Lake Monsters by Joe Citro

Author:Joe Citro [Citro, Joe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Horror
Publisher: Crossroad Press

3

Nancy sat at the kitchen table, correcting social studies quizzes from the day before. The class had been studying a unit on Vermont history, and so far the test scores were good. The kids found Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys' takeover of Fort Ticonderoga almost as exciting as an episode of MacGyver.

With Vermont Public Radio playing in the background, Nancy tapped her red pencil in time with Dvorak's New World Symphony. From time to time she'd hum along.

Sometimes her mind would wander and she'd think of Harrison. What would it be like to be with a man on the island? When she had come here, she had actually planned to be lonely. She'd wanted to take a stand as an independent, high-principled loner, to gradually earn the respect of a community that still held education and learning in high esteem, a community that still showed old-fashioned respect for the local schoolteacher.

Being caught in — or merely suspected of — an indiscretion could quickly get her ostracized, labeled as unfit to teach the island's young. Her predecessor, Miss Deborah Swain, had recently died an old maid. During her tenure of forty-five years, Miss Swain had given the whole community a definite impression of what a schoolteacher should be. It was a tough act to follow, a difficult role model to live up to.

And there was something else on her mind, a dark thought that intruded from time to time. It had to do with the state policeman she had overheard talking to Abner Mott. Hadn't he asked Abner for a character reference on Harrison? Did that mean he suspected Harrison of something? What could Harrison possibly have to do with the disappearance of the Pelletier family?

No, damn it, she was just being suspicious, almost paranoid. Harrison was new on the island. Locals are always suspicious of newcomers. She'd experienced it herself.

And yet, what did she really know about Harrison? What was the real reason he'd come to the island? He had no job, no apparent source of income. Could his entire purpose be exactly what he stated: learning all he could about the Lake Champlain Monster?

Oh, come on, Nancy, Harrison's okay. You're just getting tired.

That was it. Sure, she was tired.

She stood up and stretched, thinking it might be a good idea to go to bed. She would get up bright and early to finish the papers.

As she turned off the light over the kitchen table, she thought she saw motion at the window by the door. The curtain moving in a draft? The reflection of the swinging kitchen light?

Maybe she'd better lock up, just to be sure. Humming along with the FM, she crossed to the kitchen door just in time to hear a faint tapping on the other side.

Her first thought was of Harrison. Then, for some reason she thought of Eric.

Could Eric have found her?

She took the cold knob in her hand and started to turn it. Then she hesitated.

"Who is it?" she asked.

The answer exploded in an avalanche of sound and motion.

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