by David Estes
***
Later that day, Nikki lay on her bed staring at the ceiling. Her mind raced back to the cornfields, to the cracking noise, to the mysterious disappearing path, and finally, to the strange animal with the shark-like teeth. Had she imagined it?
A low whine sounded from under her arm. She jumped, startled by the noise. “Oh, Mr. Miyagi, I’m sorry. I forgot you were there.” Mr. Miyagi was Nikki’s dog. He had been hers since she was five-years-old and so, for the last four years, they had grown up together. The playful and obedient Scottie was named after the famous karate instructor from the movie, The Karate Kid. As she gently stroked the fur of her black Scottish terrier, she wondered again whether the events of the day had just been a particularly imaginative daydream.
Nikki’s mom regularly told her that she had an especially overactive imagination, and that sometimes she needed to focus more on what was real. Nikki wished that her best friend, Spencer, was with her, because he could’ve been a second witness to the unbelievable story.
Nikki had known Spencer Quick her entire life. He lived on the same street, went to the same school, and liked doing the same things as she did. Sadly, his parents had divorced three years earlier and so, each summer he spent a month with his dad, who lived in New York. He had only been gone for a week so far, but Nikki already missed him very much. She needed to tell him what had happened.
Grabbing her cell phone from the bedside table, she found Spencer’s name in her address book and pressed the CALL button. The satisfying chirp of the phone ringing clucked in her ear. After three rings with no answer, Nikki began muttering, “Pick up, pick up, pick up. C’mon, Spencer!”
On the fourth ring, she heard the call connect and a voice say, “ET phone home! Hi, Nikks.”
Frustrated, Nikki said, “What took you so long to answer, Spence?”
“Oh, sorry about that. I was just watching ET on TV with my dad. I can’t stay on for too long, we’re having an intermission so he can scoop some ice cream for us while I talk to you.”
Nikki’s stomach growled. Ice cream sounded good. She had barely touched her food at dinner, because she was too worried about what had happened, but now her appetite came roaring back at Spencer’s mention of her favorite cold treat. “That’s okay, Spence. But listen, I have an emergency here that I need your advice for.”
“Okay, shoot.”
Nikki rushed through the story and waited for his reply. She heard him humming to himself. Spencer always hummed whenever he was thinking hard about something; he said it was his way of concentrating. In the background, she heard a voice yell, “Spencerrrr! Come on back down now, your ice cream’s melting!”
“Oh shoot, I gotta go, woowoo!” he said. “Listen, don’t do anything until I get back to Cragglyville. We can figure things out together.”
“Spence, that’s three weeks away, I don’t think I can wait that long!” Nikki practically shrieked.
“Just try, okay? Gotta run. Over and out.” Before she could respond, he had hung up and she could hear the monotonous drone of the dial tone in her ear.
“Well that just stinks,” Nikki complained to herself. She slumped down on her bed and flipped over onto her stomach to think things through. Surely there couldn’t be a dangerous animal roaming freely in their little forest. Nikki had never heard of any animal attacks in Cragglyville. “I don’t care if Spencer wants me to wait for him,” Nikki mumbled, as a plan began to form in her head.
