The Devil's Toys

Part 1

It's first victim was my sister weirdly enough. We never heard her scream or anything. With her nose in her book she never heard it coming - a good thing probably. When she was reading you could stand right behind her and yell and she would never hear you. Here's the ironic thing. When the search party found what was left of her, there was nothing really but her hands still attached to her book.

Of course nobody saw who or what did it, but we all had a pretty good idea. People who aren't from around here will say oh, come on that things not real, but they would be mistaken. It's real okay. My dad's seen it with his own eyes. No picture unfortunately because it was nighttime. Real dark like it gets around here. Dad says he could smell it before he saw it. The smell, he says, was atrocious. Worse than grandma's squirrel pie. He got slapped for that one. It was pretty funny.

What I'm talking about is the Jersey Devil. Before you snort and say oh come on, just think. Something ate my sister, bones and all. It surely wasn't a raccoon. And the footprints definitely looked like hooves. Too bad about my sister. Gonna miss her, seriously. The Devil has been seen around here for like hundreds of years. All you have to do is look around here to believe he's real. The Pine Barrens are the strangest place in the world. 

I'd call myself a Piney except I wasn't born here. None of my family was. We moved here when we kids were little. Kind of vague as to why. I think my dad was into something not kosher and he needed a place that was a litttle safer. It's been kind of lonely here. The Pineys have never really accepted us. I mean I have friends and all but always at arm's length kind of. Mom's been kind of sad mostly and losing my sister has not helped at all.

The funeral was a little strange, as you can imagine. I mean the casket was kind of small. People came and they were real nice and sympathetic and a lot of them had stories about this one's cousin and that one's granny being eaten. So now we were in the club so to speak. It will be good for mom to have friends at last. Although last night after I went to bed I heard mom tell dad that if they didn't get out of this God forsaken hell hole real soon she was going to go insane for sure. Dad didn't say much. But then he never does.

Everyone at school knew of course and they were all over me with questions. Did I see it? What did my sister look like after the Devil was done with her. All that stuff until the teacher told them all to lay off and leave me alone. And made them all say sorry. Which was a little awkward. In class the teachers were nice too and none of them was even mad that I hadn't done my homework. Although I was expected to make it up at some point. 

After school this one boy, Harry, offered to walk home with me in case I was you know nervous or something. I wasn't really but it was nice to have someone to walk with and talk to. And he was real interesting too. He said his family's been here since before the Revolution. which is really something. He said there used to be Indians here too. And sometimes people can see their ghosts. I asked him if he'd ever seen one, and he hadn't. So I said we should go look for one one night and he seemed to like the idea. He said he knew where there'd been a burial ground. I told him that in general ghosts don't hang around in graveyards. They're likely to be found where they died. That seemed to impress him that I knew that stuff. 

We got home and I started through the door. Harry seemed to hold back. I told him come on my mom doesn't bite. He smiled and followed me in. Mom was sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of something and a cigarette. When she heard us come in she stubbed her cigarette out in her cup, stood up and waved her hands about, trying to get rid of the smoke. It didn't work and it didn't matter. I told mom hi and said this is Harry. We go to school together. Mom said she figured and said hello to Harry. Harry said sorry for your loss. Mom said thanks and sighed. And then she said do you boys want something to drink? I just made some ice tea. Harry said that would be fine. Mom poured three glasses and sat with us. Harry's family has been here forever, I said. Mom said, really? Yeah, I said, you know there used to be Indians here. Mom said she knew that. Harry finished his tea. Mom asked him if he wanted a refill and he said no thank you. I should be going.  Mom didn't ask him to stay. I walked him to the door and he was gone.

I sat back down at the kitchen table. Mom said you know we may be leaving here soon. I told your dad that I couldn't stay here anymore. I said I know. I heard you last night. Mom said that dad had been talking to his brother-in-law in Willliamsport and his brother-in-law will be looking around for a job for your dad. And as soon as that's set we'll be moving. So here were three things I did not know. Didn't know that dad had a brother-in-law. Didn't know where Williamsport was. And weirdest of all, dad and job spoken in one sentence. It had never occurred to me that dad had a job. I mean he left every morning and came home every evening, but no one ever said anything about a job. Dad never told us - or me anyway - anything about the job, and mom never asked him like how was your day at the job or you should ask for a raise. None of that. All I know was that money never seemed to be a problem. Not that there was much to buy around here. I wondered, briefly, if I should ask mom and dad about dad's job. But maybe I was not supposed to know.

The second victim was Harry's mom. Harry's a mess. He keeps saying it was all his fault. He shouldn't have left the house. He should have stayed home. And now he won't talk to me either. Not fair really. I didn't force him to come with me and how could he have known anyway. What happened was this. I cornered Harry at school and asked him if he was still up for ghost-hunting because if he was it should probably be Friday night because my mom told me we might be leaving here soon. Well he said he supposed he was. I asked him if he would have any trouble sneaking out of his house. He said heck no. Once his mom was asleep the house could fall down around her and she wouldn't even hear it. Once my parents were asleep it would be no problem for me to slip out my window. 

So Friday came. Around 11 I biked over to Harry's house. There was a moon which was good. I waited about 15 minutes wondering if he'd chickened out and then there he was. I figured we could bike over to Ong's Hat. It wasn't too far and it was supposed to be crawling with ghosts. Harry's eyes kind of widened at the mention of the name. Well jeez, he said, are you sure you want to go there. I've heard really bad stories about that place. That's exactly why we should go, I said. It's our best bet to see a ghost. Don't tell me you're going to chicken out now. No, Harry said, let's get moving. It took us about a half-hour to get there. A little longer than I expected. And I got to tell you that Ong's Hat was like the scariest place I'd ever seen. For a second I almost decided that maybe we had made a mistake coming here. But I dropped that from my mind. Harry was standing really close to me and honestly I didn't mind. We dropped our bikes and sat on a little hillock of grass. We agreed that we would stay until 2 and then leave whether we saw a ghost or not.

I've got to be honest. It was a total bust. We never saw anything. There were noises of one kind or another, but nothing that sounded like a ghost. At one point I said to Harry what if this thing we're sitting on is a grave. Harry jumped up like something bit him. I laughed. Not funny, Harry said. I couldn't get him to sit back down. He stood the rest of the time. It's 2 now, Harry said, let's get out of here. I didn't say anything but I wasn't sorry to leave.

We reached Harry's house okay. But it was obvious that something was not right. For one thing the front door was wide open. Holy crap, I said to Harry, didn't you close the door when you left. Heck yeah I did, Harry replied. I'm not going in there by myself, he said. OK, I said, I'll come with you. I pushed Harry throught the door and I followed right behind. Harry stopped suddenly and screamed. I didn't blame him. It wasn't good. His mom was gone, mostly. What was left of her was one arm on the floor by the sofa, and the hand was still clutching an empty liquor bottle. I got to say that that was kind of embarrassing, and I felt bad for Harry. The worst thing was the police wanted to know where Harry was when it happened. Harry told them the truth, I mean what was he going to say. Mom gave me a look that let me know I was in big trouble this time.

There was another funeral with another small casket. Harry was pretty broken up. The other thing was that everyone wanted to blame me. Which you know was really unfair. And mom and dad were really displeased with me. I was under strict orders to come straight home from school and not leave the house. Which was fine by me. It was not like I had anywhere to go. Harry went to live with his granny and I was ignored at school. The locals decided that a neighborhood watch needed to be organized. I'll join that, I said. The hell you will, dad said.