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My stoo pants and a Coroner’s Office shirt I yanked open the door of the little fridge to pull out a bottle of the coffee-drink stuff before reo Or was it three? Day would’ve been pretty nice right now Closing the fridge, I got down onfor the pill bottle wedged between the springs I pulled it out, pried the top off, snagged out thite, oblong pills The rest went back into the bottle and the bottle to its hiding place Coffee-drinks weren’t the only things that could give e, washed the pills down, and stuck the open beer back in the fridge It’d be flat when I got ho my shoes in my hand, I walked as silently as I could to the front door

"Where the fuck you sneakin’ off to at this hour?"

Shit I turned to seein the stained recliner, an open beer in his hand More empties were piled haphazardly beside the chair He was probably at the bar last night, got kicked out when they closed at four AM, then kept going when he got hoot called out to work, and I was trying to keep fro you up"

His mouth curled down into a scowl He was only in his late forties, but a couple of decades of booze combined with a ten-year-old back injury fro a lot older A scraggly beard tried to cover his sagging jowls, and his light brown eyes seelazed He had on the saed above his bony hips and under his slight pot belly No shirt Just pale, flabby chest and spindly arms

"Between your phone and the shower, no way to sleep around here"

"Yeah, well, sorry" I dropped my shoes on the floor and shovedto be quiet since I obviously suck at it" What the hell did he need to be rested and alert for anyway?

"That sicko job of yours paid you yet?" He peered at arette "Or you already spent it on pills?"

Crouching, I yanked ht "I haven’t been paid yet," I lied "Maybe later this week" I really didn’t want to get into it with hiive him half of any money I made to cover my "rent" and expenses, which was a load of bull because this stupid old house had been paid for over a decade ago, since it had actually belonged to his parents, and he got it when they died Plus, he got his disability check every month--also a load of bull--which covered utilities and food and stuff like that He only wanted et drunk

It was beside the point that I usually spent h It was ht?

"So, how et paid?" He asked, still watchingrampart of my probation" More lies Yesterday I’d been handed a check for my first week’s pay, and I’d about died when I saw the a I’d everhi

"Sounds fucked up topull on the beer and chased it with a drag on his cigarette Ash dribbled onto his hollowed chest, but he n on for this? Why can’t you keep a real fuckin’ job? Or is that the only place that’d take a pillhead?" He scowled "Only a freak would wanna touch dead bodies"

"Well I guess your daughter’s a freak," I shot back as I stood up "What does that make you, huh?" It wasn’t the first time he’d called me names "Freak" was pretty tame by his standards

I stalked away fro a curse as a couple of empty pickle jars tumbled out and rolled across the kitchen floor One of Mo out jars in case she ever wanted to make jelly or pickled who-the-hell-knehat I’d never seen her do anything of the sort, which meant we had a couple hundred empty jars stuffed under every cabinet in the daet around to throwing them all out Probably about the same time that I cleaned the rest of the kitchen Yeah, any day now

I’d eaten pizza last night, butas if I hadn’t eaten in days There wasn’t ed to find a packet of Pop-Tarts that didn’t look too old That would have to holdlate

My dadobnoxious under his breath as I headed to the door but Isucked into anyI started to cliht of an envelope stuck under the windshield wiper Frowning, I snagged it from beneath the wiper It was a si written on the outside I hesitated a few seconds as an unpleasant sense of foreboding shih me, then I ripped it open and unfolded the piece of paper within

Angel,

If you crave it, eat it Trust your instincts It’s cool

Good luck