Page 7 (1/2)

I ot that off eBay It’s a, uh, prop frolanced away

He shined his light back onto the shelf Next to the jar was an ant far neatly to spell out the word HELP

Next to that was ht down a foot, to the shelf below He passed over a stack of oldthat the top one was an old, faded issue of Tients around a dead Bill Clinton, the words WHO DID IT? blasting across the picture in red Next to the azines was a stuffed red Tickle Me Elht hit it, its sound box crackled to life and in a cartoony voice it said, "Ha ha ha! Five and three quarter inches erect!"

I said, "It’s, uh, broken"

Franky the Cop inched the bea a twisted, purple tongue suspended in clear liquid Next to it was a duplicate jar, only with two huled tail of nerves and blood vessels The cop didn’t notice that when the beam swept past the jar, the eyes turned to follow it Next to the jars was an old battery froht asoline can sitting on the floor next to an old CRT counshot Next to it was the one thing I didn’t want the cop to see The Box

We heard crunching leaves behind us

"Yo, what’s up?" The cop and I turned to see a dark figure with one hand swinging the orange coal of a burning cigarette John "Hi, Franky Dave, sorry I sent you all those pictures of my dick I hope that’s not what caused you to injure your eye"

The cop put the flashlight on John, maybe to make sure he wasn’t armed John wore a flannel shirt and a black baseball cap with the word HAT on it in all caps

Franky the Cop thanked John for co he would back out of the toolshed because each minute he stood there madeThe wind shifted and I picked up the scent of alcohol frohted the floor of the toolshed again Light fell on the box, and I reen box we’d found in the back of that unmarked black truck It looked like a serious box It looked like so you’d want to look inside of, if your job was to keep people safe Franky nodded toward it

"What’s in the green box there?"

"Don’t know"

That was sort of true, I guess

John said, "We found it You can’t get it open"

That was also true Franky couldn’t get it open

I said, "You can take it back with you, if you want Put it in the lost and found at the police station"

The cop clicked off the flashlight, then asked John if they could go inside and talk He then gestured toward the toolshed with the flashlight and said to me, "You want to close that up while I have a word here with John?"

I said that seeh the leaves until they reached the light of my back door I closed the toolshed and clicked the padlock shut, then let out a sigh of relief The relief lasted approximately four seconds, the time it took me to realize John and Franky the Cop were now back inside the house with the murderous alien spider I hurried back inside and saw John and the cop in , the cop I guess was asking John to babysit ns of craziness I moved closer and barely heard John say, "… Been real depressed lately…" and wondered what kind of portrait he was painting in there