The Hunt Chronicles: Volume 1 Read Free

room,
shaking my hand once more and telling me I was welcome to stay in his home as
long as I liked.  Cheryl excused herself shortly afterwards.  Richard
and I looked at each other and smiled.  “Is dinner this much fun every
night?”
    “No, only the nights
we try to be a family,” Richard replied, and we both chuckled.  I shifted
into Donald’s chair and leaned in towards Richard.
    “Does your father
still drink as much as he used to?”  I whispered.  Richard nodded.
    “Almost
as much as Donald, assuming he can lift the glass.   Even more since Mother passed.”  I nodded
and leaned back.
    “Did your father
actually give Donald money for the restaurant?”  Richard opened his mouth
to answer but he was stifled abruptly by a loud clearing of someone’s throat
coming from the kitchen.  We both turned to see Thomas glaring through the
serving window.  Then he turned to face Nona and they both left the
kitchen through its far door.
    “Thomas says family
business should stay in the family,” Richard whispered.  I leaned in
again; our noses almost touched.  A hint of an eerie smile formed at the
corners of his mouth.
    “If Thomas is so
smart,” I began, “then why hasn’t he figured out a way to pull that stick out
of his ass?”
    “We can’t all be
retired professors like you,” he whispered back with a smile.
    McCune Hall would be
very quiet for the next few minutes, with the exception of our occasional
guffaws and the sound of falling rain.
     
    Richard went on
ahead after we left the dining room, trudging up a long winding
staircase.  I had first planned on walking straight as well, passing the
staircase and down the long sterile hall to my room.  Fate, however, had
different plans for me that evening.  I did not move forward, but rather
backed up and veered left.  Apparently fate was urging me passed the
kitchen towards Wilson McCune’s study.  Fate clearly wanted me to eavesdrop
on a very loud conversation.
    At first it was
nothing but thunderous yells and a few thuds from a stomping foot.  Then,
as I passed the kitchen doorway and the rumble of the dishwasher, it started
coming in clear.  “Daddy, please !”  Cheryl begged.  I was
close enough to peer through the crack in the door.  I could see her fists
clenched in frustration.  She was obviously screaming at her father, whom
I couldn’t see at first, but who then came whizzing into my field of vision. 
He put on the brakes just inches away from his daughter’s legs.
    “Absolutely
not! I forbid you to even think
about cavorting with that man-no…that spying weasel !”
    “Daddy, don’t punish
Lewis and I for his father’s behavior.  It’s not fair.  Please, stop
this!”  Wilson’s eyes bulged out from his skull.
    “Fair?”  He
said manically, with his head cocked to one side and an eerie smirk on his
face.  “Do you call being cheated out of my own money fair?  I sure
as hell don’t!”  He said, now screaming again.  “A man cheats your
father, your family and you want to marry his son?  You’ve got a snowman’s
chance in hell of pulling thatoff, my dear!”
    “But Daddy-”
    “And one more
thing,” Wilson threw his chair into reverse.  He whizzed out of sight but
stopped off to the right, in front of his fireplace.  His shadow loomed
over his daughter and half the room in a kind of ghostly shroud.  I
watched and listened as the shadow of Wilson McCune lay down his decree. 
“If you bump into Lewis Norville on the street; if
you write him or call him or whisper his name in your sleep; if you so much as
glance in his general direction, you’re out and off!”  Cheryl drew her
hands to her face.  She looked terrified.  I didn’t blame her. 
Staring at her monstrous father in front of that roaring fire was something I’m
sure she’s still trying to forget to this day.  I would later go to bed
and thank God that I hadn’t seen it directly myself.
    “You
wouldn’t…”  Tears beaded