Close Out Read Online Free PDF

again. “Not necessarily.”
    Kai couldn’t help smiling a little. “It’s not that. I’m looking for a place to stay tonight.”
    Jade pursed her lips. “Oh, I’m sorry, Kai.”
    â€œI know,” Kai said. “Me too. You wouldn’t have an old blanket, would you?”
    Jade smiled. “You bet. Give me a sec.”
    Kai waited on the stairs. He caught snippets of conversation from inside the apartment. Whoever the guy was, he didn’t sound happy. From the tone of Jade’s answers it sounded like she was telling him to chill.
    It took longer than Kai expected for Jade to return to the door, and when she did, hesaw why. She had a gray blanket for him, but also a large bottle of water and a white plastic grocery bag knotted at the top. “Hope you like ham and cheese,” she said, handing it all to him.
    â€œMy favorite,” said Kai.
    â€œWhen I was younger, before I had a place of my own, I spent some of the best nights of my life on the beach.”
    â€œThanks,” Kai said.
    He went back out to the sidewalk and started toward the beach. The moon was a sliver and the stars were out. Kai felt the slight, moist onshore breeze against his face as the ocean-cooled air flooded over the sun-scorched land like a salve. He crossed the boardwalk and for a moment thought about sleeping under it, but then rejected that idea. He wanted to be under the stars.
    He walked along the sand toward the Driftwood. There was no sense sleeping in front of the boardwalk where the police or some early riser might disturb him in the morning. This being Sun Haven, there was a law—not always enforced, but a law nonetheless—against sleeping on the beach.
    The sand back near the dunes was thedriest, and still held some of the warmth from the day’s sunlight. Kai spread Jade’s blanket, then lay down and rolled, making a cocoon for himself. Down the beach the ocean’s dark waters lapped quietly at the shore. For once Kai was glad there was no surf roaring in his ears. He wiggled a bit to make a comfortable impression in the sand, then lay quietly, gazing up at the stars. A satellite traveled slowly across the sky, growing bright, then dim before disappearing. Shuffled lightly by the breeze, the dune grass made the slightest scratching sounds. Kai felt his eyes grow heavy. He was alone, but not uncomfortable. Not as long as he was on a beach near the ocean.

Six
    â€œW hoa, look what washed up during the night,” someone said.
    Kai opened his eyes. In the dull gray light of the predawn he found Curtis standing over him, holding a familiar square-shaped bottle by the neck. Kai shivered and sat up in his sandy bed. He brushed some grains from his face and pulled Jade’s blanket up over his shoulders.
    â€œSleep well?” Curtis asked.
    â€œGets a little cold toward morning,” Kai said.
    Curtis held the bottle out. “Take a hit of this. It’ll warm you right up.”
    Kai accepted the bottle and took a gulp. The whisky burned from the back of his throatall the way down to his stomach, but Kai wasn’t sure it made the rest of him actually feel any warmer. He handed the bottle back. “I thought you usually mixed a little coffee into your Jack Daniel’s in the morning.”
    â€œIs it morning already?” Curtis looked around and pretended to be surprised. “Son of a gun.”
    â€œGuess that means you’ve been up all night, huh?” Kai asked with a yawn.
    â€œYup.” Curtis eased himself down on the sand beside Kai and took a swig of JD. “The harsh light of financial reality has descended upon my feeble domicile, leaving me no chance of respite.”
    â€œIn English, old man.”
    â€œTaxes, grom. Hotel occupancy taxes, sales taxes, real estate taxes, corporate taxes, income taxes. The funds the government must exact from our sorry hides in order to finance such crucial endeavors as invading