Untaken by J.E. Anckorn Read Free Book Online

could smell it strongest in the kitchen, but I reckoned before long the whole place was going to smell of rotten deer brains. Surely dad had made his point by now?
    I put my ear to the door of Dad’s room. Nothing, then a wet, rumbling snore. Sometimes when he got a case of the mean reds, he’d sleep whole days away.
    I wrapped the head up as best I could in a mess of hefty bags and rode with it on my bike way out of town, where I tossed it into a stream. As I rode, I pretended I was a Marine on a special mission to get rid of a bomb before it could go off and blow up our base, which is kind of a silly little kid thing to pretend, but I made record time and was feeling pretty good about myself as I rode up our driveway.
    When I got inside, Dad was waiting for me. He’d never hit me before, so although I knew he’d be mad, I was shocked when his fist popped out and caught me below the eye. My legs kind of folded up and dumped me on the floor, and there I lay, with Dad standing over me, looking about a hundred feet tall.
    “Never guessed I’d raised a coward,” he said.
    That hurt worse than my eye. I wanted to say something, to explain myself, but I knew that if I opened my mouth I’d start to cry, and Dad hated when anyone cried. “Sniveling,” he’d call it. “Quit your sniveling and man up.” I crawled backward toward my bedroom door. I didn’t want to stand up in case he popped me again. I was fumbling for the doorknob when he turned and walked away from me.

    Dad spent the next day pacing around the house all wild one minute, then sitting out back, cleaning his guns, with the radio in the truck cranked up high the next. When we crossed paths, he acted like he couldn’t even see me. I didn’t want to leave the house with my face all busted up, but I couldn’t stand the way Dad looked right through me either, so I stayed in my room. Someone must have complained again, because Lou’s Police cruiser rolled up just before two p.m. I didn’t hear what he said to Dad, but he sounded way less friendly this time.
    When the phone rang, I scrambled to answer it.
    “Hey man, where you been? Thought you were coming over for band practice.”
    “I can’t talk now,” I hissed to Stevie.
    “Seriously?”
    “I got the flu.”
    “Yeah, right. The flu again.” He paused. I could hear him breathing on the other end of the line. “Do you want to come stay for a few days? I know my mom and dad wouldn’t mind.”
    “Sorry, man. Not now. I’ll call when I feel better, I guess,” I babbled, shoving the phone in its cradle with a crash, and yanking the cable back out of the wall again for good measure. I never could fool Stevie. He knew me too well. It’d been the same way last year, when Dad had been suspended from work. I’d gotten a job myself to help out with the overdue bills, stocking shelves at nights at the Star Market, and what with that and Dad’s wild spells, I didn’t get a wink of sleep in a month. I’d felt so exhausted all the time that I called in sick to school. They bought it right away; probably they were glad I wasn’t there to bug them.
    Stevie wasn’t buying it for a second, though.
    Came over every day until I ended up agreeing to go home with him, just to get him off my case and out of Dad’s way. Stevie’s folks had let me stay with them almost two whole weeks “to give your Dad a break,” but when I went back home, Dad looked like he hadn’t eaten a bite of food or slept a solid hour the whole time I’d been gone. It would have been great to have stayed at Stevie’s place, but Dad needed me.
    I did my best to stay out of his way for the rest of the day. My room was the only calm place in the house, but even in the orderly oasis of my room, I couldn’t shake the hot, itchy panic that settled over me every time I tried to chill. Dad sometimes ragged me for keeping my room neat the way I did, but it didn’t make me a sissy for liking things neat, surely? Army guys kept their kit