Read Online Eureka Man: A Novel by Patrick Middleton - Free Book Online Page A

campus. Oliver was delighted.
    When final grades came out and he saw the A
on his official grade form, Oliver said to himself, uh huh, go on,
say it! You knew you could do it, didn't you? But around his
friends, he downplayed the whole thing. Albert, Penelope, and Early
congratulated him until he turned red with embarrassment. His
fellow classmates teased him in good taste, and the campus girls
said way to go, you scholar.
    But what tickled him more than anything was
how he was supposed to be doing hard time among hardened cons, and
here he had turned his prison into an Ivy League campus. He
relished walking down Turk's Street every morning with a bale of
books under his arms, flirting with the campus girls who came every
day, and staying up until three in the morning, drinking tea and
reading Shakespeare, writing in his journal or working on his
latest commitment-editing The Wire, the lifers' newsletter. Just
about everything he needed was right there in the prison and what
wasn't came to him once a week, his own college girl Penelope. Tall
and busty, with narrow hips, long shapely legs and a well-rounded
behind, she had a face that banged drums of envy among the young
ladies and awe among the men. Not only was she pleasant to look at,
she was bright and witty, too. During their weekly visits, she
always brought their conversation around to some political or
current topic in the news. Was it right for the United States to do
business with the Shah of Iran? Should we give him refuge if he
should fall? On both of these questions she answered in the
affirmative and proceeded to put forth a sound argument to bolster
her position. Oliver was more than impressed by her logic. Her
knowledge of major league baseball baffled him, too. She was a
Pirates fan, and he was an Orioles fanatic. After she explained to
him why and how her team had beaten his twice in the World Series,
he quickly changed the subject to the shade of her lipstick. “Is
that strawberry?” he artfully asked her. “No. It just tastes that
way. See?” she teased, smiling at him three different ways before
she gently pressed her lips against his. These moments and other
things they shared in common-their Catholic upbringing, broken
families, and the universal need to be needed-had metamorphosed
their business arrangement into a deep emotional connection. Being
with her each week made him feel he still had another part of
himself that had not been taken away. He didn't know how long it
was going to last and he tried not to think about it. When they
were together they made each other feel like they were the only two
people in the world. He never asked her if she had someone else out
there; he didn't want to know. Her lack of inhibition and unending
desire to please was enough for him.
    On their first Christmas holiday visit
together, she arrived at six o'clock wearing what she knew would
arouse him to no end. Her old Catholic school uniform. A white
blouse with a little black ribbon tie, a navy blue blazer, plaid
pleated skirt, and knee socks and loafers. They stood in the line
that led to the back of the room where a Christmas tree display
table, covered in a snow white sheet that hung all the way to the
floor, awaited couples who wanted their pictures taken and others
who wanted ten minutes of privacy. Ten dollars for ten minutes of
privacy was what the Jaycees photographer charged. When Oliver and
Penelope reached the front of the line other couples hid them from
view while they crawled under the table and made clandestine love
to the sound of the Lionel train choo-chooing around the Christmas
tree overhead.
     
    THREE DAYS BEFORE CHRISTMAS, Freddie the runner
brought another visiting pass to his door at nine o'clock in the
morning. Oliver thought the word family at the bottom of the pass
meant his mother June, his brothers, Skip and Huck, and his sister
Anna. So he bolted to the visiting room and then pulled up like a
buck in headlights when he saw a man who