He Wanted To Show Her Something Weird

The Wednesday before last I posted a short monologue from a story I’m working on. The story probably will be called “The Skeleton From The Telephone Pole,” and this is another brief excerpt:



A little after midnight a skeleton squeezed itself out from inside a telephone pole. It simply walked over the alley fence of Sasha’s back yard and began chasing a rabbit.

Sasha and Terry watched from his back yard across the alley.

Sasha had thought Terry asked her to sit with him in his back yard because he wanted to get frisky. He’d said he wanted to show her something weird. She’d giggled and agreed. They’d sat outside, whispering, Sasha herself getting more and more frisky, while Terry kept his attention focused on the alley.

Then, a little after midnight, a skeleton squeezed itself out from inside a telephone pole and began chasing a rabbit around Sasha’s back yard.

The rabbit finally escaped by slipping under an old, wooden fence along the north side of Sasha’s yard. The skeleton made a fist and pounded the wooden fence. The impact made a loud bang that echoed through the night.

Sasha gasped.

The skeleton across the alley spun toward the sound of Sasha’s gasp.

Terry took Sasha’s hand. They stood up.

The skeleton stalked to the alley fence behind Sasha’s yard. The skull starred at Sasha and Terry.

Terry took a step backward toward the enclosed porch of his house. He pulled Sasha, but Sasha stood rigid, terrified, her eyes fixed on the skeleton across the alley.

The skeleton slowly stepped over the fence and into the alley. It crouched.

Terry tugged at Sasha’s hand. She wouldn’t move.

The skeleton lunged forward, running across the alley.

Sasha screamed.

Terry dragged Sasha backward. He opened the door to his porch and shoved Sasha inside. He jumped in after her, pulled the door closed behind him and pushed the deadbolt lock and twisted the doorknob lock.

Terry looked out through the window in the door. Sasha stood behind Terry and looked over his shoulder.

The skeleton ran across the pavement outside the porch. The bones of its feet made clacking sounds against the stones. At the door, the skeleton raised a fist. Terry, remembering the force of the skeleton pounding on the fence, tried to take a step back, but again Sasha wouldn’t move.

The skeleton stopped with its fist raised. The skull leaned forward. Its cranium clicked against the glass. The black, empty eye sockets seemed somehow focused on Terry and Sasha.

Terry felt Sasha’s hands clutching his arms so tightly he wondered if she might be able to break his bones just from the pressure of her fingers.

Outside, the skeleton backed up, whirled around and ran from the yard. Out in the alley, the skeleton ran to a telephone pole. It positioned itself sideways to the pole, then leaned in and somehow squeezed itself into the pole and disappeared.

Sasha spun Terry around. She punched him, hard, in the chest. She spoke and her voice was practically a scream.

“Any guy on earth tells a girl he wants to show her something weird,” Sasha yelled, “and it means he, you know, wants to show her something weird! Why do I get the only guy on the planet who tells me he wants to show me something weird and he really means he wants to show me something weird!?”