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

how about eight?”
Calvin waited. “Twenty bucks work?”
    “ Great. See you
then.”
    Calvin stood at the kitchen table for a few
moments, looking at the half-empty containers, and trying to
remember what happened after he touched the eyes. He remembered the
shock, the feeling of electricity, but then what? Calvin held his
hands in front of him, examined the fingers, and scraped a bit of
black dirt from under one nail. He scooped up the leftovers and
stuffed them in the trash. When the kitchen was clean, he found
Gina lying on their bed.
    “ Look, I’m sorry.” He held
his head.
    She looked up, her eyes puffy and rimmed
with red. She nodded.
    “ I don’t know what’s wrong
with me. Really. I understand that you aren’t ready to tell your
folks, okay?” He sat down on the edge of the bed, testing the space
to see if he was welcome. “Congrats on the interviews,
too.”
    “ I wasn’t ready…I will be,
soon. It’s not just you—I haven’t even told them about my job.”
Gina held out her hand. “I’m worried about that headache. You never
have headaches.”
    “ No worries. I’ll be fine.”
Calvin stretched one arm around her shoulders. “Take your time with
your folks. I’m in no hurry.” He bent lower and focused on her
brown eyes. “I understand, all right?”
    Gina nodded.
    “ Look, I hate to go…that
call was for work. I have something important to do.”

    The inside of Idle Hour was covered with at
least two generations of Coors Light and Budweiser posters, old
enough that some of the women on the posters could easily be
Calvin’s mom. A permanent cigarette haze floated in the air despite
the public smoking ban two years ago. The building stretched half a
city block with billiards tables lined up from front to back and
old vinyl bar stools resting against the walls between a few
upright arcade machines. A small area in front held a couple of
tables for playing cards and the bar.
    Calvin looked past the grizzled faces of the
middle-aged regulars and saw Lenny at a billiards table under a
cracked lamp in the middle of the hall. He was lining up for a shot
and nodded toward Calvin as he approached.
    “ I thought this would be a
good place.” Lenny looked at the ceiling, indicating the loud
music. “Nobody will overhear us in here.” With a swift thrust, he
sent the cue ball into the nine. “Join me?”
    Calvin thrust his hands in his pockets and
shook his head. “No. I’m terrible.” He slipped a twenty out of his
pocket and folded it in his hand. “You’re getting expensive.”
    Lenny sidled up to Calvin
and snatched the bill. “Yeah, maybe. But this is good. 14-A, you
know, Jane Doe or whatever, she was wanted for murder .” He bent to the table again
and lined up another shot.
    Calvin began to sweat and took off his
jacket, tossing it on a chair against the wall. “Maybe I will join
you.” He surveyed a collection of house cue sticks on a rack, held
up a few, and made a choice.
    “ Arizona. She was wanted in
Arizona. The car was stolen in Wichita. Sedgwick County plates.” He
cleared the table, knocking the eight ball in the side. “I’ll
rack.”
    Calvin’s head swam, and he steadied himself
using the cue stick as a crutch. He looked up, past Lenny and
spotted Brad, Gina’s old boss, guffawing at the bar. Brad was
short, but broad—he hit the local gym every day, mostly to work on
his upper body by the look of his scrawny legs.
    “ Hey, zombie-dude, are you
with me? Did you hear what I said?”
    Calvin snapped to attention. “Murder,” he
muttered.
    Lenny walked around the table and stood
close to Calvin. “Here’s the real crazy shit, okay? She killed this
old dude and his wife. Cut their fuckin’ eyes out and left their
bodies in the goddamn kitchen. The cops out there never found the
eyes.”
    Calvin’s eye twitched. “How do you learn all
this?”
    “ Springdale’s finest think
I’m some sort of idiot, I guess. They talk right in front of me, me
sitting