بخش 03 - فصل 20

20 Edgemont Avenue looks like a war zone, but being south of

Lowbriar, at least it’s a mostly white war zone, populated by the descendants of the Kentucky and Tennessee hillfolk who migrated here to work in the factories after World War II. Now the factories are closed, and a large part of the population consists of drug addicts who switched to brown-tar heroin when Oxy got too expensive. Edgemont is

lined with bars, pawnshops, and check-cashing joints, all of them shut up tight on this Saturday morning. The only two stores open for business are a Zoney’s and the site of Brady’s service call, Batool’s Bakery. Brady parks in front, where he can see anybody trying to break into his Cyber Patrol Beetle, and totes his case inside

to the good smells. The greaseball behind the counter is arguing with a Visa-waving customer and pointing to a cardboard sign reading CASH ONLY TIL COMPUTER FIX. Paki Boy’s computer is suffering the dreaded screen freeze. While continuing to monitor his Beetle at thirtysecond intervals, Brady plays the Screen Freeze Boogie,

which consists of pushing alt, ctrl, and del at the same time. This brings up the machine’s Task Manager, and Brady sees at once that the Explorer program is currently listed as non-responsive. “Bad?” Paki Boy asks anxiously. “Please tell me not bad.” On another day, Brady would string this out, not

because guys like Batool tip– they don’t–but to see him sweat a few extra drops of Crisco. Not today. This is just his excuse to get off the floor and go to the mall, and he wants to finish as soon as possible. “Nah, gotcha covered, Mr. Batool,” he says. He highlights END TASK and reboots Paki Boy’s PC. A moment later the

cash register function is back up, complete with all four credit card icons. “You genius!” Batool cries. For one awful moment, Brady is afraid the perfume-smelling sonofabitch is going to hug him.