From the Pages Of “Gruesome Stories”

by Jeff Baker

Willie was helping load the bags from the feed store onto the back of his uncle’s pickup and sweating in the July heat when Joey ran up, out-of-breath.

“Willie! It’s here! It’s here! My God, it’s here! Oh, excuse me , Mr. Seargent!”

Willie’s Uncle had glared at him. John Seargent regarded any use of the Lord’s name outside of church or prayer as profane.

“What’s here?” Willie asked, looking sweaty, exhausted and annoyed. He was seventeen now, they both were, and he was wanting to be called “Will” now.

Joey held up a magazine with an illustration of a creepy green monster menacing a girl on the cover. Gruesome Stories, October Nineteen-Forty-Seven.

“My story! They printed my story!” Joey was almost yelling, waving the magazine in Willie’s face.

Willie managed to grab the magazine and scanned the table of contents.

“Yup. It’s in here all right.” Willie said. “’The Thing From the Cistern’ by Joseph Van Horn.”

“Look what they say! Look what they say!” Joey said pointing excitedly at the lines below the title.

“It had waited in the dark for eons,” Willie Read. “Now it hungered for grain and…” Willie looked up with a grin. “…and more substantive fare!” He realized his uncle was reading over his shoulder.

“This really is something, Joey.” Uncle John said. “Bet you’re really glad you’ve been paying attention in English class!”

“And how!” Willie said.

“Yeah,” Joey said with a laugh. “I mean, I knew they were going to mail me a copy but I saw these on sale at Gruber’s Grocery and I almost fell over!”

Willie clapped him on the back. “Let’s celebrate! I’ll buy you a soda.”

“Yeah, thanks Willie…uh, Will.”

“Or you can buy it. You’re the one making money!”

The two of them laughed.

“Hey, how about I get some help loading up this grain I bought?” Uncle John said. “You too Mr. Famous Author.”

“Oh, sure! Right!” the boys said. They were talking and laughing as they loaded the rest of the bags.

Uncle John smiled to himself. He knew that Mr. Gruber had started carrying Gruesome Tales Magazine at the store when he’d heard about Joey’s story.

—end—

AUTHOR’S NOTE:

I didn’t expect to do a sequel to “On the Boardwalk” from a few weeks ago but I realized Travis Erwin had done feed store stories better with “The Feedstore Chronicles.” https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13035182-the-feedstore-chronicles?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=a9ECeH4I4D&rank=1 So I came up with a further adventure for Joey and Willie and threw in my love of vintage pulp fiction magazines. —-jeff