DoubleDown V Read Free

mouth closed, like he was bored and humoring her.
    “Watch this,” he said.
    Karen no longer was blushing and actually felt curious about this stranger.
    Bobby walked over to a middle-aged man standing nearby.  Rolls of fat cascaded over his suit, and his back was covered with splotches of black hair.  He had been throwing a beach ball with a woman (probably his wife, Karen guessed, though why a pretty, slim woman like that would pair up with that ugly old fart was beyond her).  He’d just tossed the ball and it hovered in midair, inches from his outstretched fingertips.  He looked like he was grunting from the trivial exertion; he lived in heart-attack territory, and there was always a chance this could be his last trip to the beach.
    Bobby glanced back at Karen and held up his index finger.  Watch this.
    He grabbed the fat guy’s shoulder and pushed.  Jumbo didn’t seem to want to move for a moment, but when Bobby kept pushing, the body leaned to the left.  Bobby kept at it, helping the guy almost all the way to the ground.
    Jumbo stayed on his side, looking ridiculous with his outstretched fingers.
    “You can’t do that,” said Karen.
    But of course he could.  He just shrugged.  “I wish I could be here when time starts again.  His wife is going to think he’s collapsed, and he’ll find himself on the ground without any recollection of falling.  He’ll think he’s going nuts.”
    “That’s mean.”
    Bobby took a big bow and laughed.  “Gotta have a bit of fun.  Otherwise, life’s too boring.”
    “Have you done that before or were you just trying to impress me?”
    When he walked back to Karen, the smile was gone.  He stared at her, and for a second he looked as frozen as everyone around them.  Then the corners of his mouth raised a bit, but it wasn’t a happy smile.  It was a smile full of secrets and lies.  He leaned over and whispered in her ear, “You don’t want to know all the things I’ve done, sweetie.  At least not yet, you don’t.”
    He put one arm around her shoulder, holding her tightly.  He put his other hand on her breast and squeezed, hurting her.  She wanted to run, but she was scared and he was holding her too tightly.
    Then just as suddenly, he let her go and backed away.
    “See you around, sweetie.  Next time I see you, I’ll teach you how to fly.”
     
    *   *   *
     
    Karen wanted to run away when he released her, but he beat her to it and started racing south down the shoreline.
    She felt a bruise on her breast where he’d grabbed her, and she rubbed it softly.
    That’s when she felt the calling.  It started with her stomach lurching, like some interior elf was shaking it like a pair of dice.  The shaking stopped, but then Karen felt the calling again, much stronger now.  Her body wanted to move away from the beach, and without even having to think about it, she started walking home.  The calling had once been scary, when time first stopped for her, but now it was an old friend, reminding her that she had to rejoin the rest of her family, her friends, her community, hustling and bustling a million miles an hour, not being able to stop and appreciate any damned thing.
    She moved faster and faster as the calling pulled her home and sucked out anything close to free will.  It felt like an invisible magnet drawing her like a bent safety pin, back to where she belonged.
    Karen slipped into her kitchen chair (but first enjoyed her last few seconds of freedom by tossing half of her mashed potatoes and all of her carrots into the garbage).  Pressure was building inside her as the final moments approached.  She sucked in one last breath of freedom as she sat and grasped the knife and fork she’d left suspended above her plate.
    “—will just follow the damned idiots who never bother to vote but bitch about the result.”  Dad stabbed a piece of carrot with his fork.
    Karen nodded and looked down to her plate.  She took one last piece of ham and