Read Online Black Friday by William W. Johnstone - Free Book Online Page B

around. Maybe some of his old friends would show up. They’d all spent a lot of time at the mall when they were kids, and some things hadn’t changed. A lot of people his age seemed to be trying to hang on to their high school days, even though they’d been out of school for years.
    Aaron hadn’t finished his education. He’d been behind bars when the rest of his class graduated and hadn’t even gone for a General Education Development test. For a while, after he’d gotten out of jail, his mother had been after him to get his diploma, but he guessed she’d given up, because she hadn’t said anything about a GED for a while now.
    His mother was sitting by herself at the old Formica-topped table in the kitchen, with a cup of coffee in front of her. Aaron knew his dad had gone to work already. The old man would be nursing a hangover from all the beers he’d put away the night before, but at least he’d been drunk enough that he spent the evening in a half-stupor from which he hadn’t roused. Be grateful for small favors, as Aaron’s mom always said.
    The old man drove a bus. How he hadn’t had a wreck and gotten himself fired or thrown in prison, Aaron didn’t know.
    Aaron liked the idea of his father being in prison, though. Try being such a big jerk there and he’d find out real quick what a pathetic joke he really was.
    â€œThere’s coffee,” his mother said as Aaron sat down at the table. “You want some?”
    â€œI’ll get a cup in a minute,” he told her. He had a sour taste in his mouth, and his stomach was sort of jumping around. He wasn’t ready to put anything inside it yet.
    â€œI can fix you something to eat.”
    He shook his head and said, “No, I’m not hungry.”
    â€œWhat are you going to do today?”
    Man, she was just full of questions. He felt like telling her that his plans were none of her damn business, but he suppressed the impulse. He was living in her house, after all, and other than letting the old man get away with all the crap he’d gotten away with over the years, she’d tried to do a decent job of raising him and his sister, he supposed.
    â€œI dunno,” he finally said. “I thought maybe I’d go out to the mall.”
    â€œReally? There’ll be a big crowd there today. I thought you didn’t like crowds.”
    Normally, he didn’t. He didn’t explain that he wanted a bunch of people around so he’d be less likely to see and hear things that weren’t there. He hadn’t ever told her about that. He hadn’t told anybody .
    Life was crappy enough without people thinking he was going crazy.
    â€œI need to pick up a few things,” he lied.
    His mother leaned forward and said, “You know what you need to do? You need to take Jennie with you.”
    Aaron sat back and frowned in surprise as he said, “What? Take Jennie?”
    â€œI’m sure she’d enjoy it. And it’s been a long time since the two of you did anything together. When the two of you were little, you used to play together all the time, even though there was more than four years difference in your ages. I never saw a brother and sister who got along as well as you did.”
    That was because Jennie was the only real ally he had in this house, and he was hers, he thought. What was that old saying? The enemy of my enemy is my friend; that was it. The old man was definitely the enemy of everybody else in the family.
    But as he and Jennie got older, they weren’t as close. That had been inevitable, he supposed. They each had their own interests. His had been drugs, sex, hanging out with his friends, and getting whatever he wanted without having to work for it, which had led inevitably to crime.
    Jennie, on the other hand, loved school and wanted to excel at everything she attempted. Aaron couldn’t imagine caring that much about anything.
    They