Cowboy Ending - Overdrive: Book One Read Online Free PDF Page A

self-evident know it all
Michael Grabner had decided to grace the conversation with his
wealth of useless knowledge.
     
    Never figured
him for a sci-fi aficionado.
     
    “Dude, Lost sucked. None
of it made any sense!”
     
    “Now
Kory, if you took the time to acknowledge the cinematography and
depth of storytelling involved in even a single episode of Lost you’d have a new appreciation
for the quality put into each and every scene as compared to
something more mundane.”
     
    “Come on, man!
How do people stuck on a mysterious island go back and forth in
time all the time?”

“Yeah, and what was with all that Jacob and Locke stuff? Was one of
them supposed to be like, God or something?”
     
    “Kory,
David the whole point of Lost wasn’t to answer all of your questions. It was to create
discussion and debate amongst yourselves. It was a higher form of
art than you are usually privileged to find on today’s reality TV
engorged landscape.”
     
    Silence.
     
    My computer
still hadn’t booted up.
     
    I picked up the
handset on my desk and began dialing.
     
    David
re-entered the fray. “You guys know that Sawyer guy? I think he was
on the pilot of Angel . Played
a vamp that got dusted like right away.”
     
    “Dude why
were you watching, Angel ?”
Kory asked dismissively. “ Buffy was way better.”
     
    “If
you’re talking the Whedonverse, gentlemen you simply cannot ignore
the brilliance of Dollhouse .
Much like his previous shows on FOX, Dollhouse was an achievement that was simply too
high-brow for executives to …”

“Hello?”

I tuned out the background geekfest.
     
    “Hi Mom. How’re
you feeling?”
     
    She laughed
weakly. “Oh, not bad I suppose.”
     
    I leaned my
head into my free hand peering around self-consciously. “I didn’t
wake you this morning did I? I tried to be quiet.”
     
    She
coughed in the background. A dry, raspy sound but muffled. Probably
covered by her hand or housecoat. “You were fine, Joseph. I’m
having a rough time sleeping as it is.”

My stomach dropped hearing that. I tried to make my voice cheerful.
“Gotta stop waiting for Colbert to finish his Threat Down every night, Mom.”
     
    Didn’t sound
very cheerful to me.
     
    She chuckled
gamely. “You know I prefer Stewart’s show. His interviews are
always better.”
     
    Out of the
corner of my eye Troy was wandering the mouse maze, peering this
way and that. Checking up on his flock of lab rats with that
“managerial air.”
     
    “So yeah, Mom”
I went on, keeping a watchful eye on the watchful eye. “Is there
something I can do for you? I love you and all, but …”
     
    “Yes, I won’t
keep you.” More coughing. I waited for her to stop, my heart
sinking down to where my stomach was resting. “I am out of
medication. Can you get some on your way home?”

“No problem. Your script’s still good here. I’ll pop into the lab
on my way out.”

“You’re such a ..” Coughing. “Such a good boy, Joseph.”
     
    “I love you,
Mom. Get some rest.”
     
    We hung up.
     
    My
computer finally booted up. First thing I did was put in an order
for my mom’s medicine and enter in my staff discount code. Canada-Pharm might have been super
stingy on employee wage and benefits, but being able to get all
doctor prescribed medication for free went a long
way.
    Probably the
only reason Mom was still alive.
     

Chapter 3
     
    Treadmills are
evil.
     
    After
spending seven and a half hours feeling like a rat in a cage over
at Canada-Pharm, spending
another twenty minutes sweating my bag off like a hamster on a
wheel seemed both appropriate and irritating.
     
    Sweat poured
off my forehead and down my back. My self-conscious nature kicked
in every time I felt my belly jiggle in time with my plodding jog.
Every pounding stride hurt my knees and back, but the elliptical
cross-trainers were being hogged by the ladies trying to get their
glow on before heading out on the town.
     
    Okay,