Subway Dancer and Other Stories by Hyde Catherine Ryan

Author:Hyde, Catherine Ryan [Hyde, Catherine Ryan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2013-04-24T04:00:00+00:00

J visits a man in a pet store near his apartment. Too near, but it’s day. Probably okay. He looks around, while the pet store man sells a rat. It’s a reptile pet store, mostly reptile. The rat is probably not a pet. They never call it a rat. They call it a feeder. It’s white, with pink eyes. Not filthy. Not greasy. J feels bad for just a second.

Pet store guy says, “Can I help you, kid?” Like the best J could ever do is steal.

J looks around at the tanks. Komodo Dragons and big Ball Pythons and Rosy Boas. Four, five hundred dollars. His snake is a Rosy Boa. He knows that now. Four, five hundred dollars. You could buy a lot of safe with that. A lot of distant.

“What if I had a snake to sell?”

“Do you have a snake to sell?”

“I know where there is one.”

“Bring it in, let me see.”

“How much?”

“Depends on the snake.”

“Like that one.” He points to the five hundred dollar Rosy Boa. “How much?”

“If it’s healthy, maybe one-fifty. I gotta see it.”

“But you’ll sell it for five hundred.”

“I’m in the business.”

J looks around at the man’s business. And sees that the snakes are his prisoners. That’s the man’s business. To take snakes and make sure they’re never free. He walks to the counter. Looks at the man. Not liking him. And the man not likes him right back.

“Only one thing, though. He doesn’t like to be touched.”

“They never do at first. They gotta get used to it.” Looks down at J’s hand. The five knuckle slashes. A little sneer. “Gotta know how to handle ‘em,” he says.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.