Monsters

What makes a story a scary story- ?

Is it Gushing Blood, piles of twisted guts, sharp things going into someone’s head?

Really?

As the great Rod Serling said in the opening of his Twilight Zone episodes:

This Story Is For Your Consideration

( and this is a true story )

I ride one of those fancy pants commuter buses with the plus seats and tinted windows to Seattle and back up into the suburbs everyday. For the most part most people don’t read books on these buses- they ” Kindle ” they don’t jot notes to themselves on bookmarks or post- its ( ahem ) they IPAD or IPOD or whatever the hell it is they carry around with them and use for phones ( sometimes).

One day this guy I recognizefrom the homeless shelter across the street from where I work ( and I’m pretty sure I went to school with him- he is a couple of years older than me ) climbs into this safe, cool, ordered Universe takes a seat across the aisle from me and in cloud of fumes that came straight from a can of beer ( the kind you can by as singles ) he proceeded to pass out.

I go to my book, but I sneak peeks at Dave, or Kev or is his name Lance- to make sure he is breathing.

He is.

We’re about 10 minues out of Seattle when I look up because I hear snickering- and what I see suprises me- it was exactly like seeing a pair of hands shoot out from under the bed and yank some poor fool to meet a very messy and unhappy ending.

There are at least a half-dozen well-heeled suburbanites taking pictures of my former classmate passed out while riding a bus back into a town he belongs to as much as they do. And they’re not just taking the pictures- they’re showing them to each other, and they’re laughing now-not just snickering.

Okay- this is the part where you guys get to see the monster.

Is it Dave ( I think his name was Lance ), one of the ‘Burbanites or is it…

I reach down into my purse, pull up my sleek little Point and Click Cannon Sure Shot with the Memory card that holds A LOT of Pictures and hold it up.

N0body really notices-or maybe they just don’t care -until they notice who  is getting their picture taken as they are taking pictures of a passed out homeless guy on the bus.

” And I’ve got a blog-” the Monster says ” In fact I’ve got two…and lots of people read them”

That’s the kind of story I find scary.

You don’t know exactly who the monster is, or where it is or who it will strike first…but when it does

BOO.