The Part Time People Read Online Free PDF Page B

even though maybe his application had been weird, and maybe he did seem strange at first. Gwen had to agree that David seemed more normal that day than any of the other part time people they had ever had. And Mike said, like I told you Joe, the kid's okay, and he's going to work out fine.
     
    When Mike said that, there was no question anymore. Joe’s mind was made up. Joe felt good, I finally made the right decision after all, he thought. He thought he might never have to hire another person again. Oh God, if only this keeps up, he thought, it would be so good.
     
    David had been fine all right, all the way till seven, just as chipper as a man could be. He'd even talked to Gwen a bit about himself. He said he was from Michigan, but he didn't remember it at all. He said he'd had a lot of jobs before, but none so good as this. He told Gwen all about the room he had, how quiet it was, how much he liked to be there. She didn't urge him on. In fact she didn't want to hear all that. She was relieved a bit to find that he was actually someone with a voice, a life, a past, but she was still too much aware of Martin, and the other part-timers.
     
    Things got bad when an old nut walked into the store. He was a usual, had been coming around for years. He just went up and down the block on a regular rotation, stopped in once a month or so to yell out, ‘Where's the light, has anybody seen the light?’ and then he'd laugh like he was going to burst before he went on to the next part of his act. Gwen even had a name for him. She called him Santa Claus, but David had never seen him before, and she had never seen someone react the way David did to poor old drunken Santa. First he turned all white. Then he froze, as if his limbs were locked in place. After Santa left, David never recovered. He stuttered whenever he began to talk, and soon he gave up talking all together.
     
    Gwen tried to cheer him up. “Oh, that's just old Santa Claus. He’s harmless, just a drunk, he comes in all the time, been coming around for years. Everybody knows him. Sometimes I even give him a buck or two.” But all her talk did nothing to change the dead expression on David’s face. He didn't say goodbye when it was time to leave. She watched him walk out like a corpse. Oh Christ, she thought, he is another one after all. Well, maybe there's a logical explanation. Maybe I'll get it out of him on Monday. She didn't want to have to worry about him now. Martin was still around. She had enough to deal with already.
     
    Later on, after she'd locked up and was about to leave, she made her mind up that she'd give him one more week. If he was weird again next Thursday, she would definitely do something about it. "God damn." she said, ”What is it with these part time people anyway?”
     

 
     
    CHAPTER FOUR
     
     
     
    David had only one day to recover after Thursday night. It was not enough time. He walked back to the hotel as fast as possible, intending to stay there until Saturday. But he'd forgotten, in his haste, to get prepared. He had no food to eat, no book to read, nothing to do. Thursday night that didn't seem like a problem, His nerves kept him going. I have to get myself together, he thought, that's the most important thing. He didn't know if the man Gwen called Santa Claus was a sign of trouble or not. It had happened before.
     
    Six months ago, at the liquor store, one of them came in to buy some rum. The bastard didn't have any money, so he told his awful jokes and hoped to make a friend of him. And if David was his friend, the guy must have thought, maybe he'd give him something off the shelf for free. David had just stood there, shaking the whole time, and listened to those stories the man told about the girls. The ones around the corner, how he was friends with them and if you needed any introduction well just ask that's all you have to do, and he went on to describe a few of them, what they liked, what they were good for, how much they