Read Online Following Christopher Creed by Carol Plum-Ucci - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Carol Plum-Ucci
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with their wrestling match, Kobe laughing and pinning Mary Ellen down. Mary Ellen kept demanding that he shut up. I barely heard RayAnn note, "Did you see what he turned into once she got vulnerable?"
Interesting point. He started "biting."
"Fine, Kobe!" Mary Ellen finally yelled louder than he laughed. "I will never tell you anything again! I would love to have some real convo with my friends sometime that wasn't about ... who's weird, or who's not popular, or who's
dead.
Why do we try to film spooks out here? Huh? For some reason we love being scared and depressed."
"It's not a downer—it's fun," Kobe said defensively, backing away from her on his butt. "I do think there are Others, capital
O,
out here, and I think it's exciting. You didn't have to come, ya know. You could have gone over to Taylor's to play 'I'm grounded' games on her PlayStation. You said you wanted to feel it out here. You wanted to know what I was talking about."
"Fine. I'm lying quietly and looking for a white figure in a JCPenney polo shirt obviously bought by his mother," she said blandly.
"Uh ... you were saying you had 'reasons' for wanting to draw the ghost of Chris Creed to you," I put in, turning the subject again.
"I'm not saying he would
talk
to me," Kobe corrected me. "I'm not a medium or a spiritualist or anything like that. I'm just a guy who lives in this town and wants to know what's going on, that's all. If I see him out here? I'll know."
"Know what?"
"My uncle just died of bone cancer, and he lived on the Creeds' street. I want to know what's up with the cancer rate. And the car accidents. There are these newspaper articles, and last year they were the talk of current events class, until it boiled over and everyone had put the subjects together: cancer, accidents, and Chris."
I said that the Haydens had told me. "So ... what do the car accidents and cancer have to do with Chris Creed?"
It took him a moment to say what I would have guessed, though he acted like it was big news.
"I want to know if Chris is behind it. I want to know if he's come back. I want to know if he's getting revenge on all of us for the way Steepleton treated him."
I realized what bothered me out here tonight was the deadly silence. You would expect trees in forests to rattle and whisper through their leaves, but it was too early in the season. Mid-April meant the trees were budding, and the breeze blew through in silence. Silent woods are unnerving. I cleared my throat.
"Uh... I'm no fan of horror movies, but wouldn't an angry spook, like, impale people on fences? I've never heard of a spook giving a body cancer. That doesn't, um, fit the MO."
"But it's happening. Got any better theories?"
"Maybe y'all should shy away from farm-raised fish and hormone-enhanced poultry?" RayAnn tried. It cracked me up, but I smothered it with a cough, detecting that Kobe was not amused.
"And these car accidents," he said. "Betcha Rye didn't tell you that three of them were total fatalities. Nobody was left alive to say what would cause a car to drive off the road into a ditch in the middle of the night. Just ... the cops driving around in the morning find yet another car turned upside down on the side of some back bay road, a couple of dead people still in their seat belts."
RayAnn had taken out a reporter's pad and was scratching furiously. "Do you have the families' names?"
Kobe was spitting them out to her, giving little details, and I felt myself listening through the quiet, not hearing anything, but turning icy in a hard-to-describe way. It was the same sensation as walking into class and suddenly remembering you have a paper due that you forgot about. Yet nothing had changed here. Even the wind was momentarily still.
Power of suggestion.
"I should have brought Tyra out here. She's this goth in school who says she can talk to the dead. I can't stand her probably-tattooed ass, but I don't know anything about that stuff," Kobe continued and turned to me
Interesting point. He started "biting."
"Fine, Kobe!" Mary Ellen finally yelled louder than he laughed. "I will never tell you anything again! I would love to have some real convo with my friends sometime that wasn't about ... who's weird, or who's not popular, or who's
dead.
Why do we try to film spooks out here? Huh? For some reason we love being scared and depressed."
"It's not a downer—it's fun," Kobe said defensively, backing away from her on his butt. "I do think there are Others, capital
O,
out here, and I think it's exciting. You didn't have to come, ya know. You could have gone over to Taylor's to play 'I'm grounded' games on her PlayStation. You said you wanted to feel it out here. You wanted to know what I was talking about."
"Fine. I'm lying quietly and looking for a white figure in a JCPenney polo shirt obviously bought by his mother," she said blandly.
"Uh ... you were saying you had 'reasons' for wanting to draw the ghost of Chris Creed to you," I put in, turning the subject again.
"I'm not saying he would
talk
to me," Kobe corrected me. "I'm not a medium or a spiritualist or anything like that. I'm just a guy who lives in this town and wants to know what's going on, that's all. If I see him out here? I'll know."
"Know what?"
"My uncle just died of bone cancer, and he lived on the Creeds' street. I want to know what's up with the cancer rate. And the car accidents. There are these newspaper articles, and last year they were the talk of current events class, until it boiled over and everyone had put the subjects together: cancer, accidents, and Chris."
I said that the Haydens had told me. "So ... what do the car accidents and cancer have to do with Chris Creed?"
It took him a moment to say what I would have guessed, though he acted like it was big news.
"I want to know if Chris is behind it. I want to know if he's come back. I want to know if he's getting revenge on all of us for the way Steepleton treated him."
I realized what bothered me out here tonight was the deadly silence. You would expect trees in forests to rattle and whisper through their leaves, but it was too early in the season. Mid-April meant the trees were budding, and the breeze blew through in silence. Silent woods are unnerving. I cleared my throat.
"Uh... I'm no fan of horror movies, but wouldn't an angry spook, like, impale people on fences? I've never heard of a spook giving a body cancer. That doesn't, um, fit the MO."
"But it's happening. Got any better theories?"
"Maybe y'all should shy away from farm-raised fish and hormone-enhanced poultry?" RayAnn tried. It cracked me up, but I smothered it with a cough, detecting that Kobe was not amused.
"And these car accidents," he said. "Betcha Rye didn't tell you that three of them were total fatalities. Nobody was left alive to say what would cause a car to drive off the road into a ditch in the middle of the night. Just ... the cops driving around in the morning find yet another car turned upside down on the side of some back bay road, a couple of dead people still in their seat belts."
RayAnn had taken out a reporter's pad and was scratching furiously. "Do you have the families' names?"
Kobe was spitting them out to her, giving little details, and I felt myself listening through the quiet, not hearing anything, but turning icy in a hard-to-describe way. It was the same sensation as walking into class and suddenly remembering you have a paper due that you forgot about. Yet nothing had changed here. Even the wind was momentarily still.
Power of suggestion.
"I should have brought Tyra out here. She's this goth in school who says she can talk to the dead. I can't stand her probably-tattooed ass, but I don't know anything about that stuff," Kobe continued and turned to me
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