Read Online The Fiend by Margaret Millar - Free Book Online Page A

of its own, should be able to fight back and assert itself better than he could.
    â€œFor Pete’s sake, watch it,” Ben said. “You’re getting the stove dirty.”
    â€œI didn’t mean to.”
    â€œPut a lid on the frying pan. Use your head.”
    â€œMy head wouldn’t fit, Ben. It’s too small.”
    Ben stared at him a moment, then he said sharply, “Stop do­ing that. Stop taking everything literally. You know damned well I didn’t mean for you to decapitate yourself and use your head as a lid for the frying pan. Don’t you know that?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œDamn it all, why do you do it then?”
    Charlie turned, frowning, from the stove. “But you said, put a lid on the frying pan, use your head. You said that, Ben.”
    â€œAnd you think I meant it like that?”
    â€œI wasn’t really thinking. My mind was occupied with other things. Maybe with Louise coming and all like that.”
    â€œLook, Charlie, I’m only trying to protect you. You pull something like this at work and they’ll consider you a moron.”
    â€œNo,” Charlie said gravely. “They just laugh. They think I’m being funny. Actually, I don’t have much of a sense of humor, do I?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œDid I ever? I mean, when we were boys together, Ben, before—well, before anything had happened, did I have a sense of humor then?”
    â€œI can’t remember.”
    â€œI bet you can if you tried. You’ve always had a good mem­ory, Ben.”
    â€œNow I’ve got a good forgetter,” Ben said. “Maybe that’s more essential in this life.”
    â€œNo, Ben, that’s wrong. It’s important for you to remember how it was with us when we were kids. Mother and Dad are dead, and I can’t remember, so if you don’t, it’s like it never happened and we were never kids together—”
    â€œAll right, all right, don’t get excited. I’ll remember.”
    â€œEverything?”
    â€œI’ll try.”
    â€œDid I have a sense of humor?”
    â€œYes. Yes, you did, Charlie. You were a funny boy, a very funny boy.”
    â€œDid we do a lot of laughing together, you and I and Mom and Dad?”
    â€œSure.”
    â€œLouise laughs a lot. She’s very cheerful, don’t you think?”
    â€œLouise is a very cheerful girl, yes.”
    Slowly and thoughtfully, Charlie turned the fish cakes. They were burned but he didn’t care. It would only be easier to pre­tend they were small round tender steaks. “Ben?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œShe wouldn’t stay cheerful very long if she married me, would she?”
    â€œStop talking like—”
    â€œI mean, you haven’t leveled with her, Ben. She doesn’t realize what a drag I am and how she’d have to worry about me the way you do. I would hurt her. I would be hurting her all the time without meaning to, maybe without even knowing it. Would she be cheerful then? Would she?”
    Ben sat down at the table, heavily and stiffly, as if each of the past five minutes had been a crippling year.
    â€œWell? Would she, Ben?”
    â€œI don’t know.”
    Charlie looked dismayed, like a child who’s been used to hear­ing the same story with the same happy ending, and now the ending has been changed. It wasn’t happy any more, it wasn’t even an ending. Did the frog change into a prince? I don’t know. Did he live happily ever after with his princess? I don’t know.
    Charlie said stubbornly, “I don’t like that answer. I want the other one.”
    â€œThere is no other one.”
    â€œYou always used to say that marriage changed a man, that Louise could be the making of me and we could have a good life together if we tried. Tell it to me just like that all over again, Ben.”
    â€œI can’t.”
    â€œAll right then, give me hell. Tell me