Midsummer's Eve (29 page)

I devoted every ounce of energy to pedaling the bike, but the relentless fog of insects was
faster. Within seconds they had
settled over me in a swarming cloud. I watched, horrified, as thousands quickly joined the others to cover my arms, legs, feet, head and face to bite or sting every inch o
f exposed skin. Almost immediately I felt sharp stingers piercing my body
through my clothes! When I tried to breathe my throat clogged with bugs and I gagged. I was frantically slapping at them as they sank their needle sharp points into my skin. The buzzing increased in volume until I thought my head would split and my body was on fire with pain.

I was in a swarm so thick
I couldn’
t even see my hand in front of me, let alone the road. And the buzzing noise the insects made sounded like a couple thousand of them had settled on my eardrums. I tried to open my eyes, but they covered my eyeballs. I began to feel a growing hysteria creep over me as I was slapping at the insects, trying desperately to keep the bike upright, and pedal all at the same time.

“Keep it together,
Eve!
” I warned. “
The gate can’
t be much further.” For some strange reason, I felt certain that if I could just make it out of the cornfields I would survive this nightmare and live to tell my grandchildren about it.

Thankfully, I opened my eyes in time to see the gate
looming
directly in front of me or I would have plowed right into it
,
at a high rate
of speed. Oh God! If I stopped
to unlock the gate, I might not be able to get back on the bike. If they got me on the ground the b
ugs would kill me! I was certain
they would suck every last ounce of blood from my body. That settled it.

There was no way I was stopping the bike. I slowed down, jumped off a
nd slid across the dirt road lo
sing several layers of skin from my outer right thigh in the process, but at least I was still alive. On trembling hands and knees I crawled under the gate feeling sharp, jagged rocks slicing into my knees and palms at every move. Miraculously, when I crossed under the gate the insects were gone, just as I had expected. I looked back and
didn’
t even see one lone bug.

Hallelujah!

             
Thank God!

I was alive!

I glanced cautiously around to see if a
nything else was coming my way
. A raging elephant? A roaring lion? A stampeding herd of buffalo perhaps? Who the hell knows? I took a quick peek in t
he corn. Nothing. Good. However I was covered in red
itching welts, bug bites
,
and stings from head to toe and my knees, palms and right leg were raw and bleeding. Needless to say, I am now a firm believer in the presence of poltergeists.

I sat down on the side of the road and had a good long cry, all the while wondering how I was going to get the bike to my side of the gate.
It was full dark now and t
here was no
way I would risk crawling back through
the gates of hell to retrieve a bicycle. The k
id could have it
for all I cared
.

As I picked my bloody, bruised and aching carcass off the ground and began the long walk home,
I heard a child’
s playful laughter coming from the edge of the cornfield.

           Devious little shit!

Fourteen

I
was soaking in a
hot tub of water, which seemed to sooth the intense itching for the time being and using tweezers to pull out the numerous stinge
rs that had pierced
my skin
when
Teri called
.
“Are you sure you didn’t imagine it
, Eve
?”
she
completely dumbfounde
d me by asking
. “Did you fall asleep at the river and dream it perhaps
? It sounds pretty far fetched
you know, even to me and I’m a firm believer in the supernatural.”

“
Teri, how
do you imagine a tornado and being attacked by a killer swarm of insects?”

“Good thing they
weren’
t
those
killer bees
that are supposed to be headed this way from somewhere in South America
,” she sno
rted.

No
she wasn’t actually laughing at the ordeal I had just
barely
survived! “If you could see the bug bites and stings covering my entire body,
you wouldn’
t think it was my imagination and you damn sure wo
uldn’
t think it was funny!” I snapped, finding it hard to control my rising anger. I mean, honestly, I could have easily died in the cornfield and she found that humorous?

“Oh, chill out. It was just a ghost sighting.
That’s practically an everyday occurrence.
Why did you make him so mad
anyway
?”

“
Teri, have you been sniffing too many perm fumes
?”
I screeched incredulously. “What did you expect me to do? Follow him?”

“
Number one, I don’t do perms
as you well know
. And number two,
I
certainly
would have.”

I knew that she indeed would have. Teri is a strong believer in the occult. She consults her
Ouija
board r
egularly and
,
years ago
,
was a member of a Wiccan Witch Coven.

“
It’
s
glaringly
obvious
, even to a novice like you
rself
,
that
the child wanted to s
how you something.”

“I didn’
t want to see it.”
I knew he
wanted t
o show me something too. I wasn’
t that dense. I mean he
had
kept motioning with his
chubby
little finger for me to follow him.

“
Oh, I just had an epiphany! I’ll come down this weekend and we can spend the nigh
t at the cabin and see what the
ch
i
l
d wants
,” she announced, using one of her tones that I had tired of years ago. “I thought you knew that when you saw a ghost you were supposed to follow it. Oh boy
! This will be the most fun I’
ve had in ages!”

“Forgive me, Teri. Unfortunately, I neglected to read
What To Do When A Ghost Child Tries To Kill You!
”

“He didn’
t try to kill you
, Eve
.
For crying out loud, h
e
just rough
ed you up a little to get your attention. He wants to show you something and we need to find out what.”

“
You can ceas
e and desist with this ‘we’ nonsense
right from the get go. You will go by yourself, because I can
you
assure that I’m not going back through
those haunted cornfields.
I probably already have a raging case of W
est Nile Virus from all the
mosquitoes
bites
or whatever
bugs they were.”

“
You don’
t have anything of the sort.
There you go again, Miss Dramatic.
And
besides,
you have to go. It’s
you he’s after. H
e probably won’
t e
ven appear if you aren’
t there.”

“
Then
, sorry,
he just w
on’
t be appearing.”

“
Come on, we’
ll get
Tammy
and
Mallory
and
have a girl’s n
ight at the river. It’
ll b
e fun. Don’t be such a killjoy.”

Fun! Exactly what part of my tornado and kamikaze insect attack story had soun
ded like fun? But I had her and I knew it
.
Mallory
scared easier than anybody I had ever
known
and
the girl wasn’
t about to go on a wild ghost chase. No way. No how.
“
If you get
Mallory
to go,
then
I will go.”

“Do you swear?” she asked, taking no chance of my backing out.

“I swear.”

“
Okay, I’
ll call you right back.”

Huh? That was
a
troublesome response.
She had sounded awfully sure of herself for some disturbing reason.
And why had I agreed to go if
Mallory
went? Knowing Teri as I do,
her shrewd little mind had
probably
already come up wit
h a scheme to make
Mallory
tag alon
g. Teri could probably bribe her
with extra
highlights!

I was rubbing cortisone cream into my bumpy, intensely inching
skin when she called back. “It’s all set for Friday night.”

I knew it! “
How did
you convince
Mallory
to go?”

“
I told her
JoJo
was going to be there. You know
she has the hots for your son
.”

She was right about that. JoJo
was definitely a white boy, but
Mallory
had often commented that she would love to make
,
yet
an
other
,
exception in his case and teach
him a few of the finer points of
life.

“
Why on earth di
d you tell her that
?
He
won’t be home
until Thanksgiving and that’s three months away!
” I shrieked.
And anyway, t
here was no way I would ever allow my
son to get involved with a man
eater like
Mallory
and Teri damn well knew it.

“Oh, what differ
ence does it make if I was o
ff by a few months
. You know JoJo
wouldn
’t eve
n give her old ass a second glance. Just let the girl
dream.”

“Huh! It’s her ass I’m worried about. You know how men salivate over it.”

“Oh yeah, I forgot about that.”

“Well, how about remembering it the next time you try to throw my son at her!”

“
I will. Anyway
,
I’ll see you
Friday night
. I can’t wait!
” Teri said excitedly.
“Ta ta for now.”

I was trying to reach my back with cortisone cream when
Tammy
called
. “
Did you really
the
the
thame
little boy
your dad
thaw
?”

“Yes, I did. I don’t know
for sure
if it was the same little boy, but whether you believe me or not I saw him. And he tried to kill me.”

Like Teri, she showed no concern whatsoever for the agony I had endured. What was wrong with these so-called friends of mine? Where was the love? How could they show more interest in my alleged ghost sighting, than in the pain and absolute terror I had suffered? Couldn’t they see that the evil little poltergeist had attempted to, if not kill me, at the very least send me into anaphylactic shock? You would think they would be a tad more sympathetic about my numerous injuries. I was thinking unkind thoughts about the lot of them as
I clawed at my extremely itchy
skin.

“Do you really think he wanted to kill you?”

“At first he wa
nted me to follow him. I wouldn’
t, and that’
s when he got really pissed.”

“Are
you
going to follow him next time?”

“Who knows? To be honest I
haven’
t a clue what I will do if it happens again, and I sincerely hope it doesn’t. Run like hell again, I suppose.” At least the next time I we
nt into the cornfields I wouldn’
t be alone. You can bet your bottom dollar on that!