The Two Visitors
By: Seth Copeland
My name is Pokey; well it’s a lot of things. My birth name is Darren, Darren Wilson. That doesn’t seem to apply to some people, like John Jacob. John is the school bully. He’s always making fun of my size and athletic ability. He calls me names like “runt”, shrimp” and “short stuff.” I don’t like this at all, but I have to deal with it because every time I retaliate something bad happens, last time he dumped me in a trashcan.
“Hey Pokester,” yelled my friend Brian. “What’s up,” I replied. “Uh oh here comes the lard,” smirked Brian, referring to the large “thing” grumbling towards us, who by the way was John. “Pay up, pipsqueak!” bellowed John. “What if I don’t want to,” I said. “What if I want to throw in another trash can?” asked John. “I don’t want to go in the trash can again, and I don’t have a dollar anyway,” I said. “Yes you do, I can smell money a mile away,” said John. Then John picked me up and searched through my pockets recovering two dollars and fifty cents in the struggle. Then John said something I wouldn’t have expected him to say in a thousand years. “I tell you what runt, I won’t beat your brains out on one condition. You have to spend the night in the old desert house on Oxford Lane,” John said with a smile on his face. “That place scares me half to death just walking by it,” I replied in a weak, scared voice. “I know,” John smirked. “Fine! I’ll go stay in that house tonight just to prove to you that I’m not as wimpy as you say I am,” I replied passionately. “We’ll see,” said John. “We’ll see.” Those were the last words I heard from him today.
The floors were creaking louder than ever. I told my parents that Brian had invited me to a sleep over with a couple of other guys. That kind of stuff doesn’t happen often for me so my mom didn’t hesitate to say yes. I went upstairs and found a living room with a fireplace and a kettle beside it. There was everything you needed to boil shrimp, and shrimp was my favorite thing to eat. It was like someone knew I was coming. This was very creepy. It wasn’t long after I had arrived at the mansion that something started banging on the downstairs window. I thought it was John and his clan of retards trying to scare me. The noises continued for many, many minutes. I went downstairs to investigate. When I got down there I was startled to be greeted by a ghost. The ghost introduced himself. His name was Caleb. Although he was big and looked like John and his bullies he was very nice and calm, well he was calm most of the time. Caleb was large with brown hair. He smelled like my favorite cologne, Super Suave by Rick Richard. I put it on every morning to smell good, and I think I do smell good. I tried to shake his rough hands, but I couldn’t my hand went straight through his. That proved that he was a ghost. His voice was deep and crackly. He smelled so strongly of cologne that I could almost taste it. “Come upstairs with me,” I said. We both went upstairs and we talked for well over an hour. Caleb told me that he was my age back in the 1930’s. We got on the topic of how I got here and I told him about the dare and he understood why I said yes. He told about the bullies back then. He said that he wasn’t a bully and instead of starting fights he tried preventing them instead. With his size I could see how he could stop a fight quickly. He told me how I could talk my way out of fights too. I thought Caleb really helped me. I now felt like I was prepared to face John the next day. I wasn’t afraid of anything. Caleb eventually had to leave and told me good luck with John tomorrow at school he also mentioned to be prepared. “For what,” I asked, but he was already gone.
I started to sleep on the old squeaky couch in the family room. I fell asleep fast. I was in the middle of a perfect dream where I stood up to John Jacob and I won. I dreamed myself being a hero. I was having a great time I was rudely awaken by the thing I was supposed to be prepared for. This ghost looked very unfriendly and mean, unlike Caleb. This ghost introduced himself with a mean-sounding voice that made my ears hurt. His name was Brendan, but he told me to call him “Big B,” so I did without asking any questions. Also unlike Caleb, this monster reeked of raw sewage and sour milk. This was and absolutely repulsive smell. The smell got in my mouth and I thought the taste was going to make me puke. I shook his rough, coarse, sharp-pointed hand quickly. The feel reminded me of an alligator or Godzilla. This talk was very brief and much different to my prior one. Big B said to do one thing and one thing only. He told me that I should avoid John tomorrow or give up. Those were the two options that Big B gave me. I was so terrified I could barely speak. “Do you understand me!” Asked Big B. “Y-y-yes,” I replied softly. Good!” screamed Big B. Then out of nowhere a car pulled up outside the house and then the car drove Big B away. I went upstairs frozen in shock. I didn’t sleep well for the rest of the night.
The next day John was lying to everyone, saying that I chickened out. I kept protesting it, but everybody believed John. I was so frustrated.
“Jerk!” I yelled at John.
“What did you just call me? I hope you didn’t call me a jerk!” John said loudly. I didn’t know what to do. John was going to beat me to death in front of the whole school. He was about to punch me when Brian jumped out in front and grabbed his fist in mid-air. Brian kicked John’s legs out from under him and he tied his hands behind his back.
“How did you…”
“I know karate,” Brian said softly. “Let’s go home.” Brian and I walked home from school like we always did.
Brian had saved me from a lot of pain and humiliation. I don’t know how he did it, but Brian just beat up the biggest and toughest kid in the school. Maybe this was a way of Caleb helping me. I don’t know and I don’t care. I’m just glad I don’t have to deal with the “thing” anymore.
THE END