Read Online The Wonders of the Invisible World by David Gates - Free Book Online

see.’ ”
    “That’s not what I said. Of course I want to stay involved. So you’re taking him back to Boston?”
    “What have we just been talking about? Hello?” She drops her mouth open, idiot-style, and waves. “Yes. It’s where I
live.
When I’m among the living. So in other words, when I take him home, that’s too much of a
trek,
so you’ll never see him.”
    “I’m not saying that.”
    She takes a bite of her hamburger, chews. “Good burger,” she says. “
Not.
I’ll tell you one thing, though. This time I’m going to make it.”
    Billy eats a potato chip. “I don’t suppose you’d consider moving back here,” he says.
    “Please.”
    “I know, but think about it. The house is paid for, you and Deke could each have a room, you wouldn’t—”
    “We’ve got rooms. At home. Besides, I’ve
had
that room.”
    “We could switch. I’ll take your old room and you can have the big room.”
    “
Their
bedroom?”
    “Or you can switch with Deke. Take my old room. The piano’s still here, it needs—”
    “That house is death.”
    “That house,” he says, “is a three-bedroom house. For free. In a safe neighborhood. With decent schools. Also, Billy wouldn’t have to suddenly—”
    “Yeah, I know the decent schools, too. It’s where I used to boot coke in the toilet stalls.”
    “You could’ve done that anywhere. It was your choice.
I
didn’t get into drugs.”
    Cassie’s mouth drops open.
    “Well, not like you did. Anyway, that was in high school. Deke’s only in second—”
    “I’m not discussing this.” She stuffs a french fry into her mouth. “Mmm. Fries are good.”
    “So Boston’s better.”
    “Better than Greater Albany? Yeah, I’d say so. Listen, I changed my mind. I want to see my boy.”
    “School doesn’t let out until three,” Billy says. “I thought you had to be back by six.”
    “No, I don’t want him to see
me.
Can’t we just go over to the school and peek in the classroom?”
    “Not a good idea.”
    She gives him a quick shark smile. “Do you understand that I could call the police
any time
and say you’re molesting him?”
    Billy looks at her and nods. “Nice.” Keeps nodding. “A truly lovely way to repay me.”
    “Oh, I thought you were too much of a saint to worry about being paid back. It’s not reward enough, just feeling superior?”
    “Cassie, why are you being so ugly?”
    “Because I want to see my
son,
Billy, and you’re giving me all this shit. Why can’t we just go over and watch them come out for afternoon recess?”
    “Line up behind the fence with all the pedophiles?”
    “And the dope pushers,” Cassie says. “You know, I don’t need your permission. I know the way over there. I could drive it blindfold.”
    “Look. If we do this, I want you to—”
    “Yay!” Cassie puts a fist in the air.
    On the other side of the fence, kids are running and yelling, swinging and seesawing, swarming over the old jungle gym, a skeleton dome of smooth, dull gray pipes. Far across the still-green playing field, a pickup truck’s parked by where they’re building a modern playground with rubber mats and pressure-treated timber—so far away that you see a workman’s hammer fall, then hear the
clink
on the upswing.
    Billy points. That’s Deke: in the blue-jean jacket, seesawing with a little girl.
    “He plays with girls?” Cassie says.
    “Yeah,” Billy says. “He must’ve caught it from the toilet seat.”
    “You laugh. But you shared a bathroom with me all those years, and you ended up fucking men.”
    “Okay, now I believe you’re Cassie.” He looks at his sister, her hair tucked up into his Diamond Dogs cap. “I was afraid an alien had taken over
your
body.”
    “God, don’t even joke about it. Listen, what’s he going to be for Halloween?”
    “I thought I’d dress him up as Carol Channing. No, actually, how about a space alien?”
    “
Billy.
Jesus.”
    “Sorry. I’ve kind of had my eye on this Barney costume,