Welcome to Fred (The Fred Books) Read Online Free PDF

Flushed me out, five by five?”
    “I just thought you might be hungry. At least, I remember you saying something like that.”
    The Creature grabbed the frayed hem of her cotton print dress and wrapped it tightly around her calves, bunching it up in her hand. Brown legs covered with black hair extended to the scarred brogans below.
    “The Mark was hungry.” She rocked forward and backward on the transmission. “In hunger and thirst,” she rasped in a throaty whisper, “in nakedness and dire poverty, ye will be a restless wanderer on the earth. But the Mark will foller ye.” She twisted the cloth in her hand and turned her head slowly toward me.
    “I was also powerful thirsty.” Her eyes followed mine to the empty gin bottle. “Fancy a drink?” I shook my head. “Got another dollar on yer?” I shook my head again. “Didn’t reckon yer did.” She turned her head back and rested her chin on her knees, keeping watch on me from the corner of her eye. We sat in silence for awhile.
    I finally got the courage to speak. “What’s your name?”
    The Creature didn’t move, or even blink, but I heard a small growl that seemed to echo from the walls enclosing us. It could have only come from her, since we were completely alone.
    “Lilith,” she hissed.
    “Thilly rabbit,” she lisped in falsetto. She jerked upright. “Thufferin’ thuckotash, the Mark follered me!” She looked at me suspiciously. “Yer tryin’ to make me?”
    “Make you what?”
    “Stand and deliver,” she boomed, jumping up and stomping in the red mud at her feet. “The Mark follered me. Which one are ye? Senoy? Where are yer friends?” She reached into the neckline of her dress and pulled out a chain with some kind of charm or pendant hanging from it. It looked like a cross, but the top was a loop. “Sansenoy, Semangelof, show yerselves!” Holding the charm toward the sky, she turned slowly around, looking at the roofs surrounding us. “Yer can’t touch the child. I have the Mark!”
    I looked around apprehensively. Who was she talking to?
    The Creature completed her circle, scowling at the sky. Then she dropped the chain back into her dress, shuffled to the cardboard box, and crawled in, wrapping the blanket around her and facing out so that I couldn’t see the purple splotch on her face. “Who are ye?” she whispered. “What do yer want?”
    “You know my name but I don’t know yours.”
    “Naamah,” she said, hoarsely. “Just call me Naamah.”
    “Naamah? What kind of name is that?”
    “The kind I hand out fer free. I make yer a present of everythin’ I said today.” She was silent for a few seconds. “What do yer want?”
    “I just wanted to find out about you.” I ignored the babble. “After all, I did give you a dollar. And some food,” I added, in an attempt to shame her into answering my questions.
    “And here I thought ye was doin’ yer Christian duty.”
    “Maybe I was. I can still get something for it, can’t I?”
    “Oh, no. Yer supposed to do it expectin’ nothin’ in return.” She cleared her throat, which induced a coughing fit that concluded in her spitting phlegm four feet in front of the box. In a deep, throaty voice she intoned, “Cast yer bread on the waters. Don’t let yer left hand know what yer right hand is about. Ye ask and receive not because yer ask amiss, fer yer own selfish lusts.”
    After this last utterance, she arranged the blanket low on her shoulders like a party shawl and tossed a suggestive leer my way. Her green eyes sparkled from beneath the shadow of her brow. I saw the ghost of a younger woman—attractive, carefree, a hint of playful innocence.
    Then she turned her face full toward me, and I caught sight of the purple splotch. The ghost was exorcised. Her eyes returned to the dull, leaden green I had seen earlier, and she glowered at me.
    “What do yer want, boy?” she demanded in a low, threatening growl.
    I glanced around nervously and looked back at her without