Grim Tuesday Read Online Free PDF Page A

Bob was asking the person on the phone. “They’ve always robbed us to start with. We’ve sold more than thirty million records, for heaven’s sake! It’s just not possible—”
    Arthur ducked back out. The Grotesques had given him an hour and a half before full repossession —whatever that was. But even these beginning attacks were very bad news for the family. They’d be living on the street, forced to get handouts…
    He had to stop them. If only he had more time to think…
    More time to think.
    That was the answer, Arthur thought. He could get more time by going into the House. He could spend a week there perhaps, and still come back to his own world only minutes after he left. He could ask the Will and Noon (who used to be Dusk) what to do. And Suzy…
    His thoughts were interrupted as Michaeli came charging down the stairs, holding the printout of ane-mail, her face stuck in a frown that had to come from more than lack of sleep.
    “Problem?” Arthur asked hesitantly.
    “They’ve canceled my course,” said Michaeli in a bewildered voice. “I just got an e-mail saying the whole faculty is being closed down and our building is being sold to pay the university’s debts! An e-mail! I thought it must be a hoax, but I called my professor and the front office and they both said it’s true! They could have written me a letter! Dad!”
    She ran into the studio. Arthur looked down at the envelope in his hand, hesitated for a moment, then slit it open along the seam. There was no separate letter inside—the writing was on the inside of the envelope. Arthur folded it out and quickly scanned the flowing copperplate, which was done in a hideous bile-green ink.
    As he’d half-expected, the contract was all one way and not in his favor. In a long-winded way, like all documents from the House, it said that he, Arthur, would relinquish the First Key and the Mastery of the Lower House to Grim Tuesday in recognition of the debts owed to Grim Tuesday for the provision of the goods listed in Annex A. There was nothing about leaving Arthur’s family alone after that, or anything else.
    There didn’t seem to be an Annex A either, but when Arthur finished reading what was on the opened-out envelope, it shimmered and a new page formed. Headed Annex A, it listed everything that the former Mister Monday or his minions had bought and not paid for, including:
     
Nine Gross (1,296) Standard Pattern Metal Commissionaires
    1 Doz. Bespoke Metal Sentinels, part-payment rec’d, 1/8 still owing plus interest
    Six Great Gross (10,368) One-Quart Silver Teapots
    2 Plentitudes (497,664) Second-Best Steel Nibs
    6 Gross (864) Elevator Door Rollers
    Two Great Gross (3,456) Elevator Leaning Bars, Bronze
    1 Lac (100,000) Elevator Propellant, Confined Safety Bottle
    129 Miles Notional Wire, Telephone Metaconnection
    1 Statue, Mister Monday, Gilt Bronze, Exquisite
    77 Statues, Mister Monday, Bronze, Ordinary
    10 Quintal (1000-weight), Bronze Metal Fish, Fireproof, semianimate
    1 Long Doz. (13) Umbrella Stands, Petrified Apatosaurus Foot
     
    The list kept going on and on, the page re-forming every time Arthur reached the end. Finally he lookedaway, refolded the envelope, and shoved it in the back pocket of his jeans
    Reading the letter hadn’t changed anything, except that his determination not to sign it was even stronger. He had to get to the House as fast as possible.
    He was about to leave immediately when he remembered the telephone in the red velvet box. It was possible the Will might be able to scrounge up enough money to call him again, so he’d better get that.
    Arthur walked up the stairs this time. He didn’t think he’d have a full-on asthma attack—he would have already had it if he was going to—but he’d gotten a persistent wheeze instead and couldn’t quite get enough breath.
    The red velvet box was where he’d left it, but when Arthur went to put the lid back on, he saw that it was empty. The phone had disappeared. Lying