Live it Again Read Online Free PDF Page B

paperback novels she was placing in a metal rack spinner. She
raised her eyebrows at him disapprovingly.
    “You got rid of that thing so long ago,” he
said. “You know…the dinger.” She turned back to her books. Hugh stepped up onto
the antique weigh scale next to the door. His dad once said that for a single
penny you could see how overweight you were in front of everybody. No one over
the age of twelve ever used the thing. “Bob Richard’s dad put this thing on eBay
and got twelve hundred bucks for it.” He looked back at Mrs. McDonald. She was
ignoring him completely now.
    She just thinks I’m a crazy kid.
    He wondered if she’d pay more attention if
he told her everyone in Braedon knew she was having an affair with Mr. Nelson. Maybe
he should warn her that her husband would be murdered by the grocery store
owner in a few years…at least that’s what the rumor had been. It was never
proven he’d actually pushed him off the two hundred foot bridge west of town,
but everyone believed it to be fact.
    Hugh stepped around her and went down to
the far end of the store. Along the back wall was what he’d come to see.
    Row after row of brand new comic books.
    There were dozens of titles, multiple
copies of each stacked neatly side by side.
    He reached out with a shaky hand and saw
potato chip grease on his fingers. He wiped it clean on his shirt before
picking up the latest issue of World’s Finest. The bright, glossy cover showed
Superman flying in to rescue Batman from a pack of vampire children. The banner
at the top read ‘100 Pages for Only 60¢’. Those triple-sized editions were the
reason he’d started collecting so long ago. There were three more copies of the
same book behind that one. Hugh scooped them all up and greedily began to scan
the other titles. He recognized each and every one. Some he still owned (had
owned), most had been sold or traded off in the eighties and nineties, and none of them were as pristinely mint as the ones along this wall.
    He grabbed every Spider-Man, Justice
League of America, House of Mystery , and Fantastic Four comic he
could see. His heart pounded when he discovered more titles underneath those. Metal
Men, Swamp Thing, The Brave and the Bold … he snatched them all up. Most were
standard thirty-six page size with twenty cent covers, but there were a few
more hundred page books too. His left arm began to ache under the weight. How
many did he have? Fifty? A hundred? It didn’t matter; he kept piling on issues
of Detective Comics, Incredible Hulk, Superboy , and Avengers until he had to balance the stack under the end of his chin.
    They’ll be worth a fortune someday.
    He estimated the armload could fetch him an
easy ten thousand. Not today, but sometime in the future he would cash in big. All
he had to do was keep them in this condition until that day came. He went over
the collector’s check-list in his mind: keep them out of the light-- keep them
away from humidity and heat--and last, but certainly not least, keep them out
of the dirty hands of all his little friends. Hugh was so excited and happy he
thought he might shit his pants as he plopped the impressive pile down on the
counter.
    Mrs. McDonald met him there and shook her
head. “I don’t know what you’re doing here at this time of day, but I do know
for a fact you don’t have enough money for all those.”
    Hugh wanted to choke her more than he did Nelson.
“Can I charge it until tomorrow?”
    She stared at him as if he’d lost his mind.
“Are you trying to be funny? Put those back this instant, and get back to
school before I call your parents.”
    “Do that and maybe I’ll tell your husband
about--,” he stopped and looked guiltily down at the stack of comics. What was
wrong with him? The books could wait, but his attitude needed an immediate
adjustment. “I-I’m sorry. Can you put them back for me? I have to get back to
class.”
    Mrs. McDonald had gone white. Hugh guessed
she knew exactly