Creep Street (19 page)

hese dogs must be tough, because they don't even hesitate at the sound of your mother's voice. They leap straight at you both, with their mad eyes staring and their tongues thirsting for blood. And there's no doubt whose blood they're thirsting for. It's not tomato sauce that these guys like to have on their frankfurts. And what they call frankfurts, you hate to think.

Of course there's only one thing that savage dogs like better than raw meat. And what luck that you think of it just in time. You kick off both your shoes, nonchalantly flip them up into the air, catch them, then throw them as far away as possible. ‘Fetch,' you cry. ‘Fetch!'

The dogs turn on their heels and race away into the bushes to look for the shoes. You and your mother sprint away down the drive, as fast as you can travel, till you've outrun Stacey, her mother, and the two dogs. At last you're away from that horrible place. You stop, panting and puffing, and collapse on the side of the road. When your mother finally gets her breath back she says, ‘I've only got one thing to say to you.'

‘Yes?' you say, sitting up. It's always nice to hear praise and, after all, you did save her life. So you look forward to basking in a few compliments.

‘Those shoes,' she says.

‘Yes?'

‘They cost eighty-nine dollars!' she screeches. ‘Eighty-nine dollars! And you threw them away for a couple of dogs to play with!'

You sigh and lie back in the long grass. There's just no pleasing some people!

nfortunately it doesn't quite work out the way you hoped. You hang there for a few minutes more, but the gutter doesn't rip off any further. You can't see your fingers but you know they're turning blue with cold. And you feel them gradually slipping, millimetre by millimetre. Looks like this is it, then. You're too young to die, but dropping onto those steel spikes is not going to be good for your health. This is going to be too big for a couple of Panadol.

You last about another three minutes, then your fingers finally refuse to hang on any longer. Whoooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooossssssssssssssss sssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Down you go. Down down down. It's a long way. Then up up up. Whhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeeee.

Up? Down? Up? Down? What is going on here? It takes you a while to figure it out. Then you realise. Your trampoline. The removalists parked it at the side of the house while your parents worked out where it should go. Lucky for you they parked it right under the attic window.

Dropping from that great height means you go up and down an awful lot of times. It's the longest trampoline ride you've ever taken. But you're happy. Face it, you'd rather be doing this than be stuck on the palings as a human shish kebab!

ogether you march back down there. You're being as brave as you can. You get to the graves. And, to your utter amazement, everything's normal. Impossible but true. The grass is back in the ground, the soil is in place, the grave is undisturbed. How can this be? You and Stacey tiptoe nervously over. The earth looks like it's been there forever.

Then you notice the old man. He's leaning over the fence from next door, staring at you. You look back, then you remember your manners.

‘Er, hi,' you say.

‘Hello,' he says.

‘We're just looking at the graves,' you say.

‘I can see that,' he replies.

‘Do you know who's buried in this one?' you ask. You're pointing at the middle one, the one that opened up last night.

‘Sure I do,' he says.

You wait for him to say more, and finally he speaks.

‘It's Fingers Spratt,' he says.

‘Fingers?' you ask nervously, dreading where this might be leading.

‘Yes,' he says. ‘Fingers. Funny name isn't it? You know why they called him that? It's because he didn't have all his fingers. He lost one in an accident with a mincer. And then he lost both hands, when he put them . . .'

But you and Stacey don't hear any more. You're both running like crazy to get away from there. You don't care where you go! Anywhere! The tip! The sewerage farm! School! Anywhere, just to get away from there!