by Deb Stratton
SANDY
DEB
STRATTON
SANDY
Copyright © 2020 by Deb Stratton
USA~CANADA~UK~IRELAND~AUSTRALIA~NEW ZEALAND~INDIA~SOUTH AFRICA~CHINA
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, including Internet usage, without written permission from Deb Stratton, Debbie S. Stratton except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
First Edition
First Printing, March 2020
SANDY / Deb Stratton
Debbie S. Stratton/Buffum
ISBN 9781689226011
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the Author.
SANDY...
DEB STRATTON
“Oh you, the Mother of all Mother’s. You proudly wear those
six hands of love.
Two to
hug with...
two to hurt with...
and two to kill with.”
~Deb Stratton
For though she's spoiled, and dreadfully so,
A girl can't spoil herself, you know.
Who spoiled her, then? Ah, who indeed?
Who pandered to her every need?
Who turned her into such a brat?
Who are the culprits? Who did that?
Alas! You needn't look so far
To find out who these sinners are.
They are (and this is very sad)
Her loving parents, Mom and Dad.
And that is why we're glad they fell
Into the garbage chute as well.”
― Roald Dahl
Chapter One
September
Over the main door of the house was a stone carved address plate. The number was Three Eleven. It was nothing important to anyone but her. Her, meaning Sandy.
My friends and I had started the end of our summer ritual just like any other year. Only one difference was obvious and that was the attention the boys had given to Sandy.
A year before, it was just toilet paper thrown up into her trees.
Sometimes the boys would light paper on fire and put it in her mailbox. We were never scared. We had no reason to be, she was just an old woman.
Junior and Liam worked together while creating chaos, but Liam was in charge. They went over their next act of harassment on the way home one day, while we all followed them nervously to keep a lookout for adults. That was how it all started. It was just an innocent game of pranks.
Houses like Sandy’s attracted the curious. It was not like the other brick homes on the street. The house was wooden and straight out of an antique photo album.
It was not unusual to see people taking photos of it or peeking around. There were rumors of ghosts and black-eyed children sitting on the porch. The children disappeared when investigated or approached.
The sun always set just beautifully over the house. The moon followed the path of the smoke from the chimney at night. It
was eerie and just the type of neighborhood centerpiece that all towns should have.
Our town of Hannibal rested on the Mississippi River. The Mark Twain Museum was the highlight of the town. My favorite places were always near the river or at the local caves.
The local tourists favored Karlocks and ghost tours. I was surprised that Sandy’s house was not on that list.
The phantom visions of children were talked about in our neighborhood often. They weren’t only seen at Sandy’s house.
While I was growing up, I had never realized what that was. What kind of kid has black eyes? It was surprising to me that they were seen by so many. Over the years there were many reports in other states and countries.
Some had pale skin and old-fashioned clothing. They weren’t ghosts in a traditional way because they had never lived. Maybe. It was just another creepy addition to my life in our neighborhood.
My Mom had a sighting of two children before I was born. One child was riding on an old antique bicycle. It was an old penny farthing. It was seen multiple times going up and down the street. The young man was maybe fifteen or sixteen. He dressed in clothing from another era.
She had also seen a young boy in the street. He tried to get her to stop while she was driving. When she turned around, he was gone.
I wasn’t the kind of person to scare easily but the stories kept me up some nights. Mostly around Halloween. Mom would always tell me not to open the door if the child had black eyes. Well, OK. I certainly did follow that request. Black eyes. Check. Lock the door quickly. Check. Done. It really did sound crazy to me.
It was almost time for the last bell to ring at school. I had spent most of my last class thinking about those creepy children.
I ran to my locker and grabbed my bag. I was happy to go home. The weather was beautiful. I looked forward to laying around with my Mom on the couch and watching movies.
Junior ran past me and shouted that he was ready to meet up with Liam. I wasn’t sure what they were up to but was sure it was some sort of crazy plan.
I was becoming bored with participating in their pranks. I was ready to become an adult and get a car. We were all near the age of working and earning money. There was nothing to do after school for us but look for a few exciting moments near the old spooky house.
I had always loved the old abandoned buildings and houses. We didn’t have those nearby, so the boys chose Sandy’s house. It was the closest to being abandoned and high on the creepy level.
There were other kids from school that lived on our street. They never joined our group. They walked their own paths. They did their own thing.
I wondered if they thought we were the bad kids. We were the ones that were always breaking rules and out of control.
I followed my crew until we stopped on the sidewalk next to an old fence. It was Sandy’s fence. She had a rusty iron antique fence that wasn’t tall enough to keep anyone out. Liam stopped and hopped over. I had no idea what his goal was or what he would do next. He was usually calm on the way home from school but had a wild side. It always came out near Sandy’s house.
We all became silent. There were six of us just watching and waiting. Liam snuck up to the window and looked inside.
It wasn’t good enough to just peek, so he grabbed his backpack and smashed it against the glass in the front window.
He hit it a second time and it cracked. The third time the window broke into a few large pieces and fell to the ground.
I stood on the sidewalk just looking at him with my mouth open. I was frozen. I couldn’t believe that he did that.
A lifetime of learning from my mom about what’s right and what’s wrong, suddenly came to my mind. I knew that I would be grounded for this if she found out.
He quickly ran towards us. We all ran together. The rest of us ran so fast that it took him over a minute to even catch up with us.
My heart was racing. I was thinking of nothing else but my mom waiting at home to scold me for the trouble I was in again. I should’ve trusted the first feeling I had and that was to keep walking without them. But I didn’t.
They all thought the situation was funny. I didn’t. I questioned myself a lot. Why would I even want them for friends? I knew that answer. I honestly knew they were my very best friends and I felt bad for even thinking that they weren’t.
I chose to walk home with them every day for the past ten years, so they were kind of like family.
Good news and bad news,” Junior said, “The good news is that we got away and the bad news is I dropped my phone.”
I really didn’t see the h
umor in that. The good news was good but still very bad. The window was still broken.
Junior’s voice always displayed mischief. He had a great tan and was the fastest runner I had ever seen in cowboy boots. He always wore them, even with shorts.
“No way. I am so sorry. I really need to get home, or I would stay and help you look for it.” I said.
I couldn’t walk back that way now. Not when the window glass was everywhere. There was no chance that I would even want to go that way for another week or two. That was not even considering how furious my mom would be when I got home late.
“Hey, Lily! I’ll give you five bucks to go back and grab my phone.” He said with a loud voice and a small laugh.
“Yes, you’re hilarious. No thank you. I will miss you. You’re going to regret going that way again. You’re going to get caught.” I said.
I had no psychic intuition at all but this one time, this one moment, I knew if he went back it wasn’t going to be good.
I could feel it. Whether it was the police coming or his parents getting involved, it had to be something.
Who was I to judge though? I never trusted my inner voice and was certainly surprised that I was following it on this day. I just wanted to go home. They could do whatever they wanted. I was done.
Liam ended up chanting cowardly names at Junior long enough to lead him back to that house. It was the manly thing to do. Own it. Go for it. Be brave.
I was going home.
“Well don’t worry about me. I will just go by myself and will see you all tomorrow.” Junior said.
He was trying his best to make me feel bad. It was something that he was good at. He would use his little smile to try to convince me to follow his lead. No thank you.
He headed down the sidewalk using his black converse to kick rocks as he walked. I think he had owned those chucks since middle school. I was surprised they weren’t falling off his feet.
“See you in the morning.” I said and I was done participating in anything else.
I started to walk home. I didn’t care if there was trouble or not, I just wanted to watch TV and forget that it even happened.
Everyone dispersed and headed their own way. We all lived close except Liam. He was the furthest away. His family had a very large house at the end of the street.
His strong personality emerged from that spoiled life he had lived. He was rich and always dressed in expensive clothes every day. It was a dream life that most of us envied. He tried hard to just be his own person and not some rich jerk.
Junior was just the opposite. His parents had divorced, and he often went without anything that Liam had. Liam was a very good friend to him. He always made sure all of us had extra lunch money or food. He was very giving.
Junior’s Dad worked long hours and he was home alone most nights. His mom lived just a few houses down from his
Dad’s. Junior spent his weekends with her and most school nights with his dad. I think he did it because he liked being home alone.
I never really knew the exact reason behind it. His mom didn’t have people over or flashy cars. She lived a very quiet and humble lifestyle. Junior never really said much about it all. I knew him but I didn’t. We were friends but he never let me in. He never talked about his life much to me. I only knew what I heard from others or observed. I was sure Liam knew more than the rest of us. They were really close.
Piper was my best friend. I had a few other friends at school but no-one that I hung out with. I was kind of in the same situation as Junior.
My mom had to work two jobs and I spent most of my time at home. We had no other family near us, so Piper was my family.
I walked in the door and nothing happened. No yelling. No angry mom. This was a good thing. She was in the kitchen playing her 80’s love rock music. I liked it most of the time. Tesla was playing and I sang a little while I went down the hall to my room.
My mom wasn’t like the others in town. Even though she was almost fifty, she was cool. She looked thirty to most people and had endless amounts of energy.
Sometimes I wondered where it came from. She worked, cooked, cleaned and still found time to do her crafts and sewing. We had junk everywhere.
The house would be clean for one day and then it looked like we were having a moving sale. I liked that she was doing what made her happy.
Her long blonde hair was always so beautiful to me. We didn’t agree on many subjects in the past year or so, but I was hopeful that would all change when I graduated. I often felt like a burden to her. She worked so hard to keep our home and I did my part by just trying to stay quiet most of the time so that she could rest.
That is, minus the food raids while she was cooking. That was something I just couldn’t quit doing. I planned on doing that until I was fifty myself.
The street we lived on was next to a rural highway. Some nights were noisier than others. Cars were constantly crossing over the river from Illinois. Because of this, we were always warned about travelers
and abductions. The bridge was one of my favorite places to go. On weekends we would all walk there and hangout. We stopped going when Liam got hurt. He was trying to climb under the bridge and swing one afternoon and ended up breaking his arm. That was the end of our travels there. We started staying closer to home.
There was plenty to keep us busy near our street, which was Rendlen. We had McDonalds and Taco Bell within walking distance. I liked Sonic the most but no one else seemed to as much.
I rarely saw anyone to be concerned about. Our town was just too small. We were surrounded by cornfields and farms.
Most visitors wanted to go to the Mark Twain Boyhood Home. Mark or as we were taught in school,
Samuel Langhorne Clemens.
He was the inventor of my mom’s favorite saying.
“If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything”.
That quote hadn’t come in real handy yet in my life, but I would hold onto it, just for when it would be needed.
My books and phone landed on the bed and I turned around to go grab some food. The rumors about starving kids after school were all true. I was hungry every single day that I arrived home.
Sneaking supper an hour early wasn’t so easy though. It frustrated my mom that I interrupted her kitchen time. I could see the aggravation on her face when I did it.
I made a plate of food and sat down to watch the new Netflix series Urban Bigfoot. My mom didn’t really get why I loved it. Maybe she was getting old. Everyone was becoming older except me. I felt like I had been a teenager for twenty years.
I was tired of waiting to drive. Tired of waiting to turn of age. Independent was what I longed to be. I really had no right to wish for that after running the streets with my gangster friends. We were still acting like kids most of the time and not young adults.
But like always, as soon as I started thinking about it all I was caught up in the excitement.
The hours passed by quickly after the new episodes and I headed to my room. I couldn’t stop thinking about that series.
A young housewife was abducted in central Missouri by a Bigfoot clan. I followed her journey every episode hoping for her escape. I could only wish for that kind of adventure to come my way. It was very exciting to me.
My house was too close to the main highway to encounter a Bigfoot. The woods near the river bluffs were my focus for a sighting. If there was a chance of seeing one, that is where it would be.
I was usually glued to my phone but there it was laying on the bed right where I left it.
I went to my room and my phone was flashing. It was after nine and I had sixteen text messages and two missed calls. This was very unusual for me.
My only true friend was Piper. We shared everything with each other. She had been at the dentist all day and missed the great window-smashing adventure. I read through the messages and Piper’s were first. She had the bands on her braces changed. Cool. I kept reading then… I had to call.
-Hey girl, Ortho went well. I had my bands changed to orange for Halloween. I know it’s early, but I couldn’t wait lol
Two: -Well you must be eating. I will catch up with you later
Three: -Did you fall asleep?
Four: -OMG you have to call me, Junior is missing...
Me: -OMG .... sorry I was watching TV with my mom and forgot my phone was on my bed!
Me: -What do you mean Junior is missing? I just saw him after school.
Me: -Calling!
No answer. What the heck. It went to her voice- mail. I decided to call Junior and it went to his voicemail.