Deviant Read Free Page A

he’d gotten ten yards, two men in dark suits with earpieces and sunglasses appeared from the crowd and walked briskly to either side of him.
    â€œIs this your suitcase, sir?” one of the men asked.
    â€œNope,” Walt said with that smile of his that Danny hated so very much.
    The men drew semiautomatic pistols from shoulder holsters inside their jackets and pointed them at Walt.
    â€œWe’re informing you, sir, that you are under arrest for possession of illegal narcotics with intent to deal,” the second of the two men said.
    â€œI was just trying to take it to the United desk,” Walt said.
    Danny had the satisfaction of seeing Walt cuffed and taken to airport security, but it ceased to be funny half an hour later when they missed their plane.
    Danny may have stolen a Snickers bar, but Walt was the real idiot. He pulled stunts like this all the time. He was the real screwup, not him.
    When the cops questioned Danny about it, he said nothing.
    â€œTell them I was going to return the suitcase, Danny,” Walt begged, but Danny kept his mouth shut, refusing even to confirm that his name was Danny Lopez.
    They were taken to the security area.
    Time passed.
    Cops with mustaches.
    Lady cops with offers of soda.
    Phone calls: from Mom, from one of Walt’s Navy buddies who was now a lawyer someplace, finally from Mr. Glynn himself, of the famous Glynn Casino and Resort. Mr. Glynn explained to the cops that Walt’s wife, Juanita, was now a vice president in his organization and since Mr. Glynn was a hugely important man in Las Vegas, the police finally saw sense and chose to believe Walt’s story.
    Muttering “stupid hippie” to themselves, they let them go.
    Back in the terminal, Walt was seething. “Why didn’t you tell them I was trying to
prevent
a crime, Danny?”
    â€œBecause I didn’t want to.”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œI was exercising my constitutional right.”
    â€œYou have a real attitude problem.”
    â€œDo I?”
    â€œYou know, I was the one who didn’t want you to go to that school. I was the holdout. I wanted you to go to public school. I was on your side, but now I see that your mother was right. You need to learn obedience and respect …”
    On and on it went.
    Danny tuned it out.
    They boarded a midnight flight so empty that Jeff was allowed to fly in the cabin with them. Jeff was a brown and orange tabby with scar tissue over his left eye and achunk of fur missing on his left rear leg. He’d probably lived for two or three years in and around the Tropicana Wash until Danny had adopted him. He was a survivor. Six or seven hours in a cat carrier wasn’t enough to disturb his equanimity, and seeing Jeffrey’s coolness made Danny chill too.
    He closed his eyes and every second brought them closer to a new world over the Rocky Mountains to a new town, with new kids, a new house, a whole new blacktop to explore and skate. Just a little while longer and he’d be reunited with his mom and maybe things would be better.

Through the break in the clouds Venus rises pale and yellow in the evening sky. It means nothing to him. He knows the real color of things. He walks on the far side of the mirror. He walks in the captive land. This Earth is counterfeit. Filled with false fossils, bogus shale deposits, lies. That snow is a lie. These trees were electrons grown on the moon.
    His phone is ringing.
    The tone tells him it’s a text.
    He lets the text come.
    The path leads down into the forest.
    â€œLead me, wind,” he says. “Lead me, polestar.”
    He follows the trail through virgin snow. He walks to the cliff edge. He stops at the famous cliff-side View Point. He can see a hundred miles from up here.
    But he doesn’t look.
    He closes his eyes.
    He imagines himself standing at the end of the universe.
    All the worlds have gone, counterfeit or not.
    Even the machines are gone now. It’s