Phantasos Read Online Free PDF Page A

we sent someone out to service your machine for calibration, before it was installed, yes?”
    “Sure,” Todd said. “His name, I think, was Mr. Varghese?”
    “Of course, Mr. Varghese. And once more, on a scale of one through ten, how would you rate your satisfaction with Mr. Varghese’s visit?”
    “Nine outta ten.”
    “Oh, we’re so pleased to hear that, Mr. Prower. Really pleased. Now, if you don’t mind me asking, you mentioned that your shop has closed for the evening. Do you have the income totals for the Phantasos machine present?”
    “No, but I don’t need them. The machine made a lousy dollar all night. My dollar, mind you. That was it.”
    “We’re so sorry to hear that, Mr. Prower. Of course, per our agreement with you, we will pay for the use of your floor space no matter how well or how poorly Phantasos earns revenue in your arcade.”
    “Sure, of course,” Todd said. “Sounds great. Anything else?”
    “Just one last question, Mr. Prower, if you’d be so kind. Have you ever thought of jumping in front of a speeding train?”
    Todd shuddered, felt a ringing in his ears, felt his hands go limp. He nearly dropped the phone. “What the fuck did you just say?”
    “I’m sorry, is it a bad connection?” A pop of static hissed on the line. “What I said, was, have you ever thought of jumping in front of a speeding train? ”
    “The hell is this, some kind of sick joke? Who is this? Who are you?”
    “Do you ever think of Shelly Mr. Prower do you ever think of jumping in front of a speeding train have you ever found yourself thinking of what you might look like jumping in front of a speeding train or have you ever thought of how it would feel standing on the tracks and down the line comes a speeding train—”
    “Who is this you sick, son of a bitch? You’re a terrible human being! I’ll trace this call, you sick fu—”
    “Do you ever wonder how you’ve failed Shelly and do you ever wonder how you’d feel lying on the tracks as a speeding train—”
    “I’ll kill you, do you hear me?” Todd screamed. His face was hot with anger. Sweat was forming on his forehead, underneath his bangs. “I’ll find out who you are, and I’ll kill you where you stand. I’ll tear your throat out, do you understand me?”
    “And do you ever think of how you’d look just lying on the tracks and—”
    Todd screamed, an agonizing howl, he screamed and he hollered before the tears could hit the corners of his eyes, and he tore the phone off of the wall—he tore it, plaster falling, wires snapping—he tore it from the wall and with an impossible strength he threw it into the floor of the office, and it shattered into a million pieces.
    At the speed of light Danny came running into the office. He found his business partner kneeling on the floor in a pile of splintered plastic and said, “Holy shit! What’s going on in here? Are you all right?”
    Todd was sobbing in big, wheezy sobs. Tears the size of marbles streamed down his cheeks and he said, “It’s just someone with a sick sense of humor. Just an awful person. An awful, awful person.”
    Danny didn’t know what to do, so he knelt beside his friend, his partner, his boss—he knelt beside him and he wrapped an arm around his neck. He had never seen him so upset.
    “Let’s get out of here. We’ll lock up now, I need a drink.”
    “I haven’t finished sweeping out the front,” Danny said.
    “To hell with the front,” Todd said. “We’re leaving now.”
     
     
     
     
     

 
     
    Six
     
     
    IT WAS NEARLY MIDNIGHT. LAUREN HAD fallen asleep in her lawn chair and Benji was close to drifting off, too. When all the notebooks of the past year had been set ablaze, the trio turned to grilling hotdogs on sticks. When the hotdogs were gone, they switched to making s’mores. As midnight crept close, eyelids grew heavy; Lauren was the first to crash, a smear of Hershey’s chocolate dried to the corner of her lips. Benji would be next,