Wait for Night

Sometimes you take a job; sometimes the job takes you.

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This is a Tor.com short story, which usually means that it is an incomplete prequel for some novel by the author.

Not this one, though. In this one, we get a complete origin story that emerges as a bit of a surprise when our narrator, Chessup, takes a crappy day labor job cleaning up a river in Colorado with other losers in the rat race, discovers some skeletons in the roots of an uprooted tree, and while deciding how to hock the bones, discovers something far darker.

This was a fast-moving, gripping story that was worth its Tor.com price and the half hour spent reading it.

Read this as an appetizer before I start [b:The Only Good Indians 52180399 The Only Good Indians Stephen Graham Jones https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1601545259l/52180399.SY75.jpg 71431671], and oooooh, she's excited! Fast, thrilling, and tied up really well.Merged review:Read this as an appetizer before I start [b:The Only Good Indians 52180399 The Only Good Indians Stephen Graham Jones https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1601545259l/52180399.SY75.jpg 71431671], and oooooh, she's excited! Fast, thrilling, and tied up really well.

A free short story from Tor.Com, available HERE

A day labourer cleaning out a waterway after a storm and after work, finds his car battery dead. Earlier a dozer was used to uproot a huge tree growing next to the waterway, so he figures on borrowing the battery to jump start his car. As he wrestles with the battery, he discovers something tangled up in the roots of the old tree - something that has probably been there for over a hundred years.
His workmate, who wears a bandana over his burned face, comes to see what the delay is, and seems to know more about the discovery than would be expected - and then a cop turns up to see what they are up to.
It all kicks off from there.

A short, dark tale, but it felt a little rushed at the end.

3.5 stars, rounded down.