Needle Freak by J L Aarne

Author:J L Aarne [Aarne, J L]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: J.L. Aarne
Published: 2016-05-14T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

It was particularly hot that August. They opened the windows at night to allow for air to flow through the house, but that air was still hot and humid. Rain cooled things down, but it hadn’t rained since the end of June. There were fans throughout the house but it was still miserably hot. With the windows open, they lay sweating in their beds on top of the sheets, the warm air cooling them as it puffed over their bodies. The cicadas buzzed and the neighborhood dogs occasionally barked. Jack had never slept better in all his life.

Shane, it seemed, had never slept worse.

It started the night after they returned home from that first visit with Grandma Chloe. Shane didn’t sleep so much as pass out. He got drunk that night, on whiskey rather than beer, then he went to bed early. He got up Monday morning for work the same as usual and didn’t say a word about it, but he was withdrawn. That night there were nightmares and Shane spent most of it sitting in the kitchen at the table with the radio on and the dog dozing on the floor. He did that for the rest of the week. He didn’t scream and make a lot of noise, but he slept only a few broken hours before he’d be up again and Jack knew it because without the drugs to keep him down he was a light sleeper. Shane tried not to drink much during the week because he had to get up and go to work, but a couple of times, Jack smelled marijuana in the house in the night.

At first, Jack stayed in bed to give Shane privacy, but when the behavior continued, he became more bold. He got up and went to sit with him. They didn’t usually speak, but Shane would offer him the bottle or the pipe and Jack would take it and drink or smoke.

Near the end of August, Shane kept them both late at the shop one night after everyone else had gone home. He was working on a truck, but they both knew that was only an excuse. The place was closed, the doors locked, so Shane took off his shirt and tossed it aside. He kept a small refrigerator in the garage for bottled water, soft drinks and the employees kept their lunches in it. Shane also had beer in there, though no one was allowed to drink it when the sign on the door said “open”.

He started out working on the truck, the hood up, a beer on the bumper that he stopped every few minutes to drink from, sweat and moisture from the air beading on his tattooed back as he worked. The more he drank, the less he worked though. Jack sat on an overturned plastic crate and watched him, Hank sprawled on the floor at his feet. Shane took a break and rested his hip against the bumper of the car. He finished his beer, crushed the can and asked Jack to toss him another one.

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