Shimmer: A Novel Read Online Free Page B

artificial. No framed photos or paintings adorned the walls. It was a house but not a home. A rest stop for the determined recluse, a way-station for the psychically weary. The only comfort of his Laramie home was distance, but looking down at the spread of newspapers, he had to admit that distance was relative. “I have a life here.”
    “So you do,” Ambrose said. “And I sincerely hope you continue to enjoy that life, Gideon. Please pardon my interruption.”
    With a soft click of disconnection, the conversation ended.
    Gently, Gideon lowered the cordless handset into the receiver, thinking of the unasked questions that had been swirling around his mind.
“How’s Barrett?”
They hadn’t spoken in months.
 “What’s the nature of the desperate situation?” “Have you called anyone else for help?”
And, more importantly,
“What happened today, Ambrose? What happened thousands of miles from here that made me want to vomit?”
    Gideon’s pride had muted those questions. He’d slipped into his defensive mechanisms, justifying his new life and his abandonment of the family. Ambrose’s soft words still rang in his ears.
“I sincerely hope you continue to enjoy that life”
    One idea his father had drummed into Gideon during his training as a Walker child, an expression, came to mind,
“far-reaching consequences.”
    Gideon whispered into the night, “How bad is it, Ambrose?”
    As he sipped his scotch, his hand trembled.
    “Never mind,” he said. “Don’t want to know. Don’t care.”
    Gideon looked down at the scattered newspaper articles and scanned the statements by the police and members of the task force. No suspects. FBI pursuing leads. One comment seemed to jump out at him. Two words.
“Inhuman atrocities.”
    “God help me,” Gideon said as he slumped into his chair. “I don’t want to care anymore.”

Chapter 5
    Hadenford, New Jersey
     “‘Better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven.’ What do you suppose Milton meant by that? Let’s hear from our new student, Logan Walker?”
    “Um…”
    “Stand, please, Mr. Walker.”
    With a sigh, Logan pushed back his chair and stood. Everyone in the class was looking at him, half of them smirking, waiting for the new kid to make an ass of himself. “I… uh…”
    “We’re studying
Paradise Lost
, Logan.” She stared at him over her reading glasses, which were one brisk nod away from tumbling off her pinched nose. “If that helps.”
    Scattered laughter. Logan felt his face turning red, which explained the brief nausea he’d experienced over his frozen waffle breakfast. In hindsight, he should have ditched school.
    “‘Better to reign in hell…’” Mrs. Claridge prompted. “What was Milton telling us?”
    Logan nodded. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a sympathetic face. Two rows over. Attractive girl, striking face, sheaf of black hair, jade green eyes. Something about her… he was breathless, a little weak in the knees, and not simply because of his pending embarrassment. He looked her way and their eyes met. She gave a slight nod, meant only for him and somehow that broke through his incipient panic. He faced Mrs. Claridge again and said the first thing that came to his mind. “Milton obviously never spent any time in hell.”
    More laughter, this time with him, not at him. Big difference. Logan felt the tension ease across his chest. Mrs. Claridge, however, was frowning at him. “And I suppose you
have
spent some time in hell, Mr. Walker?”
    “No…” Logan said.
But I know some people who have.
    “Perhaps you’d like to spend some time in the principal’s office instead?”
    “I—don’t think that’s necessary, Mrs. Claridge.”
    “Then sit down,” she said. “Let’s hope your next opportunity to dazzle us results in a display of erudition rather than ignorance.”

    Logan slammed his locker shut on his battered English Lit textbook.
    “Ouch! Poor locker.”
    Startled, Logan looked to his right and