A Penny Down the Well: A Short Story Collection of Horrifying Events Read Free

He wanted a life
with her, like the one he shared with her in those five years. He
wanted to know what changed in her.
    As Jared finished the
dishes and dried his hands, he stood over the sink and stared into
the empty basin. His shoved a hand into his pocket and pulled out
his wedding ring. Slowly he slipped it over the crest of his
finger, but he paused, feeling the pain start to kick in,
especially with how tightly the ring fit. He took a deep breath,
and as soon as he prepared to push the ring down onto his finger,
there was a knocking on the door that startled him. The ring that
was prepared to move back onto Jared’s finger slipped from him
entirely and first fell into the sink, then rolled, despite Jared’s
efforts to stop it, right down the drain.
    “ No! Damn it!” He
scrambled, trying to reach into the drain as much as he could, but
his hand was too large to fit. The knocking came again. Jared
pulled open the cabinets beneath the sink and stared at the pipes.
The trap, he thought, would have stopped it. He’d just have to find
a way to get it out. The knocking came again. “I’m coming!” He
yelled, frustrated. Jared rose from the open cabinets and stepped
to the door.
    Jared opened the door to
the fat, sweaty building manager. He seemed impatient and prepared
to knock again as the door opened.
    Jared answered with an
irritated, “Yes?”
    “ Ah, Jared. Hey! How’re
you? How are you liking the new place, huh?” The manager began with
small talk, peering a bit over Jared’s shoulder to see the new
paint. “Painted the place, huh? Looks better. Well, that’ll make my
job a little easier.”
    “ I’m fine.” Jared wasn’t
fine. He could hardly pay attention to the building manager. He
thought about his wedding ring sitting in the old, murky trap of
the sink pipes, and he considered the irony of it all. “What job?”
He assumed the visit concerned the maintenance visit or the damaged
walls.
    “ Well, seems to be some
apartments in the building that have, you know, some problems.” He
paused and scratched his hairy neck.
    Jared grimaced as the
manager’s Vienna sausage fingers slid through damp, curly hair.
“Problems?” Jared looked back over the apartment. He thought there
were plenty of problems. “Like?”
    “ Well, Jared—“ still
delaying, “—You know these damn Chinese bastards, always sending
out things with things in them that shouldn’t be and so.” The
manager said without saying much.
    Jared stepped in. “Tell me
what’s wrong with the place. I don’t have time for this right now.”
More assertively.
    “ Alright, kid, calm it
down. There’s some apartments that have lead-based paint in them.
Some cocky inspector came through and found some of it. So, we’re
gonna have to do some work to stay in ‘code.’” It’s gonna be a
hassle, but since you painted the place, I think we can wait a
while before we get into this one.” The manager said, as if the
paint rid the place of poison.
    “ Lead-based paint?
Seriously?” Jared said in disbelief. He asked immediately, “I heard
there were some maintenance people in my apartment the other day.”
Jared kept quiet about the unexpected maintenance visit. “Did they
do anything? Tear away paint from the base of the wall?”
    “ What? No. All I heard was
that they walked in, saw the place freshly painted and walked out.”
The manager said.
    “ They didn’t do anything
at all?” Jared didn’t believe him.
    The manager shook his
head. “Jared, we wouldn’t do anything to damage any of your stuff.
We’re respectable people, we like to take care of our community.
They’re like our family, you know?” The manager gave Jared a smile
seemed fake.
    Jared rolled his eyes.
“Whatever. I have to get back to business.” He stepped back from
the door.
    “ Listen, Jared, twenty
dollars off this month’s rent, for all of your trouble.” The smile
widened on the manager’s face.
    Jared stared at the man in
his doorway and