IMAGINATION'S PLACE
FICTION
BOO!
By: Speaker Gerald A. Polley
It is an impoverished country in South America.
Three orphaned children are hurrying to the house of the kind old
couple that feed them what they can one night a week. As
they come to the side of the house they look in the window and to
their horror, see the lady of the house laying on the floor in a
pool of blood. Three men hold their old friend, one of them
draws a knife across his throat. The little girl, the
smallest of the three, shrieks. The three men turn and see
the children.
"Get them!" the biggest of the three men cry.
"They've seen us! They musn't tell!"
The children flee into the darkness. They have gone a short way
when another young boy appears on the trail before them.
"Children!" he cries, "Children! Go this way!
Go up there. I'll delay them."
The children seem startled, but quickly obey their benefactor.
A few moments later one of the men appears searching with a
flashlight. He spies the young boy.
"Hello!" the boy cries. "That wasn't a
very good thing you did in the house. People aren't going
to appreciate that."
The man, without the slightest hesitation, raises the rifle he's
carrying and fires five quick shots. The bullets pass right
through the boy, striking the ground behind him.
"Now, that wasn't nice either!" the boy remarks.
He suddenly turns pure white, lifts into the air, soars over the
man, and as he passes, reaches down and grabs him by the collar,
lifting him into the air. The man begins to shriek
hysterically. The boy takes him to a telephone pole, and
hangs him on one of the crossbars by the collar of his jacket,
then comes around in front of him and takes hold of the
rifle. "Now I wouldn't struggle, if I were you!"
the boy warns. "You wouldn't want to rip your jacket.
It's a long way to the ground."
The man surrenders the weapon. The boy hides it away and soars
off The second man has found one of the children and is
chasing him back and forth along a narrow, twisting trail.
The shimmering white boy flies up behind the man, dives into the
ground, then a moment later pops up in front of him and grabs his
foot as he rushes by. The man hurls headlong into the side
of the trail, then falls unconscious, to the middle. "Ooooh,
dat gotta hurt!" the shimmering white boy muttered. He picks
the unconscious man up, flies him to a telephone pole besides his
accomplice, and hangs him there, then goes after the third.
This man is chasing the little girl through a pile of abandoned
construction equipment. He has just ducked under a big pipe
when the shining white boy suddenly sticks his head and shoulders
out of the side of a piece of equipment and goes "BOO!"
The startled man jumps back. There is a loud BANG! as his
head hits the protruding pipe, then he sinks to his knees and
drives his face into the ground. "Gotcha!"
the shimmering boy laughs. "Love it! Just love it!"
He takes the third man and hangs him by his accomplices.
"Stay here, children," he orders. "I'll be
right back." A few moments later a police car is
patrolling the neighborhood when the shimmering boy appears in
the back seat. "Officers," he says calmly, "please
take the next right turn. There's some children down the
street that need your assistance."
The two officers look to the back seat, their eyes widen, and
they quickly obey. When they arrive on the scene the
shimmering boy steps out through the side of the car and flies up
to one of the men hanging on the pole and withdraws the knife
from his belt, and quickly returns with it to the officer,
floating just in front of him. "These men are the ones
responsible for the recent murders in the area," the boy
explains, "including the local magistrate's nephew. He
found out what they were doing and they killed him so he couldn't
tell. I'm sure the magistrate will want to know. This
is the knife with which he killed the old people tonight.
It's also the one he killed the magistrate's nephew with.
He was so confident he would never be caught he never bothered to
clean it. Tests will show traces of all three of their
bloods. I think you can handle things from here!"
"Yes! Yes!" the officer stammered, "I
think we can! Are....are you a ghost?"
"Yes," the shimmering boy answered. "But I'm
a friendly ghost! Bye, now!"
He began to soar away and the children began to cry out the name
of a well known ghost. The young man turned back, waved,
and cried "Good-bye children!" and disappeared into the
night. The police officer walked over under the telephone
poles. The man hanging in the middle cried out "Sgt!
Get us down! Hold those children. I'll deal with them.
Don't pay any attention to what they say. It's all
foolishness. Get us down. Hurry up!"
"Yes, El Capitan!" the officer answered.
"We will get you down shortly. We will have to call
the electrical company to get one of their trucks. Be
patient. We will have you down soon." He walked
back to his companion. "Go get the magistrate!"
he snapped. "I'm sure he will want to be here when the
captain and the lieutenants are brought down. I think he
will have quite a bit to say to them. "
The other officer nodded and hurried off. The officer knelt
down, took a handkerchief, and wiped away the little girl's tears.
"Nothing to cry about now!" he assured.
"There's a lady I know who just lost her son. I am
sure she would like to meet three such lovely children!"
The little girl smiled. On a nearby rooftop a man in armor
was sitting against a packing case laughing hysterically. A
winged being descended from the sky and joined him. "Well,
did you get the money to the priest?" The winged being
asked.
"Yes!" the man in armor managed between chuckles.
"Yes! He understood your instructions perfectly.
The peoples' families will get their money back without the
police getting anything."
"Come on!" the winged being ordered, "Let's go!"
"Give me a minute!" the man in armor pleaded, "Give
me a minute!" The being stood by patiently until he
finally regained his composure and then both of them lifted
skyward and headed to the north. The man in armor kept
looking at his companion and laughing, and once and a while his
companion would crack a grin too.
"Was fun!" he muttered. "Sure as hell was
fun!"
THE END