The Captain of Kinnoull Hill by Jamie Tennant

Author:Jamie Tennant
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Palimpsest Press
Published: 2016-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

When the shops were closed, and there was no more liquor to be purchased, purchased and guzzled while sitting against the wire fence surrounding the putting green on the South Inch, and when walking became too labour-intensive due to fatigue and the occasional curbside slip, and when it dawned on him that even if he still had liquor, he couldn’t rightly, as a totally illegal immigrant and worker—an illegal immigrant worker!—sit on a bench and flout his transgression in public, in case the police wandered by, Dennis finally decided to risk the Rat and Raven.

There wasn’t much change in his pocket, but there was enough—enough to get him a few more pints before he passed out on the bridge or, if he was lucky, made it back to Kinnoull. It didn’t really matter.

He wasn’t sure what mattered anymore. He wasn’t upset that the Universal deal might tank. It was that the last person he had expected to screw him had screwed him.

Everyone did it eventually. Everyone eventually took a side other than his. It was a proven fact. Even his parents, through years of tsk tsk-ing him with their eyes and their sighs, had turned their backs on him. Oh, they were happier now, engaged him in real conversations now as opposed to simply subjecting him to mini-lectures and guilt trips, but they were only happier because he’d done something with himself. Almost. A full grown man, and still worried about parental approval. They were the ones who should have been on his side the most, and for so long, they weren’t.

Paul, on the other hand, had always been on his side. Always. Never a doubt. All he’d asked was for Paul to upload some files, and he’d refused. All he had to do was this one little thing, and for some reason, he wouldn’t do it. There was no real reason, as far as he could tell, for Paul to betray him this way, to fail him in this crucial moment, this life-changing fucking moment. The only reason was that it always happened eventually. Eventually, everyone failed him.

So fuck ’em. What mattered now, after several quarts of beer, was to find a way to get back to Chicago and do it himself. Paul had been right—Dennis had some doubts, and part of him didn’t want to do this. Paul’s refusal had steeled his resolve. Oh yes. Dennis saw the light now. He was not only right, he was righteous. And everyone would see.

There was no longer going to be any reward from the Council. He couldn’t exactly turn Eddie in to authorities and expect to be compensated. Even if he could physically succeed, without Eddie disappearing in a puff of smoke or reverting to his nature and tearing him apart, you can’t turn in an alien from another dimension. Hello, officers, your vandal is a monster spawned from the collective Id of humanity, you may not want to throw him in with the general population.

No, Dennis would have to find another way.

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.