Read Online The Bottom Feeders and Other Stories by Aaron Polson - Free Book Online

light jacket with
a flannel shirt underneath, but the air poked through with icy
fingers. The chill and a sickly lemon-lime glow to the lights
really set Calvin’s fight or flight ticker humming. He had to see
the body, look at those eyes again, and exercise the blue-eyed
demon.
    “ 14A. Hello, honey, I’m
home,” Calvin joked to bolster his own flagging courage. With a
quick click and then steady whirr, the drawer slid out. Blue Eyes
was there, under the plastic. He peeled back just enough to see her
icy face, an unnatural field of frigid grey. Her eyelids swelled a
dark indigo in the shadows.
    Calvin’s fingers quivered slightly before he
touched her eyelids. Pinching one between forefinger and thumb, he
pushed up gently, just enough to see the eye. It was lifeless now,
drained of the hum and electricity from his photo. Curiosity worked
magic in his fingers, and the thumb grew courageous, touching the
cold surface of her dead eye. A hum grew around him in the cooler,
a whisper that wasn’t quite the sound of the compressor or
fans.
    He closed his eyes for a moment and jerked
from the body, quickly pulling the shroud over the young face and
snapping 14A home. Calvin shivered, pulled his jacket around his
neck, and hurried from the room. Later, he would remember the touch
as a slight buzz—merely a pop of static electricity.

    Calvin and Gina sat at the kitchen table
that evening, poking at cardboard take-out boxes from The Happy
Dragon, a flagging Chinese restaurant in a town where burgers and
fries were considered fine cuisine. Gina tried to catch Calvin’s
eye, but he avoided her, lost in his own thoughts and cringing at
the growing pain in his skull—another headache.
    “ I interviewed for a couple
of positions today. One is with a vet here in town. I thought,
maybe, if it works out I could try school again. Finish my
bachelor’s at least, then see what happens.”
    Calvin glanced over the lid of a container,
scratching the back of one hand. “Sounds great.” He winced as he
spoke, and his voice was stale. His head throbbed again. “Why are
we using spoons?”
    Gina frowned. “The forks are dirty. Sorry, I
forgot—”
    The phone buzzed, and Calvin sprang from the
table before the first ring was a memory.
    “ Hello.”
    “ Hi Calvin, this is Maryann
Spader. Is Gina around? I can’t seem to get her at her place.” He
looked at Gina and mouthed, it’s your
mom .
    She shook her head.
    “ Um, she’s not here,”
Calvin said, frowning at his girlfriend.
    “ Could you, um, tell her to
call me,” Maryann said on the other end, her voice somewhat thick
and slow.
    “ Alright, I’ll let her
know.” Calvin clicked the receiver home and returned to the table.
“You haven’t told your folks?”
    Gina’s mouth crawled into a little smile.
“I…wasn’t ready, yet. I don’t want them to freak.”
    Calvin’s knuckles whitened as he clutched
his spoon. He closed his eyes, and his neck tensed. “Are you
ashamed of me, that it?” he snapped.
    Gina recoiled. “No…Calvin.” Her weak smile
vanished under a hurt frown. “What’s with you?”
    “ What’s with me? My live-in
is hiding the truth—”
    The phone rang again, truncating his rant.
Calvin pushed away from the table, glowering at Gina. He snapped
the phone off the cradle. “What?”
    “ Whoa, ace. What’s up your
ass?” Lenny asked on the other end.
    Calvin sighed and tucked the receiver on his
shoulder. He glanced back at Gina. “Nothing. Nothing. Sorry, just a
little domestic squabble.” Gina walked away from the table. “What’s
up?”
    “ Dude, the cops came in
this afternoon. Crazy shit, man. They were asking about
you.”
    Calvin’s face flushed. A tense moment
passed. He rubbed his index finger to his thumb and remembered how
her eyes felt. “Me? Why?”
    “ Look, can you meet me
later tonight, at the Idle Hour. I don’t feel really comfortable
talking about it over the phone. I thought you might like to
know.”
    “ Yeah,