The Ferryman by Amy Neftzger Read Free Book Online Page A

already knew they were good. She had gotten them from her favorite bakery.
    “I’ve had them before,” she said.
    “But you haven’t had them with me,” he said. “These are one of the joys of life. No one should be denied a hot buttered roll.” Karen took half a roll, and Scott smiled broadly as he watched her take a bite.
    “Where are you putting all this food?” Karen asked.
    “I don’t know,” he replied. “When you’re dead I don’t think you ever have to worry about getting full.”
    He also had never been allowed to drink alcohol because of the interaction with his medications. Karen drove him to a liquor store and he picked out red and white wines, as well as an assortment of tiny bottles of hard liquors because he wanted to try a little of everything. As he pointed to the bottles on the shelves Karen placed them in her shopping cart and then made the purchase. It appeared to everyone else in the store as if she was shopping alone.
    “These bottles are so cute, there’s no way they could be harmful,” he said. “Like hamsters. Those little guys are cute and harmless.” The comment made Karen laugh.
    “Is any of this going to your head?” Karen asked as she later studied the pile of bottles at his feet.
    “Technically, I don’t have a head for this to go to,” he said. “So, I don’t think I could get drunk.”
    “Can you urinate?” she asked. “Because one of the things you want to do is pee off the roof of a tall building.”
    “I’ll work it up,” he said, and he did. Karen had to help him stand because his legs couldn’t bear any weight, but luckily, ghosts aren’t heavy. She helped him into an elevator and took him to the roof of the tallest building in town, which was only twenty stories, but that was high enough. Karen supported Scott as he stood on the edge shouting obscenities at his doctors and peeing in the breeze. Karen watched the ghostly droplets drift into the wind. Some of the droplets joined the water vapor of the clouds above, while some slowly fell downward. It wasn’t quite like it would have been if a live person had urinated over the side of the building, but Scott was satisfied, and that’s all that mattered.
    “Did you see those drops that went into the clouds?” he asked with excitement as they were riding the elevator back down to the exit.
    “Yes,” she said. “I’ve never seen that before.”
    “Me neither,” he said with satisfaction. “Next time it rains I’ll be pissing on the heads of everyone in town.” Karen laughed. As far as ghosts were, Scott was quite agreeable. If all ghosts were like him her job might be easier, but she was still worried about how it would end. If he didn’t go to heaven she would hate herself for helping him to get there. He seemed too nice to go anywhere else, but Karen also understood that she didn’t know Scott’s whole story. It could be complicated. It usually was.
    Next she took him downtown to play in traffic. He hadn’t been allowed to cross busy streets by himself because his mother had worried that he would be hit by a car that didn’t see him. Karen thought about how sheltered Scott had been. Nothing he wanted to do was really all that dangerous. It seemed as if his family had been overprotective. She wondered if she was too protective of Claude and whether or not he felt stifled by her.
    Scott rolled through busy intersections regardless of the traffic lights. The cars didn’t see him at all, and he screamed with pleasure as each one passed through his body. He turned in circles and popped wheelies as cars passed though him, sometimes jostling him like a pinball in traffic.
    “Why did some cars pass right through you while others made some kind of an impact on you? They knocked you back and forth, but they didn’t hurt you,” Karen commented as she drove a rented Ferrari to the outside of town. The rental process had been more difficult than a regular car, but after a few administrative hurdles