Football Champ by Tim Green Read Free Book Online

MEDICAL GROUP . Inside a small waiting room, two bulky black leather chairs rested on a thick gray rug with a brass lamp between them. Large prints of modern art paintings hung in chrome frames from the white walls. Troy sniffed at the new smell of the carpet, then folded his arms across his chest and shivered.
    “Why’s it so cold in here?” he asked Seth.
    Seth pointed to a big vent up by the ceiling and said, “The AC unit for the whole building is right over us. It has to pump hard to get all the way to the other end for Fantastic Fitness, so the doc’s place is always cold. It’s nice in the summer, though.”
    Seth opened a heavy wooden door, went down a short hall, gave one knock, and went right into a large office where a man, surrounded by piles of papers and magazines, worked at a computer. Beneath his lab coat, he wore a bright green cardigan sweater over awhite T-shirt. His tan skin had an orange tint to it. Three faded leg bones on his desk held down papers that rustled in the air blowing from a second AC vent directly above him.
    Next to the desk, a skeleton hung from a chrome metal stand. Two detailed diagrams of the human body were plastered onto the wall behind it. On the far end of the room, an exam table stood amid an island of green marble, and shelves and counters of black granite lined the walls. The man, tall and thin with spidery brown hair on his arms and poking up from the collar of his white T-shirt, rounded the desk and extended a hand to Seth.
    “Good to see you,” he said, nodding so that long strands of bleached blond hair had to be swept back from his eyes—eyes so cold and blue that Troy felt like they could look right through him.
    “Troy,” Seth said, “this is Doc Gumble.”
    Troy shook the doctor’s cold, damp hand.
    “Hey, little fella. Uh,” Gumble said, looking from Troy to Seth, “he’s going to wait in the front, right?”
    Seth frowned and looked at Troy. “He was interested in how this whole thing is done. I’m good with it if you are.”
    “Honestly? I think it’s better if he waits out front,” Gumble said, looking at Troy with cold, knowing eyes that made Troy happy to leave. “It’s better. Really.”
    “Well, I’ll be right out, buddy,” Seth said, winking atTroy. “You know, doctor’s orders and all that.”
    Troy nodded and stepped outside. He was halfway down the hall when he heard two quick snaps that made him spin around. Worry froze him in his tracks and he returned, pushing his ear to the office door. The sickening sound made Troy wonder if the doctor hadn’t broken Seth’s neck. With his heart hammering, he turned the doorknob and opened it just a pinch. He rested his forehead on the door, angling it so that his eye was even with the crack, and held his breath.
    Seth lay on the table with his head in both of Gumble’s hands. The doctor was snapping it a second time, first one way, then the other, and Seth’s vertebrae crackled like a bundle of dry sticks. Seth groaned, and Troy contorted his face. His stomach heaved and he turned away.
    Without a sound, Troy closed the office door and hurried outside. He scanned the area for his mom and saw her pulling into the lot when he noticed a small silver car in front of the steakhouse. It hadn’t been there before. In the front seat was a man whose face Troy couldn’t quite make out because of the glare.
    Troy’s mom pulled up and beeped the horn, and by the time Troy circled the H2, the car had pulled out of its spot, heading for the exit. As it passed, it slowed, and the passenger window rolled down. The driver leaned across the seat and snapped a picture of Troy, then kept going.
    Troy’s mouth fell open and he blinked as the silver car screeched out of the parking lot. When the camera came away from the man’s face, Troy recognized the driver.
    Brent Peele.
    Troy’s mom rolled her window down and asked, “What’s up?”
    “Nothing,” Troy said, wishing it were true.

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