Come Sit By Me Read Online Free PDF

spots that felt like somebody had pounded a nail into the metal. Or a knife.
    But no USB drive.
    â€œYou know who had that locker before you?”
    The voice made me jump. I turned around and saw a short, wiry kid with bad teeth and dirty brown hair. He was grinning, because he knew he’d startled me. “They took all the ammunition,” he said. “If that’s what you’re hoping to find.”
    â€œWho are you?” I asked.
    â€œSeese,” he replied.
    â€œSeese?”
    â€œShort for Cecil. Cecil Joseph. Really dumb name. Thank my parents for that. They think giving me a fancy name makes up for the fact we live in a trailer park.”
    â€œDid you know Cale?”
    â€œEnough to know that he liked to be called Caleb. My locker is right over there.”
    I made a note. Caleb. “So were you friends?”
    â€œDidn’t you read the newspapers? Caleb was a loner. He had no friends.”
    I recognized sarcasm when I heard it. “Except you?”
    Seese shook his head. “Nope. Not me. That’s what I told the cops. Everybody said the same thing. Caleb? Nah, never heard of him.”
    â€œI’m not a cop. I’d just like to know more about him.”
    â€œWhy?”
    I didn’t know the answer myself. “I’m supposed to be writing an article for the school paper.”
    â€œBullshit,” he said. “They won’t print anything about Caleb.”
    I didn’t make any response to that, since it was the truth.
    â€œYou know Caleb liked to write?” he asked.
    â€œSo I’m told. On his laptop, right? Do you know what he was writing?”
    â€œI asked him that once,” Seese said. “He told me there was only one thing worth writing about, and that was yourself.”
    â€œDid you ever see what he wrote?”
    â€œNah. He was obsessed about hiding it. Maybe he was embarrassed. He’d slap the lid on his laptop down if he thought you were looking at it. And he saved everything on a USB drive, so he could carry it in his pocket.”
    â€œYou think he made a list of people he wanted to get revenge on?”
    Seese licked his lips and looked away. “You know, I couldn’t believe it when they told me it was Caleb who did the shooting. All I remember is that the word came over the P.A. that we were supposed to go outside. Then the fire alarm went off. I guess somebody pulled it. By the time my class went outside, there were already a couple of police cars in the parking lot. Cops yelling at us. Put our hands on our heads, they were saying. The cops looked more afraid than the rest of us were. Almost all the kids thought it was just a fire drill. But the cops knew it wasn’t.”
    â€œBut you didn’t think it was Caleb shooting up the place?”
    â€œNo way. There were lots of rumors spread around that day, and after. I think there were some things about it that didn’t add up. But when we were standing around outside, all of a sudden people started saying, ‘It’s Cale. Cale shot somebody.’ Right away I thought bullshit, Caleb wouldn’t do that.”
    â€œWhat do you think now?”
    He was getting agitated, and I reminded myself that I didn’t know if this guy was crazy or not. And we were alone in the corridor. “All right,” he said. “It looks like he shot those kids. I admit that. But he didn’t do it by himself. Somebody put him up to it.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œBecause…I don’t know. Because he wasn’t capable of it. That took planning. He wasn’t a planner. He didn’t even have a gun at home, like a lot of people around here do.”
    â€œSo where did he get the gun?”
    â€œThere were two guns, according to the police. They couldn’t trace them. The serial numbers were filed off. Which proves again it wasn’t just Caleb. He wouldn’t have known how to do something like that. And anyway…why