Here comes the Boogieman

Things in Your Closet

Egon took a sip of water as he looked at the elderly couple sitting across from him at the dinner table. Mr and Mrs Polanski were good friends with Egons' parents. Mostly with his mother anyway.

Mr Polanski was a retired carpenter with a scruffy looking appearance. He had a short grey beard to go with his grey hair; showing only a few wrinkles on his face. He had a pair of big round glasses held up by a big round nose. He was wearing a dark red sweater vast over a beige dress shirt, dark brown slacks and brown loafers.

Mrs Polanski was a rather short woman; only just below Egons' height by one inch. Her hair was a faded blonde colour that went with the wrinkles on her ageing but welcoming face. She was wearing a pink dress with a woolly white cardigan over her shoulders. Mrs Polanski was quite healthy for her age, but for the last few months she had been using crutches because of an incident that put her left leg in a cast. The pair seemed like the perfect old couple; even though they got into arguments that mostly involved rather comedic bickering.

"We're glad you and Harold quite join us for dinner tonight, Abigail." Mrs Spengler welcomed them as she set the roast chicken on the table. "Sorry my husband couldn't join us tonight. He's working late again it seems."

"Oh, that's alright, Katherine. Harold and I had nothing planned anyway so why not come around to see friends." Mrs Polanski kindly waved off the apology with a light southern accent.

"I was going to clean out the closet in the kids' old room, but hey; I can just do it tomorrow." Mr Polanski spoke with a rather odd accent and a slightly sarcastic tone.

Mrs Polanski responded by jabbing her husband in the side with her elbow; making him change his tone.

"Uh; so anyway, how are things with this fine young man here?" The old man asked the boy sitting across from him.

Egon put his glass down as he tried to think of an answer.

"Well, school has been shut down for the next few weeks because of rodents." The boy recalled the news. "So in a way, I'm on a vacation."

"Well it's a good thing they're taking care of it. The last thing anyone would want is kids getting sick from diseased rats." Mrs Polanski spoke with slight worry.

"That's nothing." Mr Polanski crossed his arms in disagreement. "When I was a boy in the old country, I still had to go to school when rats were coming in and out. But I turned out fine and healthy as ten men."

"Well that was before they found out that rats carried the Black Plague, Harold." Mrs Polanski began to argue with her husband.

Mrs Spengler raised a brow as the elderly couple began to discuss diseases at the dinner table. She cleared her throat to get their attention.

"Maybe we should eat something before we lose our appetite." Mrs Spengler proposed as she began to cut the meat.

Egon was ready to add his thought to any discussion the grownups had as his mother picked out a leg and some meat to put on his plate. He picked out his own vegetables as the elderly couple talked about a lighter hearted subject.

"I've been trying to grow some flowers in my backyard for a few days, but Buster keeps pulling them out and playing with them." Mrs Polanski talked about their dog. "Gardening is quite hard to do with a dog. But he's really a good boy."

"You've been doing some gardening? Egon's been doing something similar." Mrs Spengler said with a smile as she put vegetables on her plate.

Egon froze halfway through chewing a piece of broccoli when his mother told the neighbours about his fungus hobby.