The owner of the high-pitched voice states, “Your threats do not faze me in the least. Do as I say and no funny business! Get out of your chair and move to the wall!”
Sophia pushes her chair away from the table, and then she stands. She knows she can disable the unknown person with lightning speed before he has a chance to react. All the same, she will not attack until she is confident that Diana Jane will not be injured.
He could have a gun to her head or a knife to her throat! Even if I take him out, there is no guarantee he will not harm Diana Jane in the process. I have to turn around to see what I am facing before I can go on the offensive. Besides, I cannot tell if the person is to my left or right or if he is directly behind me. I also do not know on what side Diana Jane is standing. Both of their voices sound strangely far-off, yet, at the same time, their voices sound very close like they are inches behind me. I must bide my time for Diana Jane’s sake.
Sophia starts to turn around slowly to face whoever is behind her.
“I told you not to turn around!” the voice snaps. “You do not want anything to happen to your precious friend, do you? Now, proceed slowly to the wall on your right. Once you are there, I want you to get down on your knees. Whatever you do, do not turn around! If you turn around or make any sudden moves, I will kill your friend.”
Sophia starts to walk unhurriedly to the wall. She purposely hobbles as she walks.
The high-pitched voice commands, “I want you to hurry, and I want you to stop your dawdling!”
Sophia shouts, “I am going as fast as I can! I fell down the stairs, and I hurt my knees. Why can’t you give me a break?”
The high-pitched voice screams, “You are faking! You also are trying my patience. Because of your duplicity, your friend gets more of this!”
Sophia cringes as Diana Jane’s voice suddenly cries out, “Oh, my God, don’t! It hurts so much. Please stop! You could have broken my wrist!”
“See?” the voice says indifferently. “I told you I would harm your friend all the more if you do not cooperate and do as I say. Now, get moving, and do not turn around! If you continue to dawdle, your friend will get more of this!” Sophia trembles as Diana Jane lets out another agonizingly horrible scream.
Sophia is frightened, more so for Diana Jane than for herself. Unless the owner of the strange voice has a gun pointed at her, she knows he won’t have a chance if she attacks. She ponders her next move.
I have to stall for time. I cannot allow whoever it is to force me to my knees. I will have less of a chance to attack him from that position. However, I am worried about Diana Jane. What if I attack blindly and I injure her in the process? What if he takes her out before I can disable him?
Sophia asks in a surprisingly calm tone, “What is this all about, anyway? What have we done to you? Who are you? Are you Puppet, or are you one of his friends? Maybe you are that scoundrel, Mister Cheaply, the one Chloe had mentioned!”
“Shut up!” the voice commands sternly. “Don’t you worry yourself about who I am or with whom I associate. Keep moving.”
Sophia is now standing a few inches from the wall. She exaggerates her made-up, sore knees. She says with an aggrieved tone, “I am unable to kneel. I cannot bend my legs at the knee. Please do not make me do it. I will fall flat on my face.”
The high-pitched voice says unsympathetically, “I could care less if you fall flat on your face. You must take me for a fool! I know you are feigning your injury. I watched as you strolled into the library with a cup of coffee in your hand over five hours ago. You had no problem negotiating the steps into the library or down the staircase to this room.
“Yes, I can tell you are surprised by what I say. I have been secretly studying you all this time as I hid among the bookshelves. You had no problem getting up from the chair and walking around the room. You even visited the restroom. All the while you did not limp. Now, get down on your knees, or you will hear your friend scream once more!”
Sophia thinks to herself. I have one last chance to take him out before I get down on my knees. Hold on a minute! Something doesn’t add up! I wonder if the voice I am hearing belongs to Diana Jane?
Sophia whispers, “My dear friend, Diana Elaine Crowley, are you going to be okay?”
Sophia smiles as the voice of Diana Jane replies in a timid, frail tone.
“I think I will be okay. Just do as he says, please? If you do not do as he says, he will hurt me even more.”
I knew it! That is not Diana Jane’s voice! If it were, she would have contradicted me when I referred to her with a made-up name! All the same, I must be careful not to hurt whoever it is that is screaming and talking to me. That is if the person is real and I am not imagining all of this!
Turning her attention to the unknown owner of the threatening, high-pitched voice, Sophia says, “What are you going to do with Diana Elaine after I squat down on my knees? Are you going to let her go? Promise me that you will let her go.”
“What I do with your friend, Diana Elaine Crowley, is my business,” the voice answers. “Now, get down on your knees before I hurt your friend yet again!”
Sophia unexpectedly whirls around to face the owner of the menacing voice. She quickly moves to take up an offensive posture. Suddenly, the resolute look on her face turns to one of fear! She screams at the top of her lungs. She starts to tremble as her eyes mist over with tears. She immediately drops to her knees.
A life-sized clown puppet is dangling from the ceiling by strands of twine less than three feet from Sophia’s face! The freckled-faced, redheaded puppet is wearing a baggy, dark blue suit. It bears a resemblance to the fear-provoking clown of the horror movie It! The grotesque puppet grins at Sophia, and then he screams in a loud, high-pitched voice. Sophia wants to move her hands to cover her ears from the dreadful sounds, but her hands will not budge from the carpet!
The bizarre, unspeakably frightening puppet says with a laugh, “Welcome to my world of redheads, my ginger sweetheart! I see you are on your knees. Do you intend to propose to me? Are we to be wed? Shall we breed dozens of redheaded offspring? How exciting my darling, how charmingly exciting! Let’s get it on!”
The puppety clown silently disappears between two bookshelves.
Next, and without making a sound, everything in the room, except for Sophia, abruptly flips the wrong side up. Books and magazines cascade from the bookshelves and cartwheel to the floor. Without warning, the empty bookshelves, tables, and chairs skyrocket to the high ceiling and hang upside-down! They gradually swing back and forth as if they are about to drop from the ceiling at any moment.
Sophia tries to get up from the carpet. She wants to run out of the room before something more dreadful happens. Then again, she is unable to move! It is like something has glued her hands and feet to the carpet!
She suddenly hears strange echoes as the entire room begins to shake. Thinking that the bookshelves, tables, and chairs are about to flip-flop from the ceiling onto her head, she screams. Thankfully, the gradually increasing echoes do not cause the furniture to fall to the floor.
As the echoes progressively grow louder, she notices small bumps that look like warts start to appear on the carpet. At first, there are fifteen to twenty of the nodules. The objects rapidly increase in number until they cover the entire carpet! They begin to pulsate soundlessly, and then they unhurriedly puff up like balloons filling with air.
All of a sudden, the bumps explode simultaneously with a loud, earsplitting “kaboom!” Thick, opaque, dark blue pus that reeks of rotten eggs flies everywhere and covers Sophia’s body from tip to toe! She wants more than anything to wipe the revolting, putrid-smelling discharge from her face, but she still cannot move!
All at once, even though Sophia is not consciously doing it, her tongue slides from her mouth. It slowly begins to lick the revolting pus from her lips. It flickers over her upper lip two times, and then it does the same with her lower lip. Her tongue pulls back inside her mouth and laps the inside
and outside of her teeth. Just as Sophia impulsively swallows, she vomits straight away. She screams once more when she sees what has come out of her mouth. Instead of throwing up her breakfast, she has regurgitated a disgusting, dark blue, six-inch dollop of greasy stuff tainted with red phlegm!
She wants to look away from the revolting object, but now she cannot move her head! She tries to close her eyes, but she cannot. Her eyelids will not obey! She must stare wide-eyed at the disgusting glob as it begins to pulsate. Like the bumps in the carpet had done earlier, the ghastly dollop slowly puffs up until it is at least ten inches in diameter. Sophia cringes with the expectation that the glob will explode as the warty bumps had. However, instead of bursting open like the bumps on the carpet, the throbbing blob slowly deflates with a lengthy, barely perceptible, “pssssssst!” It is now an abhorrent-looking, six-inch slimy lump of bumpy, pulsating horror! Without warning, one side of the glob ruptures.
Sophia screams yet again as she is forced to watch as a small creature slowly appears from inside the opening. First, eight tiny skeletonic fingers surface. After that, two skeletonic hands come into view. Two small arms closely follow the grotesque, boney hands. Last of all, whatever it is that remains within the deflated glob jumps from the opening onto the carpet. It does two summersaults and comes to rest on all fours.
It is a five-inch-tall baby clown puppet – a tiny, spitting image of the life-sized clown puppet that had spoken to Sophia a few minutes ago! Oily, blue and red goo covers the baby from head to toe! It has frayed strands of thin twine attached to its hands and feet.
The baby has freckles on its legs, arms, hands, face, and even on its nose. It also has long curls of red hair on either side of its head. Instead of a baggy dark blue suit like the life-sized clown puppet had worn, the baby is wearing a dark blue diaper and a red t-shirt.
It looks up at Sophia and smiles cheerfully. It makes a great effort to get to its feet. Once it is standing, it slowly stumbles toward Sophia. All the while its eyes never leave hers. A look of recognition suddenly appears on the creature’s face. It opens its arms out wide and whispers with a high-pitched tone between toothless lips.
“Momma, momma! Momma, momma!”
Sophia screams panic-stricken as she tries to free her hands and feet from the carpet’s clutches. Just as the carpet lets go of her hands and she manages to get to her feet, a sonorous squeal floods the room.
Sophia collapses to her hands once more as the life-sized doppelganger clown puppet slowly drops from the ceiling. He peers into Sophia’s terrified eyes. He grins a toothless smile, and then he proudly yells in his high-pitched, falsetto voice.
“Oh, my goodness, Sophia, look at what we have here! It’s a boy!”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
RETALIATION
“It was a terrifying, high-pitched voice!”
Part I: A Deal is Struck, well, Almost
Missus Davenhill eyes Mister Cheaply up and down through the glass door that separates Missus Bell’s office from hers. He stopped to have a brief, amicable conversation with her secretary. Their daughters are in the same homeroom. The two teenagers also are members of the history club.
Missus Davenhill is surprised by Mister Cheaply’s attire.
He usually dresses casually in a blue sports jacket, brown slacks, and Cordova, slip-on loafers. He seldom wears a necktie, even to church services. Oddly, today, Mister Cheaply is dressed in a glitzy, dark brown, pinstriped suit. He is wearing formal, black Oxford wingtips on his feet. He has on a black necktie tied into a Windsor knot. The tie has embroidered images of golf balls on it. The solid gold tie clip is a miniature golf club.
Missus Davenhill groans. I can tell this isn’t going to go well.
After shaking hands and exchanging a few pleasantries, Missus Davenhill offers Mister Cheaply a cup of coffee. As the two of them silently sip their coffee, they eye each other suspiciously. Missus Davenhill has a general idea of why he is here. Nevertheless, she is not going to show her hand.
As far as Mister Cheaply is concerned, he is very nervous. In spite of this, he forces himself to appear calm. He is trying to figure out the best way to tell Missus Davenhill why he is pulling his sponsorship of the school’s extracurricular programs. He cannot tell her the truth. That is obvious. As a result, in his characteristic dishonest fashion, he is going to lie.
Missus Davenhill is tiring of his delaying tactics. She drums her fingers on her desk, and then she looks him squarely in the eye. She says firmly, “David, I have this sneaky suspicion you want to terminate your sponsorship of our school’s extracurricular programs. Please stop diddle-daddling. Don’t beat around the bush. Give it to me straight.”
Mister Cheaply drones on for more than ten minutes. He explains in great detail the reasons why he cannot sponsor the school’s extracurricular programs. He carefully focuses primarily on the school’s swimming team as Puppet had recommended. Every bit of what he says is a lie. Missus Davenhill doesn’t say a word, nor does she bat an eyelash the entire time.
Mister Cheaply finally winds down his falsehoods with a grief-stricken summary.
“I am sorry, Marie, but things have been rough for my family as well. My wife is scheduled for major surgery this summer. Claudia needs braces. Those suckers are super expensive. I need to replace the engine on one of my cars too. As I mentioned, my store’s profits are down significantly, and everything is more expensive than ever. My electricity and heating bills are skyrocketing. I have to replace my store’s back door. Someone broke into the store a while back.” He twists his face into a frown. “Marie, I can barely keep my head above water both as a breadwinner and as a neighborhood grocer.”
Now it is Missus Davenhill’s turn to speak.
“You cannot do this to us, to the kids,” she says in a forceful tone, “especially in the middle of the school year.” She glares at Mister Cheaply.
“Think of all the kids, David. Have you considered how they will feel if you suddenly terminate your sponsorship of their favorite programs? You will break their hearts. As you know, most of our extracurricular activities that you sponsor center around sports. The sports programs serve to promote team spirit, primarily when we compete against other schools in the district.
“What about all those parents who rely on our school to provide their children with a well-rounded education that includes a varied assortment of exciting extracurricular activities? Have you given any thought to them? They are your neighbors, friends, customers, and fellow church members, the very people with whom you associate daily. How about them?
“What about the alumni, David? You are a Claymore High alumnus. How will you face your fellow alumni on the street and during social events? They, along with the students and the students’ parents, will think you have abandoned them. So will I.
“I understand everything that you have said. I empathize with you. Things are tough here at school from an economic standpoint as well. My teachers and I spend a considerable amount of our household cash to ensure the students have adequate supplies in class. As a parent, you are well aware that we also seem to have a fund drive for just about everything these days. I dislike fund drives, and I know the parents hate them as well. Then again, what can we do? We need the money.
“Can you somehow find it in your heart and budget to sponsor at least some of the programs? You are saying you will immediately discontinue all of your sponsorships. That would affect those that are currently in progress like the girls’ and boys’ fastpitch softball teams and the drama club. The drama club is going to perform Peter Pan in a few weeks. We still have to pay for costumes and miscellaneous items.
“The upcoming four-day presentations of the Peter Pan play are going to be a town knockout. The radio station is playing the original movie’s songs at least once an hour, and the local bands are playing a few songs at the clubs as well. Everyone is getting hyped up over the play. If it doesn’t go forward, we will disappoint the entire town. Moreover, Nashville’s C
hannel 6 TV station will show the final presentation of the play to everyone in its viewing area. That Channel 6 is broadcasting the performances will enhance the school’s image as well as putting Claymore on the map. That’s super huge, David, and you know it!
“Then there is the volleyball team. The volleyball championship series is right around the corner as well. You cannot abandon the volleyball team, David. Not now. It is the number one team in the league. We are going to State finals, and I am confident our team will be one of the top three. They have what it takes to be the champion!”
Mister Cheaply looks at Missus Davenhill squarely in the eye.
“Perhaps I could continue to fund the girls’ and boys’ fastpitch softball teams and the drama club. As far as the volleyball team goes, I have to reconsider sponsoring it. I am afraid the team’s trip to Memphis for the championship finals will break the bank. In any event, I will have to examine my books more closely to see if I can handle some of the teams financially.”
A broad smile graces Missus Davenhill’s face. She gives Mister Cheaply two thumbs up, and then she reaches around to her credenza to grab the coffeepot. She turns around and refills Mister Cheaply’s cup.
“That would be great. That would give my coaches sufficient time to round up additional sponsors. It will be difficult. The economy isn’t that strong right now. Besides, we are mid-season in some of our programs. Getting sponsors to sign on in the middle of a season is rough. I have been down that road before, and I assure you it is a very bumpy road and not at all productive.”
Mister Cheaply says, “Yes, I know. Extracurricular programs and needless frills are the first things to go when times get tough as it relates to the economy. I’m even thinking of disconnecting cable television and taking away Claudia’s second phone. Why she needs two phones, I have no clue. I may have to sell one of my four cars, the Corvette. Frills have to go.” He frowns. “What is worse, I may have to quit the Claymore Country Club!”
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