Read Online Serpent's Kiss by Ed Gorman - Free Book Online Page A

weekend. She hung up on me."
        "Why?"
        "Because she said this copy she had of Wonder Woman was in mint condition but it wasn't. It had a crease on the cover and the back was kind of wrinkled and-"
        "And so you told her that?"
        "Sure. It was just the truth."
        "Sometimes you need to spare people the truth, Tommy."
        "You mean lie?"
        "I mean take their feelings into account. Judy's probably proud of her comic book. Then let her be proud. Don't spoil it for her."
        Tommy stared at her and sighed. "I screwed up, huh?"
        "Yes."
        "And I should call her?"
        "Yes."
        "And tell her the comic book's really in mint condition when it isn't?"
        "No, call her and tell her that her feelings are a lot more important than any comic book, and that you're sorry, and that you'd like to see her again."
        "What if she hangs up?"
        "Then wait a few days and call her again."
        Tommy smiled. "You always make things sound so easy, Marie."
        She touched his hand. "Things can be easy, Tommy. At least easier than we make them sometimes."
        He shrugged. "Maybe so."
        "Well, good luck, Tommy. I hope things go well for you with Judy."
        He smiled. "I hope they go well with Richie, too." He patted her small wrist again with his big hand. "I really mean that, Marie."
        "Thanks," she said.
        Then it was time to walk back across the space between table and door where everybody interested could watch her walk. The nice thing about the end of the hour was the congestion. You didn't stand out in a crowd when you had people on all sides of you pushing toward the EXIT door.
        When she was out of the cafeteria and heading down the long phalanx of lockers, she started thinking again of Richie, and a wildness filled her-a wildness that was one part joy and one part terror.
        She had no confidence where boys were concerned. She did not want to hope for too much with Richie because she might end up getting nothing at all.
        
***
        
        For a time, he put his head back and closed his eyes and let the apple blossom breeze through the open window balm him.
        It was almost possible to forget that he was on a city bus, and that he did not know who he was, and that he was going to see-3567 Fairlawn Terrace.
         Who lived there? he wondered.
        Every few minutes the bus stopped and the big doors whooshed open and people got on and off.
        And then the bus started up again. He liked the lunge of power. It was relaxing somehow; made him feel he was being mercifully carried away from trouble.
        With his eyes closed, he smelled the pieces of the day: grass and sun, warmth and wind, diesel fuel and cigarette smoke.
        And the sounds: children, car horns, radios, black people, white people, Mexican people, aeroplanes, motorcycles.
        The whole human jumble of it made him feel safe again, hiding once more in his own humanity.
        Unlikely as it was, he slept.
        When he woke, he made a tiny frightened sound.
        An old lady in a faded head scarf turned to look at him with accusing blue eyes.
         Drunk, and sleeping it off , her gaze said.
        He sat up straight, looking desperately now at the scene surrounding the bus.
        Again, he sensed that this was an area he was familiar with but his mind offered no objective proof Neat ranch houses, neither cheap nor expensive, lined the low grassy green hills on either side of the street.
         I live in one of these houses.
        The bus pulled over to the kerb.
        The old lady, overburdened with K-Mart and Wal-Mart shopping bags, got off. She still glared at him.
        The bus pulled away once more, the forward rhythm relaxing him immediately.
        If only he could ride forever…
        Two blocks later, he saw the street sign that read FAIRLAWN