AFTER DUSK ON AZALEA CLOSE | Philip Meeks
Howard Cherry kept his four month old flame red and cream Desoto Firedome in second gear and proceeded slowly down Azalea Close. The car purred gracefully as he swung it effortlessly onto the double drive of the smart bungalow. His home for the last two years. The place where his dreams had hatched and his future was growing. As he packed papers and sales reports into his briefcase he offered old Mr Rolfe over the street a courteous wave.
Rolfe, who was rigging up sprinklers on his front lawn, reflected churlishly for a moment that when he was only a few rungs up the ladder like Cherry, his place of work wouldn’t have lavished such a desirable new toy on him. But this was 1954. An age of progress he supposed and he shouldn’t begrudge folk younger than himself from reaping the benefits. Especially not a man as stolid and fine as Howard Cherry. Not to mention his button cute wife and their picture perfect kiddies. Rolfe smiled to himself as he noticed Howard watching him through his rear view mirror. He nodded to his neighbour before heading back inside. Soon the gentle splash of water quenching parched grass could be heard as Rolfe’s sprinklers did their stuff.
Howard had watched the old man go. All the Cherry’s neighbours were nice and neighbourly in that American home baked way but sometimes he worried about Rolfe’s inquisitiveness. He had concerns that the time might come when he’d need to tackle this head on. Casting the old man from his mind he thought about the evening ahead. It was already nearly dark and he’d no doubt be in for a stern glance from Marsha who’d told him she was making meatloaf for dinner, which would have been served an hour ago. There’d be a frosty silence and a dried out meal would be taken from the oven but Marsha wouldn’t be able to keep it up. Then he’d prise Pepper and Zack away from the telly because the news of his promotion was too big not to share it with the whole family. Well not quite the whole family obviously. Once again Howard paused, thinking briefly of his Grandma, before once again banishing thoughts that might sour the next few hours before bed beckoned.
Howard got out of the car. Its glistening surface shone in the light of the street lamps that had switched on with a hum as he’d sat thinking. He opened the boot and took out the case containing the sample utensils, the tools of his trade. Eighteen months as a junior sales representative for Arcadia Kitchen Appliances is all that it had taken to get him where he was as from today. Mid Region Sales Manager which meant more responsibility, a generous pay rise and less time on the road. The new DeSoto had been a hint at greater things to come. Marsha had said that and, damn she’d been right. Like she was about so many things. He entered his home brimming with the knowledge that life for the Cherry’s was good and should only get better. But as soon as he stepped over the threshold however he sensed it. Something was terribly wrong.
The hallway was in darkness. The “I Love Lucy” theme blared out in the lounge, but aside from the black and white glow from the television this room was also in darkness. He thought he heard a mewl coming from within. A human cry of pain. He opened the door suddenly catching the sound of scampering feet heading into the dining room.
“Pepper?” he called out. “Zack?”
There was no reply as Lucille Ball gurned to an empty room so Howard headed back into the hall. He gently dropped his work things before walking cautiously towards the kitchen. Here he found Marsha hunched over the sink in the fading light washing dishes and gently singing under her breath.
“Dinner’s ruined,” her voice was a rasp and Howard’s soul churned.
“Where is she?” he didn’t need to go to her room in the basement. He knew Grandma had escaped.
Before he had time to order his thoughts Marsha turned and savagely struck his right hand with a meat cleaver.
“I said dinner is ruined,” Marsha snarled her features as well as her voice distorting, her own hands gnarled and distended, all clear signs that Grandma’s influence had been unleashed.
Howard ignored the pain and grabbed his wife. He shook her with force and could see she was struggling to cling on to normality.
“She tricked me,” her normal voice broke through, the terror in it palpable and painful to hear.
“Where is she?” he yelled tightening his grip on Marsha’s shoulders as a thin stream of rancid saliva fell from above onto his face.
He looked up at the ceiling. There, clinging to the tiles was a tiny lady of seventy or so in a calico night dress. She looked perfectly normal aside from the large black pincers sprouting from the sides of her body, the flame red eyes and the mouth which widened alarmingly to reveal rows of sharp metallic teeth.
“You need to start treatin’ your Gramma nicer,” she laughed insidiously and scurried across the ceiling.
Howard pursued her as Marsha took another swing at him with the cleaver. She missed and he responded by hitting her full on in the face with a nearby chopping board. This knocked her to the ground. As she let out a bewildered snarl he hit her again on the back of the skull, and again for good measure.
“The kids. Gotta find the kids,” he thought out loud ignoring the tingle behind his eyes. He was running out of time.
He headed into the dining room again turning on the light. Something shuffled and chirruped under the dining table as Howard was engulfed by a terrible odour. He’d found his children.
“Milly came round to play Daddy,”giggled Pepper her voice barely human.
Howard looked under the table where Pepper and her little brother Zack, both fanged red eyed and starting to sprout pincers, sat with what remained of Milly Daines from two blocks away. Zack took a large bite out of her arm.
“I told Zack he shouldn’t oughta eat her,” Pepper said salivating.
Suddenly something fell on the table with incredible force making the kids growl. Grandma had landed.
“Join us Howie,” she cackled hitting him with force with her left pincer, “It’ll be like old times.”
Howard was thrown through the glass double doors which connected the dining room to the lounge where Desi Arnez wailed, “waddaya do that for Lucy” in mock despair to instant studio applause. In a spray of splintered wood the old lady thing flew into the lounge. She spat a glob of acidic phlegm in Howard’s direction as he pulled himself to his feet. It missed its target splattering on the luxury two-seater sofa where it burned through a cushion. Howard ducked into the hallway as Grandma raged.
“Damn, my spitting’s never been so bad,”she railed and slammed a pincer through Lucy’s left eye on the twelve inch telly screen.
As electricity popped and crackled behind him Howard grabbed at his utensil specimens to find a weapon. He turned wielding one as Granny appeared above him levitating.
“Watcha gonna do boy” she mocked. “whisk me back to my dungeon.”
Howard threw down the Arcadia Wonder Mix he’d foolishly snatched at random and suddenly stopped short wracked with pain. He started seeing red. He could feel his hidden incisors ripping through his gums. Grandma’s influence had never been stronger and he could no longer resist
“You devious bitch,” Howard snapped back to his senses as a voice screamed from behind Grandma.
The demonic dear turned to see Marsha standing holding a serving spoon from her Arcadia Premium silver plated cutlery set. Before the ancient creature had time to spit again Marsha thrust the spoon in its mouth. It shrieked and span as sparks flew, Marsha was swept out of the way and it smashed through the front door.
“Settle the kids,” Howard said helping Marsha to her feet.
He headed in the direction of Grandma and found her running over the street towards Mr Rolfe’s lawn. She howled rapturously for a second before screaming in agony. Rolfe’s sprinklers had started their hourly spray and as the water hit her she sizzled. By the time Howard reached her she was writhing in a steaming agony ripping off the remaining shreds of her night dress . He slapped her hard to shut her up then he turned to see an ashen Rolfe staring at him and the naked, and now perfectly normal looking, old lady.
“The thing about old folk,” Howard said with a disarming smile, “is some of them just won’t move with the times.”
After the evening’s events Howard decided to save the news of his promotion. Later as he began to tidy up the debris in the lounge Marsha joined him.
“I told the kids they had to finish their friend,” She said sheepishly.
After Grandma had been returned to her silver sealed basement cell where her bed of soil from the old country lulled her back to sleep Howard had talked sternly to a shaken Pepper and Zack. Grandma was the matriarch of their brood and they needed her life force to survive but it came at a price and they all had to vigilant when she tried to escape.
“She tells us in our heads about the dark times,” Pepper said her voice little more than a whisper, “how happy we could be.”
“They were called dark for a reason,”Howard replied gently. “We don’t have to be that way any more. We can live with the humankind. We can have everything they have and more.”
He’d gone to deal with Rolfe’s body leaving Marsha to punish them.
“They couldn’t eat much so there’s enough left of the girl to take over to Rolfe’s place,” she said.
It hadn’t taken much effort to make Rolfe’s death look like suicide. The body of Milly Daines would be joined in the old man’s garage by Bobby Forshaw who’d been stashed in their freezer for a few months after Pepper had an “accident”. The death of a lonely bachelor who’d clearly been a child murderer wouldn’t be investigated for too long. Howard often found the black and white morality another delight of the American dream.
“Will we have to move…” Marsha said her voice wavering. “The kids love it here.”
“We’ll see,” Howard said, although he knew that wouldn’t be the case. All in all things had turned out quite well.
“She told me she was ill,” Marsha said getting upset, “It was just after dusk…”
“You know that’s the time when she’s strongest.”
“I made a mistake. I’m only human…”
Marsha stopped swallowing her words. After a moment she finally gave in to her emotions.
“I can’t leave and start up….”she struggled to say through sobs. “Not again…I’m sorry….”
Howard took his wife in his arms. He held her tight feeling the hard cold metal of her pincers buried deep within the flesh of her hips. There was nothing he wouldn’t do for her or his children. Nothing that would stop him making sure his family carried on living life the great American way.
The pair stood close for a while until Marsha’s tears subsided. Outside Azalea Close slept and the street was blissfully silent aside from the intermittent hiss of Rolfe’s sprinklers. Things would look better after sunrise and the start of a new day. Howard decided the time was right to tell his wife his good news after all.
Howard Cherry kept his four month old flame red and cream Desoto Firedome in second gear and proceeded slowly down Azalea Close. The car purred gracefully as he swung it effortlessly onto the double drive of the smart bungalow. His home for the last two years. The place where his dreams had hatched and his future was growing. As he packed papers and sales reports into his briefcase he offered old Mr Rolfe over the street a courteous wave.
Rolfe, who was rigging up sprinklers on his front lawn, reflected churlishly for a moment that when he was only a few rungs up the ladder like Cherry, his place of work wouldn’t have lavished such a desirable new toy on him. But this was 1954. An age of progress he supposed and he shouldn’t begrudge folk younger than himself from reaping the benefits. Especially not a man as stolid and fine as Howard Cherry. Not to mention his button cute wife and their picture perfect kiddies. Rolfe smiled to himself as he noticed Howard watching him through his rear view mirror. He nodded to his neighbour before heading back inside. Soon the gentle splash of water quenching parched grass could be heard as Rolfe’s sprinklers did their stuff.
Howard had watched the old man go. All the Cherry’s neighbours were nice and neighbourly in that American home baked way but sometimes he worried about Rolfe’s inquisitiveness. He had concerns that the time might come when he’d need to tackle this head on. Casting the old man from his mind he thought about the evening ahead. It was already nearly dark and he’d no doubt be in for a stern glance from Marsha who’d told him she was making meatloaf for dinner, which would have been served an hour ago. There’d be a frosty silence and a dried out meal would be taken from the oven but Marsha wouldn’t be able to keep it up. Then he’d prise Pepper and Zack away from the telly because the news of his promotion was too big not to share it with the whole family. Well not quite the whole family obviously. Once again Howard paused, thinking briefly of his Grandma, before once again banishing thoughts that might sour the next few hours before bed beckoned.
Howard got out of the car. Its glistening surface shone in the light of the street lamps that had switched on with a hum as he’d sat thinking. He opened the boot and took out the case containing the sample utensils, the tools of his trade. Eighteen months as a junior sales representative for Arcadia Kitchen Appliances is all that it had taken to get him where he was as from today. Mid Region Sales Manager which meant more responsibility, a generous pay rise and less time on the road. The new DeSoto had been a hint at greater things to come. Marsha had said that and, damn she’d been right. Like she was about so many things. He entered his home brimming with the knowledge that life for the Cherry’s was good and should only get better. But as soon as he stepped over the threshold however he sensed it. Something was terribly wrong.
The hallway was in darkness. The “I Love Lucy” theme blared out in the lounge, but aside from the black and white glow from the television this room was also in darkness. He thought he heard a mewl coming from within. A human cry of pain. He opened the door suddenly catching the sound of scampering feet heading into the dining room.
“Pepper?” he called out. “Zack?”
There was no reply as Lucille Ball gurned to an empty room so Howard headed back into the hall. He gently dropped his work things before walking cautiously towards the kitchen. Here he found Marsha hunched over the sink in the fading light washing dishes and gently singing under her breath.
“Dinner’s ruined,” her voice was a rasp and Howard’s soul churned.
“Where is she?” he didn’t need to go to her room in the basement. He knew Grandma had escaped.
Before he had time to order his thoughts Marsha turned and savagely struck his right hand with a meat cleaver.
“I said dinner is ruined,” Marsha snarled her features as well as her voice distorting, her own hands gnarled and distended, all clear signs that Grandma’s influence had been unleashed.
Howard ignored the pain and grabbed his wife. He shook her with force and could see she was struggling to cling on to normality.
“She tricked me,” her normal voice broke through, the terror in it palpable and painful to hear.
“Where is she?” he yelled tightening his grip on Marsha’s shoulders as a thin stream of rancid saliva fell from above onto his face.
He looked up at the ceiling. There, clinging to the tiles was a tiny lady of seventy or so in a calico night dress. She looked perfectly normal aside from the large black pincers sprouting from the sides of her body, the flame red eyes and the mouth which widened alarmingly to reveal rows of sharp metallic teeth.
“You need to start treatin’ your Gramma nicer,” she laughed insidiously and scurried across the ceiling.
Howard pursued her as Marsha took another swing at him with the cleaver. She missed and he responded by hitting her full on in the face with a nearby chopping board. This knocked her to the ground. As she let out a bewildered snarl he hit her again on the back of the skull, and again for good measure.
“The kids. Gotta find the kids,” he thought out loud ignoring the tingle behind his eyes. He was running out of time.
He headed into the dining room again turning on the light. Something shuffled and chirruped under the dining table as Howard was engulfed by a terrible odour. He’d found his children.
“Milly came round to play Daddy,”giggled Pepper her voice barely human.
Howard looked under the table where Pepper and her little brother Zack, both fanged red eyed and starting to sprout pincers, sat with what remained of Milly Daines from two blocks away. Zack took a large bite out of her arm.
“I told Zack he shouldn’t oughta eat her,” Pepper said salivating.
Suddenly something fell on the table with incredible force making the kids growl. Grandma had landed.
“Join us Howie,” she cackled hitting him with force with her left pincer, “It’ll be like old times.”
Howard was thrown through the glass double doors which connected the dining room to the lounge where Desi Arnez wailed, “waddaya do that for Lucy” in mock despair to instant studio applause. In a spray of splintered wood the old lady thing flew into the lounge. She spat a glob of acidic phlegm in Howard’s direction as he pulled himself to his feet. It missed its target splattering on the luxury two-seater sofa where it burned through a cushion. Howard ducked into the hallway as Grandma raged.
“Damn, my spitting’s never been so bad,”she railed and slammed a pincer through Lucy’s left eye on the twelve inch telly screen.
As electricity popped and crackled behind him Howard grabbed at his utensil specimens to find a weapon. He turned wielding one as Granny appeared above him levitating.
“Watcha gonna do boy” she mocked. “whisk me back to my dungeon.”
Howard threw down the Arcadia Wonder Mix he’d foolishly snatched at random and suddenly stopped short wracked with pain. He started seeing red. He could feel his hidden incisors ripping through his gums. Grandma’s influence had never been stronger and he could no longer resist
“You devious bitch,” Howard snapped back to his senses as a voice screamed from behind Grandma.
The demonic dear turned to see Marsha standing holding a serving spoon from her Arcadia Premium silver plated cutlery set. Before the ancient creature had time to spit again Marsha thrust the spoon in its mouth. It shrieked and span as sparks flew, Marsha was swept out of the way and it smashed through the front door.
“Settle the kids,” Howard said helping Marsha to her feet.
He headed in the direction of Grandma and found her running over the street towards Mr Rolfe’s lawn. She howled rapturously for a second before screaming in agony. Rolfe’s sprinklers had started their hourly spray and as the water hit her she sizzled. By the time Howard reached her she was writhing in a steaming agony ripping off the remaining shreds of her night dress . He slapped her hard to shut her up then he turned to see an ashen Rolfe staring at him and the naked, and now perfectly normal looking, old lady.
“The thing about old folk,” Howard said with a disarming smile, “is some of them just won’t move with the times.”
After the evening’s events Howard decided to save the news of his promotion. Later as he began to tidy up the debris in the lounge Marsha joined him.
“I told the kids they had to finish their friend,” She said sheepishly.
After Grandma had been returned to her silver sealed basement cell where her bed of soil from the old country lulled her back to sleep Howard had talked sternly to a shaken Pepper and Zack. Grandma was the matriarch of their brood and they needed her life force to survive but it came at a price and they all had to vigilant when she tried to escape.
“She tells us in our heads about the dark times,” Pepper said her voice little more than a whisper, “how happy we could be.”
“They were called dark for a reason,”Howard replied gently. “We don’t have to be that way any more. We can live with the humankind. We can have everything they have and more.”
He’d gone to deal with Rolfe’s body leaving Marsha to punish them.
“They couldn’t eat much so there’s enough left of the girl to take over to Rolfe’s place,” she said.
It hadn’t taken much effort to make Rolfe’s death look like suicide. The body of Milly Daines would be joined in the old man’s garage by Bobby Forshaw who’d been stashed in their freezer for a few months after Pepper had an “accident”. The death of a lonely bachelor who’d clearly been a child murderer wouldn’t be investigated for too long. Howard often found the black and white morality another delight of the American dream.
“Will we have to move…” Marsha said her voice wavering. “The kids love it here.”
“We’ll see,” Howard said, although he knew that wouldn’t be the case. All in all things had turned out quite well.
“She told me she was ill,” Marsha said getting upset, “It was just after dusk…”
“You know that’s the time when she’s strongest.”
“I made a mistake. I’m only human…”
Marsha stopped swallowing her words. After a moment she finally gave in to her emotions.
“I can’t leave and start up….”she struggled to say through sobs. “Not again…I’m sorry….”
Howard took his wife in his arms. He held her tight feeling the hard cold metal of her pincers buried deep within the flesh of her hips. There was nothing he wouldn’t do for her or his children. Nothing that would stop him making sure his family carried on living life the great American way.
The pair stood close for a while until Marsha’s tears subsided. Outside Azalea Close slept and the street was blissfully silent aside from the intermittent hiss of Rolfe’s sprinklers. Things would look better after sunrise and the start of a new day. Howard decided the time was right to tell his wife his good news after all.