Callisto by Torsten Krol Read Free Book Online Page A

went to fix breakfast for myself. I was fully prepared toforgive Dean for his dumbass stunt in the middle of the night and fix breakfast for him too, just as soon as he’s ready.
    With food inside me everything seemed brighter. Bacon and eggs plus toast, what could be better? Bacon and ham, those are what Dean had called “pigmeat” which he didn’t eat, so they must have been for Aunt Bree. I wondered when she was coming home from Florida. Dean hadn’t said. Maybe she’d be home today! That got me thinking hard about what to do next. I went upstairs to see if Dean was awake and ready to eat but he wasn’t, not yet awhile, so I went out to the porch again and considered the situation.
    According to the lawnmowing schedule Dean has got four customers today, but it was clear he wasn’t going to be ready to take care of things in that department any better than yesterday. Dean, he kept having these head problems that kept him from his work, and in a way I was the cause for both times, so I had an obligation to take care of business again today. That was the least I could do to make amends for slugging him, even if he asked for it with his dumb behavior, that’s the way I saw it, so after tidying up the kitchen I got in the Dodge and drove away to mow some more lawns. I left a note for Dean on the kitchen table explaining things for when he woke up and wondered what the hell is going on.
    Halfway through the morning I stopped at Wal-Mart and got myself a straw hat like they wear in Hawaii to protect my head from the sun and some shorts to keep my legs cool while I mowed, plus cheap sneakers because cowboy boots look ridiculous with short pants unless you happen to be a topless model wearing micro-shorts. Total outlay come to less than forty dollars. I zoomed through the work with time outfor lunch at McDonald’s again, and then I got hold of a phone book at a public call box and looked up the address of the recruiting center, which is on Lincoln Avenue.
    I went there directly, but the store front had windows that are painted over with whitewash on the inside, so it looks like Dean was right about that, which means the phone book was outdated and should’ve been replaced but they never do that in a phone booth like they should. Just to be sure I went in the store next door which is a hardware place and asked about it. The guy there, he says the recruiting center was dislocated to Manhattan, which is a much bigger town than Callisto. Manhattan, Kansas, not New York. So that was a big pain I hadn’t counted on with my plan for military work. Still, if Dean let me work a few more days, I could buy a ticket and ride the bus to Manhattan and sign up anyway.
    Driving along on the road home I got overtaken by a beige Cadillac going way over the limit. I had to wind the window up to keep his dust from coming inside. I didn’t think any more about that Caddy until I pulled in off the road at Dean’s place and there it is parked in the front yard and some guy standing on the porch by the front door. I pulled up inside the barn and took my time getting out, thinking Dean would be talking to the guy by now, but he wasn’t. The guy’s turned around and he’s looking over at me. Where was Dean? He should’ve been up and about by now, or maybe he was just in a bad mood over what happened last night and didn’t want to talk to anyone so he’s ignoring the doorbell.
    I went on over to the porch and the guy meets me at the steps. “Mr Lowry?” he says. I considered what to say. This is one of those times I mentioned about being slow with aconversational response, only this time there’s a reason for it, namely not knowing how bad Dean is, maybe still unconscious, which would be a bad thing, and not wanting to explain about last night’s weirdness to this guy who might have been selling insurance for all I knew. So I just kept looking at him while my brain