The Narrows by Ronald Malfi Read Free Book Online

was pretty—beautiful, even, in that innocent and giddy way all young boys find their mothers beautiful—but she looked simply tired and drained now. “Why don’t you say it, honey?”
    “I said it last night,” he groaned. “Make Brandy do it.”
    “I set the table,” Brandy countered quickly, “so you have to say it.”
    “Matthew,” his mother said. The exhaustion in her voice informed him that this was not the time to argue over something so trivial.
    “Dear God, thank you for the food and for bringing us all together again. Amen.” He had considered throwing in a request—namely, that no one would come in and buy the vampire mask from Hogarth’s before he was able to get down there early tomorrow morning with his and Dwight’s money in tow—but decided to omit it in the end.
    His mother shoveled peas onto her plate. “How was everyone’s day?”
    “Aced my geography test,” Brandy said.
    “Nice job.”
    “Then Mrs. Oxland almost got run over by a school bus.”
    Wendy Crawly gaped at her daughter. “What?”
    “She was out in the parking lot after school, yelling at some kid, not watching where she was going, and a school bus nearly ran her over,” Brandy said. “She hopped back up on the curb at the last minute.”
    “Lord,” Wendy muttered. Her eyes swung toward her son. “How about you?”
    Matthew shrugged. “School was okay.”
    “Do anything fun after school?”
    “Dwight and I went down to the park and played some kickball with some other kids.” He could tell his mother was suddenly scrutinizing the grime beneath her son’s fingernails. “Dwight kicked a home run and won the game,” he added quickly, hoping more detail would make a believer out of his mom.
    “Dwight’s a big kid,” his mother said.
    “Fat, you mean,” Brandy added.
    “Shut up,” Matthew barked.
    “You guys didn’t go anywhere else today?” his mother asked.
    “No, ma’am.” His face burned.
    “Interesting.” His mother got up, went to the fridge, and returned to the table with a bottle of Budweiser. Unscrewing the cap, she said, “So I guess David Moore would be lying had he told me he saw you and Dwight crossing Route 40 down by the Narrows this afternoon?”
    Matthew felt a sinking in his stomach. “Oh.”
    “Yeah,” said his mother. “Oh.” She took a small sip of her beer then set the bottle on the table. Foam bubbled up the neck, reminding Matthew of the fully working model volcano Jimmy Ornswaith had made for science class last year. “You know you’re not supposed to play out there,” his mother went on. “I’ve told you not to cross that highway and to stay away from the Narrows.”
    “I didn’t want to go. There was this stupid dead deer Dwight wanted to see. Billy Leary said it had been killed by a bear and we—”
    “We’ve talked about this, Matthew. You could drown in that water. Especially after the storm we’ve had. That water gets out of control and can be very dangerous.”
    “We weren’t in the water. We never go into it.”
    “You could have fallen in. It’s dangerous. You’re too young to be out there.”
    “It’s where they found that boy,” Brandy spoke up, and Matthew looked at her, recalling that Dwight had said a similar thing. “The police found him in Wills Creek.”
    “That’s not dinner talk,” Wendy Crawly said in a small voice.
    Brandy looked quickly down at her plate. “Sorry.”
    “And I don’t want to have this discussion with you again, Matthew. Am I understood?”
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    “I don’t appreciate being lied to, either.”
    “Sorry,” he said…and felt his sister administer a swift kick to his shin underneath the table.
    “All right, then,” said Wendy.
    They ate the rest of their meal in silence.
     
    5
     
    That evening, as everyone else slept soundly in the Crawly house, young Matthew awoke with a scream ratcheting up his throat. He was tacky with sweat, the ghost-fingers of a retreating nightmare still