The Vivisectionist Read Online Free

far Jack could travel alone.
    Back before Jack and Ben were toddlers, Christy's was also a gas station. It still had an island, but no longer had pumps. The boys arrived from the back and hopped the low fence. Inside, they found the typical convenience store offerings: chips, soda, beer, small boxes and cans of this and that. Everything was more expensive than the IGA down in Thomkinsville, but not as bad as the chain stores that specialized in lottery tickets and cigarettes. A string of Christmas bells announced their arrival.
    A fifty-ish woman behind the counter greeted them as they entered: “Hi boys!”
    “Hi,” said Jack. He and Ben turned left and headed back to the refrigerator cases along the back of the store.
    “Hey, we forgot money,” hissed Jack.
    “Don’t worry about it,” said Ben as he pointed to his back pocket. “I got it covered.”
    Jack wrinkled his brow and paused. Ben always had better toys and clothes, but Jack usually brought the cash.
    “What about these?” Ben was holding up a box of Twinkies.
    “Yuck! You know I can’t stand those things.”
    “They’re good for you—put hair on your chest,” taunted Ben.
    “You can keep it,” shrugged Jack. “We better get stuff for tomorrow morning too.”
    The boys collected everything they would need for their campground dinner and breakfast and headed up to the front of the store loaded with supplies.
    “Wow, stocking up?” asked the woman behind the counter. She recognized Jack from being from the neighborhood. Her name tag identified her as “Sally.”
    “We’re running away,” smiled Ben.
    “Oh! In that case, you’re not going to get very far,” she said.
    “We’ll be back when we get hungry again.” Ben was never afraid to banter with adults, Jack looked on with admiration. He had always been shy around Sally.
    Sally finished ringing them up—“Today is going to cost you fifteen-sixty-seven, we’ll see about tomorrow.”
    Ben reached for his wallet and carefully fished out a bill. He slid a one hundred dollar bill across the counter. Jack looked on with wide eyes. Sally reached for it and paused with her hand in mid-air.
    “You got anything smaller, big spender?” her tone was no longer as jovial.
    Ben turned red and hastily drew back the bill.
    “Um, yeah, I think so.”
    A few seconds later he pushed a twenty across the counter.
    “Sorry.”
    “No harm done,” replied Sally. “If you need to break that hundred, Bill is here until noon. He doesn’t like me to take anything above a fifty.”
    “Thanks, Sally,” said Ben, still looking down.
    Sally gave Ben his change and he shoved it into his front pocket. She collected the groceries and handed each of them a bag.
    “Enjoy those burgers,” said Sally as they headed out the door.
    As they walked through the parking lot, Jack looked sideways at Ben, wondering if he should ask about the money. Ben seemed to know what he wanted to ask.
    “My dad only had hundreds,” said Ben and then paused. “I wanted to break it so I would have smaller bills. My mom only gave me one twenty.”
     
    **********
     
    “I hereby dub this the first official hamburger of the summer!” Ben said as he pulled a charred lump of beef from his stick.
    Jack clapped his right hand against his leg with approval: “Bravo! Well done, well done! Here, take a bun for that.”
    "Burgers are awesome over a fire. They should always cook them like this," said Ben.
    Jack hunched down a little and squinted through the bushes so he could spy at the house. Their campsite was on the edge of the woods, just about thirty yards from the back door. They had a tall maple and some thick bushes to give their campsite some privacy.
    "Looks like my parents are having chicken again," said Jack. 
    "You can't see that from there," said Ben.
    Jack laughed. He balanced his burger on his knee so he could get some chips and poke the fire with his stick.
    “So what do you want to do tomorrow?” Jack asked through a