Fear Itself by Jeff Gelb (Fear Itself)

Author:Jeff Gelb (Fear Itself) [Gelb, Jeff]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-936535-06-7
Publisher: Jabberwocky Literary Agency, Inc.
Published: 1995-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

They drove for several hours. Mommy turned the radio on to a station playing Christmas music—”White Christmas” and the one about chestnuts roasting. Now and then Mommy looked over at her, and Jessica Ann noticed Mommy’s expression was … different. Blank, but Mommy’s eyes seemed … was Mommy frightened, too?

When Mommy noticed Jessica Ann had caught her gaze, Mommy smiled that beautiful smile. But it wasn’t real. Jessica Ann wasn’t sure Mommy knew how to really smile.

The motel wasn’t very nice. It wasn’t like the Holiday Inns and Marriotts and Ramada Inns they usually stayed in on vacation. It was just a white row of doorways on the edge of some small town and a junkyard was looming in back of it, like some scary Disneyland.

Jessica Ann put on her jammies and brushed her teeth and Mommy tucked her in, even gave her a kiss. The girl was very, very tired and fell asleep quickly.

She wasn’t sure how long she’d been asleep, but when she woke up, Mommy was sitting on the edge of Jessica Ann’s bed. Mommy wasn’t dressed for bed; she still had on the clothes she’d been driving in.

Mommy was sitting there, in the dark, staring, her hands raised in the air. It was like Mommy was trying to choke a ghost.

“Sometimes Mommys have to make hard decisions,” Mommy whispered. “If they take Mommy away, who would look after you?”

But Jessica Ann knew Mommy wasn’t saying this to her, at least not to the awake her. Maybe to the sleeping Jessica Ann, only Jessica Ann wasn’t sleeping.

The child bolted out of the bed with a squealing scream and Mommy ran after her. Jessica Ann got to the door, which had a nightlatch, but her fingers fumbled with the chain, and then her Mommy was on top of her. Mommy’s hands were on her, but the child squeezed through, and bounded over one of the twin beds and ran into the bathroom and slammed and locked the door.

“Mommy! Mommy, don’t!”

“Let me in, Jessica Ann. You just had a bad dream. Just a nightmare. We’ll go back to sleep now.”

“No!”

The child looked around the small bathroom and saw the window; she stood on the toilet seat lid and unlocked the window and slipped out, onto the tall grass. Behind her, she heard the splintering of the door as her mother pushed it open.

Jessica Ann was running, running toward the dark shapes that were the junkyard; she glanced back and saw her mother’s face framed in the bathroom window. Her mother’s eyes were wild; Jessica Ann had never seen her mother like that.

“Come back here this instant!” her mother said.

But Jessica Ann ran, screaming as she went, hoping to attract attention. The moon was full and high and like a spotlight on the child. Maybe someone would see!

“Help! Please, help!”

Her voice seemed to echo through the night. The other windows in the motel were dark and the highway out front was deserted; there was no one else in the world but Jessica Ann and Mommy.

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