Darkness on the Edge of Town Read Online Free PDF

protecting her from or how to do it. I think it was the not knowing that was the worst. If I’d just known what was going on and what we were dealing with, then I could have handled it. I could have done whatever I needed to for us. But not knowing, there wasn’t really any way to prepare. All I could do was try to keep Christy happy and content. Just keep her mind off things and hope that the situation would soon pass.
    But it didn’t pass.
    We were crunching away on our breakfast when somebody knocked on the door. The rapping soundwas very loud, and we both jumped a little. I spilled a few Cheerios on the couch.
    “Stay here,” I told her, and set my bowl on the coffee table.
    Christy frowned. Her eyebrows knitted together the way they did when she was scared or nervous. I paused, reached out with my finger and brushed a piece of cereal from the corner of her mouth. That made her smile.
    The knock came again as I crossed the room. It was more insistent this time. I heard a muffled voice calling my name. Whoever it was, they sounded excited. I peeked through the peephole and saw Russ’s magnified face staring back at me. I opened the door.
    His face was red. “Oh, thank Christ you’re home. You guys been outside yet?”
    “Yeah, I went out earlier.” I opened the door the rest of the way. “Come on in, man.”
    “Thanks.”
    Russ looked like something the cat had mauled, eaten, spit up, eaten again, crapped out, and then dragged in. His thinning hair was sticking up in wild, greasy corkscrews, and his eyes were bleary and blood-shot. Salt-and-pepper stubble covered his cheeks. His jeans were dirty, and there was a big yellow mustard stain on his white T-shirt. His shoes were untied. Worst of all was the smell coming out his pores—stale sweat and alcohol. Even though I tried to hide it, he must have noticed my reaction because he apologized right away.
    “Sorry. I tied one on last night and overslept. I know I probably look like shit. Woke up with one hell of a hangover. How’s your plumbing? I wanted to take a shower, but mine’s not working.”
    “Nothing is working,” I said. “All the utilities are out.”
    “Shit. I figured that might be it. Was hoping maybeI was wrong, though. I noticed the phone was out when I tried to call off work. And then…well, I guess you looked outside too, right?”
    “Yeah.” I nodded. “We saw it. Christy’s pretty freaked out. To be honest, I’m getting that way myself. At first I thought maybe it was an eclipse or something. Now I don’t know what the hell is going on.”
    “It’s not an eclipse,” Russ confirmed, “or any other astronomical event that I can think of. There are a few things that would account for something like this, but I’d know if they were supposed to be occurring—and they’re not. So unless the sun suddenly burned out…” Smiling, he shrugged. “Well, if that happened, we wouldn’t be standing here talking about it, would we? My point is, we have to look somewhere other than the sky for the answer.”
    “We can’t see the sky anyway.”
    “No, I guess we can’t.”
    “Well,” I said, “have a seat. I’d offer you some coffee, but all we have is that instant crap. There’s cereal if you want some.”
    “That’s okay. What I need is some hair of the dog.”
    I grinned. “What were you drinking last night?”
    “Cheap tequila.”
    “We’ve got that, too. And a little bit of bud.”
    “Budweiser?”
    “No, weed.”
    Russ nodded. “Maybe in a bit.”
    He joined Christy and me in the living room, and we filled him in on what we’d learned. Russ asked if we had any aspirin, and Christy gave him two. He swallowed them dry, grimacing as they slid down his throat. After a while, we tried the radio again, but there were still no broadcasts. The commotion down on the streethad lessened somewhat, as people either returned to their homes or got the hell out of Dodge. The candles on the coffee table sputtered as the flames