GLASS SOUP Jonathan Carroll (good romance books to read TXT) 📖

eraser. Speed-dialing a number, he waited for it to connect.

“Hi there, it’s Brox. Yes, I was just with him.” Broximon listened while the other voice said something long and involved.

Down at the corner the traffic light turned green. The tour bus took a left and disappeared into the city.

Broximon started going up and down on his toes and looking at the sky as the other person talked on. Eventually he was able to interject, “Look, Haden doesn’t get it yet. It’s as simple as that. He doesn’t have the slightest clue. Do you understand what I’m saying? He’s not even on the map yet.” Broximon saw a bright red cookie wrapper skittering down the street toward him. He started moving out of its way long before it arrived. Seeing it pass reminded him that he hadn’t had breakfast yet. That made him doubly impatient to get off the telephone and find a place to eat. “Look, Bob, I don’t know how better to tell you—he doesn’t get it. There is not one indication that Simple Simon sees the big picture.”

Listening some more to the voice on the other end, Broximon was no longer paying much attention. To amuse himself, he stuck out his tongue and crossed his eyes. After holding that pose for a while, he couldn’t take the other’s verbal diarrhea anymore. So he said, “What? Huh? What? I’m losing you. We’re losing our connection here—” Then he pressed the disconnect button and turned off the phone altogether. “Enough. Breakfast time.”

It took several seconds for Haden’s eyes to adjust to the blue dark inside the bus. He was so eager to see the women that he squinted hard to distinguish who sat facing him. The first thing he saw was a cassowary in a green dress. Do you know what a cassowary is? Neither did Haden, nor did he remember the one time he had seen one at a zoo in Vienna. He had stopped to look at it, thinking once again how weird nature could be.

Seeing that giant bird staring at him now, his eyes narrowed in dismay. Oh no, they weren’t going to do this to him again, were they? He remembered one tour he’d lead where—

“Excuse me?”

Trying to locate the face, he worked very hard to overcome his growing distrust. “Yes?” He hoped his voice sounded happy and helpful.

“Is there a lavatory on this bus?”

Lavatory. When was the last time he’d heard that ridiculous word used, fourth grade? Smirking a little, he looked toward the questioner. Seeing her, his smirk died and Haden almost yawped because she was absolutely hair-raisingly beautiful. And blind.

That’s right—even in that shadowy space he could plainly see the woman’s eyes were so deep set in her head that they could not possibly have been functional.

“Uh, yes, there’s a, uh, lavatory at the back of the bus on the left side.” Absurdly and without thinking he beamed his best, most winning smile at her.

Like a crazy young dog pulling on its leash, all Haden wanted to do then was race down the aisle to her side and ask everything. What was her name, why was she there, where had she come from… He held himself back though and tried to calm his mad-to-get there impulse. He silently chanted to himself slowly, slowly—do this right.

For the first time since being hired to do this miserable job, Simon Haden was glad to be a tour guide; glad that today’s sightseeing would last for hours. It was the top dollar, see everything, fifteen stops, watch your step getting off the bus tour. Normally he loathed it. Today with this blind angel along for the ride, it would be bliss.

Not that it mattered now, but he looked over the rest of the passengers on the bus. There were a few people, a few animals, two cartoon characters, and an almost six foot tall bag of caramels. Nothing special, nothing new. If they had been his only customers that day, it would have taken a real effort to rise to their occasion. But with the angel sitting on the aisle in row seven, he was going to enchant them all.

He picked up the bus microphone and turned it on. Blowing into it once, he heard his short puff resound throughout the bus speakers, proof that the thing was working. Sometimes it didn’t and to add insult to injury, he ended the day hoarse.

“Good morning and welcome on board!”

As one, the humans, animals, and cartoon characters smiled at him. But the giant transparent bag of beige candy shuffled impatiently in its seat. Let’s go, it appeared to be saying. Let’s get this show on the road.

Haden disliked caramels. He ate a lot of candy because he had a sweet tooth, but caramels were too much work and too much trouble. Invariably they stuck in his teeth like gluey pests and had once even pulled out an expensive filling when he ate one at his parents’ house. But they were very much a part of his childhood memories because his father loved caramels and was always eating them. His mother stationed little plates of the golden squares all around the house for her man.

“Today we’re going to try and give you a pretty good overview of the city. We’ll be starting in the center naturally and then working our way out—”

“Excuse me?”

He recognized her voice immediately and with a dazzling smile that could have lit the inside of the bus like a thousand-watt lightbulb, he turned to the beautiful blind woman, ready to heed her every wish. “Yes?”

“Is there a lavatory on this bus?”

The only way to make beauty ugly is to show it’s crazy. Like twisting the top off a jar of something wonderful to eat, the moment he’s hit by the terrible smell of it gone bad, even the hungriest person will drop the jar in the trash without a second thought.

Haden took a short quick breath as if he’d been punched in the stomach. She