Hide and Seek by Jack Ketchum Read Free Book Online Page B

angry. But you could tell that the bitterness was wearing off some, eroded by understanding. We

sat in a booth at Harmon's together drinking Cokes. She, too, suspected Steve had made a move on Casey.
     
    She thought he had reasons, though.
     
    "We're alike, Casey and I. The both of us wear a kind of sign, like one of those sandwich boards. The sign says Sex. Now, I don't figure that's so bad. A lot of women wear it. And plenty of us aren't after anything particular except some fun, some pleasure, a little give-and-take. I figure that all things being equal, we're just about the best kind of woman there is. A whole lot better than some dried-up and sad-assed type like Steve's sister. Because we can switch it over to love at the drop of a hat.
     
    "But sometimes I think that Casey uses it, you know? Like it's some kind of dynamite she has so she can blow loose whatever she wants out of life. And I think that's not so good. Dangerous, even. I know that Steve's wanted her since they were kids, even though he wants me too. But I think I'm good for him, basically. And she isn't.
     
    "Maybe she's good for you I don't know about that. But not Steve. Not ever. Though every now and then, he keeps trying.
     
    "And I can't help but thinking that it's not good for her, either, to be that way. What's it for, anyway? Pleasure. Pleasure and affection. But for Casey I think it's something else, something it shouldn't be. Like conquest.
     
    "Or hunger."
     

EMT
    "What do you want, Case?"
     
    We were lying in bed at my apartment.
     
    "What's worth having?"
     
    Her face was only inches from mine. Her eyes let me down into the depths of her. I slid there gratefully.
     
    "Pleasure.
     
    "Knowledge. Security. I want to own good things, I guess. Success, eventually. And something astonishing, something that surprises me. Or me, surprising myself."
     
    I didn't question her. I just watched her eyes narrow. She sat up suddenly, catlike, in the moonlight.
     
    "Will is worth having. Power."
     
    ^Ah
     

"How goes it among the rich, stud?"
     
    Rafferty was in his usual corner place at the bar, near the wall with the old crooked print by Frederic Remington overhead. You could see everybody enter and leave from there and you had a clear view all the way back to the jukebox. The clock on the wall said five-fifteen.
     
    "Air's a little thin at the moment."
     
    I told him about Steven and Casey pushing him. He shook his head and grinned at me.
     
    "Line from some Warren Dates movie. I always remembered it. "If they didn't have cunts, there'd be a bounty on 'em.""
     
    "Pretty deep, I guess."
     
    "Too bad you can't just switch tracks. That little blond looks sweet and easy."
     
    "I think she probably is."
     
    "But no banana, huh?"
     
    "Nope."
     
    I ordered as hot of scotch with a beer back from Hank McCarty, the bartender, and he brought it over. My hands were still dusted with a fine brown powder from the saw at the yard. It turned a muddy mahogany when I picked up the frosted glass.
     

"You got to think about what you're doing, here, Danny boy. What the fuck are you doing? You gonna up and marry the girl? Maybe chase her back to Boston or wherever that school of hers is come September? Work a lathe while she picks up her degree? What are you getting all worried about? Screw her, have fun with her and let it ride."
     
    "Sure."
     
    "I mean it."
     
    "Look, George. I haven't gotten it all mapped out. Things just happen. You know that."
     
    He looked annoyed. "Yeah, well they can just un happen too."
     
    I didn't want to argue. Besides, he was probably right. In a lot of ways I was walking around with blinders on when it came to Casey no past, no future and a very narrow focus on the present. About the length of one summer. That was okay so long as I knew it was a temporary thing by nature, so long as I was prepared to lose it and then go on.
     
    I wasn't. There was a basic mistake operating and I knew it. I was already