Closer To Heaven-1 - Patrick Sean Lee (free e books to read .TXT) š
- Author: Patrick Sean Lee
Book online Ā«Closer To Heaven-1 - Patrick Sean Lee (free e books to read .TXT) šĀ». Author Patrick Sean Lee
Munster is twelve. Heās four years older than me, and he has a funny nose that looks like a Persian kittenās sort of. Itās squished in at the bottom. I like cats. He has scraggly hair, too, and itās blonde. Itās scraggly because he canāt go to a hair cutter anymore, and I told him I couldnāt do it because Iāve never cut anyoneās hair, and that if I tried to on his Iād probably ruin it. Munster told me he didnāt care. It could grow down to his you-know-what. Heās taller than me.
We waited outside the mini-mart for a long time, and finally the rain stopped.
āCan we go, Munster? Please?ā
He was looking out at the gas pumps where a bunch of cars stood, thinking again I knew. But he answered me.
āSure. Follow me.ā
He jumped off the curb into a puddle of water and walked over to one of the cars where there wasnāt a dead body inside or lying right next to it. I ran after him and tried not to step in any of the puddles, so I zigzagged. He opened the door and got in, but he didnāt close the door. One whole side of the car had a big orange flame on it that somebody had painted, and I think thatās why he went to that car. The people that owned it were probably the ones lying dead on the floor back in the store.
āYou canāt drive this car,ā I said to him when I got there.
āWhy not?ā he answered.
āBecause youāre not old enough and you donāt know how. And you donāt have a license.ā
He looked out at me and laughed. He raised his right hand and jingled the keys.
āThis hereās the only license I need.ā He was talking about the keys.
I didnāt say anything. I still keep thinking there are things we canāt do because if we do them weāll get in trouble. But I didnāt want to get in if he got the flame-car started. If I did we might crash into a pole or something out on the street.
The flame-car started right up. He pulled the door shut and looked out at me smiling. I ran around the back end and opened the door on the other side. There was a big orange flame on my side, too. After Iād got in I prayed to God to protect us. I donāt like to be in pain. I had a broken arm three years ago when I fell off a swing at the park, and it hurt. If we ran into a pole I imagined having two broken arms and no doctor to fix them or give me pills to make the pain go away. Thatās why I prayed. But if we got killed somehow, like if he ran off the side of the bridge into the river, then there wouldnāt be a single person left for God to listen to, and it only made sense that God wouldnāt want that.
I put my seat belt on and crossed my legs on the seat. If we ran into something I knew my legs wouldnāt get snapped in two when the engine came through the front.
āAre you sure you can drive, Munster?ā I asked him. He was looking down at the gear thing. He had his right hand on it, and his thumb on the lock button of the handle. His legs were stretched out and his foot just barely made it to the gas pedal.
āYeah. I used to watch my dad do it all the time.ā
He squirmed around, stretching his chest and neck up so that his eyes could look over the steering wheel.
āI wish I was fourteen. I can barely see over the damn wheelā¦Hey, look in the backseat and see if thereās a pillow or a box or somethinā I can put under my butt.ā
āQuit cussing.ā
I took off my seatbelt and looked in the back. There was a green jacket, some crumpled up paper bags, and a whole bunch of beer bottles, but there wasnāt anything that Munster could use to make him taller. Thatās when it hit me that back in the store there must be something. I turned around really quick and opened the door again, and then I jumped out and ran across the wet parking lot.
āWhere you goinā?ā he shouted. But I didnāt answer.
I didnāt zigzag this time. I ran right through a puddle of water and my feet got wet, but I didnāt care because if I could find a pillow or a box or something not too tall for Munster, I wouldnāt have to walk anywhere else. I might get killed if he crashed, but I wouldnāt have to walk, and so it wouldnāt matter if my feet were all wet.
I stopped inside the door and looked up and down the aisle where we got the candy bars, but there was nothing there but more candy bars and things like that. So I ran over to the counter where the man who ran the store was lying, and he was still there. There were little boxes and lots of papers on the shelves behind it, but no pillow or anything tall enough for Munster, so I hopped over the man and went to a big heavy steel door that wasnāt almost closed, and I opened it wider. It was very dark inside because there were no windows and the lights didnāt work anymore becauseāwell, I wasnāt sure why all the electricity that went to the lights was gone. It was just dark.
I saw a bunch of folded up clothes on a shelf a little ways in, though, and I knew they would work. They were white and about the same height as a big pillow. I pushed the door open all the way and ran to the shelf where I started pulling them out, and I shouldnāt have pushed the door so hard because it bounced off something behind it and then it swung shut and I heard the click, and it got very dark. That scared me. The door clicking shut, and especially the dark.
There wasnāt a single sound at first. It was quiet. I walked very carefully back to where I thought the door was and hoped I wouldnāt trip on something, but then I thought that was silly because I hadnāt tripped on anything when I first came in, and that was only a few seconds ago.
Thatās when I heard a grown-upās voice, and then I was very scared, more scared than I ever remember being before. It sounded like whoever said, āHeyā was really close, right on the other side of the tall shelves I had just been at. I wondered if heād come out, and if he did, if heād catch me and eat me or just beat me with a pipe or stab me or something horrible.
I saw that on TV once when Daddy didnāt know I was in the room and the TV was on. That was before him and Momma died. He was watching a movie and a monster was eating all the people on a spaceship. It jumped out from behind things and had a little mouth with teeth that came out of its big mouth with bigger teeth. The people screamed and cried. I watched the little mouth come out at the people, like it was on a stick, but then you couldnāt see anymore, but you could hear the people scream.
I wasnāt thinking that in the dark room, but I was thinking that the man behind the big shelf had a mouth like the monsterās. Thatās all.
I found the door and I opened it very quickly because I was very scared. I didnāt want him to catch me, and so I ran and jumped over the man on the floor and the flies and almost slipped, but I didnāt. Just my heel a little. I ran outside, right through the water puddles again, but I didnāt care. I knew he was right behind me.
To be continued...
Text: Patrick Sean Lee (c), 2012
Publication Date: 09-30-2012
All Rights Reserved
Dedication:
First, to Pammy. You inspire me. To my grandchildren who speak from a very different and delightful world. To Antonin Dvorak, who isn't really dead.
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