The Underground Read Online Free Page A

together,” Brigg said casually.
    Nathaniel grew irritated when Brigg brought up Grace, as though she and Janice were interchangeable. Grace wasn’t an alcoholic. She treated Brigg like a decent person and had forward-thinking views on men. On top of that, she was attractive.
    “You’ve got a great wife. You can’t possibly understand,” Nathaniel said.
    “Look, I’m just trying to help,” Brigg said, with compassion.
    “Well, you can’t. Okay. Just accept that my life with Janice can’t be better,” Nathaniel said, bitterly, before draining his glass.
    “Maybe there are ways to make life with her more palatable that you haven’t thought of,” Brigg suggested.
    “She’s a raging alcoholic. I clean up her vomit, and the thought of fathering her children, which she talks about all the time, makes me sick. You keep telling me it’ll get better, but it’s not going to change. Ever,” Nathaniel said, pulling money out of his pocket and slapping it on the bar. He headed straight for the stairs and took them two at a time, exiting the Black Hole quickly.  
    “Wait!”
    Early dusk met Nathaniel as he stepped outside. Brigg caught up and grabbed his arm.
    “What do you want?” Nathaniel asked Brigg, not giving him room to answer. “… You wanna give me yet another lecture about how I should have gone to the Parties of Availability with you when I was 18? Let’s just get this out of the way… Yes, you were right, okay… I should have gone. I should have pandered at those stupid fucking parties, so that maybe just maybe I’d get chosen for marriage by someone I could get along with before I turned 26. But I didn’t go because I didn’t want to be humiliated. That’s all those women do at those parties from the moment they see a fresh 18-year-old walk in until the day he turns 26 and gets dragged off to the C Center. Do I regret not going to those parties now? Yes. You happy? Maybe I would’ve found someone a little better, or at least a woman who isn’t a drunk. Still, I’m lucky. Janice is my savior. Hallelujah!” he said sarcastically. “She is my lifeline and life sentence at the same time.”
    “Keep your voice down!” Brigg said. “And watch what you’re saying.” Brigg dragged Nathaniel down an alley so they would be less vulnerable to Tasers who might walk by. “You seemed like you were doing okay for a while, and clearly you are not. I was just asking. I thought I could help,” Brigg said.
    “Nobody can help me,” Nathaniel said, with a smile that felt scary, not happy. “I’m a man with my biological clock attached to a bomb on my balls. And it’s just about gone off.   I can’t move, man. Can’t you see that?” he whispered to Brigg.
    “Do you trust me?” Brigg whispered back, close to his friend’s face.
    “Of course I trust you,,” Nathaniel said, annoyed, and shaking his arm free from Brigg.
    “There is a way for you to be happy,” Brigg said. He was absolutely resolute.
    “Not with Janice.”
    “I’m certainly not going to argue about that.”  
    “What are you talking about?”  
    “Look, I know some people who can help you.”
    “How?” Nathaniel said, holding onto his frustration.
    “I can’t say,” Brigg said, pleading. “But you have got to trust me.”  
    “Who could possibly help me?” Nathaniel asked, hoping to wear Brigg down.
    “Call this number, and tell them I said you should call,” Brigg said jotting down a phone number on a cocktail napkin that he had had in his hand from the bar.
      “I can’t tell you the details. I can only say that this is a chance for you without Janice.”
    “What is it… some sort of murdering service?!” Nathaniel whispered.
    “Of course not!” Brigg said.
    “What then?”
    “Look at yourself. You’re miserable. I’m giving you a chance for something more,” Brigg said firmly pressing the number into Nathaniel’s hand.  
    Nathaniel clutched the napkin tightly in his pocket as he walked home.