Life on the Preservation, US Edition Read Online Free PDF Page A

is.”
    Tortured, yeah – and a flat-out lie, of the sort Ian was accustomed to spinning. Sometimes his mouth just ran, and it all seemed to hang together. The truth was he didn’t want to break up with Sarah. He just couldn’t tolerate the intimacy so he had to break up with her. Had to and couldn’t. If he were saying this out loud, Ian wondered, would it be the truth? Or was the truth something that lurked outside of his thinking mind altogether?
    “What hallucinations are you talking about, anyway?” Zach said.
    Ian hesitated then explained about the rain on his Indian and the rest of it, the trick of the taut and slack mind. It seemed to make sense while he was saying it.
    “Shut up,” Zach said. “Are you fucking serious?”
    The bus turned on Third Avenue and made a stop. Several people got off, including the Boogeyman. They paced him in the VW until Zach cut into a parking spot, even though it was yellow-striped for thirty minute load-unload. The Boogeyman continued on his way down the hill to Second Avenue, seemingly oblivious of them, as they continued the pursuit on foot.
    “This is ridiculous,” Ian said. “Let’s grab breakfast.”
    “After we see where our boy is headed. Holy shit! ”
    A giant had appeared on the sidewalk right in front of the Boogeyman. The giant must have been over eight feet tall. He wore a long tan raincoat-looking thing. He was bald, his eyes deep-set under ridges of bone. The Boogeyman halted, made a very fast sideways movement – and the sidewalk, impossibly, was empty.
    “What the fuck,” Ian said.
    “There,” Zach said, pointing. The giant was a block away. Passersby stopped and stared openly at him until he turned down an alley and disappeared.
    “What happened?” Ian said.
    “You tell me.”
    “I asked you first.”
    “This is messed up. Like somebody just edited thirty seconds out of the fucking world.”
    Ian noticed the Boogeyman. He was standing in front of a pawn shop window. Had he been there a second ago? “There’s your guy.”
    The Boogeyman started walking, as if he’d been waiting for them to notice him. They followed him several blocks. The neighborhood drifted into seediness. Finally the Boogeyman stopped at a vacant structure. The unlit Vegas-style sign said: XXX GIRLZ. Graffiti tags claimed the walls, aggressive tangles of black paint – gang stuff. An empty wine bottle and some paper trash littered the sidewalk. The Boogeyman touched the door and it opened. Ian didn’t see him use a key or even turn a handle. In fact, it almost seemed as though the door dissolved into a black rectangle. The Boogeyman entered and the door was there again. A breeze hustled a Burger King bag into the recessed doorway and back out.
    “You see that? ” Zach said. “What’s up with the door?”
    “I don’t know. It’s just shadows, or something.”
    “Right. I don’t think so. And there is no normal reason for anybody to go into that shit pile strip joint.”
    “How do you know there isn’t a reason? Maybe he owns it.”
    They stood across the street. The block was a kind of no-man’s land between two tourist focal points, the International District and Pioneer Square. But this street was deserted, not even a wino. Despite the sun, the breeze was cold. “Come on,” Ian said. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
    “I want to see what’s in that building.”
    “Just forget it, okay?” Ian looked around the deserted street. He shoved his hands in his pockets and hunched his shoulders. But it was more than the cold that made him uncomfortable. He felt an unpleasant tingling, almost like a mild electric charge passing under his skin.
    “Do you feel something?” Zach said.
    “No.”
    “Are you lying? You’re lying.”
    “Look,” Ian said. “I don’t want to go near that place, okay?”
    “Me neither. But the question is: Why don’t we want to? Other than the general creep factor.”
    “General creep factor is good enough for me.” Ian