Read Online Our Kingdom of Dust by Leonard Kinsey - Free Book Online Page A

so terrible. But wait until the summer comes around. The stench is overwhelming!”
    “And the employee cafeteria is down here? Lovely.”
    “Yeah, it’s just over this way.”
    We walked a bit and were almost run down by a few golf carts zooming around. I noticed a lot of people in regular clothes going past us.
    “So anybody is allowed down here?” I asked.
    “No, no, definitely not,” responded Jay. “These people are all Cast Members. Not that it ever happens, but if Security thinks you look suspicious, they’ll ask for your Cast Member ID. And if you don’t have it and can’t prove you work here, you will be thrown out of the park and possibly trespassed and BOLO’d.”
    “What is ‘BOLO’d’?”
    “’Be on the look-out for’. It means they’ll take your picture and put it up everywhere, and if someone sees you in the park you’ll be arrested for trespassing.”
    “Oh.” I thought for a second. “Wait a minute, what the hell are you doing down here, then? You’re not a Cast Member.”
    “Dating the hottest princess on property does have its advantages,” said Jay. “But honestly, I’ve been friends with a lot of people here for years. Some of them started in janitorial and have since moved up to management. I do them favors, and they do me favors, like letting me into the parks for free and letting me roam around wherever I want.”
    “What kind of favors do you do for them?”
    “I… procure things for them.”
    Just as I was about to press him for more details, we stopped at Mouseketeria. It was pretty nice, but the best part was that it was filled with Cast Members in their uniforms, all eating and talking together. It was funny seeing Captain Jack talking to a headless Mickey, who was actually a forty-something lady.
    “The food here is the same stuff you’d get upstairs,” said Jay as we got into line. “Except it’s half as cheap. I love this place.”
    I ordered a soft pretzel and a soda, and Jay got some fries and a bottled water. I paid for both of us. Jay was right, it was dirt cheap. We took our food and sat down.
    “So,” started Jay, “you think you can come over for dinner this evening?”
    “Yeah, I’ve got absolutely nothing planned tonight. Tomorrow I’m supposed to be having cocktails with your buddy ‘Charles the Greeter’, but other than that my schedule is wide open for the foreseeable future.”
    Jay stopped chewing. “Charles… is not the most stable person.”
    “No shit,” I said. “Dude nearly accosted me in the elevator the other day. What’s his beef with you?”
    “Charles had some problems years ago, and he blames them all on me. Needless to say, take anything he says about me with a grain of salt.”
    “I kinda figured. So what’s his story?”
    “Given his current revered status at The Beach Club, it wouldn’t really be appropriate for me to reveal much. If he wants to tell you about his sordid past, that’s totally up to him. But, like I said, just remember that there are two sides to every story.”
    “Okay, fair enough,” I said. “All I know is that you’ve been totally cool to me since the moment we met, whereas the first time I met Charles all he did was act like a psychopath. But I can’t say I’m not curious to hear what he has to tell me.”
    “Yes. It should be interesting.”
    We finished our food in silence. I started thinking about Charles’s warning, and for a second had a flash of worry that maybe he was right, maybe Jay was the bad guy here. I looked up from my plate at him, and he smiled that heartwarming smile, and I just couldn’t believe that this dude was anything other than a saint. And he had a really hot girlfriend that I kinda wanted to get to know better… in a purely platonic way, of course. I mean, Jay seemed like an awesome guy, and messing around with his girlfriend would not be a cool thing to do. Then again, if she tried to seduce me, I’m not sure I’d be able to turn her down.
    Oh, yeah,