Read Online Mr. Was by Pete Hautman - Free Book Online Page A

an owl and his dull brown eyes focused on me. He seemed familiar, as if I’d met him someplace before. I looked back at the magazines, searching for a date.
    Time
magazine. The cover showed a painting of a tough-looking black man. The line under the picture read “Champion Joe Louis.” It was the boxer thatScud had mentioned three years ago. I looked for the date on the cover. September 29, 1941.
    I had gone back more than fifty years.
    Then I saw something that practically stopped my heart. Batman and Robin swinging from thin black lines against a yellow sky, the city horizon red in the background. I read the number in the upper left-hand corner of the comic book
    Batman No. 1.
    I didn’t know much about comic books except to read them now and then, but everybody knows about how the old ones, especially the number one issues, are worth big bucks. Some of them are worth thousands, or even tens of thousands of dollars. The price on the cover said ten cents. Hands shaking, I opened it to the first page.
    â€œCan ah hep yew?”
    The woman pressed her belly against the counter and smiled at me, showing a set of bright yellow teeth, about twice as many as ought to have fit in her head.
    â€œI think so,” I said, closing the comic book. “I’d like to buy this, please.”
    â€œYou from around here?” she asked.
    â€œJust visiting.” I dug in my pocket for change.
    â€œThat’s an old one,” said a voice behind me.
    I turned and looked into a face identical to that of the kid on the ladder, only this one wasn’t wearing an apron. For an instant I thought that the kid had somehow transported himself down from the ladder.I was ready to believe just about anything. But then I saw that the kid on the ladder was still up there. There were two of them, twins.
    Suddenly, I knew what they would look like in fifty years. Sitting in this same building, filling their ample guts with beer. The two old guys from Ole’s.
    â€œWe had the new one, but somebody bought it.” I realized he was talking about the comic book.
    â€œYew shut yer mouth now, Hermie. He wants to buy it. He just said so, din’t you, son?”
    â€œThat’s right,” I said, handing her a quarter.
    â€œThe Batman, he can’t really fly,” Hermie said. “Superman is better.”
    The woman was staring at the coin.
    â€œWhat’s this?” she demanded.
    â€œIt’s a quarter.” Even as I heard the words leave my mouth I realized that I might have a problem here. Did quarters look the same in 1941? The way she was frowning at it, I suspected they didn’t.
    â€œDon’t look right,” she said. She pulled another quarter from a box under the counter and compared the two. “Don’t look right at all.”
    I started to back away.
    She squinted at the coin, closing one eye. “Nineteen ninety-three? What are you try in’ to pull on us, boy? This here’s a phony!” she hissed.
    Hermie snatched the comic out of my hand.
    â€œYou stay right there, boy!” The woman shouted at me. She grabbed my jacket sleeve and looked up at the twin on the ladder. “Harry, you get down fromthere and go get Chief Smaby. You go get him now, boy!”
    Harry started down the ladder. I jerked my sleeve out of her grip and took off, hit the door open with my shoulder, and was on the street running when she yelled, “Hermie! Harry! Get him, boys! Get that boy, you go get him now!”
    I looked back and saw the twins barreling up the street after me. For a couple of jelly rolls, they could run like crazy. I ran up River Street, ducked down a side street, cut back on Middle Street, and headed for the bluff road. The twins weren’t gaining on me, but they still had me in sight and they were yelling, “Stop thief!” even though I hadn’t stolen anything. People were opening their doors and looking. The whole town would be after me