Read Online One Fat Summer by Robert Lipsyte - Free Book Online Page B

door.
    â€œWell?”
    â€œI’m all done.”
    He stared at me. “I suppose you want to be paid.”
    â€œYes, sir.”
    He disappeared back inside. I waited about a nickel’s worth before he came back with a handful of crumpled dollar bills and a small leather change purse. He counted out seven dollars and eighty-seven cents.
    â€œFor the whole week?”
    â€œOn Monday you worked six hours at seventy-five cents an hour, which is four dollars and fifty cents, minus thirty-eight cents for your half hour lunch break and four dollars and fifty cents for the broken mower blade. On Monday afternoon you owed me thirty-eight cents.
    â€œOn Tuesday you received no pay since you had to redo Monday’s work. On Wednesday,Thursday and Friday, at fifty cents an hour, you earned three dollars per day, minus twenty-five cents for each day for lunch.”
    He droned on. I barely heard him. Seven dollars and eighty-seven cents for the whole week. “If you want me to add it all up for you…”
    â€œThat’s okay.”
    â€œI’m sure you will find it quite correct. I am a doctor of mathematics and until my retirement I supervised the actuarial tables of one of the largest insurance firms. Do you know what I’m talking about?”
    â€œI thought you were a real doctor.”
    â€œI’ve decided not to dock you for your time on the roof, or for the damage to the gutter and the flowers. I believe your story about the Smiths. However,” he raised a bony finger, “I must warn you that I do not like a boy who associates with bad company.”
    He turned toward the door, then turned back to me. “Monday morning. Nine o’clock. Sharp.”
    The further I got from Dr. Kahn’s house the better I felt. Seven dollars and eighty-seven cents is better than nothing. And he did want me tocome back, so I hadn’t done such a bad job after all. And it was Friday. In school, we always said TGIF, Thank God, It’s Friday. In school I never really meant it, because I always liked school better than the weekends. But this summer, TGIF. I could use a couple of days off.
    The lake looked delicious. Could I go for a swim now! Just thinking about it made me feel relaxed, cool water covering me like a blanket, washing the heat and aches out of my body. Maybe I’ll come back at night when nobody can see me and swim. Glide through the water with long, silent strokes, like a shark. I imagined myself moving through night waters; Commander Marks leading an underwater demolition crew, closing in on the mines set to blow up the harbor in ten minutes unless we locate them and detach their fuses. Can we do it? One by one my gallant frogmen have to surface as their air tanks empty. Now I’m alone. I know how to breathe shallowly and conserve oxygen. The mines! But my tank’s empty, too. Just hold your breath, Commander Marks, you can do it, big fella; all those years of swimming underwater so nobody could see you is finally going to pay off.
    I was halfway home, walking along the edge of the county road, when I began to get the creepy feeling that something was following me. A little cold shiver up my spine straightened the hairs on the back of my neck. Don’t turn around too fast, don’t let on you know they’re there. I saw a movie once where the hero pretended not to notice the bad guys creeping up on him till the last second, then he jumped behind a tree and drew his six-gun at the same time. There were no trees along the road, but plenty of rocks as big as baseballs. I timed my steps. I’d take two long ones, a short one, scoop up a rock and whirl around. I was bending over, my hand on a rock, when someone yelled, “Get him.”
    A car door opened and a body jumped out. I was still bent over when something hard slammed into my backside and knocked me down. I turned over with the rock in my hand. A boot came down hard on my wrist.
    â€œTried