Read Online The Ferryman by Amy Neftzger - Free Book Online

that someone else would steal the coins from her eyes.
    A half hour went by. Then another. Karen began to wonder if her homeless appearance was bringing about too much sympathy for anyone to attempt taking the coins from her, but she continued to wait. After all, if taking coins from the eyes of a corpse was what brought her into this contract, she reasoned, then having coins stolen from her own eyes may be the key to releasing her from the obligation to serve Fate. So she stayed in position and waited another hour.
    “That won’t work,” Fate said sharply. The sound of Fate’s voice startled Karen, and she sprang upright. She fumbled to catch the coins as she squinted into the afternoon sunlight, but the metal disks slipped through her fingers and clanged on the asphalt pathway in front of her. She scrambled to retrieve the metal dollars before addressing Fate. She’d spent too much time polishing the coins to let them go easily. When she finally looked up, her eyes were still adjusting to the light, and she had to shade them with her hand.
    “How do I know that you’re not lying to keep me in this job?” Karen demanded.
    “You don’t,” Fate said as she adjusted the shoulder strap on her black sleeveless dress. She was wearing a matching wide brimmed hat that was tilted to one side. A small strand of simple white pearls rested against the smooth skin of her collar bone. She had her weight settled on one hip, and with one arm at her side and one adjusting her strap, she looked like something out of Breakfast at Tiffany’s or as if she were ready for a day at the races.
    Sometimes, Karen thought to herself, it seems a pity that I’m the only one who can see Fate.
    “You’re not wearing boots,” Karen commented as she studied Fate’s feet. She looked back into Fate’s eyes and continued, “I guess you don’t have as much shit to deal with today.”
    “That’s what assistants are for,” Fate retorted. “That’s why I hired you, for example. You might want to look into getting a pair.” Fate scrunched up her nose as she surveyed Karen’s outfit. Karen’s gaze drifted down, and she wiped one of her moist palms on her own ragged attire.
    “I’m not really dressed for anything,” Karen said as she slipped the silver dollars into the pocket of her yoga pants.
    “You never know when you’re going to do something, and you never know when you’re going to do nothing. But you should always know better than to leave the house dressed like that. Even when you’re doing nothing you should be well dressed.”
    “There’s more to life than how a person looks,” Karen said as she narrowed her eyes into a fierce expression, but she recalled her situation and bit her tongue from saying any more. Neither she nor Claude had nice clothes, and although she now had some money she had been hesitant to purchase more than what was necessary because one never knows how long a bit of money will last.
    “Go on,” Fate said with a smirk. “Teach me a lesson.”
    “It just shouldn’t matter what a person wears or what people look like,” Karen replied.
    “It shouldn’t,” Fate agreed, “but it does. So you can carry a torch for the cause, but the reality is no one will listen to you dressed like that.”
    “I was going for a homeless look.”
    “I know.”
    “I don’t think it worked.”
    “I know.”
    Karen glanced around the park and inhaled the scent of freshly cut grass mixed with wild onions. It was a weekday afternoon and there were college kids strolling about. She also saw a few mothers with small children, and an occasional businessman in a suit meandered through the park talking into his phone or Bluetooth headset. Karen watched a little girl playing in the sandbox and wished her life were that simple again.
    “So, who am I looking for?” Karen asked as she stood up, faced Fate, and set her mind on the task at hand. “I know you didn’t come here to compliment me on my wardrobe. What’s my