See Tom Run by Scott Wittenburg Read Free Book Online Page A

sofa.
    She wasn’t there!
    Tom bounded out of the chair just as the aroma of
freshly brewed coffee hit his nose. He had a smile on his face as
he headed for the kitchen.
    He saw Erin at the stove just getting ready to crack
an egg on the edge of the skillet.
    “Good morning,” he greeted.
    “Good morning. I thought I’d fix us some breakfast. I
sort of improvised with the coffee maker,” she added, glancing
toward the counter.
    Tom looked over to where she had poured boiling water
through the coffee maker basket into the Mr. Coffee carafe.
    “Excellent! I’ll pour us a cup. Cream and sugar?”
    “Lots of both,” she replied.
    Tom prepared their coffees and handed a cup to
Erin.
    “How did you sleep?” he said.
    “Like a log. I don’t think I’ve been that exhausted
in my life!”
    “Me neither.”
    Tom went over to the window and peered out. There
were shafts of brilliant morning sunshine slicing through the trees
in the back yard. The sky was clear blue.
    A perfect day to go out and find out what happened to
the rest of the world, he thought to himself with a wry smile. He
still couldn’t believe that this was really happening. He glanced
over at the young stranger cooking at his stove. The scene was so
incredibly surreal and bizarre that he almost felt like laughing
out loud. But he didn’t.
    Because this, amigo, is no laughing matter.
    Where in the holy hell had his family gone? And
everybody else? When were things going to get back to normal? Were
they ever going to get back to normal? What in the hell should he
do now?
    He had no answers to any of these questions. All he
knew was that he couldn’t just sit around this house and hope for
some kind of miracle to come along and make it all go away. He was
going to have to get into his car and go somewhere. Somewhere where
the electric was still on, the phones still worked and people still
existed.
    So where should he begin?
    Downtown would be a start.
    And if he had no luck there, then where should he
go?
    He would just have to cross that bridge when he got
to it.
    “Here we go,” Erin said, carrying a pair of plates
over to the table. On each was a huge pile of scrambled eggs.
Forks, knives, napkins and glasses of water were already neatly set
up on the table.
    Tom went over and sat down. “It looks like you have
some experience at this.”
    “I’ve waited tables at a few places over the
years.”
    Tom thought it odd when she said this—it suggested
that she’d had several different waitressing jobs in her young
life. And she was only eighteen?
    “That’s interesting. Any restaurants that I know of?”
Tom asked.
    She shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
    Tom had the feeling she didn’t want to go any further
with this—just like the old boyfriend topic. He felt it best not to
pry, at least not at the moment.
    “These are really good. It’s refreshing to see a
youngster who knows how to cook nowadays. Cooking seems to be going
out the door in today’s society—especially with your
generation.”
    “I wish you wouldn’t lump me into some statistical
bullshit, Tom! I mean—you make me feel like I’m five years old. I’m
a woman, not some little kid!”
    Her outburst left Tom dumbfounded. Her age seemed to
be a particularly sensitive issue with Erin Myers.
    As did her past.
    Tom began to wonder what the real story was with this
peculiar young lady. As much as he was dying to find out, he knew
it would simply have to wait. The most pressing issue now was to
try to get out of the predicament they were in and find out where
everybody had gone.
    “I’m sorry, Erin. I didn’t mean to offend you. But
when you get to be my age, you look at the world differently with
regard to some things. I guess that I was stereotyping and I
apologize for that. It’s a bad habit of mine, I’m afraid.”
    “That’s okay. I’m sorry I lashed out at you. I’m just
a little too freaked out by all of this. What are we going to
do?”
    “I guess