A Shiver of Wonder by Daniel Kelley Read Free Book Online Page A

Truly.”
    “Good night, David. Sweet dreams.”
    She’d clicked off before David could return
the sentiment.
    He set the phone down on the floor and lay
back once more on the couch. It was a lot to think about, a lot to
think about.

Chapter Nine
    “Damn it, I hate this game! Why do you come
here every week?”
    David closed his eyes, willing himself not
to snap back. His visit with Grandpa Wilcott had begun poorly, and
had only skidded downhill from there.
    “It’s Gin rummy, Grandpa. It’s a game you
once played every night with Grandma. And I come because I enjoy
seeing you.”
    “Bah!” Grandpa threw down the card he’d
picked up, his ninth from-the-pile discard in a row. “Long time
ago. Probably had nothing better to do. Don’t you have
anything better to do?”
    “Apparently not,” David replied evenly,
picking up yet another card that would have given him Gin before
placing it atop the discards.
    The first thing Grandpa had done upon
David’s arrival was to shove the previous day’s Shady Grove Courier
at him. “Isn’t this you? Isn’t that the crap hole you live in?”
he’d asked, a finger jabbing at the stark image of the Rainbow
Arms.
    “Yep. But it wasn’t me that got knocked off.
So you’re still stuck with the same offer: you want to walk around
the square a few times or play cards?”
    The newspaper had been tossed aside, and
Grandpa had lodged himself firmly in his favorite chair, a
decades-old leather Barcalounger that, when fully reclined, took up
half his floor space.
    David always found it amusing that while his
Grandpa had become crusty, irascible, and entirely unable to find
any joy in life, his room reflected quite an opposite sentiment.
Warm family portraits and candid photos of David’s Grandma covered
the walls; the bedspread was a patchwork quilt that had been
crafted by two of David’s aunts; books, hobby magazines, and
well-thumbed motorcycle manuals were neatly lined up in order of
size within two elegant mahogany bookshelves.
    Grandpa had kept pictures of his last three
girlfriends on top of his dresser for a while, but they’d
disappeared a few months before. David had decided to leave it
alone.
    “HA!” Grandpa had gotten what he’d needed: a
five, to give him fives over a run of three Diamonds.
    But then he threw down his hand. “Took long
enough. How the hell could you not have won that one?”
    David quickly scooped and racked the cards
before his hand was picked up and analyzed.
    “I don’t want to play anymore.” The
Barcalounger began extending. “Why don’t you just go?”
    David took a deep breath. “Grandpa, isn’t
there anything you want to do? We don’t have to play cards
every week, we can go anywhere!”
    “Where? On the Shady Grove trolley?” A
swift, dismissive shake of his head. “I’m done with the world. It
can be done with me.”
    “That’s so not true. You’ve got years left
in you!”
    “I sure as hell hope not.” The Barcalounger
creaked and then snapped as it returned to its upright position.
“David, I just don’t understand why you’re here. In Shady Grove.
Fine, you’ve got some good memories of visiting years ago. But why?
Why?”
    Another long, deep breath. “I wanted to live
somewhere nice. Small town, not large. I wanted to be… independent.
Of…”
    “You want to be done with the world,
too?”
    “No! I just wanted something simple. Simpler
than what things had become.”
    “Well, you got it! Welcome to Dullsville.”
Grandpa’s glare honed in. “You were doing something with
your life, David. You were going somewhere, you were living! How
could you trade that in for – ” His hand swept toward the charming
panorama of bucolic, small town America that his window offered. “
– this?”
    David rested his eyes on the view. “Easily,”
he replied. “But it wasn’t exactly like I gave up a lot, you
know.”
    “You gave up hope!”
    Their eyes met again. “Look who’s talking!”
David tried but