Harvey & Ethel: Odd choices & Disturbing Behavior, #1

By B. K. Brain

Harvey is messy, short-tempered, and rude. His neighbor across the street, Ethel, is proper, organized, and up to horrible things. And the two of them just happen to be in control of the world's good and evil. 

Sometimes war is epic...and sometimes it's not.

• Language: English
• Publisher: B. K. Brain
• Release date: Nov 14, 2015
• ISBN: 9781519913425

Book preview

Jeopardy and Middle Fingers

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Nine-year-old Arkansas boy missing for three days

The voice interrupted Harvey’s thoughts, loudly and abruptly, as it did every day. To him it sounded like a talk-radio host. But there was no radio nearby; the television was off. The voice originated from inside his head, and naturally, he was the only one who could hear it.

Woman found slain in dry riverbed

He didn’t get the entire story. It was just headlines, as usual, and they always came true.

Mutation found in fatal flu virus

Harvey sat up, trying to ignore the current events in his brain, groaning from the pain in his back. He reached over to the end table and used his thick fingers to fish his teeth out of a clear glass. He smacked his gums together twice and then slid the dentures into place. Standing slowly, he steadied himself with a hand on the arm of the couch. He growled under his breath at his stiff left knee.

Damn arthritis.

Squinting at the large clock on the wall, he could only see a round white blur. He went to the bookshelf for his glasses, pushed the wire frames over his ears, and looked up once again. The little hand pointed to a mark below the three. The big hand was just below that.

Damn it!

He rushed for the remote. He could see it sticking out from behind a cushion in the chair. He pulled it out and sat down. With the red button depressed, the television screen changed from black into Andy Griffith’s face. The actor was standing in a courtroom.

Harvey fumed. Damn it to hell! I missed the whole setup!

The theme music played for a moment, and then it cut to commercial.

He glared out the window at the pastel-blue house across Willow Drive. It seemed quiet; the front room was dark. He couldn’t see her. He leaned up to the window, his nose close to the glass. All around his face were greasy smudges from where it had touched the glass, in previous staring. He always kept an eye open, watching her. You never knew what she might do.

What’s on the agenda today, you crazy bitch? he whispered at the blue house.

He was going to have to be especially careful. She had been lying pretty low the past few days. That wasn’t like her, not at all. He was sure she was up to something.

He saw some movement in the front room. His heart leapt. He jumped out of the chair, pain stabbing at his knee. Harvey’s eyes did not leave the window as Ethel clicked on a light.

He glanced over, making sure the path was clear.

It was.

It always was.

A man in his position could not afford footstools blocking his way. He glared back at her. She looked toward the window, smiling and bending down.

He