Read Online Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Joseph Fink
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matter.
âStay away from the man. Donât try to follow him to his city. Itâs a trap.â
âJosie. I canât live with this,â Jackie said, looking at the paper in her hand.
âItâs going to be okay,â said Old Woman Josie. âIt will be.â
She squeezed harder, and Jackie turned in to the hug, allowing herself to be comforted. Her stomach did not hurt anymore, or it hurt differently.
âThat was a lie,â said Josie. âThat was one of those times I was lying.â
âI know,â said Jackie. âItâs fine.â
She was lying too.
8
Diane was filling her gas tank when she saw Troy. She didnât approach him, and he didnât notice her. She had not seen Troy in fifteen years, and had not wanted to see him ever again.
When she tried to put the nozzle back onto the pump, it kept falling off because her hands were shaking. She didnât feel anything at all, but she couldnât get her hands to stop shaking. By the time she looked up, Troy was already gone. He had gotten into his car (white sedan, broken taillight) and pulled away without looking at her once. She forced herself to stand very still and breathe slowly until her hands stopped shaking. Once they were steady, she put the nozzle back onto the pump, deliberately opened her car door, and drove away at a reasonable speed. The entire time she felt fine.
Weeks later, she stopped by her bank to get change for a PTA fund-raiser. Sitting behind one of the desks was Troy, wearing a dark suit and a plastic name badge. She tried to confirm the name on the tag without him noticing her staring but was unable to.
This time her hands did not shake at all. She actually felt fine, but she tasted blood. Without even noticing, she had been biting her lower lip so hard that the tooth had broken through. She wiped the blood away and walked past him with her withdrawal slip, not looking at him. Because she wasnât looking at him, she couldnât see if he was looking at her.
Just a few days after that, she and Josh went to the movies. This was a monthly tradition that went back to when he was seven. He had been acting glum, taking on oozing, gloppy forms that made a mess of the furniture and carpet, and asking her a lot of questions about his dad and where he had gone. She had been alternately terrified and exasperated by the moody creature that had appeared in place of her little boy, and she announced that, as a special treat, they would go to the movies.
That night at the movies was the first good night they had had in weeks. She hadnât been sure what to see and just asked at the ticket counter for whatever popular childrenâs movie was playing. The joyful glow of being somewhere together and feeling like they were both on the same team had outshone the silly antics of the funny characters in the kidsâ movie ( No Country for Old Men ) up on the screen. They had left the theater, him walking upright, with non-oozing legs, and holding her hand with a human palm and fingers. He did not ask about his father again for months.
And so started their monthly attempt to recapture the lightness of that first night. Mostly it was good. Sometimes, especially lately, she had to remind him to keep his form short, and free of any broad wings or smoke emitters that might obstruct other moviegoersâ views. He would always do what she said, but not without a lot of sighing and eye-rolling (he almost always took a form with eyes when going to the movies, although he had gone through a period where he preferred the experience of sightless listening).
This particular night, the theater was showing the sequel to that popular animated franchise about the trees that look like trees but have human organs and try to stop developers from razing their forest. The trees are unsuccessful at first, but in the end the construction crews learn their lesson after seeing the large quantities of blood, and
âStay away from the man. Donât try to follow him to his city. Itâs a trap.â
âJosie. I canât live with this,â Jackie said, looking at the paper in her hand.
âItâs going to be okay,â said Old Woman Josie. âIt will be.â
She squeezed harder, and Jackie turned in to the hug, allowing herself to be comforted. Her stomach did not hurt anymore, or it hurt differently.
âThat was a lie,â said Josie. âThat was one of those times I was lying.â
âI know,â said Jackie. âItâs fine.â
She was lying too.
8
Diane was filling her gas tank when she saw Troy. She didnât approach him, and he didnât notice her. She had not seen Troy in fifteen years, and had not wanted to see him ever again.
When she tried to put the nozzle back onto the pump, it kept falling off because her hands were shaking. She didnât feel anything at all, but she couldnât get her hands to stop shaking. By the time she looked up, Troy was already gone. He had gotten into his car (white sedan, broken taillight) and pulled away without looking at her once. She forced herself to stand very still and breathe slowly until her hands stopped shaking. Once they were steady, she put the nozzle back onto the pump, deliberately opened her car door, and drove away at a reasonable speed. The entire time she felt fine.
Weeks later, she stopped by her bank to get change for a PTA fund-raiser. Sitting behind one of the desks was Troy, wearing a dark suit and a plastic name badge. She tried to confirm the name on the tag without him noticing her staring but was unable to.
This time her hands did not shake at all. She actually felt fine, but she tasted blood. Without even noticing, she had been biting her lower lip so hard that the tooth had broken through. She wiped the blood away and walked past him with her withdrawal slip, not looking at him. Because she wasnât looking at him, she couldnât see if he was looking at her.
Just a few days after that, she and Josh went to the movies. This was a monthly tradition that went back to when he was seven. He had been acting glum, taking on oozing, gloppy forms that made a mess of the furniture and carpet, and asking her a lot of questions about his dad and where he had gone. She had been alternately terrified and exasperated by the moody creature that had appeared in place of her little boy, and she announced that, as a special treat, they would go to the movies.
That night at the movies was the first good night they had had in weeks. She hadnât been sure what to see and just asked at the ticket counter for whatever popular childrenâs movie was playing. The joyful glow of being somewhere together and feeling like they were both on the same team had outshone the silly antics of the funny characters in the kidsâ movie ( No Country for Old Men ) up on the screen. They had left the theater, him walking upright, with non-oozing legs, and holding her hand with a human palm and fingers. He did not ask about his father again for months.
And so started their monthly attempt to recapture the lightness of that first night. Mostly it was good. Sometimes, especially lately, she had to remind him to keep his form short, and free of any broad wings or smoke emitters that might obstruct other moviegoersâ views. He would always do what she said, but not without a lot of sighing and eye-rolling (he almost always took a form with eyes when going to the movies, although he had gone through a period where he preferred the experience of sightless listening).
This particular night, the theater was showing the sequel to that popular animated franchise about the trees that look like trees but have human organs and try to stop developers from razing their forest. The trees are unsuccessful at first, but in the end the construction crews learn their lesson after seeing the large quantities of blood, and
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