Going Where It's Dark Read Online Free Page B

window as well. Only a few of the framed pictures had actually been hung, the others propped against a buffet.
    Uncle Mel stepped up on a low stool, removing a glass globe on the ceiling and handing it to Buck. And Buck had never felt so unwelcome. He could see himself reflected in the tall framed mirror leaning against the wall, looking as stiff and awkward as he felt. He could sense the glare of Jacob’s deep-set eyes boring into his back. When he glanced at the old man once, it made him so uncomfortable, he had to look away.
    “Here’s the thing,” Mel said, when he stepped down again and they moved toward the bedroom to replace a bulb there. “Since I’ve got a few longer hauls coming up, I’d like you to let Buck come in my place when I’m not here. He’ll pick up the mail, run errands….Any repairs you got, I’ll do when I get back.”
    Jacob’s face didn’t change, and he said nothing.
    “He’s a good worker,” Mel continued, positioning the stool at the foot of the large bed, the headboard shaped like a scroll, and climbing up a couple of steps. “Won’t touch anything he shouldn’t. He’s got a bike, so he could ride to the store for you.” He looked at Buck. “Where’s that wire basket you can hook on a bike if Jacob needs a few things from Bealls’?”
    Buck fought that old, familiar tightening of his jaws that clamped them together, locking the words in. “I th…th…think it’s in the c…c…c…cellar,” he struggled to say, and wasn’t all that surprised when Jacob turned himself around, stared at Buck a moment or two, then turned his back on them both and limped out of the room.
    Buck let out his breath. He did not want to work for this man, and obviously, the man didn’t want him to.
    After the lightbulbs were replaced and Mel had tied up the trash and deposited it outside, and after Buck had emptied a mousetrap under the sink and scrubbed out the shower stall, he followed his uncle to the front door.
    “Buck will be by in a few days, then,” Mel said. “He’s as handy with a mop as a lawn mower, so if you need any housekeeping done here inside, you just tell him. Take care, Jacob.”
    Jacob gave an almost imperceptible nod and closed the door behind them.
    Buck didn’t say anything until they were almost to the road. Then, “Wow. How old d…do you think he is? I figure ninety.”
    “Naw,” said Mel, “He’s weathered, that’s all. Weathered and worn.”
    “What kind of house did he have b…before? Had to be b…bigger than what he has now.”
    “Appears that way.”
    “Looked like he c…could chew me up and s…spit me out. Where’d he c…come from?”
    “I don’t know and I don’t ask,” said Mel. “Think you can handle this now?”
    “He doesn’t want me there.”
    “Wants you or not, he needs help.”
    When Buck made no reply, Mel glanced over. “Not afraid of him, are you?”
    “No,” Buck said. But he sure didn’t like him.

H e hated the bus ride to school without David. Some of the boys in eighth, and a few in seventh, used to joke about the two of them—David, with his shaggy hair and stocky frame; Buck, the smallest in the class.
    “Here come the sheepdog and his Chihuahua,” someone would say.
    Now that Buck rode alone, the hassling became more specific. Whenever he could, Buck sat with a boy, any boy. Failing that, he took an empty seat near the front. But usually one of the girls had snagged it and saved it for Katie, and then Buck settled for whatever he could find.
    This morning, with two weeks of school yet to go, the only seat the girls hadn’t preempted was second from the back, directly in front of Pete Ketterman and his buddies. And no one made jokes about them. Pete Ketterman, Ethan Holt, Isaac Lewis, and Rob Moss were the
It
guys, and all but Rob were in eighth grade.
    “Pete and his ducks,” David used to say. “You ever notice how they follow him around? Pete says ‘jump’ and they say ‘how high?’ ”
    “Ducks