What Follows After: A Novel Read Online Free PDF Page B

get him into all kinds of trouble, but he decided it was worth it.
    Somebody had to do something.
    He reached for his glass of water and took the last swig. Timmy’s glass was almost full. He was just about to tell him to start drinking but then changed his mind. They were gonna be back on that bus in five minutes. He didn’t want Timmy to drink all that water then have to go to the bathroom ten minutes down the road.
    Speaking of going to the bathroom . . . He slid to the edge of his seat. “Hey, Timmy, I’ve gotta go. Do you?”
    Timmy shook his head no. Something caught his eye out the window, and he turned to look. “Colt, Army trucks, look at ’em all.” His face lit up as he pointed. “See ’em?”
    “I see ’em.” They weren’t the only ones looking. Everyone stopped whatever they were doing, including the waitresses, andstared out the window. Then something even crazier happened. A train rolled down the tracks across the street. It was pulling tanks, big green Army tanks, on flatbed trailer cars, one right after the other.
    “Would you look at that?” a middle-aged man in the next booth said as he stood to his feet, eyes fixed on the scene.
    A man wearing a baseball cap at the counter nearby stood and said, “I’m telling ya something big’s going on. Something they aren’t telling us. And I bet it’s got something to do with Cuba. I’ve been reading rumblings about Cuba in the papers. I was a marine in World War II. All these troops and military vehicles heading south, there’s way more than they need for some war game operation. I’m telling ya.”
    Another man spoke up. “Says here in the paper, they moved a whole fighter wing down to Key West.”
    “See,” the baseball cap man said. “And what’s close to Key West? Cuba! I’m telling ya, somethin’s goin’ on.”
    Another man, older, in a bright plaid shirt said, “I just heard on my transistor radio here, President Kennedy wants to speak to the entire nation tonight. He’s coming on at 7:00 p.m. on all three networks.” He looked back out the window at the tanks still rolling down the railroad tracks.
    Timmy was now on his knees, totally fixated on the scene. Colt wanted to stay there and keep watching, but he really had to go. “Timmy, you gotta come with me.”
    “Aww, Colt, can’t I stay and watch this? I’ve never seen real-life tanks before.” He was still staring out the window.
    “I can’t just leave you here.”
    “Please, Colt. You’re just going to the bathroom.”
    He couldn’t see any harm in it. “Okay, you stay there till I get back. I’ll just be a minute.”
    Timmy didn’t answer. Colt hurried toward the back where the restrooms were. He glanced toward their table once before heading into the men’s room. Timmy and everyone else were still staring at the trucks and tanks going by.
    In the bathroom he thought about what that man had said, the one wearing the baseball cap. About something big going on, something they weren’t telling us. He figured by “they” he meant the Army, or else the government. Colt wondered if America was going to war. He sure didn’t want to be out there on the road riding a bus if war was about to break out and wished there was some way to be at Uncle Mike’s house right now.
    He came out of the restroom a few minutes later.
    What? Where was Timmy! Colt ran back to the table, calling his name. No one even looked at him. They just stood there watching the tanks and trucks roll by. On a radio in the corner, the Beach Boys sang the chorus of “Surfin’ Safari” over and over again.
    His brother Timmy was nowhere in sight.

8

    “Timmy,” he called out. “Timmy!”
    He looked under their table, thinking maybe his comic book had fallen to the floor. But he wasn’t there. The Hulk comic book was still on the seat. But the Spiderman comic book was gone. “Has anyone seen my little brother? Anyone see where he went?”
    No one answered. They all just sat there,