Twilight Hankerings by Ronald Kelly

Author:Ronald Kelly [Ronald, Kelly,]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Horror
Publisher: Crossroad Press

THE THING AT THE SIDE OF THE ROAD

The thing at the side of the road worried Paul Stinson something awful.

He didn’t know why. It was nothing more than roadkill. Some unfortunate creature that had strayed past the gravel shoulder of Highway 987 and got clipped by a passing vehicle. Or maybe it had reached the center line, got mashed beneath speeding tires, and crept its way back to the side before curling up and giving up the ghost. Either way, it was dead. Paul had passed it on the way to work and back for the past two weeks and it was hunkered there in the exact same spot… nothing more than a clump of glossy fur amid a fringe of brown weeds and wilted cocklebur.

It was the fact that Paul couldn’t easily identify the thing that bothered him so. The thing was too big to be a possum or a coon. It certainly wasn’t a cat… much too bulky and big-boned for that. If it was a dog it was bigger than anything that Paul had seen running around. And its coat bugged him, too. It was slick and black, almost oily looking, with thin streaks of gray running through it.

What the hell is that thing? Paul found himself wondering every time he drove past.

Not that the thing at the side of Highway 987 was the only thing about HarlanCounty that bothered Paul. No, since the company sent him down from Louisville to take over the local State Farm office, he had found more than enough to be bothered about. The people, the way they looked and acted… hell, even the lay of the land was all somehow wrong. But it was nothing tangible… nothing he could actually put his finger on. Every time he tried expressing his concerns to his superior back at the main office he came off looking like a freaking idiot.

That Saturday evening, on the way home from getting groceries in town with his wife, Jill, Paul decided that he had finally had enough. He wasn’t driving another mile without stopping and finding out exactly what that furry black thing was.

When he slowed the Escalade to the side of the highway, Jill turned and looked at him. “What are you doing?”

Paul sighed and put the vehicle into park. “You remember that thing at the side of the road? The one I pointed out on the way to town?”

Jill nodded. “The dead dog?”

“Yeah, but that’s the point,” said Paul, shutting off the engine. “I don’t know if it’s really a dog or not.”

His wife regarded him with irritation. “What do you care?”

Paul exhaled through his nose and gripped the steering wheel. That was Jill’s typical reaction. March on through life with blinders on. No curiosity, no worries. Just that annoying, sugar-coated, Pollyanna attitude of hers.

“I care because it’s bugging the shit out of me and I need to know, that’s why.”

Jill stiffened up a bit and sat back in her seat. She knew better than to argue with her husband when he was in such a pissy mood.

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