Voodootown

Chapter 31

Chapter 31

Ash

Driving was a lot harder than Ash had figured.  He had been behind the wheel of his dad's car before, maybe three times.  Each had been a short series of circles in an empty grocery store parking lot.  But sitting there with the wheel cranked to the left with his dad's foot hovering over the brake hadn't done much to prepare Ash for driving into a crowd of people who were standing over an open manhole.

"Oh, man," he said.  "I hit one of them didn't I?"  There was no answer from the back, but he could tell he wasn't alone.  He tried to keep the car straight on the road, but a sideways view of the sidewalk rolling past popped up over his own vision.

The car lurched and he nearly hit his head on the steering wheel when he jammed his foot on the brake.  "Blink?  Is that you?" he asked.  No answer came.  "Can you please not look out the window?  I'm getting that double vision thing."

"Sorry," a quiet voice from the back said.  There was the sound of scuffling and Ash was sure he heard someone shush someone else.  He put the car in park and as he turned back, the noise stopped.  At first, he didn't see anything.  Then he squinted his eyes and let them fall out of focus.

The figures were blurry at first, but each one was about ten inches high, made of gray cloth with buttons for eyes.  They all stared back at him.  Several had their mouths hanging open.  The one wearing a pajama top with a rocket ship on the front waved at him.  "Hi," Blink said.

"Oh, man," Ash said.  He took a deep breath and shook his head.  "I'm actually not crazy."

Blink shook his head, but Ash saw the doll with the black jacket and plaid mini skirt sit down and put her head in her hands.  "This cannot be good," she said.

He thought for a moment, felt a memory bubble up in his consciousness.  "You're Twister.  And you're covered in..."  He stopped, not sure what to say.  She kind of looked like she was covered in fried ketchup, and definitely looked like she didn't want to talk about it.

The doll reached a hand into her sleeve.  "How do you know who I am?"

Ash felt the threat in the question and looked over to Blink.  "He's seen you all through me.  We share thoughts.  A lot," Blink said.

Twister didn't take her arm away from her sleeve and Ash had a memory about how she stored pins there.  "Um, sorry," he said.  "Is that a problem?"

"Yeah," she said.  "It's a whole lot of problems."

"Would you rather be in a jar?"  The doll who asked the question wore all black, some of her clothes were lacey, the rest were tattered.  It was Ju Ju.

"Don't start.  Not after that."  Twister glared at Ju Ju a moment, then slumped back down onto the back seat.  She began to scrape the red gunk off her skirt and Ash hoped it wouldn't stain the seats.  He already had to do a lot of explaining to his parents, stains in the backseat would only make things worse.

"Can we get moving, please?  The crazy guy with the gloves and glasses is still back there," another doll said.  Ash looked at him.  The doll had blond hair and wore a letter jacket with a V on the front: Squat.

Ash's eyes narrowed as much as they could with the swelling.  "You.  I've got a broken nose thanks to you."

The doll rolled his button eyes.  "Please.  James is a marshmallow.  Learn to duck," he said.  "And get driving."

Blink nodded.  "He's actually right.  We should get out of here."  Ash's friend jumped up next to Ash and settled down on the passenger's seat. 

With one more frown at Squat, Ash turned and grabbed the wheel.  "Uh, where to?"