Read Online Kesh by Ralph L Wahlstrom - Free Book Online Page B

seemed to have faded like smoke on the breeze.
    Of course, he was cautious at first. He studied the people he passed on the way to school. They were old, young, happy, and grumpy, like people are, but they were people, just normal human beings. Once he was in school, in crowded hallways, in the same old classes and the chaotic cafeteria, his remaining uncertainty disappeared. When Taylor George rounded a corner and was still just Taylor, he breathed a deep sigh of relief. Then, that evening at supper, his parents were back to normal as well, zipping little comments across the tablecloth, half joking zingers that dodged in and out between the salt and pepper, and careened off of the flatware.
    Kesh was delighted and more than a little relieved. He had nothing to tell his parents, no reason to have faith in the misty hallucinations that now seemed so distant. They were nothing more than dreams. Everything was back to normal. At least for the moment.
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    Kesh survived Thanksgiving and his mother’s dry turkey and wretched cranberry sauce. The October nightmare had all but faded from his memory. It had been a bad dream. He knew that for certain now. After all, he hadn’t seen anybody turn into a toad or a weasel for nearly a month, not even a whisker. That was not counting Omar Gilman who was the only twelve-year-old kid Kesh knew with chronic five o’clock shadow. But he was a different kind of beast, the big, oafish, human kind. Nope, everything was back to normal–even better. His parents had decided that Kesh wasn’t having mental issues after all and were back to their usual sweet, boring selves. He had not heard growling or hissing for weeks.
    So the house was peaceful, there were no wild animals in his living room, Taylor was not a badger (although she was clearly suffering from a lot of other strange afflictions that Kesh observed were specifically partial to very annoying girls), and the holiday vacation was going to begin in four days. Of course, they would be painfully long days, but Kesh knew from experience that they would go by and he would have two weeks of freedom, food and presents.
    Evan leaned over a bowl of the cafeteria’s special horror, runny lime Jell-O. He was relating to Kesh the sordid tale of a scary movie he had watched the night before. Evan was good at telling these stories because, Kesh thought, he really seemed to believe them. What’s more, Kesh suspected, he seemed to sympathize more closely with the monsters and ghouls than what he called “the stupid victims.”
    Evan leaned far over the table to emphasize the gravity of what he was telling Kesh. “The really creepy and gory ones always start like this,” he said. He leered his most disturbing grin, and his eyes sparkled. “The poor, unsuspecting victim is taking a walk, the birds are singing, the sun is shining, and everything in the word seems perfect.” He emphasized the next word with long, dramatic pause. “Except…we all know that the stupid guy did something really bad a long time ago, and he’s going to be punished for it, if you know what I mean.”
    Kesh rolled his eyes as if to say , I don’t but I don’t really want to know what you mean .
    Evan went on. “So, it’s a beautiful day, and this dumb guy and his really hot but equally dumb girlfriend are walking through the woods along a creek. It’s called Spider Creek, and the guy tells the girl that he heard it was called that because it’s named after some guy named Spider, or it’s got a lot of water spiders on it, but those aren’t the reasons at all.” Evan’s eyes got big and he sang the spookiest “Woooo” he could manage.
    Kesh said, “They’re called water striders, and they are not spiders, bonehead . ” He paused and glared at Evan. “So, what are the reasons?”
    Evan waved his hand dismissively. I’m getting to that