The Game and other stories by Joe Baldwin

Author:Joe Baldwin [Baldwin, Joe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Joseph Baldwin
Published: 2021-08-17T00:00:00+00:00

HOOKED

Billy Thomas leaped from his bed and ran downstairs to the smell and sound of crackling bacon on a skillet. It was Saturday, and it was Billy’s favorite day. No school, no band practice—which he despised—and no responsibilities.

“Billy, honey, please don’t run in the house,” his mother said.

It was an old house. Built in 1898. When the Thomas family first moved there twenty years ago, Billy was still ten years out from being born, but when he was old enough to understand such things, he referred to the house as the haunted house. Shirley assured Billy that there were no ghosts in the house, but Billy was hoping there were.

Last year, on the night of Billy’s ninth birthday, his mother and he ventured out on a haunted ghost tour in the surrounding cities. Billy was excited to learn how many ghost sightings were so close by. The story that made him most overjoyed was the sighting through the woods in his own back yard.

In the rear of the colonial were miles of woodland. “Cheese,” Billy had called them when he was little. “Green cheese.”

Now Billy’s pronunciation had grown, and so had his fascination for the ghost stories. The story through the woods his mother said was “malarkey,” but Billy believed it.

The legend went that two people were walking through the woods, a girl and guy, and they were kissing. Billy knew what the storyteller actually meant but didn’t care too much for those specifics. The two heard some sticks cracking and leaves rustling around them. They stood and saw a creature lurking in the shadows of the night. He was a large, burly man who had a hook for a hand. They ran out of the woods. The girl made it out, but the boy was never seen again.

Billy had gotten shivers from that story when he heard it last year. And since then, he had wanted to go searching for The Hookman. But, since then, his mother wouldn’t allow him to set foot inside the woods.

Billy continued his Saturday by chomping on scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast. Then he played on his PlayStation his mother had gotten him earlier in the month. He tried to argue in the store for the Resident Evil game, but she said it looked too gory from the pictures on the back of the box. She settled on Crash Bandicoot , and Billy reluctantly agreed. So, he smashed boxes and collected fruits until lunchtime. After lunch, he watched Nickelodeon and fell asleep on the couch to Hey Arnold .

He woke to the doorbell ringing and his mother saying, “I got it.”

It turned out to be his friend and neighbor, Derek.

“Can Billy come out and play?” Derek asked Shirley.

Billy rubbed his eyes and noticed it getting dark outside. He wasn’t sure of the time, but he was sure his mother wouldn’t let him outside this time of night. Even on a Saturday.

Shirley tapped her chin for a few seconds. “Okay, but only for an hour and stay in the back yard.

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