As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth Read Online Free PDF Page B

variety of condiments, empty cans, and surprisingly pretty things, like a flowered china sugar bowl and salt and pepper shakers in the shape of a little Dutch boy and girl leaning forward to kiss each other.
    Ry pulled his sleeping cell phone from his pocket and woke it up. It gave forth its swirling musical greeting, friendly and reassuring. But too loud in the quiet house, like a morning person when you aren’t one. His thumb immediately went for the mute button and he said, “Shhh!”
    There was one bar of reception, one bar of battery. Two texts from Jake, who was still bored. One from Amanda: Haha, how would I know?
    He called his grandfather first. Listened to the ringing, then his own recorded voice again on the voice mail. As he left his message, speaking softly, he heard his phone peeping at him, warning him that it would give up the ghost any second now. His parents’ cell phone rang and rang, until the robo voice said the number was unavailable and to try again later. And the phone expired in his hand.
    Ry’s eyes wandered around the little room and fell on the pots and pans sitting on the stove top. Each held food remains so aged that only an archaeologist or a forensic scientist would be able to identify them. Because his mind was a. in a problem-solving mode, and b. easily distracted, he proceeded to solve the four puzzles.
    The dried brown stuff looked like the dried brown stuff in the can that said “Beef Stew.” The dried greenish stuff went with the stuff in the can that said “Split Pea Soup.” The dried reddish-brown stuff had probably started out as spaghetti sauce. The bumps in it might have been meat and onions at some point in time. Easy.
    Ry leaned over to look more closely at a skillet on oneof the back burners. Whatever was in it had been there long enough to accumulate dust. He didn’t notice that the snoring had stopped. The sun flooded suddenly between the curtains, blinding him briefly so he didn’t see Del materialize in the still shadowy margins of the room.
    He had lifted the skillet into the shaft of sunlight and was considering giving it a sniff when Del spoke, and Ry’s feet left the ground and the skillet left his hand and a gurgling noise came out of his throat. He landed before the skillet, which unfortunately flew off at an angle in the direction of Del’s chest. Amazingly, Del put his hand right up and caught it, as if Ry had tossed him a softball.
    What Del had said when he first spoke was, “I guess it’s been a while since I did the dishes.” At least that’s what he started to say. He stopped midway when the skillet came flying toward him. What he said after he caught the skillet and looked into it was “Maybe we’d better just go out for breakfast.”

STRANGERS, RIDES, AND CANDY
    I n the light of day, the backyard had appeared. It was full of old trucks and machinery and large shapes covered by tarps. The seat in the truck was cold, but Ry was beginning to think of it as his. Sometimes, when something really out of the ordinary happens, like you get off your train and it leaves without you and you trudge for hours without food through an alien landscape, the things that happen after that can seem less strange just by comparison. Your threshold of what makes “strange” is raised way up for a while.
    Del took a tin of mints from his pocket, opened it, and popped one into his mouth.
    “Mint?” he asked Ry.
    Ry realized he hadn’t brushed his teeth for about twenty-four hours, was suddenly aware of a furrinessinside his mouth. He wondered how foul his breath was.
    “Thanks,” he said, and took one.
    “Strangers offering rides and candy” didn’t occur to him. Only, I have to get a toothbrush. And toothpaste. But Del will probably let me use his toothpaste.
    “Do you have a cell phone charger?” he asked Del. “My phone is completely dead.”
    Rides, candy, and cell phone chargers. But Del didn’t have one.
    “I don’t have a cell phone,” said Del.