A Hole in the Universe Read Online Free Page A

They’d been robbed before; the man might be armed. Gordon stared and kept talking. Knowing what to do in a precarious moment was second nature now. “I just want a job. I saw the sign. That’s why I came in. That’s why I’m here.” He tried to smile. His eyes stung from the sweat.
    “And that gun in there don’t mean nothing, right?”
    “No! No gun!” Gordon raised his arms. “See! Just hands, that’s all.”
    Eddie Chapman explained that he was the owner’s brother-in-law, as they walked to the rear of the store, past the meat counter into a sour-smelling storage area. One cashier was out sick, and the other was in the bathroom. He’d come in to help. “My wife’s brother,” he said with a rap on a black door. He shook his head, sighed, rapped again. “Neil! Hey, Neilie, you up?” he called, ear at the jamb. He lowered his voice. “His wife, she’s giving him one more shot at it. A week, she said, and then that’s it. Jesus Christ,” he muttered, and hit the door harder. “Neilie!”
    “What? What?” a thick voice growled.
    Eddie opened the door an inch wide. “There’s a guy here,” he called in. “He wants the job.”
    “Later.” A moan. “Yeah. Later.”
    “He’s big, Neil. Really big.”
    “Oh, oh, oh,” came a groan as the man on the narrow cot struggled to get up. “But no lights. Jesus Christ!” He shielded his eyes from the opening door. “What’s his name?”
    “What’s your name?” Eddie asked, then repeated it back.
    “Loomis,” the man echoed from the murky darkness. “Loomis,” he grunted, straining to raise himself up on one elbow. The only light came from the half-opened door. He held out his hand. “Jesus Christ, Eddie, I can’t do this.” He fumbled through blankets on the cot, then turned back, wearing sunglasses. “So, what? You want the job?” He belched. “You wanna be part of the Nash Street Market family? You wanna be on my team? Cuz if you do, I gotta warn you, I’m a son of a bitch to work for, right, Eddie?” Neil laughed, and so Eddie did. “I’m a real ball buster. Oh, yes, I am. Eddie’ll tell you,” he murmured, groping his way back down onto the cot. “You tell him, Eddie! You be sure and tell him now!” He turned toward the wall in a tight curl.
    “So what should I do?” Eddie asked.
    “Whatever the hell you want to do, Eddie,” Neil Dubbin groaned.
     
     
    The HELP WANTED sign stayed in the window even though his first day on the job had begun. There were two registers open. At the first was June, a tiny gray-haired woman with a hacking cough. She was the fastest cashier but couldn’t bag groceries because of her emphysema. In the lulls between customers, she reached down and switched on her oxygen tank, then slipped the clear tubing over her head and adjusted the prongs in each nostril.
    Serena was at the next register. She was a tall, coarse-skinned woman with large teeth and tendrils of ivy tattooed up each finger of her right hand. A small silver hoop pierced her left nostril. She and June seemed in a constant state of annoyance with customers. So far they’d had little to say to their huge, clumsy bag boy who kept filling the bags until they were too heavy. The bottom of the last customer’s bag had ripped open, spilling cans all over the sidewalk out front.
    “Hey, Gordon,” Serena called as he double-bagged milk, juice, and cigarettes for a fat, bearded man in a dungaree jacket. “We’re running low on plastic.”
    “Bags. Out back,” June wheezed, then pushed a REGISTER CLOSED sign onto the belt.
    Gordon hurried through the meat-cutting room.
    “Whatever it is, tell ’em we’re out,” Leo, the butcher, called as he continued shrink-wrapping packages of ground beef.
    Gordon stood in the middle of the poorly lit, chaotic storage area. He had already been back here on two previous futile missions for items customers couldn’t find on the shelves. Stacks of torn, half-filled cartons were everywhere. Some