John Gone Read Online Free PDF Page A

then to his daughter. His
anger had grown to the point of quieting him. “Step away from her
and into the hallway.”
    “You don’t understand; this is a big
mistake.”
    “I said,” Adam repeated calmly, “step away
from her and into the hallway.”
    John stood frozen, looking at the man before
him. Adam’s face twisted and crunched, growing ever more impatient
and turbulent as the long seconds passed. It was a face that no
longer knew of restraint, if it ever had. John turned his own face
slightly and eyed the large window behind him. It wasn’t ideal, but
it was the only way down.
    Adam took two careful steps toward John,
placing his hand on the long, white wicker dresser to his side as
he walked. John’s eyes followed the motion of the man’s hand,
worried about what he might do with it.
    A thick, rounded snow globe sat a foot away
from Adam’s hand on the dresser. John locked his eyes to it and
heard Adam’s now-sandaled foot take another aggressive step
forward. John snuck his hand toward the globe, creeping his fingers
toward it from behind to camouflage the action. Adam took another
step, almost to him now.
    It was the small girl who broke the tension.
“Daddy, you’re naked!” she exclaimed.
    In a flash, John clutched the snow globe from
the dresser. Adam reached for his daughter with equal speed and
spun her deftly behind his body to safety. John covered his face,
closed his eyes, and threw the globe through the window behind him,
smashing the glass apart.
    Without looking back, John followed the snow
globe he’d thrown, jumping through the broken window after it to
the thick grass one story below. He landed sorely, but uninjured.
Adam was quick to the window frame.
    “Coward!”
    “Stop calling me that!” John yelled back.
“That was pretty awesome just now, actually. And listen, I didn’t
try anything with your wife, okay?”
    “Come back up here!”
    “No thanks,” John replied casually. He looked
around. He was standing in Adam’s front yard. It was one of many in
what appeared to be a large a suburban neighborhood. The street in
front of him ran in two directions, neither of which led somewhere
with which John was familiar. He decided to run right, figuring it
as good a direction as any.
    Two blocks away, he turned and looked behind
him. Adam was nowhere to be seen. I guess he didn’t want to run
outside naked, chasing down a teenaged boy , he thought.
    John took a moment to catch his breath. He
felt his jaw where Adam had hit him minutes earlier. It was
starting to swell, but the pain was subsiding. He spun his
messenger bag around to the front of his body and cleaned it of the
small pieces of broken glass lodged in its thin front flap.
    My phone , John thought suddenly. He
patted the sides of his pants and smiled in relief at the lump in
his right pocket.
    John opened his cell and frantically dialed
his home number. It rang seven times before switching over to the
answering machine.
    “You’ve reached the Popielarski residence.
Please leave a message.” John cringed when he heard his last name
play on the machine. He hated it. John hung up and dialed again.
“You’ve reached the Popielarski residence. Please leave a
message.”
    This time John waited for the beep. “Mom! Are
you there? Pick up the phone. I really, really need to talk to
you.” He waited for a few moments. “Mom, why don’t just have a cell
phone like normal people?” He heard a small click.
    “Because it’s too expensive just paying for
yours!” his mother suddenly responded. “What is it, John, and you’d
better be on fire. I’m missing my show.”
    “You want me to be on fire?”
    “Speak, speak!” she said. “I’ve got four
minutes of commercials, max.”
    “Okay, listen, and try not to freak out. I’m
in Tallahassee.”
    “ What? Try not to freak out? What are
you doing in Tallahassee? Virgil said you were only going to be
working on the island. I would have never allowed you to go all