Unexpectedly, Milo - Matthew Dicks [143]
What Milo had done was continue to recite the poem that he had extracted from the Highlights magazine in Dr. Teagan’s office, attempting to apply Nurse Mancuso’s advice to his demands by not scratching when one arose. He was beginning on a small scale, attempting to ignore the demand for ice cubes by deliberately diverting his attention to other things, including and especially the poem. He had even gone bowling and sung at Jenny’s when the demand for ice had arisen, thinking that perhaps he could find a way to substitute one of these demands for another, hoping that this substitution might begin the process of gaining more control over them. Sort of like scratching around an itch instead on top of it, as Nurse Mancuso might suggest. Though this new strategy hadn’t met with any success yet, he was still trying.
The door to the break room opened and Lily entered, wearing a short black dress and heels. “Wow, you look great,” Eugene said before Milo could say the same.
“Are you staying?” Lily asked, with the beginnings of a grin.
“Don’t worry, Lil. I told Milo that I’d stand in the hall and guard the door so you won’t be bothered. Unless you want me to stay.”
“I love you, Eugene, but how about letting me and Milo watch this one alone, okay?”
“Sure. No problem. I seen it already anyway. And I won’t spoil it for you like you did to me last time.”
Eugene rose to leave and Lily moved in to take his place on the bench.
“You be a gentleman,” Eugene warned as he stood in the doorway.
“We’re in the break room, Eugene. Even if I wanted to make a move, what could I do?”
“You have no idea the stuff that’s happened on that table,” Eugene said.
“That’s right. I forgot.”
Eugene switched off the lights and shut the door, leaving Milo and Lily alone on the bench under the glow of the wall-mounted television screen.
“What are we watching?” Lily asked.
“Thelma and Louise. Have you seen it before?”
“No. Have you?”
“Yes. It’s great,” Milo said. “Not as good as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, but it’s close.”
“Doesn’t it have a sad ending too?”
“I’m not sure,” Milo said. “Things might change at any time. Let’s find out.”
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2010 by Matthew Dicks
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Broadway Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
BROADWAY BOOKS and the Broadway Books colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dicks, Matthew.
Unexpectedly, Milo : a novel / Matthew Dicks. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
1. Married people—Fiction. 2. Obsessive-compulsive disorder—Fiction. 3. Psychological fiction. I. Title.
PS3604.I323U63 2010
813′.6—dc22
2010011082
eISBN: 978-0-307-71582-1
v3.0