Spirits in the Wires Read Online Free

imbalance between us. The longer he was in my presence, the stronger it had become.
    I won’t say I wasn’t disturbed by it, because I was. But there was nothing I could do about it now. He’d finally reached the end of the block, so I started off myself, aiming for the Chinese grocery store on the other side of the street, across from where he was. By the time I reached the corner, he was long gone.
    There was a scruffy little dog tied up outside the grocery store, one of those mixes of a half-dozen breeds, but the terrier seemed strongest. He watched me approach, tongue lolling, a happy dog look in his eyes.
    â€œHey, pooch,” I said, bending down to give him a pat.
    He snapped at me and I only just pulled my hand back in time to avoid getting bitten. He was still growling at me as his owner came bustling out from the store.
    â€œRufy,” she said. “Don’t do that.” She turned to me. “I don’t know what’s gotten into him,” she added. “Rufus is usually so sweet tempered.”
    But I could see the same instinctive discomfort start up in her eyes as I’d already seen in her dog’s, and in my neighbour’s eyes earlier. Before it grew too strong, I slipped past her into the store where I picked up some milk, a bag of rice, and some vegetables for a stir fry. I completed the transaction as quickly as I could, not looking at the elderly Chinese man behind the counter. When I was outside the store again, the woman and her dog were already gone.
    I stood there for a long moment, just watching the traffic at the intersection and not knowing what to do.
    I was ready to retreat to my apartment, to stay there and stubbornly wait for them to show up—the people who had played around in my head and erased most of my memory, or the people who had created me and left me there to fend for myself. I didn’t know which, but it had to be one or the other.
    For a moment I had a shivering recollection of some invisible voodoo spirit in cyberspace, but that I firmly put out my mind. No, whatever the origins of my present condition, they weren’t that improbable.
    But maybe I’d been in an accident. Banged my head on something.
    I felt through my hair, searching for bumps or a sore spot, but could find neither. That didn’t really prove anything. It could have been a while ago. Or it could be some recurring medical problem. Perhaps there was someone coming to check up on me—I just couldn’t remember who, or when they’d come.
    Or I could be crazy.
    I took the long way back to my apartment, circling the block that the grocery store was on. When I saw a homeless man sitting in the doorway of an abandoned store, I dug into my pocket for a dollar. I dropped it in his hat and smiled down at him, ready for a repeat of the reactions I’d already gotten from the other people I’d met so far today.
    But he only returned my smile.
    â€œThanks, lady,” he said. “You have a good day.”
    I couldn’t tell his age—it could have been anywhere between thirty and sixty—but he had kind eyes. They were deep blue, clear and alert, which seemed a little at odds with his shabby clothes and weather-beaten skin. They were the eyes of someone at peace with the world, not someone living on the street and barely able to eke out a living.
    â€œI’ll try,” I told him. “So far it’s sucked big-time.”
    He nodded, eyeing me in a way that put me on edge again.
    â€œMaybe you should try and turn down that shine of yours a watt or two,” he said before I could go. “My guess is that’s what’s making people so uncomfortable around you.”
    I just stared at him, not really sure what I was hearing.
    â€œWhat did you say?” I asked.
    â€œCome on,” he said. “Don’t tell me you don’t know. You’ve been touched by something—call it whatever you want. A mystery, the