Read Online Invisible Boy by Cornelia Read - Free Book Online Page A

timing’s perfect.”
    “Cool.”
    “You’re
sure
you want to do this, Madeline?”
    “Course I’m sure. I’ve been thinking about it all week.”
    “Me too,” she said. “And I’m so glad you’re coming.”
    We said good-bye and I clicked open another line, dialing Dean in New Jersey. He’d started working for Christoph Monday morning,
     the pair of them commuting back and forth across the George Washington Bridge in Christoph’s Jeep.
    The secretary put me through to Dean’s extension, and I said, “How’s it goin’, ya goddamn genius?” when he picked up.
    “Decent,” he said. “Nice day out here.”
    I looked out the window at the Catalog’s air shaft. “I wouldn’t know—thanks for the heads-up.”
    “You going back to the cemetery?” he asked.
    “Cate just called. I figured I’d grab a sandwich or something and jump on the subway.”
    “What time’ll you get home?”
    “Way sooner than last week.”
    “Famous last words,” he said.
    “Really and truly. Even if we find anything, Skwarecki’s said she’s coming to us, you know?”
    “Just be careful, Bunny. Get a ride to the subway if you guys stay later than four, all right?”
    “Scout’s honor,” I said. “Pinkie swear.”
    “Hey, you talked to Nutty Buddy?”
    “Astrid? Not since they called to hire you. Why?”
    I heard him exhale. “Probably nothing.”
    Dean had spent enough time with my pals to have pretty decent girly-radar. Plus he had two sisters.
    “What flavor of probably nothing?” I asked.
    “She’s been out here to the office a couple of times—”
    “They
are
newlyweds. I’m sure the novelty will wear off. No
    offense—”
    “Bunny, I mean she’s driven out here a couple of times a
day
since Monday. She’s got Christoph’s other Jeep.”
    I had a hard time picturing Astrid voluntarily venturing out to New Jersey pretty much
ever
, even under heavy sedation.
    “Okay. That is kind of weird,” I said.
    “She seems shaky. Like she could use a friend.”
    “Astrid’s got a
bazillion
friends.”
    “Yeah,” he said, “but how many of them aren’t assholes?”
    “Good point,” I said.
    We were both quiet for a second.
    “Look, Bunny?” said Dean. “There’s something else.”
    “Tell me.”
    “She hasn’t taken off that black jacket she had on the other night. She just wanders around the office with the hood up. In
     sunglasses.”
    “Shit,” I said.
    “Just give her a call sometime.”
    “I will.”
    “I should get back to it,” said Dean.
    “Cool. Catch you après-graveyard.”
    “You bet.”
    I was just about to hang up but instead said, “Hey, Dean?”
    “Yeah?”
    “If Astrid does come out there again, try and get her to fucking eat something, okay? Bitch needs a cheeseburger.”
    I put down the phone and Yumiko blew a plume of Marlboro smoke across my desk. “You going
back
there, after you already found that dead kid?”
    “Yeah,” I said. “We’re going to try and help figure out who it was.”
    “Fucking white people,” she said, stubbing out her smoke in a brimming ashtray. “All of you—
crazy
.”
    I shrugged.
    So many cities, all mashed into each other on one tiny island.
    On the train to Queens I pondered Dean’s concern for Astrid and started thinking back to what she was like as I’d first known
     her.
    There was one Sunday night in particular when I was sitting in the Ford Smoker bumming Marlboro Lights off Joan Appelbaum.
    Whenever I’d had cash enough to buy my own, I walked down to the Dobbs Ferry Grand Union and purchased something off-puttingly
     bizarre like Philip Morris Commanders. These tasted like burnt sneakers marinated in Guinness, but since that meant only the
     truly desperate cadged them off me, each pack lasted twice as long.
    That no classmate ever begrudged me a cigarette despite this all-too-transparent strategy spoke to a tribal generosity of
     spirit I’d never once experienced in nine years of public school, go figure. Here