E VA N M A N D E R Y
Chapter 19 ***
D
AVID’S FATHER NEVER KNOCKED. He just walked in as if it were per-
fectly natural to barge in on a teenager who’d closed his door, without consideration to what his son might be doing. As it happened,
David was lost in thought, writing. He didn’t look up. “How’d you hit ’em today?” Apparently, Mal hadn’t noticed that David hadn’t left the house all day. Some days, he observed more than a gumshoe, even things you couldn’t fathom how he suspected, like the time David dropped a raspberry Pop-Tart on the floor. David vacuumed up every crumb, but somehow Mal figured it out when he returned home after work. Other days he noticed nothing, not even obvious things you couldn’t fathom he could miss. He noticed so much on the good days that David sometimes presumed him to be purposefully oblivious on the bad days. Or maybe it was the beer. “I hit ’em fine,” David replied. “That’s what I like to hear.” David still didn’t look up. “How’s the cross-handed putting working out?” “Fine.” “You feeling comfortable with it?” 203