he asked.
She shrugged.
“I thought you were too sick to go to school. I stayed home to take care of you,” he said.
She froze.
“So, let me take care of you,” he said. “That nightgown is too small. Floods. Floods.”
“Shut up, Scott,” she finally said, defiantly.
“Don’t tell me to fucking shut up, you slut. Come here.”
Defeated, she went into his room and closed the door behind her. Christopher put his ear to the door and heard nothing other than music. Scott was playing an old song. Blue Moon. Christopher grabbed the doorknob to help Jenny.
“Don’t. It’s a trap,” the nice man said.
But it was too late. Christopher opened the door. Standing inside were a dozen deer. Their fangs exposed. They rushed at the door. The nice man slammed it shut.
BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG. BANG.
The nice man raced Christopher through the house and opened the side door. There they saw…
…a baby basket.
A mailbox person held it. Thick zippers kept his eyes closed, but the black stitches on his mouth were just loose enough to sound the alarm. The mailbox person opened his mouth through the stitches and made the sound of a baby crying.
“Waaaaaaaaa!”
The nice man grabbed Christopher’s hand. He dragged him past the mailbox person, toward the street. They ran together down the lawn. The hissing lady ran up the driveway, chasing after them. David Olson crawling like a dog behind her.
“STOP HIM!”
Her voice boomed through the street. The mailbox people fanned out through the neighborhood. Groping blindly with their arms outstretched. Hunting for the escaped prisoner. They made a solid wall along the street. Blocking both sides.
“We can’t make it!” Christopher said.
“Hold on to me,” the nice man said.
The nice man summoned all his strength. Just as he and Christopher were about to smash into the wall of mailbox people, the nice man jumped. They hurdled the mailbox people and landed safely on the street.
“STOP HELPING HIM!” she cursed the nice man.
The hissing lady jumped after them, trying to grab the nice man, but she missed. She landed on the street. Her feet started to smoke and burn. Leaving liquid skin on the pavement like a chemical spill. She peeled herself off the asphalt and dragged herself back to the lawn. Screaming in pain like a deer that had been hit by a car.
“She will heal in a minute,” the nice man said. “Hurry.”
The nice man ran with Christopher down the street. They raced past the mailbox people, each holding the string of the next, going on for miles with no end in sight. Christopher could feel the nice man’s energy through his skin. The healing spreading across his body like static electricity on a wool sweater. The nice man closed his eyes, his eyeballs shifting back and forth under his eyelids like he was dreaming. In seconds, he jumped over the mailbox people again.
“How did you do that?” Christopher asked.
“I’ll teach you.”
They moved off the street and disappeared into the Mission Street Woods. The nice man led him down a path. The deer crashed the trail behind them. Nipping at their feet. A team of cats with two little mice. The nice man made a sharp left past the billy goat bridge. The sleeping man popped his head out of the hollow log.
“They’re here!” the man screamed in his sleep.
The nice man jumped over the log and led Christopher down a narrow path of dead, jagged branches. The deer behind them got wedged in the bottleneck. The hollow log man screamed as the deer dragged their tongues across his face like a salt lick. Drowning him in spit. Right before they began to eat his face.
“Don’t look at them,” the nice man said.
They left the narrow path and ran across the clearing. To the tree. The nice man collapsed on the ground, straining to breathe. Exhausted.
“We only have a few seconds,” the nice man said. “She knows you helped me now. She will do anything to get you back here.”
“Then come with me,” Christopher said.
“I can’t. The hissing lady has the only key. I can’t leave here without it. Neither can David.”
A great shriek went up to the heavens as the hissing lady searched the woods.
“So, let’s get the key. I’m invisible now. I can handle her,” Christopher said.
“Listen to me,” he barked. “However strong you become, she is stronger. And the next time she catches you, you will never get away. So, focus your mind. Do not daydream or fall asleep. I will work with David to get the