The Extinct Read Online Free PDF Page A

twenty now he knew that that wasn’t the sole reason his father was always gone. Too much travel could turn one into a stranger at home, which is exactly what his father wanted.
    They didn’t talk much about his job as an investment banker but it was understood that it was miserable. A lot of hours in exchange for a lot of money. The type of job where one needs to trade joy for a fat paycheck. Though Eric enjoyed the fruits of his father’s job it was exactly the kind of career he wanted to stay away from.
    A black sedan pulled into the parking lot and circled around until it came to where Eric was seated. He stood up and wiped at any dirt that had clung to his shorts and walked to the passenger door. He hesitated when he saw that his mother wasn’t driving; it was his step-father, Jeff.
    Eric always suspected he’d married his mother because she had a decent paying job and didn’t mind if Jeff went months or even years without work. More than once Eric had caught him smoking pot in his mother’s house and even saw him at a restaurant with another woman.
“What’re you doing here?” Eric said as he climbed in and sat down.
“Your mom couldn’t drive today kid. She’s pretty fucked up right now so I want you to take it easy on her.”
“What’d ya mean fucked up? What happened?”
    Jeff glanced out the window at a group of passing girls and then pulled away from the curb, taking a quick look in his rearview before turning out of the parking lot and onto the main road. “Your father’s dead, Eric.”
    Eric’s heart felt like it slumped in his chest; his stomach churned, butterflies tingling his belly and causing nausea. He thought he would vomit.
    “He died in India kid. He was there on some safari or some shit.”
    Tears welled up in Eric’s eyes and his throat clinched but he fought them back and managed to look out the window, his reflection absently looking back at him. “How do you know? I mean, things can get reported wron—”
    “They’re bringing back his body tomorrow for burial. What’s left of it anyway.”
    Eric looked over at his step-father; his face was stern but there was a glimmer of pleasure in his eyes. He’d always felt inadequate compared to his father. Whenever they’d get in a fight Eric’s mother would say she wished she’d never got divorced from James. It would cut deep since Jeff knew it was true.
“How’d he die?” Eric said.
“You don’t want to know.”
“How Jeff?”
Jeff looked at him and then back out at the road. “He was killed by an animal.”
“What animal?”
“I don’t know. A fuckin’ lion or somethin’.” Jeff noticed his soccer uniform. “What’d you have a game today?”
“Yeah,” Eric said absently, not looking at him.
    “Look,” Jeff said, “he lived a crazy life your father. This type of thing was inevitable. The important thing now is that you take care of your mom. For whatever reason, she’s taking it pretty hard. And if she’s takin’ it hard it means she’s gonna annoy the fuck outta me.”
    Eric felt the urge to reach over and slap his face but instead he kept staring out the window, watching the passing strip malls and fast food restaurants and pool halls as they approached his mother’s house.
    It was a cold thing to say, and Jeff had said it out of spite, but there was some truth to it. His father lived like a man that wanted to die, though he always said he was afraid of it.
    They parked on the street in front of the house and Eric got out, choosing to walk across the lawn rather than share the sidewalk with Jeff. The lawn was thick and shaggy from months without being cut, patches of yellow beginning its takeover of the once green grass. Eric opened the front door; the inside of the house was much cleaner than the outside. Carpets freshly washed and furniture dusted, the smell of lemon polish hanging in the air.
    His mother was lying on the couch, the TV turned low. Eric sat down by her feet without saying a word and