More of my writing.

I was just playing around with something and I came up with this. I think I have the S. King method of writing...you dig up and little fragment and then keep going.



The meeting

We were in Kevin’s kitchen surrounding the green plastic lawn table, Kevin stood because there weren’t enough chairs. Joe shifted in his seat to my left. “We still don’t know if this is right. Maybe we should call somebody? Say something.”

We'd been at this for hours. “Who you want to call Joe? What do you want to say?” I said, I could feel smoke burn into my throat. “I’m just saying.” Joe said and the big man took another drag of his cigarette.

Fran rocked forward again, her shaky arms leaning onto the table for support, it wobbled almost overturning. “The same thing happened forty years ago when my David was alive. First the cats then cows started going missing and then...and then little Samantha down the road. I was open to things like this once, but since David passed I shield myself pretty good.”

Robert sat across from me, the town mail carrier and official snoop, Next to him was Molly, Kevin’s wife, she was a young plump thing nearly bursting out of her tee-shirt. “I heard those stories Fran and I don’t think much of them.” She said. “Anyone want more coffee?" Kevin asked.

His kitchen stank of cigarette smoke, dog and men, I almost gagged at the thought of more bad coffee. “We need to decide what to do and we need to figure it out tonight,” I said. Robert huffed into his mug, “just because you work at the bank doesn’t mean you’re in charge. It’s Kevin’s house and even Joe has more experience with this kind of stuff.”

“Hell Robert I don’t want to be in charge, but I don’t want to spend another night with my family huddled in the basement either.” I motioned toward Kevin. “You want to be in charge?”

“Not me,” he said,

“How about you Joe?" I leaned into him, "You’ve got more experience, that’s what Robert says, you want to be in charge?”

“What experience?” Joe’s arms wiggled as he shook them at the ceiling.”

“Robert says you got experience, that’s all I know,” I said as I collapsed back into the green chair.


“My David had experience, God rest his soul,” Fan said, her mouth moving like a broken jigsaw puzzle.

Robert stood up pointing his finger at Joe. Robert still had is gray uniform on, no one had invited him to the meeting we all just assumed he’d show up. He was an old man, not Fran old but old enough to know when he’d been called out. “You’ve been in that group for years now. I listen to you on the radio every year.”

Joe laughed. “That? The Ohio Grassman Search Team! Robert all we do is camp out in the forest and get drunk.”

“You want to be leader Joe?” I asked.

“No.”

I looked through the stuff we had drawn up, I was the only one who had brought paper, Molly had volunteered to write because she said that none of the men could write worth a damn. We had an address, two names and list of supplies. “Let’s just go over what we know. I said.

Robert started. “Michael Satish and his wife, I think she is his wife moved into the old Kerner’s house last year. Since that time, the cats have up and left--"

“All the cats?” Molly asked, writing again.

“You seen a cat around here in the last six months.” I asked. She wrote all the cats are gone in big block letter on the top of her paper.”

Robert went on, “All the cats are gone, the McRutter’s have lost three cows as of last month and the Shelby kid went missing last week.”

“The boy is fifteen, how do we know he didn’t just up and leave, like the state police says.” Kevin said moving around the table with fresh mugs of coffee. “He’s never been in trouble before and his parents are good people,” Robert said.

“So?” Tammy asked?

“So what?” I said

“So all this makes Satish a monster?”

“I don’t know.” I said

Robert went for the fridge and grabbed a beer. “I know.” He said and popped the can.

He took a swig and began. “The guy is a sheet. White as a ghost. Up during the day but never comes to the door, wife does all the taking, but talking like she is in a dream or drunk or worse. And that boy, I saw that boy talking to her the day before he disappeared.” Robert came back to the table, and looked at Joe again. “Just go camping and party huh?” Joe shrugged and looked at me. “So collage boy does that mean we burn down his house?”

“I don’t know.” I said.

Kevin fiddled with his fish tank and asked if that meant the boy was still alive. No one answered. Then his daughter came into the kitchen with two handfuls of dog food. She’d been eating it again.

“My kids ate it all the time.” Fran said, “I figured if it was good for the dog’s hair it be good for theirs too.” I stared out the back of the kitchen window. It was getting dark and starting to snow.