Right now, Jake didn’t have time for one of his grandpa’s stories. He didn’t want to be teased. He was twelve now, and suddenly he just wanted permission to go to sleep at his friends’ house. Was that too much to ask? If he didn’t hang out with Chris and Kate, there wasn’t going to be much else to do for the next two weeks.
“No, Grandpa. I haven’t heard that one, about the cabin at the end of the world. Can you tell me another time? I really just want to go. Chris and Kate want me to sleep over in their new cabin in the woods tonight. Is that okay?”
His grandpa looked a little disappointed but grew serious. He leaned back further in his chair and stared at his grandson before answering.
“Didn’t those two kids scare the bejeebers out of you last year with that story about poor Edwina Fingles getting lost in the swamp? They are two years older than you, you know.”
Jake was surprised that his grandpa knew how scared he was last year. He wondered if he seemed that scared now.
… a long time ago, a little old lady disappeared….
Jake sat up straighter and forced himself not to think about being scared by Kate’s stories. They were just stories, it was fun to hang out with the twins, and he was a year older now.
This year was going to be different.
His pride was a little hurt, which is why he said what he said next.
“No, I wasn’t scared of some dumb ghost story about a … swamp creature that lived in the woods around here. A bat did bang into the window right when Kate got to the part where the creature … the little old lady … Edwina Fingles … wandered around knocking on windows. That freaked us all out a little. But I’m a year older now, Grandpa. It’s fine.”
His grandpa stopped smiling. He just looked at Jake for a while then said, “A bat, huh? Sure, you can sleep in the cabin with the twins tonight. But this town is a little weird, Jake, just keep that in mind.”
Then his grandpa went for his nap, and Jake spent the rest of the afternoon bravely playing ball with Gus. It was brave because Gus kept trying to eat the ball, and the tongue-of-death was everywhere.
But it was also brave because big, juicy flies kept smacking into Jake. They’d come out of nowhere with a huge buzz then slam into the side of his head or into his back. Even Gus stopped trying to bite them after a while and hid when he saw one coming.
Eventually, Jake had to give up and go inside to watch TV in the basement with the creepy cold rooms.
Which was braver still.
Chapter 4
G-R-A-B
Jake was riding down the laneway. His grandpa hadn’t let him go until after dinner was over (hot dogs) and they had done the dishes, but finally it was time. Jake had a sleeping bag and extra clothes in his backpack, plus his grandpa gave him a flashlight, a box of cookies, and three cans of pop. For the long night ahead, he said.
His grandpa also made him take Gus along, which was a little weird since Gus never went anywhere without Grandpa. Jake had Gus on a leash and was leading him beside the bike. The old hound dog wasn’t happy about going with Jake. It took a lot of coaxing with dog treats. Jake had a pocketful for later.
He and Gus pulled up into the Cuthberts’ front yard. He leaned his bike against the fence and led Gus along. He knocked on the front door and jumped back when it opened right away. Mr. Cuthbert said, “They’re already back there, Jake. I’ll let them know to meet you halfway. Just start walking back through the field to the woods.”
Then he shut the door.
Jake nodded. “Okay,” he said to the closed door. He and Gus started walking slowly through the field behind the house.
It was getting dark, and it was really quiet. Jake couldn’t hear anything. In the city, there was always something to hear: trucks grinding their gears, emergency sirens, kids laughing down the street, people shouting, dogs barking. But it wasn’t like that here. It was quiet, too quiet. There weren’t any birds singing, or any cows mooing, or any sign of life at all. He looked across the field and saw the light shining in his grandpa’s kitchen window.
It made him feel a little better. The stars were coming out, and a quarter moon was rising. It was a beautiful night. He and Gus made it to the edge of the forest, then he stopped to wait.
He couldn’t see a pathway into the woods. Mr. Cuthbert had said he would let the twins know to come and get him, but he didn’t say how he was going to do that. Jake had no idea where the cabin was, so he’d have to trust that they’d come to find him.
It was really dark now. Jake sat on his sleeping bag and rubbed Gus’s head. The old dog smelled terrible, but suddenly Jake was kind of glad Gus was there.
Then there were tiny noises in the bushes.
The grass did sway in the moonlight.
The air was alive with the smell of damp, rotting leaves.
There was NO WAY Jake was going to think about the swamp …
“… AAAHHH!”
A hand had grabbed Jake’s shoulder!
Chapter 5
The Giant Hand
It took Jake a while to stop shrieking. It took a longer while for his heart to stop pounding out of his ribcage, too. Kate was laughing, but he didn’t think it was all that funny. He tried not to look mad.
“Man! You guys are easy to sneak up on! What’s that old hound dog for, anyway! He didn’t even smell me. You look scared!” Kate said.
Gus wagged his tail and licked Kate’s hand. Stupid dog didn’t even bark. Jake felt dumb. But he had to admit, he was happy to see Kate, even if she had scared him half to death. She turned on a flashlight then led him along a winding, dark path through the woods to the cabin. No one would ever be able to find it if they didn’t know exactly where to look.
Jake gulped.
As they got near, he could see it was a nice cabin, though. It looked really cozy, with warm light spilling out into the dark night.
Suddenly, a creepy white grin leapt out at Jake. He gasped and hesitated. Leaning up against the cabin wall under the window was a huge white skull and antlers. It stared and grinned at Jake in the light from the window.
Kate pointed at it. “That’s a moose skull and antlers Chris and I found back in the swamp last year. Dad is going to help us hang it above the door. It’s really old, since it’s bleached so white from the sun.”
A skull?
Jake looked closely at the dried bone: so white and strong. He knocked on it. It sounded solid.
“Yeah, that’ll look great above the door,” he said, trying to sound impressed. The moose skull was a little gruesome, and it came from the swamp. The huge skull stared at him with empty eye sockets. Jake pretended to like it, but he hoped it didn’t give him nightmares.
It had been alive once. How did the moose die? Did it get stuck in the swampy water and dragged down into the muck? Jake made himself stop thinking about the moose skull.
Poor moose!
He had to think about something else. The cabin had patterned wood all around it, which made it look like something out of a storybook. He tried to change the subject.
“That looks nice,” Jake said, pointing at the patterned wood. Kate stopped on the step. “Oh yeah, it took Dad and me and Chris ages to cut it all. That was the hardest part. Dad said he had a cabin just like this when he was a kid. He calls it ‘gingerbread.’”
“A … gingerbread house in the woods?” Jake said, a little weakly.
Kate laughed. “Yeah, I guess you could say that. We’ve got Hansel and Gretel inside!”
Jake made a laughing noise, but he didn’t feel like laughing.
Kate opened the cabin door. The lights were on, and Chris was making something in a frying pan on a stove.
It smelled fantastic.
“S’mores!” Chris said happily. “Do you like chocolate and marshmallows and graham crackers, Jake?”
Jake smiled. At least the inside of the cabin seemed normal.
“Yeah, of course.” He dropped his backpack in a corner, and Gus flopped down and fe
ll asleep.
They ate delicious s’mores until Kate finally said it was time for ghost stories and unrolled her sleeping bag in the middle of the floor. Chris and Jake unrolled their sleeping bags, too.
“Where are the beds?” Jake asked.
“We don’t have any beds or anything in here yet, we just sleep on the floor,” Chris said. “We’ll get furniture and beds and a table and stuff one day, I guess.” He shrugged.
Kate grinned and added, “It’s perfect for telling ghost stories, though!”
Gus rolled over but didn’t wake up. He was probably lost in hound-dog dreams about chasing rabbits. His whole body twitched. Jake wished he were far away in dreamland somewhere, too.
Kate switched off the overhead light and brought out a flashlight. Chris turned off the little stove and the cabin got dark and spooky. The flashlight beam bounced off the walls, making everything look jiggly and strange. Jake sat on his sleeping bag and pulled out his own flashlight. He was glad … so very glad … that his grandpa made him take it along.
“Okay, this is a true story … it happened around here a long time ago.”
“Is it about the little old lady and the swamp?” Jake blurted out. He really didn’t mean to, but he couldn’t help it.
Kate shook her head. “No, that’s last year’s story. Besides, everyone knows that story isn’t real. This story I’m going to tell you IS real. It’s about a farmer’s field … and a giant hand,” she began.
Chris lay on his sleeping bag with his hands under his head, looking at the ceiling. He guffawed. “Oh, not this story Kate, it’s stupid! It’s not even scary!”
Kate scowled at her brother. “It’s true, Chris. And it’s creepy. Now quiet and listen.”
Jake was more interested in creepy than scary. His mind started to wander to swamp creatures, and he sat up straighter.
Kate went on in a quiet, whispery voice. “Okay. This is a true story, and it happened a long time ago right around here. One day a farmer and his son woke up to a terrible sound. It got louder and louder. They were too scared to get out of bed, it was so loud. It was like chainsaws, like a million worker bees, like a sound that you recognized but didn’t want to be real. They tiptoed downstairs … the noise was coming from the kitchen! Slowly they opened the creaky old kitchen door … and peeked inside….”
Kate’s flashlight flickered on her face as she spoke. Her eyes looked dark, her forehead huge and weird. Jake clutched his own flashlight, his eyes wide.
“Do you know what was in there? The grossest thing you can imagine,” she breathed.
“Nnn … n-no. What was it?” Jake whispered.
“FLIES! Millions of huge, HUGE flies! They came in the open window. There were so many flies, the farmer and his son couldn’t open their eyes, and they couldn’t open their mouths to scream for help. The flies were everywhere, buzzing in their faces, sticking to their skin, crawling in their ears, clinging to the ceilings and walls.”
“Gross,” Jake said in a tiny squeak.
Flies?
“Yeah, and these weren’t any ordinary flies, either. These were giant flies, like butterflies, like bats, like birds! WAY TOO BIG to be normal. So the farmer and his son took one look and slammed the kitchen door and ran outside. Screaming. The air was filled with buzzing like a million chainsaws, it was driving them crazy. But then they saw something even grosser….” Kate paused. She grinned and the light from the flashlight bounced off her teeth and forehead, making her eyes look huge and empty, like sockets. She looked like a skull come to life.
Jake tried not to think of the horrible moose skull propped up against the wall outside. He stared at her, barely breathing. His flashlight started to shake, and the light on the ceiling trembled like it was crawling … with flies! He couldn’t sit still.
Chris was lying on his sleeping bag, looking up at the wooden beams in the ceiling. He seemed bored.
Kate went on, dropping her voice really low. “They smelled it first. A terrible reek that made them gag. They put their sleeves over their noses and mouths.” She lifted her arm and covered her nose.
“Then they heard the buzzards and crows, screaming and shrieking.” Kate covered her ears, like a loud noise was hurting her.
“Then they saw it. Up in the field. The grossest, most disgusting thing you could ever imagine … a huge lump of rotten goo. Just a giant hill of blood and gross gooey stuff. What was it?” Kate demanded.
Jake shook his head, his mouth open. He couldn’t speak.
“The thing was rotten … dead. And it was swarming with the biggest flies you’ve ever seen! The farmer and his son covered their noses with scarves, their eyes with goggles, and their heads with straw hats. Then they rode their tractor into the field. Closer and closer they got … to the thing. Then they saw it....”
Kate paused and looked at Jake. He was barely breathing. The cabin was so dark, and quiet, and way out in the middle of the woods. No one was around to help. Anything could be out there … waiting. Any enormous, dead, gross thing.
Jake gulped, his heart pounding. “What was it?” he whispered, clutching his flashlight to his chest.
“It was a giant … corpse … hand.…” Kate whispered back, her voice cracking. “With five HUGE fingers, each as big as a tractor. It was just like a normal human hand, except it was as big as a shed. And it was rotting, and it reeked. White bones stuck out where the flesh was missing. The buzzards and crows circled and dive-bombed … but the worst part …”
“Yeah?” Jake breathed. What could possibly be worse than a huge rotting hand crawling with giant flies?
“It was wearing a WEDDING RING!” Chris shouted in a loud voice that made Jake and Kate jump. Gus woke up and whined, wagging his tail down low, and slipped over to Jake’s side. Jake put his arm over Gus’s back and stroked him. He was glad to have something to hug; it hid his shaking hands.
“A wedding ring? That’s so creepy!” Jake said.
Chris ignored him and carried on in his loud, out-of-place voice. “Yes, a wedding ring. It was huge and it had a message engraved in it. It said, ‘To M Love L on Our Wedding Day.’”
Jake looked at Kate, who nodded. “That’s what they say,” she said solemnly.
It was the single weirdest thing Jake had ever heard.
A wedding ring?
Jake was about to ask how anyone knew what was engraved on the ring, but Chris interrupted him. He was laughing and shaking his head.
“No one believes that story, Kate. A, because it’s impossible, and B, because it’s just stupid. Where did the giant hand come from? How did it end up in the field? What was it doing there? And where’s the proof? Honestly, you think up the stupidest things, I don’t even know where you get this stuff.”
Kate looked hurt. “I’m not making it up! Mrs. Cody, the librarian in town, told us about it at a ghost walk last year. It really happened, like a hundred years ago or something, right around here. Sometimes weird things just happen. There doesn’t always have to be a reason, or proof, for something weird to happen. It was just some strange thing that happened to a farmer around here, that’s all.”
“Okay, what happened to the hand then? If there was a giant hand in some farmer’s field, where did the bones go? Why didn’t all the news stations in the world come to town to report it? How come you’re the one telling me about it, and not some important historian?” Jake was glad that Chris was making so much sense. It was a creepy story, but if you thought about it, it didn’t seem real. It was pretty far-fetched.
Kate shrugged as she spoke. “Well, Mrs. Cody said that the farmer and his son dug a huge hole and buried the thing. They just buried the horrible hand right there, in the field. No one made a big deal about it because they buried it and kept it quiet. And when anyone asked, they denied it ever existed.”
Then two really weird things happened. Gus started barking, which made Jake and Kate almost jump out of their skins.
Then something knocked on the window
.
IT WAS A GIANT, ROTTING HAND!
Chapter 6
Spoooooky Enough for You?
The hand rapped on the glass.
Jake and Kate looked at each other. Jake didn’t make a sound. He couldn’t.
But the next second Gus bounded over to the door, wagging his tail. Then Jake heard his grandpa’s voice. “Jake! You in there? Open up, it’s your grandpa! Hush there, Gus! Hush off barking.”
Chris ran to the door and opened it, since Jake and Kate were frozen to the spot on their sleeping bags. “Mr. McGregor. Hi. We were just telling ghost stories. Actually, my sister was just telling us this really boring story about some old rotting hand in a field or something that no one believes because it’s just plain dumb. Would you like to come in for some s’mores?” Chris was polite, opening the door wide.
Jake’s grandpa leaned against the door frame with one hand on his knee. He shook his head. “No. No thanks, Christopher. I just came to remind Jake that he has swimming lessons early in the morning, so not to stay up too late.”
He looked Jake right in the eye. “Your mom just phoned to remind me, so we better not forget. I’ll be by in the morning real early to get you, Jake. Around eight o’clock, so don’t stay up too late.”
“Yeah, thanks Grandpa, I ... I forgot too,” Jake stammered. He totally forgot that his mom had signed him up for swimming lessons at the local pool. He didn’t want the lessons, but she had insisted. She didn’t want him doing nothing around the farm for two weeks. Guess she didn’t know about the shed he was supposed to build.
Jake thought that if his grandpa asked him if he wanted to go home, right then and there, he would have said yes. But his grandpa didn’t ask.
“Okay then, see you tomorrow morning. Sleep tight. Here, Gus,” his grandpa called to the dog. Jake wished Gus could stay behind, but the dog seemed happy to go home with his master.
Jake and the Giant Hand Page 2
