fucker,” said Josh, craning his head around.
    Both boys howled as they drove past the naked, balding man.
    “That’s one way to beat the heat,” James guffawed.
    “Yeah, but did you see who that was? That was Bony Berman, the math teacher. No shit, it really was.”
    “Nah. He wouldn’t walk down the street naked.”
    “It was him. I swear.”
    “Must’ve found a math problem he couldn’t solve and flipped his shit.”
    “I guess,” said Josh. “Jeez-oh-man, Bony Berman butt naked in the street. What’s the world coming to?”
    Before James could answer with a witty comeback, an ice cream truck with its headlights off came barreling toward them down the wrong side of the street. James’s Jeff Gordon moves deserted him. His hands froze on the steering wheel and he did nothing but wait for the head-on impact. Josh yelped and threw his hands over his face. The ice cream truck swerved sharply toward