Hitchers by Will McIntosh

Author:Will McIntosh
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction
ISBN: 9781597803373
Publisher: Night Shade Books
Published: 2011-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

We crossed the underground parking lot, my shoes clacking on the concrete, Summer’s worn sneakers silent.

“Your grandfather seems like a complete jerk, if you don’t mind me saying,” Summer said. “Was he that bad when he was alive?”

“Careful,” I laughed. “He can hear you. You don’t want to get on his bad side.”

“Yeah. Seriously, that wasn’t his bad side?”

I considered. How to sum up Grandpa? “He never hit us or anything, not even when my mom was at work, but he was mean. Cutting. Whenever he was around there was tension in the air. You’d be doing something innocuous—washing the dishes, turning the channels on the TV—and suddenly he was letting you have it, calling you lazy or stupid.”

Or a sissy. How many times had he said that to me? You’re nothing but a sissy.

“He did it to both of you? You and Kayleigh?”

I shook my head. “Kayleigh always got a pass. She was the only one who could get a kind word to slip past that clenched jaw. He could be nice to my mom as well, but they argued a lot as well.”

“What did he look like?” Summer asked. “Was he a big guy? I picture him as a big guy.”

“I wish I had a picture with me—”

“You don’t carry a picture of him in your wallet? I’m surprised.”

I threw back my head and laughed. It felt good, especially because we were laughing about Grandpa. It made him seem less terrifying.

“He wasn’t particularly tall, but he was built like a laborer—Popeye arms, a thick middle, a ruddy red face. He’d been a laborer before the accident.”

Summer frowned, turned in her seat to face me. “The accident?”

“I haven’t told you about the accident?” I asked. We paused as we climbed into the car. “Yeah, he was in a wheelchair. It happened sixty years ago, but we were reminded of it constantly. No one in the family could skin a knee without being told how sometimes what seems bad at the time was actually a blessing in disguise, as if we should raise our hands and thank God for every bout of diarrhea.”

Summer laughed.

“Of course only physical bad fortune counted. No one in the family would dare suggest that Grandpa’s bankruptcy after Toy Shop Village failed might be a blessing in disguise. Only accidents counted, because if Grandpa hadn’t been burned and crippled he wouldn’t have needed to find a way to make a living sitting down. And, as the twisted logic goes, if it wasn’t for Grandpa’s release from a life of manual labor, the rest of us would now probably be working as laborers, fast food workers, or whores—”

As soon as it was out, I tried to gulp it back, realizing how snooty that sounded to someone who waitressed for a living. “Not that—”

Summer waved me off. “I know what you mean. Go ahead.”

Embarrassed, I tried to pick up the thread. “So we all lived in the shadow of Grandpa’s semi-fame. That was another insufferable thing about him—he was always, always telling people who he was.

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