Flyers (9781481414449) by Daniel Hayes Read Free Book Online Page A

Briggs place a mile east of town, and oneday he heard footsteps downstairs. Thinking it was his wife bringing his lunch, he yelled that he was upstairs and then went back to ripping out the old lathing and plaster. The footsteps kept coming his way but nobody said anything. As Clutzy told it, in thirty years he’d never known Ellie to keep her mouth shut when there was a working set of ears within range, so he became suspicious and walked over to the door. That’s when he saw his ghost heading right toward him. He swears it was old Mr. Briggs himself, a crotchety old miser who’d checked out weeks earlier as the result of a blast from his own shotgun. The death was ruled accidental, but Clutz has since developed a foul-play theory which he says would explain why Old Man Briggs was trying to make contact with him. Anyway, the ghost kept coming right at him, not saying anything, and not picking up any speed but not slowing down any either. When it came into the room with him, Clutzy decided he was feeling a little crowded and left through the handiest exit, which happened to be the window behind him. As you might imagine, he took a lot of ribbing for that story over the years, but he still swore by it, defending his ghost diagnosis by explaining how he could see the thing and see right through it at the same time, and adding that he wouldn’t have jumped out any second-story window if he hadn’t been absolutely sure of the facts.
    â€œI don’t wanna hear that friggin’ ghost story again,” Ray said, obviously not feeling any kind of supernatural kinship with Clutz. “I’m not talkin’ about sonavabitchin’ Casper here! What I seen was a real live two-dimensional thing, for chrissake! It was bouncing the front of my friggin’ car up and down, and there ain’t no ghost can do that.”
    â€œWell, whaddaya think it was?” Clutzy wanted to know.
    â€œI don’t know,” Ray said, shaking his head. “But I’ll tell you one thing. . . .” He took a dramatic sip from his Budweiser before continuing. “Whatever it was, it wasn’t human.”
    â€œI coulda told him that,” Jeremy mumbled from behind me.
    â€œAnd whatever it was,” Ray continued, “the sonavabitch wasn’t alone. Right before it come after me, I seen something else on that friggin’ road. It come out from behind Old Man Lindstrom’s barn and scooted across in front of me. I slowed down to try to get a look at whatever the hell that was when—bam!—this other ugly-assed thing jumps in front of me. I’m tellin’ ya, there’s something to all them stories about that place. Laugh if you want, but that thing on my hood was as friggin’ real as you are.”
    â€œI ain’t laughing,” Clutzy said solemnly. “I’m the one who’s seen a ghost myself.”
    â€œShut your ass about your sonavabitchin’ ghost. What I seen was no friggin’ ghost.”
    I could feel a pain starting to develop in my side from trying to hold it in. I figured Bo and Jeremy must’ve been in about the same boat. Then all of a sudden a thought struck me. Ray had said he’d seen something else besides Rosasharn that night. And right across the road from Mr. Lindstrom’s barn—exactly where I’d seen Ethan staring right after Ray had made his getaway. If I hadn’t seen the look on Ethan’s face, I’d’ve thought Ray was the biggest liar in the world for sure. As it was, I just didn’t know.

Five
    I’m a big fan of Sundays. Days off, in general, I’m all in favor of, but Sunday, being my second free day in a row, is when I’m just hitting my stride at being laid-back. We’d taken care of mass on Saturday evening before dinner, so I didn’t even have to deal with sitting there thinking that every time Father Ryan looked my way he was having visions of Sister Violet