Suckers - J.A. Konrath

As we walked home from school, Roger told me his life story, which even for a seventh
grader was pretty uneventful. He’d lived in Arizona all his life, until his dad got a job in
Chamber, Florida.
"What is there to do in this town?" he asked.
"Well...you can go to school, I guess."
"Joy."
"Do you like comics?"
"They’re okay."
"You can buy comics."
"Okay."
"There’s a guy who wanders around quoting TV shows while he’s giving everybody the
finger. He’s been doing it since before I was born. You can watch him if you want."
"So basically, you’re saying that Chamber sucks."
I shook my head. "No, it’s not that bad. We’ve got a movie theatre, and they’re going to be
opening this new place called The Blizzard Room that I think is going to be an ice cream shop."
"So basically, you’re saying that Chamber sucks."
"Okay, yeah."
"There aren’t even any cute girls in school, except for Ms. Peckin."
"Don’t even joke about that. The whole school will beat you up."
"Did you know my neighbor is a psycho killer?"
I stopped walking, unsure where this sudden shift in the direction of our conversation had
come from. "Huh?"
"He is. I think. He wanders around his living room waving a butcher knife and talking to
himself."
"How do you know this?"
"I saw him through my telescope. I was watching his house hoping that Ms. Peckin lived
there."
"I mean it, stop joking about Ms. Peckin. Even the band geeks will kick your ass."
"I just thought the whole butcher knife thing was kind of weird, that’s all."
"Well, yeah. Did you call the police?"
"No. They’d just tell me to stop peeking in people’s windows with a telescope."
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