Broken Things Read Online Free PDF Page B

they’d at least let him start the fire.
His father had a special technique for fires. He used a ton of newspaper and
lighter fluid. When the match hit it, it would create a small fireball.
    He heard the car engine start and he looked at them
curiously. Did mom want to go home that bad, or had they forgotten something
important? He watched the car pull out and it felt like warning bells going off
in his head.
    “Dad! Mom! Wait!” He ran after them as they pulled onto the
dirt road. He saw his dad’s eyes in the side view mirror, but he didn’t stop.
Were they actually speeding up?
    He ran harder and faster than he ever had in his life,
ignoring the cloud of dust they threw up behind them. He saw his mother’s hand
on his father’s shoulder. Please stop, please if there is a God make them
stop.
    Whether in answer to his quick prayer or his mom, his dad
stopped the car in the middle of the road. He didn’t stop running until he
reached the driver’s window. His father turned to face him, expression solemn.
That meant his father was either in a fight with his mom or Josh had done
something wrong.
    “Where… where are you guys going?” he asked breathlessly. He
leaned on the window, noticing his mother’s red, swollen eyes.
    “Let go of the window, Josh,” his father ordered in a quiet,
yet firm voice.
    Josh ignored him. “Is everything okay, mom? Why are you…”
    “She’s fine,” his dad interrupted, “I need you to go back to
camp. Now. You need to stay there.”
    “When are you coming back?”
    “Josh, honey,” his mother said, “You have to do what your
father says. Please just go back. Be a good boy and don’t follow us.”
    “Why are you leaving? Take me with you!”
    “We can’t honey, you’ll like it here…”
    “Carol, please,” his dad said. He looked straight ahead, not
at his wife or at Josh. “You just can’t and that’s final. You’ll be fine.
You’ve got everything you need. Now please, go back.”
    “Is it because I’m broken? I’ll find a way to fix myself, I
promise! Please don’t leave me, don’t go! I won’t cause any trouble, you won’t
have to spend any more money on me, please Daddy, I’ll be good! I’ll…”
    “Drive, Dave,” his mother said, “Go, I can’t handle this.”
    Josh reached through the window and grabbed his dad’s arm as
he gave the SUV gas. He hung from the window as they started down the road,
forcing him to stop again. “Let go of me, Josh,” he ordered.
    “Don’t leave me, let me go with you! Daddy, please!”
    “Stop calling me that!”
    His father grabbed his wrist and roughly pried Josh’s hand
away. He stomped the gas, his peeling tires throwing a cloud of choking dirt
into the air. Josh fell to his knees in disbelief, tears coming unbidden.
    “I don’t understand,” he said to no one.
     
    10
     
    Several miles away something stirred. It awakened upon a
hard bed of dirt and rocks, surrounded by bat guano and worms. Only a thin beam
of sunlight disturbed its darkness. Long ago the cave had a wider opening, and
had been used by Native Americans. The walls were painted with their cave art
of a time long forgotten. Hundreds of years ago a landslide had all but
obscured the opening, leaving it as a shelter only for the local wildlife…. and
eventually something else.
    It stretched its arms and legs, disturbing a decade worth of
dust and cobwebs. They were stiff and difficult to move, atrophied muscles
tearing painfully. Things moved beneath its skin. Bugs , it realized.
They’d eaten holes all through it, consuming whatever they could. Still it
lived. It didn’t hate the bugs. They did what they were supposed to do. It
understood purpose.
    Why was it still alive? How was it possible? More
importantly, what had awakened it? It felt something it hadn’t felt in a long
time. It sniffed the air but the cave only reeked of dust and that of its own
decay. It wasn’t a smell then. 
    It had found the cave by chance, stumbling on