Man Made Boy Read Free

okay.”
    When I got back to the lobby, I headed straight for Ruthven’s office. It was a small room, empty except for a single desk, chair, and light. He looked up from some paperwork when I knocked on the open door. “My dad said yes!” I felt a twinge of guilt, but it was drowned out almost immediately by the idea that in a few moments, I would be going outside and meeting real humans.
    Ruthven stood up and the swirling shadows around him solidified into a trench coat. The rumor in the company was that Ruthven didn’t actually wear clothes, only shadows.
    He inspected his coat for a moment, then nodded. “Let’s get going, then.”
    I smiled, trying to act like my nerves weren’t revving up into overdrive. I pulled up the deep hood on my dark gray sweatshirt, and that made me feel a little better. Then I followed him back into the lobby.
    “Well!” Charon called from his box office window. “Don’t you two look like a perfect picture of normality?”
    “I’ll thank you to be a little more encouraging, Ferryman.” Ruthven put his long, pale hand on the door handle. He stared at the dark wood for a moment, as if that was as far as he planned to go. Finally, he said, “Once more unto the breach. Come along, Boy.”

2

Snakes, Snails, and Puppy Dog Tails
    IT WAS BRIGHT outside. At first, that was all I could take in. I’d watched so many movies and TV shows, and asked all my online buddies a million questions that probably sounded insane to them. But none of it had prepared me for the physical sensations that surrounded me: the wind, the noise, the smells…and humans
everywhere
. I must have stood there on the sidewalk blinking like a complete tool for a full minute before Ruthven tapped me on the shoulder.
    “Stay close and try not to make eye contact.” Then he plunged into the swirling mass of humans that flowed in either direction on the sidewalk.
    Humans seemed so fragile up close. As I followed behind Ruthven, I had this weird impulse to reach out and touch one.
    Another thing I wasn’t prepared for was the sky. It just kept going up and up, endlessly. It made me so dizzy that I couldn’t look at it for long. And it was a cloudy day. I couldn’t imagine what it felt like to have a real blue sky above you.
    None of it seemed to bother Ruthven. He just walked forward, eyes straight ahead, like he was daring someone to get in his way. And nobody did. Even outside the theater, people did what Ruthven told them to do. Of course, Ruthven had spent alot of time out among the humans, both before and after he started the company. He was older than most of us. Not as old as Charon, but pretty old.
    “Where are we going first?” I asked.
    “The thrift store.”
    “Why don’t we go to a regular clothing store? Maybe Old Navy or the Gap?” There were a lot of Old Navy and Gap commercials on TV. They seemed like amazing places. All those beautiful salespeople going around modeling the latest fashions. I wondered if they danced all the time or just at certain times of the day.
    “Two reasons,” said Ruthven. “First, the company can’t afford it. And second, we’re shopping for the trowe, and they’d just distress the new clothes as soon as they got them, so we might as well save them the trouble and buy the clothing used.”
    “The trowe?” I asked, trying to make it sound casual. “Are we getting anything for Liel?”
    Ruthven smiled faintly. “Would you like to pick something out for her?”
    “Oh…well…I mean, it’s just that I know what she likes.”
    “Certainly. It’s a marvelous idea.”
    “I mean…Would she think that was creepy? If I picked something out for her?”
    “I think as long as it was tasteful,” he said.
    “Maybe we don’t even have to say that I picked it out.”
    “If you prefer.”
    As we walked, I tried to think about what to get her. I wasn’t exactly sure what would be “tasteful” to someone who typically just wore tank tops and jeans. And it was hard to