The End is Now Read Online Free Page A

things were different. A friend had helped him get a job there about two years ago and now he finally had a career.
     For the first time in his life he wasn’t just paid by how many hours he spent at work. Now there was incentive. Selling pre-owned
     cars would mean he could double and triple his salary.
    The problem was every Friday, Charles Hansley Jr. (Mr. Hansley’s son who’d never sold a car in his life) printed off reports
     of the top sales rankings of the week. The names of all the salesmen were listed, starting with the week’s best salesmen at
     the top. Guys like Kevin Grabowski were always in the lead. He wore expensive shoes, had the million-dollar grin, and he was
     a natural. Sales was in his blood. He was a shark. But Jeff wasn’t like Kevin and that was maybe why his name was always near
     the bottom. And that made him afraid. He worried that Mr. Hansley would decide Jeff didn’t have what it took to be a salesman.
     Jeff lived in constant fear of a conversation that would start and/or end with the words, “Maybe you’d be better off in another
     line of work.”
    Lately he’d decided to change. He could do this. He could be a top salesman. He’d just have to fight a little harder. He’d
     have to develop a killer instinct. He decided he needed to read business books — everything from motivational books, to books
     on time management, to books on improving his sales techniques and approach. So, long after Emily and Will had gone to bed,
     Jeff would sit in the dark with Amy sound asleep next to him and a reading light clipped to his book so he could scour the
     pages for any insight they had to offer on increasing his sales.
    And the reading helped Jeff. It reminded him that he was dedicated to his job. He was dedicated to his family. He was dedicated
     to providing them all the stable, normal existence they’d always wanted.
    When Jeff got home he stopped at his mailbox, opened it up, threw a pile of mail into his passenger seat, and then he drove
     down his long concrete driveway. Coming home always made everything worthwhile. He had a great house out in the country; the
     nearest neighbor was five hundred yards away. He had a large windmill that faced the Johnson’s cornfield. It was something
     he’d always wanted. The windmill didn’t even do anything really, it was just there for decoration, but it was so great to
     own one. Sometimes he would just sit on his porch and drink lemonade and stare at it.
    Jeff walked by the windmill and into his house where the smell of the roast Amy was cooking wafted towards him. It was Monday.
     That meant they were going to have a real meal. The type of meal that black-and-white television families had, the type where
     June and the Beav and Wally would laugh and share their day. The type where he could ask his kids, “How was your day at school?”
     Where they could share the highs and lows of life, where they could be a family.
    Jeff hated that this only happened on Mondays now. He hated that they were getting too old to be a family.
    Emily practically had one foot out the door. She couldn’t wait to leave. Goodland was too small for her. She wanted to go
     to the University of Kansas, study marine biology, and who knows, maybe take over the world from there. It wasn’t that she
     was bratty or mean — she was just disinterested. Emily saw her dad as more dorky and goofy, rather than the hero and white
     knight and rockstar he used to be. Still, he was proud of what she had become. Proud of her good grades, proud that she was
     planning to be nominated to homecoming court this fall, proud that she’d been elected student body treasurer. He just didn’t
     want it to be over so quickly. He wanted to raise her all over again. It was so much fun the first time, but so often he was
     too busy to realize it. And now she would be out of the house. She would go on with her life. She would call on birthdays
     and visit on Christmas. There wouldn’t be