Red the First by C. D. Verhoff Read Free Book Online

to methodically search
through their pockets. “Slim Jims! And lighters too!” he cried out,
happily piling them up on the crumbling verge of the highway. He
slipped a bejeweled signet ring off one of the guy’s fingers and
slid it into his jeans pocket.
    Michael chewed on a meat log, neatly
laying out the pilfered knives, guns and other prizes all in a
line. As the adrenaline wore off, the pain in Red’s head got worse
and he began to notice a secondary throbbing in his back. He could
barely straighten out his spine through the pain; he realized he
must have knocked a vertebrae out of place when he hit the ground
with Michael.
    “ A truck, medical supplies,
weapons, a nice piece of string, fishing lures,” the boy went on
oblivious to Red’s pain. “By the way, when are you going to fix my
rod?”
    “ Remind me when we get
back.”
    “ Okay...two Kit Kat bars,
three lighters, an unopened 8-pack of AA batteries, five packs of
Juicy Fruit gum, an unopened pack of Pokémon cards, an aerosol can
of Cheddar Cheesy Product, an 18 karat gold ring, and the Slim
Jims,” Michael said through a mouthful of meat. “A pretty good
haul, I’d say.”
    “ Yeah,” Red gave him a wary
glance, saddened how this harsh existence had hardened the
youngster’s conscience. “A good haul. Now, get behind the wheel and
turn the key when I tell you.”
    After ten minutes of woozily peering
about underneath the hood of the truck, the sweat dribbling from
his forehead onto the engine block, and his head spinning—Red
tweaked a belt and shifted a bolt with his emerging new ability, let it be, and the engine roared to life. Michael scooted
over to the passenger side and they headed toward home.
    Pulling into the driveway gave him a
sense of relief. First thing he was going to do, after freeing that
doctor from his ropes, was take a week-long nap. But when he got to
the back door, it was wide open. There was Dr. Patel sitting at the
kitchen table sipping a cup of coffee and enjoying a piece of pie
with Elizabeth. The foolish woman had untied him.
    Busy gabbing and laughing with the
doctor as if he were her new best friend, Elizabeth only glanced up
at Red as he stepped up onto the front porch, not noticing the
storm clouds forming in Red’s eyes. His fist had clenched into a
ball. The muscles in his jaw tensed. When he stepped through the
doorway, she stood up so fast her chair almost turned over. Dr.
Patel frantically rethreaded his hands through the rope, but it was
too late.
    Michael trailed in behind him, covered
with blood, but all smiles.
    “ Uh...” was all Elizabeth
could say. When she noticed the blood spattered liberally over the
both of them, her hands went to her mouth. “Oh, god, what
happened?”
    “ Four guys jumped us,”
Michael said with a shrug, but the exuberant smile never left his
face. “And we took their Kit Kats and Slim Jims.” He generously
held them out to share.
    “ Slim Jims,” Dr. Patel said,
his eyes lighting up. “Yum!”
    “ I thought you were supposed
to be a doctor.” Feeling like his well-being had been usurped by
Slim Jims, Red’s face rankled into a frown. “Can’t you see I’m
wounded?”
    “ Huh?” Michael’s happy
expression turned into confusion.
    Red’s words altered the mood from
frivolous to frantic, sending Elizabeth and the doctor into motion.
Michael collapsed onto a kitchen chair, hugging himself, rocking
back and forth, humming a rhythmic lullaby.
    Knowing that Michael was home safely,
Red finally gave himself permission to give into his weakness.
Unable to restrain the pain a moment longer, he allowed it to flood
through his body, graying the edges of his vision.
    He woke upstairs in the bed. Covered
with a sheet, wearing only his underwear. His body was clean and
smelled like flowery soap but his head felt like it had been
through a meat grinder. Hands went to his temple to find a wad of
gauze.
    “ Hi,” a soft little whisper
came in his ear. It was Michael.
    “