Bad Things Read Online Free PDF Page A

measured the broken panes and the wood that needed replacing,
    he listened to my instructions for a couple more items, then drove
    off to get it all from a hardware store in Astoria. Meanwhile Becki
    headed out to get a replacement cash drawer from a supplier over in
    Portland that she’d tracked down on the Net.
    Ted was gone well over an hour. I sat on deck and slowly drank
    a Diet Coke. I was feeling an itch at the back of my head, but didn’t
    want to yield to it. I knew that if I was back at the beach house, how-
    ever, as normal at this time of day, then I’d already have done so. I also
    knew it would have been dumb, however, and that it was a box in my
    head I didn’t want to open. The smart tactic with actions that don’t
    make sense is to not do them the fi rst time. Otherwise, after that,
    why not do them again?
    Nonetheless I found myself, ten minutes later, at the till com-
    puter. The Web browser Becki had been using was still up on screen.
    I navigated to my Internet provider’s site and checked my e-mail,
    quickly, before I could change my mind and fail to yield to impulse.
    There was nothing there.
    That was good. I wouldn’t be checking again.
    Eventually Ted got back with the materials and I started work. The
    external door had been pretty solid, and so kicking the panes out had
    badly splintered the frame around the lock. I levered the damaged
    side off under Ted’s watchful eye.
    “You know what you’re doing, right?”
    “Kinda,” I said. “More than you do, anyhow.”
    “I get what you’re saying,” he said, and went inside.
    I worked slowly but methodically, which is the best way of dealing
    with the subversive ranks of inanimate objects. Ted proved to have a
    24 Michael Marshall
    thorough selection of tools, which helped, as did having gone through
    the process of fi guring out how to replace Gary’s screen door a few
    months back. Security and good sense dictated replacing the door
    with something more robust, but Ted was adamant it needed to look
    the way it had, for tradition’s sake. I’d specifi ed that he at least buy
    supertoughened glass, also some metal strips that I intended using to
    strengthen the off-the-rack door.
    While I was working through that portion of the job, Becki re-
    turned. I was ready for a break from hammering and sawing, so I
    went to give her a hand with the cash drawer, which was not light. In
    the end she let me carry it by myself, though she hovered encourag-
    ingly in the background and went off to fetch me a soda as a reward,
    while I levered it into position and bolted it in place.
    She got sidetracked with some issue in the kitchen, and I was
    back at work on the door by the time she returned with a Dr Pepper
    stacked with ice.
    She stood around for a while and watched me working, without
    saying anything.
    “That was a nice thing you did,” she said, after maybe fi ve min-
    utes.
    “What’s what?”
    “You know. Signaling to the cooks that you thought they didn’t
    have anything to do with it.”
    “They didn’t.”
    I concentrated on maneuvering a pane of glass, making sure it
    was bedded properly before screwing a piece of the metal brace work
    securely into place. When I turned around Becki was still looking at
    me, one eyebrow slightly raised.
    I smiled. “What?”
    “You haven’t always been a waiter, have you.”
    “No,” I said. “But it’s what I am now.”
    She nodded slowly, and walked back inside.
    B A D T H I N G S 25
    Midway through the day, the guy from the kitchen brought out a plate
    of food. I hadn’t asked for this, or expected it. It was very good, too, a
    selection of handmade empanada-style things fi lled with spicy shrimp
    and fi sh.
    “That was great,” I said, when he came back for the plate. “You
    should get Ted to put those on the menu.”
    The cook smiled, shrugged, and I guess I knew what he meant. I
    stuck out my hand. “John,” I said.
    He shook it. “Eduardo.”
    “Got the dough ready for the