Bill warrington's last chance by James King

Author:James King [James King]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Roman
ISBN: 9780670021611
Published: 2010-09-15T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Every now and then Bill’s head bumped up against the window as the tires hit a seam in the road, but for the most part the ride was smooth. The steady drone of the engine might have put him to sleep had he not been so terrified.

He knew that for some reason his granddaughter was nervous, too. She kept calling over to him to ask if they were going in the right direction. He’d nod, unable to find the energy to respond verbally. At one point he didn’t answer fast enough, apparently, for she poked him—to make sure, he supposed, that he was still breathing. Gradually, he felt himself become a little less agitated, and his panic slowly morphed to something more akin to curiosity. He wanted some time—and some peace and quiet, thank you—to work out everything that had just happened.

“I thought you were thirsty.”

Like a kid who’d finally realized the futility of arguing with his mother against eating his vegetables, Bill opened one of the bottles and took a sip.

“And here’s a news flash, Grandpa. Not everybody has change for a hundred.”

Bill wiped his lips with the back of his hand. “I gave you a hundred?”

“Yes, you gave me a hundred! And let me tell you—that . . . jerk . . . was not pleased.”

Okay, Bill thought, so maybe she got a little grief for not having something smaller. Was that what she was all worked up about?

“It was not a pretty scene,” she said.

Bill took another sip. Did she want to compare pretty scenes? How about one with an old man in a gas station bathroom who, feeling pretty good about things for no particular reason—euphoric, actually—looks into the mirror, starts sweating profusely, and feels his legs giving way as he realizes that he suddenly has no idea where he is or what he’s doing.

“Strange,” he said.

“What’s strange?”

Bill was surprised that he’d said that out loud. “Oh, nothing really,” he said. Maybe talking about it would make it less strange and more logical. But Bill never did like talking about things unless he was pretty sure he knew where the conversation was headed—or, at least, where he wanted it to go. And there was simply no way to predict how his granddaughter would react if he told her that in those first few minutes after looking in the mirror, he felt the panic as if it were a living being hovering over his head, about to consume him. He’d taken a quick inventory to fight off the panic—something he’d learned to do but didn’t know where or when. He was Bill Warrington. He was in a dirty restroom somewhere. He was sweating. What else? Nothing joined together for him.

“You don’t want to talk, fine. I can live with that.”

Bill looked over. She talked just like Marcy. But, especially in profile, she looked like Clare. The thing he found most curious of all at this point—downright baffling, actually—was that he couldn’t remember her name.

He knew she was his granddaughter.

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.