on each side of its head to see predators approaching. The predator wasn’t visible, but he could still sense it. With every tap of the hammer, he could feel a whisper working deep into his mind. The same words echoing over and over like the congregation repeating the Lord’s Prayer with Father Tom and Mrs. Radcliffe on Sundays.
We’re not going fast enough.
Christopher asked the guys to go that much faster. And they did. Their hands raw. Their faces sunburnt despite the November cold. They all looked more exhausted than they would ever admit. Especially Matt, who never wanted to seem weak in front of his big brother. But even Mike looked tired. Still, they had kept working. Silently humming a song in their hearts. Blue Moon. Until finally, around eleven o’clock that night, their bodies began to give out, and the unlikely voice of reason spoke.
“This is nuts. I’m hungry,” Special Ed exclaimed.
“We’re not stopping,” Christopher said.
“Come on, Chris. Put down the whip. It’s the first night,” Mike said.
“Yeah,” Matt added.
“Guys, we need to finish before Christmas,” Christopher said.
“Why?” Special Ed asked in a huff. “What’s the big deal?”
Christopher looked at the white plastic bag. Then, he shrugged.
“It’s nothing. You’re right. Let’s eat,” he said.
The four boys sat on the longest branch, side by side, like the men who built Rockefeller Center. Christopher had seen that picture in the library once with his mom. All those men hovering above the city on a beam. One false move and they would all die.
At dinner, they passed around the canteen filled with Kool-Aid, eating peanut butter sandwiches with grape jelly on Town Talk bread. For dessert, they snacked on Oreos with ice-cold milk kept in the stream near the billy goat bridge. After a full day’s work, they were the most delicious Oreo cookies any of them had ever had. They spent the next hour making each other howl with laughter with the latest and greatest burp or fart.
All the while telling ghost stories.
Matt told the one about the guy with the hook that everyone had heard a million times. And without Matt pretending to be the guy (since no one had a hook), it didn’t get much of a scare. But Christopher did his best to act afraid so that Matt wouldn’t feel too bad for his failure.
Christopher then recounted the plot of the movie The Shining, which was on TV one night when Jerry had fallen asleep on the couch. His mom was working the late shift at the diner, and Jerry was supposed to be babysitting. Christopher liked the black cook the best and didn’t understand why if he could see the future he would walk directly into the ax. But otherwise, it was really good.
Mike’s story was really good, too. He started with the flashlight under his chin.
“Do you know why they bury bodies six feet deep?” he asked like those spooky guys who host the horror nights on TV.
“Because they start to smell,” Special Ed said. “I saw it on TV.”
“No,” Mike said. “They bury them six feet deep so they can’t get out. They’re all awake under there. And they are crawling like worms to get out. And eat your brains!”
Mike proceeded to tell the story of how one zombie woke up underground and crawled out to get back at the guy who shot him and his girlfriend. It ended with the zombie eating the guy’s brains with a knife and fork. All the guys loved it!
Except one.
“I have a better story,” Special Ed said with confidence.
“The hell you do,” Mike said.
“Yeah,” Matt added, trying to sound tough.
“I do. I heard it from my dad,” Special Ed assured him.
Mike nodded, prodding Special Ed to “Do your worst.” Special Ed took the flashlight and put it under his chin.
“A long time ago. In this town. There was a house. The Olson house,” Special Ed said.
Mike and Matt got instantly quiet. They had heard this one.
“Mr. and Mrs. Olson were away at dinner. And they left their oldest son in charge of his crazy younger brother, David. All night, he kept coming down the stairs while the older brother was trying to make out with his girlfriend, and David would say these crazy things.
“‘There is a witch outside my window.’
“‘She has a cat who sounds like a baby.’
“‘There is someone in my closet.’
“Every time he came down, his big brother would make him go back upstairs, so he could keep making out with his girlfriend. Even when David