Read Online Thirst by Benjamin Warner - Free Book Online

pleasantness of summer returned to him, and when the coals were hot and low, he put the pizzas on the grate. Mike Jr. came outside with a Wiffle ball and a plastic bat. Seeing him there with his smudged face, he could forget that the other boy had come by.
    “You’re gonna hit the ball with me?” Mike Jr. said.
    He stood on the sidewalk with the bat cocked over his shoulder, and Eddie walked down and threw the ball to him. When he made contact, it went knuckling into the street. He was a good little athlete.
    “You get it now,” Mike Jr. said.
    “ I get it? You’re the one who hit it.”
    “Yeah, but. You. ”
    Mike Sr. cracked a beer. He was sitting on his porch stairs watching them. “You better go on and get that ball,” he said to his son, and Mike Jr. scampered into the street.
    When the pizzas were ready, Eddie brought out the cutting board and sliced them into wedges. He took five of the barrel-shaped juices from his backpack. Mike Sr. and Patty had some patio furniture, and they sat outside and ate. The evening cooled a little, and a couple of the stroller-moms passed by on the sidewalk.
    “I might take a walk up the street later and check on some of the neighbors,” Mike Sr. said. “If you want to join me.”
    “Okay,” Eddie said.
    When they were finished with the pizza, Patty brought out ice cream and poured it into bowls. They slurped it up like soup.

Eddie and Laura sat on their sofa as the sun faded outside. He thought of Mrs. Kasolos—that jug of water she had in the basement.
    She was a tough old bird, he thought. He wouldn’t be able to live alone at her age. Just getting the pots from the stove to the sink. It took a certain kind of person to last that long.
    She certainly didn’t need another five-gallon jug of water just sitting in her basement. Eddie would go to her if the water didn’t come back on soon.
    Laura was reading a copy of Field & Stream that had been sent to their house as a promotion.
    “Why are you reading that?” he said.
    She didn’t move her eyes from the pages. “There’s an article about gophers.”
    If Eddie held on to the jug for Mrs. Kasolos, it would be safer, and he could move it around, for one thing. No way she was lifting forty pounds up those stairs. She wasn’t that tough.
    “Mrs. Kasolos has more than enough to drink over there,” he said. “I think I’ll find a jar or something and have her fill it.”
    “We should be the ones helping her ,” she said. “Please don’t take anything from that old woman.”
    “Okay,” he said. “But she has extra she doesn’t need.”
    Laura went back to reading, but the image of the jug floated in Eddie’s mind. The more he pushed it down, the more it bobbed back up to the surface.
    If he wasn’t the one to get it, it would be somebody else. In his mind, that person had no form. But then he saw it was a man. It was Bill Peters. Eddie could see him doing it. He could see him pushing his way in, babbling on about his son.
    “I’m going to take that walk with Mike Sr.,” Eddie said.
    “Okay.”
    “It’ll be good to know what’s going on.”
    She moved on the sofa in a way that suggested she was coming with him, but Eddie put his hand on her shoulder to keep her there.
    “I think he wants it to be just me and him. You know how Mike Sr. can be.”
    “That’s silly,” she said, but slid back to a comfortable spot.
    “I don’t want you to worry. You’ve got Patty right there if you need anything.”
    “I’m not worried,” she said.
    He went to the basement and took the flashlight off the workbench. Then he went to the shelf and held Laura’s silver pom-pom to his face. He breathed it in again, as if he could find traces of her there. Still, there was nothing. Then he squeezedit in both of his fists and pulled until some of the strands strained and disconnected. It was a strange feeling. He held the severed strands between his thumb and forefinger, examining them as though they were a memento