Through the Cracks by Honey Brown Read Free Book Online

a blue tank top. Between his fingers was a lit cigarette. His hair was dark. His skin was brown. He took a drag of the cigarette. As he spoke he sucked the smoke deeper into him.
    ‘Who are you?’
    When Adam said nothing, the man walked in. Monty and Jerry didn’t move. They eyed the man and, for a moment, the man eyed them back. He walked past them into the kitchen.
    ‘This year would be good,’ he said, walking back out. ‘Name? Got one? Where’s Joe? Stand up.’
    The man sucked on his cigarette and stood in the centre of the room with his feet wide apart. Adam wouldn’t have been able to get up even if he wanted to. The man’s chest was wide and the muscles in his legs bulged. He had thick wrists and forearms. His eyelashes were short and black. His eyes were brown. As weak as Adam’s father had become was as weak as Adam was going to be against this man. If he pushed, Adam would topple; if he kicked, Adam would be sent sprawling; if he hit, Adam would be knocked out. If this man moved, took another step, put out his cigarette, reached for Adam, Adam would wet himself. The pressure was there, in his groin, about to give. Adam’s mouth grew heavy. His eyes stung with building tears.
    A smile broke across the man’s face. He smacked his chest. ‘I’m scaring the crap outta you, aren’t I?’
    Adam brushed away a tear.
    The man stopped smiling and narrowed his eyes. Between puffs on his smoke he opened his mouth, the tip of his tongue touched his top lip and then ran back and forth along his bottom lip.
    ‘What’s your name?’
    ‘Adam.’
    He closed one eye and rubbed it. ‘What’re you doing here?’
    ‘I live here.’
    ‘Live here?’
    ‘It’s my father’s house.’
    ‘Joe? Don’t be calling him your father, kiddo, no one’s gonna believe that crap. Why haven’t I seen you round before?’
    ‘I’ve been here.’
    ‘Oh really. Have you just?’
    Adam looked at his shirt on the coffee table. It felt like a terrible mistake to have left it off. If he could somehow reach across, get it, put it on, that might make all the difference. The man looked at the shirt too, and then at Adam. He leaned down, picked the shirt up and tossed it to him. He sucked on the cigarette while Adam put it on.
    ‘I came the other day and he weren’t here then, neither. You squatting?’
    Confused, Adam looked down at his lap, concerned he had wet himself.
    ‘Kid.’
    Adam jerked his head back up.
    ‘Tell me who you are and where the fuck Joe is.’
    ‘He’s . . .’
    ‘Is he dead? He been abducted by aliens? What’s going on?’
    ‘He has heart problems.’
    The man reached over his shoulder and scratched between his shoulder blades. ‘Really? He’s in hospital? He’s sick?’
    ‘Yes.’
    He leaned into one hip and smoked. For a few moments he watched the TV. Ash from his smoke dropped onto the carpet.
    ‘So where’d he find you?’
    ‘He’s my father.’
    ‘Just ’cause they tell you to call them daddy doesn’t mean they’re your father, kiddo. We’re swimming for a bit, you wanna come?’
    Adam shook his head.
    The man sniffed. ‘You’ve got to put those ferrets outside. It stinks like piss in here.’
    Fear drained away once the man was gone. Adam got up and walked down the hallway. Monty and Jerry didn’t follow. Lights in the billiards room were on. The outside lights were shining on the pool and the decking. One man was in the pool and another one was playing billiards. Adam couldn’t see the one that had come up into the lounge room. A smoke haze hung below the tasselled lampshade. No breeze to move it. Adam’s skin itched beneath his clothes. Sticky sweat covered him. Out by the pool, the man swimming was leaping into the air, curling into a tight ball, crashing into the water. He climbed out and threw himself in again and again. The first man, who’d come into the lounge room, walked out from the backroom hallway. Adam crouched lower at the sight of him, hiding in the shadows.