Coven by Flint Maxwell

Author:Flint Maxwell [Maxwell, Flint]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-09-04T16:00:00+00:00

Over the next few days, Lonnie’s excitement for my idea grew. He had contacted the city, who had referred to the lot and the billboard as “that eyesore in the shopping district” and directed Lonnie to the right department, which then directed him to the right forms that needed to be signed and approved. It seemed as if this whole process was going on, Lonnie regained some youth. He even started coming into the store more. In paint-free clothes, at that. I saw in him the businessman he had been in the eighties and nineties, this no-nonsense, doesn’t-take no-for-an-answer type of guy, and it took me some time to get used to that.

As it turned out, the billboard was owned by a company called Gradient Advertising based out of Eerie, Pennsylvania. Lonnie asked if I’d give them a call. The number had been disconnected, and after a little digging on the internet at the library, I found Gradient went out of business in 2002. Which was about the last time Lonnie could remember an ad being displayed on the old billboard. While I was doing this, Lonnie was talking to a lady in Pittsburgh, head of the Film and Media Studies department at Pittsburgh University, about how to work the damn projector. He missed most of the following Friday as he made the drive down there, but he called me on his way home.

“Great news, Johnny Boy!” he said before I could even greet him.

“Yeah?” Excitement crept from my chest up into my throat, practically strangling me.

“The projector doesn’t work!” The wind whipping in through his open car window overrode his voice, making him hard to hear.

“Sorry? What? It doesn’t work.”

“Nope,” Lonnie said, more clearly now. “It does not work.”

“How is that good news?” The excitement I had felt smolder. “That’s terrible news.”

As I held the phone to my ear, a stack of computer paper lay on the counter in front of me next to a mock-up of an advertisement I was making. After I took them to Staples, I meant to hand them out to every customer we had and go around to a bunch of businesses and ask if I could leave a stack. Get the word out.

“It’s good news because the lady I talked to about had a heart attack when she saw it. It’s apparently a pretty vintage piece of equipment, which means that it’s worth some dough.”

“Dough? How much are we talking here?”

“A few grand.”

“Holy sh—I mean, wow,” I said. “And it was just sitting in a box in the back room. That’s crazy.”

“Yeah, makes me wonder how much some of the other junk I have is worth.” He laughed, still in good spirits. “But like I said, Johnny Boy, it’s yours if you want it. You can sell it and pocket a few grand.”

The idea was nice, but it didn’t seem right. “No. I don’t want to sell it. I want to make it work. How much to fix it?”

“I don’t know,” Lonnie said. “And it doesn’t matter.

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