Golden States Read Free Page A

dredging coffins up out of the ground and floating them down the street like boats. David pretended to believe him, because it was easier than arguing.
    They reached the Plaza, which stood like an island city in the middle of its own flooded parking lot. It was buttressed at either end by a Sears and a Penney’s, twin buildings of salmon-colored brick, and between them were arcaded walkways lined with lesser stores. David and Billy crossed the parking lot and walked into the arcade, shoulders loose, hands sunk deep in their pockets. David tossed his head to flick the hair out of his eyes, an involuntary gesture he feared might be girlish. He tried to imagine Billy doing it, and couldn’t, though Billy’s hair was identical to his, a great swoop that extended from a high side part to the opposite ear. David’s was always coming untucked from behind his ear and hanging down over his face with an annoying, slothlike life of its own.
    The two of them walked the Plaza, checking it out. Things were quiet, mostly mothers out shopping with their kids. The rain had soaked everything. The wood slat benches were dark as maple syrup and the juniper bushes, planted in boxes full of cedar chips, looked drowned. The concrete was covered with the fat limp bodies of worms, some of them big as cigars. A little girl walked on tiptoe among them, screaming.
    “I say, bit of a quiet here, eh?” David said, then remembered Billy didn’t want to play Mystery anymore.
    “Yeah,” Billy said. He shouldered an imaginary rifle and shot the little girl, making soft hissing noises with his teeth, like candles being dropped into water. The little girl hopped and shrieked over the worms.
    “What do you want to do?” David asked in a deeper voice.
    “Kill our enemies,” Billy said. He kept the little girl in the sights of his rifle. “We can climb up on the roof of the Penney’s and get them in the parking lot.”
    “How would we get on the roof?”
    Billy shot the little girl again, and she sensed it. She stopped jumping around and stared at him. David could imagine what she saw, a miniature soldier standing in combat position, feet planted wide, invisible weapon raised. The little girl stared, not so much afraid as dumbfounded.
    “Let’s go goof on the people at the Rexall,” David said.
    “Okay,” Billy said. He shot the girl one more time. She watched him incredulously, her head cocked like a bird’s.
    David and Billy walked to the Rexall and went inside, passing through a stainless-steel turnstile which permitted entry but no exit. The Rexall was full of hard white light, its ceiling lined with luminous panels which gave out a constant faint electrical crackle.
    “See any suspicious characters lurking about?” David said, and bit his tongue. In the thin, rubber-scented air of the store he was suddenly aware of Billy’s particular smell, a mix of cut grass and gasoline.
    “Fuck me,” Billy said. “Suspicious characters everywhere.”
    “How about if we split up and meet halfway? You take the right side, I’ll take the left.”
    “Okay.”
    “Meet in the shampoo aisle in ten minutes with a full report.”
    Billy sneered and started off down his designated aisle. David went to the opposite end of the store. Dead, it was dead today. An old lady browsed the laxatives, which was funny but not good enough to follow up on. A woman in curlers hollered at her baby in a grousing, usual way. David strolled the aisles, looking for someone to be interested in.
    When he reached the fourth aisle, he saw a woman who had possibilities. She was thirty or so, with livid yellow hair that had probably been dyed. She wore a red coat, and stood with her weight on one hip, tapping her chin with a long red fingernail. She was looking over a shelf full of rat poisons. David kept on walking, and when he was down the aisle and out of the woman’s sight he hurried to find Billy.
    “Hey,” he said.
    “What’s going on?” Billy said. He stood in the