The Altonevers by Frederic Merbe Read Free Book Online Page A

take.
    “ What's this?”
    “ A gun.”
    “ I know but why are you
giving it to me?”
    “ So you can see that I mean
you no harm. Take it, if I threaten you, shoot me. And if someone
shoots at you, shoot at them, but don’t just shoot at them,” he
says softly. Anna takes the token comforted in knowing she can
point it at him anytime. Heavy to her hand so she sets it on the
dresser. Smiling, as he steps close enough for her to smell the
whiskey he's bathed in. He reaches out to feel her face, softly
stroking her cheek as he speaks, to lift her from her sorrow filled
face.
    “ You’re safe with me, I
promi…”
    “ Oww!” she shouts, wincing
away from his touch. “You burned me,” she snaps slapping at him
like a cat, but missing. Forgetting the lit cherry of his smoke
between his fingers he’s singed her face.
    “ Oh sh, sorry,” he
says.
    “ It's fine. Really,” she
sighs trying not to touch her stinging singing red singed cheek.
She takes her seat on the rocker, resting her elbow on the
windowsill thinking of tomorrow while watching for him to disappear
the next intersection over. Left back to the view of her perch, of
rooftops and water towers, and people straggling past through
another night in, of watching the world go by. Peering out in
anticipation of the breaking calm, and breathing in the breezy air.
Rubbing her cheek that burns like a bee sting hours later. Swimming
in the sensation of thriving, feeling alive in wondering what
tomorrow will bring. as she sits over the streetlights brightening
to suspend the descending dark of dusk.
    He comes back inebriated, spilling
money onto the counter, then tipping onto his side, and sliding off
the bed with a flat thud.
    “ What time is it?” she
asks.
    “ You awake?”
    “ I am now.”
    “ Go to sleep,” he mumbles
face down in the old carpet.
    “ We'll test the waters
tomorrow.”
    “ Where will we go?” she
asks.
    “ Somewhere...safe,” he
says, falling fast asleep as she lay awake, with her nose under the
blanket and her eyes wide open. So excited that she's getting
scared even in the safety of her sheets. Anticipating what lies in
what she sees from her perch while safely counting sheep, that jump
each time the fan creeks.

 
     
     
CHAPTER FOUR
    Like a hole in the
head
     
     
     
     
     
    Throwing a paper airplane at the
brunette desk clerk is the bag boy, as the two pass through the
raggedy hotel lobby. Cider's happy to tell her the ins and outs of
blending in and getting around.
    “ Do whatever they're doing,
the locals. And always move as though in a bit of a
hurry.”
    “ To get around
quicker.”
    “ No. So if you do get
noticed acting odd, odd to them anyway, they’ll think you’re in a
hurry and not out of place,” he says.
    The two spill through a revolving
brass framed glass door into the open air, onto stairs, then the
sidewalk. He looks back with an animated stare, holding his hand
out welcoming her to join him. She’s standing stiff for a second on
the last step, then moving as though statically charged and readily
striding down the Alto's small city sidewalks. Her mind drinks in
the scents and textures fresh to her senses, she delightedly buzzes
around as a bee in a flower shop. Sipping the scene while nearly
skipping through the street, when hopping from street corners to
storefronts.
    Already afloat in the
thought of the fresh air of another dimension filling her lungs,
she's swept into excitement as though in continual déjà vu and
slight vertigo, everywhere she looks she almost remembers something
she hasn’t yet had in her head. Her buzzing about brings back some
memories, of his old self. Of when he was green to the Altonevers,
of the youthful freedom of passing the street corner on a bicycle
for the first time. It's a jolly day, with
the waves of un-gravity rolling by every few minutes. Making the
bricks jump and the people hop to stay on their proper paths.
Inhaling the bakery whose cakes and cookies she'd