Wilderness Read Online Free PDF

grizzly head on the wall. “I don’t see much of them, to tell you the truth. You hear from Karen?”
    “Yeah,” Newman said. “She’s in Amsterdam. And next week she’s going to Paris.”
    “When’s she get back?”
    “September, just before school starts.”
    “How about Sandy?”
    “She’s in Cleveland, she’s dancing in a road company revival of
Carousel
. They’re supposed to be in Boston in November and she says she’ll be able to come home a couple of days.”
    Hood looked at Newman’s glass, saw it was empty, and nodded at the bartender. He brought a new bottle.
    “Your kids are doing good,” Hood said. “They’re going where they want to. They’re learning what they like. They’re not hung up on
supposed to
and all that shit. You and Janet have done a good job. Hope Kathy doesn’t fuck mine up.”
    Hood had a dark, thick moustache. His hair was curly and short with no gray in it. He wore blue-tinted aviator glasses.
    Newman drank half his beer at a swallow. “You killed people in Korea, right?”
    Hood nodded. “Sure,” he said. “We were supposed to. Didn’t you?”
    Newman shook his head. “No. I don’t think so. There were some skirmishes and stuff, but I don’t think I ever shot anyone.”
    “Just like hunting,” Hood said. “Nothing personal. You get in a fire fight and it’s kind of fun. It’s exciting. Unless you get killed.”
    Newman drank the rest of his beer. The bartender brought another.
    “Ever kill anyone except in Korea?”
    Hood raised his eyebrows. “Nice question,” he said. “If I had would I admit it?”
    Newman said, “No, I guess you wouldn’t. Do you think you could?”
    “Kill someone, sure. If I had a reason. You got someone in mind? I get through here at three.”
    Two women came into the bar. One wore white pants and a blue-striped halter top that showed a lot of cleavage. The other had on a denim jumpsuit with rhinestone trim and a pair of sling-strap high heels. The cuffs of her pants were rolled up in a six-inch-wide turn. They sat in a booth behind Newman and Hood and looked for a long time at Hood.
    “They’re both looking at you, Chris,” Newman said. “Must have seen my wedding ring.”
    Hood turned and looked steadily at both women for perhaps a minute. Both of them reddened. One said, “What are you looking at?”
    Hood said, “I’m not sure,” politely and turned back toward the bar.
    The bartender brought Newman another beer and looked at Hood’s glass of half-drunk Perrier. Hood shook his head slightly and the bartender went away.
    “Three billion people in the world,” Newman said, “and I end up living next to a guy who looks like Robert Redford.”
    “He’s blond,” Hood said.
    “Oh yeah.”
    “You look like you’ve lost a little weight,” Hood said.
    “Oh yeah, maybe a few pounds. I’m fighting it all the time. You know what happened to me last night?”
    “You got laid?”
    “No.” Then he told Hood everything that had happened. He spoke softly, leaning toward Hood so that no one would hear him. And he spoke rapidly but with very little inflection. Hood listened and said nothing.
    “I’m out taking a pleasant little run for my weight and my health, you know. And now gangsters are threatening me and tying up my wife and I don’t know what the fuck to do. I mean,
Runner’s World
doesn’t cover this kind of thing.”
    “So that’s why you were asking me about killing people.”
    Janet Newman came in the front door wearing huge sunglasses with wire rims, and walked the length of the bar, slowly, as her eyes adjusted to the light. She had on a white gauze dress and black high heels and carried a black shoulder bag. Three men at the bar turned to watch her walk past. When she reached them she kissed Hood on the cheek and slid in beside Newman.
    “Not bad for an old broad,” Hood said.
    “Want something?” Newman said.
    “Perrier with a twist of whatever,” Janet said. Hood motioned to the