Arachnodactyl by Danny Knestaut Read Free Book Online Page B

before Ikey. She placed her serving tray down, propped her elbows on the bar, and perched her broad chin on her fists.
    “Wait,” Willa continued, “I bet you like mousy girls. Little things with brown hair and tiny, pointed noses that they wrinkle like so whenever something displeases them. Am I right?”
    “I’m telling you,” Cross said, “it’s women who look like a hand.”
    Willa glared at Cross. “Shut up, or my hand is the last thing you will ever see.”
    Cross and the barman traded snickers.
    Willa picked up the glass of whiskey before Ikey and took a sip. “So what kind of women are special to you, Ikey?”
    Ikey studied the bar for a few seconds.
    “I don’t want a woman,” Ikey whispered. “Not in that way.”
    “What other way is there?” Cross asked.
    Willa tsked. “You wouldn’t know, would you, you thick sot.”
    Cross lifted his drink to Willa. “I wouldn’t.”
    Willa waved a dismissive hand at Cross. “Pay him no mind. You haven’t found the right woman yet. But when you do, you’ll want to be with her.”
    “Bloody Nora,” Cross spat. “If you two ladies are done with your morning call, I guess we ought to be going, seeing as you ain’t interested in anything in here.”
    Cross downed the rest of his drink, leaned over toward Ikey, and held his open hand over his glass. “Done with this?”
    Ikey nodded.
    Cross picked up Ikey’s drink and finished it as well. After he produced a half crown from his waistcoat and plunked it onto the bar, he motioned for Ikey to come along as he made his way to the door.
    “Nice to make your acquaintance,” Willa called after them.
    Outside, Cross turned to Ikey. “So you don’t drink, and you don’t chase after women. Exactly what is it they do for fun out in The Dales?”
    Ikey studied the stucco wall beyond Cross’s chest. He shrugged.
    “That’s not much of an answer.”
    “I don’t know,” Ikey said. “I fix things, I guess. Tinker.”
    “I see you’re going to be a boatload of fun,” Cross sighed. “Well, it’s too late for a tour of the ship today. I suppose I ought to take you back to the house.”
    Cross pointed a finger at Ikey. “But I’m telling you here and now that I won’t take any guff from you about my home or my wife. If you don’t like my house, you can piss off and sleep in the street and I don’t give a deuce what the admiral says. Got it?”
    Ikey nodded.
    Cross leaned forward until he might fall like a felled tree.
    “Clear?” Cross asked.
    The thought of what might be found at Cross’s house dampened Ikey’s armpits. Was he yet another man who thought in colors of violence? Would children be found cowering in a corner of a dark room, so intent and practiced in being quiet that they moved through the house like ghosts?
    “Yes,” Ikey said.
    “Good,” Cross said with a dip of his chin. He turned and stalked down the street.

Chapter Five
    I key adjusted the strap over his shoulder and hurried after Cross, almost jogging to keep up. The tools in the satchel clinked with the effort. The sound satisfied him—a reassuring word from an old friend. As long as his tools remained at his side, he had help. If life at Cross’s house proved unbearable, he could strike out. Slip away. Get lodging at a boarding house in return for fixing things. His breath came easier, his feet fell into a rhythm as the plan settled over him.
    Cross led Ikey back over the bridge and through narrow streets. Buildings stood with their toes in the gutter, faces tall and gaunt and pressing in so that the city formed a series of canyons, and the canyons brimmed with people. If not for Cross’s height, he would have disappeared into the crowd; especially when they cut across a market. The crowd thickened into a paste of flesh and cotton and leather and silk as it gathered around costermongers who called out offers of teas and pies and ices and all sorts of items with odors that collided against the strong stench of men basted