The World Ends at Five & Other Stories by Langlinais M Pepper

The World Ends at Five & Other Stories by Langlinais M Pepper

Author:Langlinais, M Pepper [Langlinais, M Pepper]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-11-18T23:00:00+00:00


When I got down to the pond, all I saw was Corey. He drifted face down in the water. He was wearing his white pants and the white, short-sleeved, button-down shirt he sometimes wore to Wednesday night church services. In the bright of the sun, his fair hair looked almost white, too. He was like an angel who’d come in for a bad landing.

“It’s your fault,” a voice said from behind me. “If we’d all three been here, it would have worked.”

I turned around. Bryan had his hands stuffed into his pockets; I could see the material stretched over the knuckles of his clenched fists. He wore his dark, Sunday-best slacks. The legs were wet up to above his knees.

“We’ve got to call somebody,” was all I could think to say.

“Did you hear me?” Bryan demanded. “This is your fault!”

“I’ll go get Mr. Buchanan,” I said. I started off past Bryan, but he grabbed hold of my left arm as I passed. “We’re all here now. It’ll work now,” Bryan said. He began dragging me toward the water.

“Let me go!” I screeched. I tried to kick him, but I was turned the wrong way to get anything damaging in.

When I felt the cold on my heels and begin lapping over the top of my sneakers, I panicked. Bryan had good hold of my arm, and I was faced backwards, but I twisted to pound and scratch at his back.

“Bryan! Let me go!”

Somewhere a dog began to bark, loud and low. “Mitzi!” I cried in relief as Mr. Buchanan’s bloodhound came pounding across the grass, ears and jowls flapping. She hit Bryan square in the back and my arm was yanked painfully as he fell forward into the pond. I came behind him, falling backwards, but by then Bryan had lost his grip on me and I struggled up out of the water and onto the mud and gravel. Mitzi danced around me, licking and wagging but no longer barking. When Bryan surfaced, she stopped still, ears lifted, and began to growl.

“Get her away!” Bryan shouted to me.

I reached over and grabbed Mitzi by her loose and faded collar.

“No!” Bryan called, “get her away!”

But I didn’t move. I was watching as Corey bobbed restlessly toward the heart of the pond. We’d disturbed him. Mitzi sat down next to me, and together we waited. It wasn’t long before Mr. Buchanan came shuffling along. And that’s how he found us: Mitzi and I on the grass at the edge of the water, Bryan in the pond up to his knees and shivering, and Corey floating away.



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