Free The Cranky Dead by A. Lee Martinez Page A

if Clark was bound to the location, or just had no reason to leave. The 'Dome, for better or worse, was Clark's heaven. If there was a real heaven somewhere out there that didn't get the latest issue of Justice League, then Clark just wasn't interested in it.
     
     
"Want to play something?" asked Clark.
     
     
"Not tonight. I've got something I have to do."
     
     
"What?"
     
     
"Nothing."
     
     
"What?"
     
     
"Nothing. Why don't you do some stuff online? I bought that computer for you, didn't I?"
     
     
"You ever try typing with immaterial fingers? It's tiring."
     
     
"You're dead. You shouldn't get tired anymore."
     
     
"Yeah, and I shouldn't have asthma. But I do." Clark took another puff on his inhaler. "Plus the connection sucks. I hate dial up. What do you have to do that's so important?"
     
     
Kerchack sighed. He really didn't want to say, but it was just easier.
     
     
"I've got a date."
     
     
Clark's eyes went wide. "A date? Like with a girl?"
     
     
"Yeah."
     
     
"Who?"
     
     
Kerchack almost lied and said it was no one Clark would know, but everyone knew everyone in Rockwood, even if only by reputation.
     
     
"Denise."
     
     
"Denise? You aren't talking about Denise Calhoun, are you?" Clark leered and imitated cupping a pair of imaginary breasts in his hands. Although he had a B cup himself, making pretending unnecessary. "Denise with the tits," he added as if the gesture was not clear enough.
     
     
Kerchack nodded.
     
     
"I hear she's a total slut," Clark said. "I heard she used to give Jerry Russo a handjob for every touchdown he scored in his senior year."
     
     
"That was just a high school rumor," said Kerchack.
     
     
"All I know is that Jerry couldn't catch a football covered in superglue, then he started dating Denise and he carried us to State all by himself."
     
     
"That doesn't prove anything."
     
     
"Yeah, but it's strong circumstantial evidence."
     
     
"High school was a long time ago, Clark."
     
     
"Maybe for you." The ghost went to the racks and pulled out an assortment of comics he'd already read several times.
     
     
     
In a town like Rockwood, everyone knew everyone. They might not have shared more than a few words over the years, maybe just a nod or a smile to acknowledge the other's existence while passing in the crowded aisles of Rockwood General Supply or waiting in line at the post office.
     
     
Kerchack knew Denise better than that. When your entire high school consisted of one-hundred and fifty students, there weren't many cliques. There'd been the cool kids, the dorks, and the unclassified kids. The unclassified kids were above the dorks, but never were they deemed worthy of being cool. Kerchack had been among the unclassified.
     
     
Denise Calhoun had been cool though. It wasn't that she did anything particularly spectacular. But she was pretty, and she'd developed early. That was enough. He'd talked to her occasionally, but they'd never hung out. Like all the dorks and unclassifieds, he'd contented himself to admire her from afar.
     
     
Things changed. A chance encounter in line at the Second Bank of Rockwood (the First Bank had closed down before he'd been born) opened the first opportunity to talk to her since graduation. He couldn't remember what he'd said. All he could remember was concentrating hard to keep from glance at her breasts because he figured she had to be sick of guys doing that by now.
     
     
"We should get together sometime, 'Chack," she'd said, seemingly out of the blue. "Catch up, y'know."
     
     
"Yeah, we should."
     
     
Although, of course, she hadn't meant it. It was just something people said. A polite turn of phrase that meant nothing.
     
     
"Are you doing anything this Wednesday?" she'd asked.
     
     
He was too stunned to reply, and before his thoughts could reorganize, the teller called him over.
     
     
"You're up," said Denise.
     
     
Kerchack ran to the teller, threw the deposit at him, and tried to run