monsters with their machine guns and then soldiers would break through the windows and tell me everything was gonna be alright. I kept hopin’ to hear police sirens outside and someone saying through one of those horns they use
Then I began to notice how hungry I was. It felt like my stomach was startin’ to eat itself so I started lookin’ around to see if I could find some food. Only there weren’t nothin’ in the church but a bunch of song books and some candles. I did find a little ladder with a rope leading up into the ceiling beside it though and I started climbing the ladder, thinkin’ that maybe I could find some way to escape the monsters if I got to the top.
It ended with a little trap door and when I opened it, there was a big bell aver my head and it was like I was standing on a little porch or something. I could see the whole town from up here and could see all the monsters down below. I sat there and cried for a little bit, then I got real mad so I climbed back down the ladder and got a bunch of the songbooks and stuffed ’em down the front of my shirt. After that, I climbed back up again and started throwin’ the books at the monsters, hopin’ maybe it would scare them off. Only it didn’t. It just seemed to make them even madder.
Then suddenly I felt real dizzy, like I’d spun too fast on the merry-go-round and it got real hard to breathe. My heart kinda felt like it was tryin’ to beat right out of my chest and I was super hot. For some reason I started panting just like Mr. Boots after he’d been playin’ in the sun only my tongue wasn’t hangin’ out like his. And all these thoughts kept going through my head, tellin’ me that I was gonna die, that the monsters were gonna break in and get me and it didn’t matter whether this was a house of God or not. And the voice also kept reminding me that my Mommy was dead and I was all alone and that there wasn’t anyone in the whole wide world who’d be comin’ to help me.
Everything got kinda blurry and then became real clear again and I started worryin’ that maybe I was gonna fall off the side and down among all the monsters. So I started climbin’ back down the ladder, only my hands had gotten all tingly like they do when I’ve laid on them for too long. And as the dizziness got worse I started breathin’ harder and my heart started beatin’ faster which just made me feel more and more dizzy. And that little voice was still in my head, still telling me I was gonna get eaten, they were gonna kill me just like Mr. Carl had killed Mommy only it would hurt a lot more cause they wouldn’t be using guns or knives or anything like that.
About halfway down the ladder, my vision started gettin’ real dark around the edges and I felt like I was rockin’ back and forth as I climbed. My whole body was numb and tingly now and that darkness kept spreadin’ until it was almost like I was back at that house lookin’ through the keyhole again.
Next thing I know, I’m fallin’ and then I hit the floor with a big thud that caused some of the candlesticks to fall over and there was this pain in my ankle that cut through the dizziness and darkness and made me scream. I tried to stand up, but it felt like my foot was being rammed with a ninja sword and I fell back down again, only not as hard this time.
Outside the monsters kept poundin’ and I could hear this loud cracking sound that reminded me of how Buddy Holloway used to break sticks over his knee before he moved away.
They’re gonna get in, the little voice told me, and when they do you won’t be able to run or nothin’. They’re gonna get in and they’re gonna eat you and you’re gonna die.
And I couldn’t do anything but lay there on the floor of the church and cry ’cause I knew the little voice wasn’t just tryin’ to scare me. I knew it was right. I was gonna die and there wasn’t anyone comin’ to save me.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: CARL
I’m standing on the shore of a lake. On the opposite side are rows of pine trees that sway softly as a breeze moves among their boughs; the sky is the clearest blue I’ve ever seen and these big, fluffy clouds drift by so slowly that it almost seems like it’s the sky behind them that’s actually scrolling by.
The sun is warm on my skin and glistens on the surface of the lake like glitter that’s been dumped down upon the tiny ripples of water. I smell honeysuckle and lilac in the air and I wish my grandpa was here with me so we could drop some bobbers in the water and see if anything’s biting. And Josie, too. I woulda loved for her to have met the old man.
It’s a beautiful day.
A perfect day.
And then I notice my grandpa
“How would you feel,” she says, “if some alien came along and just pulled you right off the face of the earth?”
My grandpa laughs from the bank and for a second I wonder where these two have come from. I’d simply wished they were here, hadn’t I? Or maybe not. Maybe they’ve been here all along.
My grandpa pulls a flask out from the inside pocket of his fishing vest and takes a snort.
“Damn good hooch, I tell ya.”
He passes the flask to Watchmaker who eagerly raises it to his lips as Sadie slaps him in the back of his head with her palm. We all laugh and then Jason is running along the shore, holding a rainbow trout at the end of a long strand of twenty-pound test, his smile as bright and brilliant as the rays of the sun.
“Look what I caught! Look Uncle Carl! I caught it, I really did!”
I try to tell the boy that trout live in streams, not lakes but Monica just shakes her head and tells me I’d better give up, he’ll never believe me.
“Carl,” Josie calls, “picnic’s almost ready. Will Doc be joining us?”
I don’t think he will. He was here earlier and we talked for a while but then he just up and disappeared. Said something about a storm coming, but I think he’s wrong this time. It’s such a beautiful day. That’s the thing about weathermen, I say; it’s the only job where you can be wrong ninety-five percent of the time and not get fired.
There’s a round of laughter, but something out toward the middle of the lake catches my eye. Nothing more than a few bubbles at first, rising to the surface and popping like there might be a turtle or something down below.
As I watch, though, the bubbles become more and more frequent and before long the center of the lake looks like a pot of water that’s just coming to a boil. Everyone has clustered around me and we’re all silent as we look out at the water.
“What is it, Carl? What’s going on?”
Momma always said it’s better to keep my mouth shut and have the world think I’m a fool than to open it and prove them right. So I don’t say anything and just stand and watch alongside everyone else.
The water’s roiling now and the ground has begun to tremble beneath our feet like how I’d always imagined an earthquake would feel. Josie takes my hand and squeezes it hard, her eyes wide with fear.
Something bursts through the surface of the lake, something so large that the mind balks at the sheer enormity of the thing. It continues to rise as sheets of water rain down like a mighty waterfall and waves crash against the grassy shore as if we were standing by the ocean instead of something so much smaller.
And still the thing continues to rise, its shadow spreading across the water and falling over the group of people who cluster around me. Fifty feet, sixty feet, seventy… it blocks out the sun and casts the day into darkness as lightning begins to flicker way off to the east.
I realize that what I’m looking at is a monstrous pair of jeans. They’re ripped and tattered and stained with grass but they’re jeans none-the-less and each leg is larger round than most buildings I’ve seen in my life.
My eyes follow the legs upwards until they turn into a black t-shirt the looks as though the world’s largest moths have decided to have a little snack on it. More holes than threads, I can see withered flesh below, the ivory curve of rib bones with strands of muscle hanging down like seaweed from the wreck of a ship.
Thunder rumbles and the ground shifts beneath our feet, causing us to huddle together even more closely.
