Flowers in a Dumpster

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Book: Flowers in a Dumpster Read Online Free PDF
Author: Mark Allan Gunnells
Tags: General Fiction
like a comet’s tail. She tripped near the bottom of the stairs. She almost fell down, but steadied herself with a well-placed hand on the banister. “Ready. Let’s get the hell out of here.”
    “Would you two mind telling me what’s going on?” Steve asked. “I mean, you two are crazier than shithouse rats, if you ask me.”
    Even in the bizarreness of the situation, Al couldn’t help but smile. One of the things he loved most about Steve was his ability to call a spade a spade in the bluntest of terms and to never take shit from anyone.
    In this instance, however, his directness was ignored. Linda and Fred, with Gracie in tow, pushed past the two men and headed for the door. They hesitated at the threshold, staring through the doorway, as if through a portal into another dimension. Finally, with great sighs, they bolted forward, through the door and onto the steps. Here they paused again, their faces slack with shock.
    Steve and Al started to follow, but they stopped when Linda and Fred burst into hysterical laughter. Loud, high-pitched guffaws that shook their bodies and caused them to lean against each other for support. Tears mixed in with the laughter, and Gracie clung to her father with the fierceness of someone clinging to a life preserver.
    “They are crazy,” Al said. “Not weird, not eccentric. These people are certifiably insane.”
    Linda turned her head and considered the men through the open door, as if only now reminded of their presence. “I’m sorry. I wish it didn’t have to be like this, but it’s the only way.”
    “Come on,” Fred said, grabbing his wife by the arm and pulling her down the steps.
    “Wait a goddam minute,” Steve said and walked through the door.
    Or tried.
    When he reached the threshold, Steve stopped suddenly, cried out, and stumbled back. To Al, it looked like one of those comical scenes where someone walks into a glass door cleaned so thoroughly as to be invisible.
    “What in the name of Jesus,” Steve muttered, rubbing at his forehead.
    Outside, Linda pulled free of Fred’s hold and started back up the steps.
    “Linda, what the hell are you doing?” Fred asked. “Are you nuts?”
    Linda turned back to her husband. “It’s only fair. The folks before us explained things. They gave us some idea what was going on. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if we didn’t do the same for these guys. It’s the most we can do considering what we’re sentencing them to.”
    Fred said nothing for a moment, merely hugged Gracie to his chest and rocked on his feet. “Fine, but don’t go back in. Tell them from out here.”
    “I’m not an idiot.”
    “Are you sure about that?” Al said, standing close by Steve. “This whole situation seems pretty idiotic to me.”
    Linda stopped on the top step and said in a voice that was soft and full of sympathy, “I know this must all seem strange to you, and it’s about to get a hell of a lot stranger. I wish I could tell you what was really going on, but there is a limit to what we know.”
    “Lady, what kind of drugs are you taking?” Steve asked, walking back to the threshold but not attempting to cross it.
    “This house,” Linda said, ignoring Steve’s comment, “this is not our house. It does not belong to Fred and me. For the past two and a half years, it has been our prison.”
    Steve made as if to walk through the door again, but instead he shuffled back a few steps. It appeared as if he bounced back. “What the hell is this?”
    “Two and a half years ago, the three of us—Fred, Gracie, and I—were invited to a birthday party for one of Gracie’s friends from pre-school, held on this street. We got the address wrong, unfortunately, and we came to the door of this house instead of the house where the party was being held. An elderly man came to the door, and when we explained what had happened, he graciously invited us in to use his phone.
    “Once we were inside, he began running around frantically,
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