Prodigal Blues by Braunbeck Gary A

Author:Braunbeck, Gary A. [Braunbeck, Gary A.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Horror
Publisher: Crossroad Press & Macabre Ink Digital
Published: 2011-11-13T00:00:00+00:00

12. Hence, My Cheery Nature

We'd been back on the road for maybe half an hour when Christopher looked once again into the rearview mirror and said, "So, you and your grandmother—what's the story, Morning Glory?"

"What is it with this stiffy you've got for my family history?"

"I'm trying to be nice here, Pretty—uh, Mark."

"I thought he looked like he was pulling a muscle," said Arnold.

I smiled at him, then looked back at Christopher. "I didn't mean for my tone to sound quite so nasty, sorry."

"So what gives, anyway?"

Rebecca had fallen asleep again; her head was resting on my shoulder. I didn't want to wake her—the longer she slept, the farther away from Thomas we got, and the farther away we got, the less it might hurt her (or so went my reasoning)—so I carefully moved her to the side, placing a small pillow between her head and the window. She sniffed, muttered something, then pulled up her legs and curled into a semi-fetal position on the seat. Once I was sure she wasn't going to wake up, I scooted the edge of the seat and leaned forward so that I was between Christopher and Arnold. "You want the whole story or the Readers Digest condensed version?"

"Whole story," said Arnold. "We got a couple more hours or so before it's gonna be time to drop off Rebecca."

I hadn't realized she would be next. I missed her already.

"Who's after Rebecca?" I asked.

"That would be me," replied Arnold.

"You worried about how it's going to go?"

"I was until I saw you in action back there." He smiled at me. "You do that with my folks and I think it's gonna be fine. I ain't worried about it so much now."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"That's how I meant it."

I looked at Christopher. "Can I not have a gun pointing at me next time?"

"I'll have to check your Brownie point score, but so far it looks good."

"Christopher?'

"Yeah…?"

"I'm not trying to put you on the spot, okay? But how did Grendel get his hands on you?"

"Yeah," said Arnold. "It's about time you told us something about this rumored family of yours, anyway."

Christopher sighed, thought about it for a minute, then looked at Arnold and said: "If you laugh, so help me God I will stop this thing and dump your ass in the middle of the highway."

"What'd I do?" said Arnold, then pointed at me. "He's the one who asked."

"Yes, but if there's anyone here who'd going to make a smartass remark, it'll be you."

"That hurts my feelings."

"You'll live."

Arnold shrugged. "Yeah, well, still…."

"No laughing?"

"I'll try. But I ain't gonna promise not to grin."

"Fair enough." Christopher glanced at me. "That goes for you, too." He turned his attention back to the road. "My folks own a bar and grill outside Ashland, okay? It's one of the last places like it you'll find before you get into the heart of coal country. They hand out maps so that folks don't get lost. There's a lot of abandoned roads up there, and just as many abandoned mines.

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