Cumberland Furnace and Other Fear-Forged Fables by Ronald Kelly

Author:Ronald Kelly [Kelly, Ronald]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Horror, Fiction, Short Stories (Single Author)
ISBN: 9780983221173
Publisher: Bad Moon Books
Published: 2011-05-08T15:23:15+00:00

MISTER MACK & THE MONSTER MOBILE

“Come on, will you?” called Jimmy. “Get the lead outta your butt!”

Kyle Sadler pumped the pedals of his bike, trying desperately to catch up. “What’s the big hurry?”

“He said he had to hit road by three. It’s past one-thirty right now.”

Kyle grumbled to himself as they left the busy stretch of Fesslers Lane and headed into the industrial park. Sometimes his best friend, Jimmy Jackson, drove him crazy, especially when he got some stupid idea stuck in his head.

“Watch out for trucks!” he warned the boy ahead of him. “You don’t want to get run over, do you?” The industrial park was usually swarming with tractor-trailers.

Jimmy looked over his shoulder and rolled his eyes. “It’s the Fourth of July. Nobody’s working today, remember?”

Kyle decided to keep his mouth shut. There was no reasoning with Jimmy when he was like this. Together, they sped beneath an interstate overpass. Above, cars and trucks roared on their way through East Nashville.

A minute later, they were there. They coasted into a vacant lot choked with weeds and crushed gravel. A couple of factories stood to the right and left, but like Jimmy said, it was a holiday. They were completely deserted.

“Great! He’s still here,” said Jimmy with relief.

Kyle looked at the big travel camper parked in the middle of the abandoned lot. It was one of those expensive kinds, like the country music stars parked on Music Row downtown. It was black and gray, its windows tinted so dark that you couldn’t see through them.

“I’m not sure about this, Jimmy,” he said after they parked their bikes a few yards away.

Jimmy did that eye-rolling thing again, making Kyle want to punch him right good. “The old man’s okay, I tell you. He’s kind of like my grandpa, but alot cooler. It’s not like he’s some kinda pediaphobe or something.”

“That’s pedophile, gerbil-brain,” Kyle told him. “Why is he parked out here in the middle of nowhere?”

Jimmy glared at him, irritated by his belly-aching. “Hey, I only brought you out here because you’re so crazy about the stuff. I mean, we can head back to the house and sit around bored out of our skulls, if you want.”

“No. No, that’s okay. Just seems awful weird, him being out here, that’s all.”

Jimmy hopped off his bike and knocked on the bus door. They stood in the summer heat for a long, expectant moment. Then the door opened with a pneumatic whoosh.

Kyle studied the man who stood there. He was in his mid-seventies, a little heavy, with thinning hair and a white beard. He wore a red Hawaiian shirt decorated with palm fronds and parrots, black shorts, and gray Crocs. Behind his eyeglasses shown kind eyes, sparkling with a youthfulness that his face had lost long ago.

“Hi, boys,” he greeted. “Glad to see you. I was afraid you couldn’t make it.”

“I had a little trouble convincing Kyle to come,” Jimmy told him. “Get this… he thinks you might be some kinda child molester or something.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.