Accidental Evil by Ike Hamill Read Free Book Online

forehead and Ricky clenched his teeth to hold the spinning ball in the air.
    This was his workout, and he would keep at it until levitating the ball was second nature. Maybe he could even graduate to a baseball, or a softball.  
    “Lower,” he whispered. He tried to relax his leg muscles, and then his hands. He fought for control of his own muscles.  
    “Ricky?” his mom asked.
    His door banged open. The ball fell to the floor.
    She had a handful of mail. She took one look at her sweaty son, propped up with pillows on his bed, and then she looked away.
    “Your door has a latch on it,” she said. She exited quickly and closed the door behind herself. Through the thick door he heard her say, “Use it!” As she walked down the hall, he heard her muttering something about how he was fifteen and should know better by now.
    Ricky took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He wondered what a heart attack felt like.  

    [ Work ]
    By the time he got out of the shower, dressed, and went back downstairs, his mother was able to make eye contact with him.
    “Can I get a ride down to Dawn’s? My shift starts in five minutes.”
    “And your plan was to spring this on me so I would have to drive you? What if I was too busy? What if I had already left?”
    “Never mind. I can walk down there in time.”
    “You never could,” she said. She was muttering to herself as she picked up her keys from the counter. “You would show up ten minutes late, sweating like a firehose, and lose that cushy job of yours. Are you going to get moving or what?”
    He rushed to hold open the door for her. After she pushed through, he trotted to get to the car before she did. He knew her moods. When she was like this, she was just as likely to give him a ride as drive off without him.
    Ricky slipped into the car and strapped on his seatbelt.
    He searched his brain for something to distract her with. He could never stump his mom on local gossip. Mary Dunn got all her gossip from Louise Townsend, and according to most, Louise got her gossip from the Devil himself. By the time news filtered down to Dawn’s store or the Grand Shore Marina, it had already filtered through Mary’s ears.
    Still, Ricky had one thing she wouldn’t know about.
    “I saw a Dingus today,” he said.
    “Oh? Did you?” she asked. For a fraction of second, he thought he had a scoop. “About twenty-five, red shirt? That’s Gerard Dingus. He’s staying with Trina Prescott for the summer. Well, some say it’s for the summer. I’m half convinced that he will have a permanent home out at Trina’s. His mom is not faring too well.”
    Ricky opened his mouth and then closed it again. He couldn’t imagine how she knew exactly who he was talking about. It was the name. He had seen the man and automatically tagged him with the name “Dingus.” Ricky narrowed his eyes as his mom took a left on 270. He wondered if maybe his new found skill with levitation had come with another benefit. He wondered if maybe he had gotten a little second sight as well. Then again, he hadn’t guessed that the man’s name was Dingus, he had just put the uncharitable label on him because of the stupid grin on his face. It was probably coincidence.
    “At seven?” his mother asked.
    “What?”
    “How do you get anyone’s ice cream order right if you can’t listen for more than one sentence at a time?”
    “I don’t take the order,” he said. He was a scooper. The way they worked down at Dawn’s, there was a writer and a scooper. Ricky never talked to the customers, he just filled the orders.
    “You know what I mean. It was a rhetorical question.”
    “What was?”
    His mom looked at him with her lips pressed into a tight, straight line. She was upset about something, but he had no idea what.
    “Every day I thank God that you’re strong and pretty, Ricky.” She patted his arm.

    [ Shop ]
    Dawn’s store was on the left. Mary turned right. She knew the psychology of the summer people. If