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Nummy stayed just inside the doorway, but Mr Lyss took a step toward the dark-twinkling sacks He said, "We have so"

"You can have them," Nummy said "I don’t want none"

The cocoons were apart from one another, so when Mr Lyss walked all the way around the first one, he had his back to the other thich made Nummy nervous

"They look wet, but they’re not," Mr Lyss said "It’s so on the surface"

"I like s happen," Nu to think this through"

Ja fists of the, Numet eaten by anything I shut thee the channel"

"This is reality, boy We only have one channel, and the only e change it is die"

"That don’t seeed closer to the cocoon, leaned his face in for a better look

"I could say a bad word now," Nue to"

Mr Lyss said, "The surface is crawling all over Constantlylike it’s a ball of the tiniest ants you’ve ever seen, but not ants"

"There’s so in it," Nummy said

"Brilliant deduction, Sherlock"

"What’s thatin it"

"I told you so"

"Wonder ould happen if I poked it?" Mr Lyss said, and he brought the barrel of the big gun close to the cocoon

"Don’t poke it," Nu I want to poke"

"Please don’t poke it, sir"

"On the other hand," Mr Lyss said, "this isn’t any da creaked as though the weight of the sacks pulled hard on the beams

"That’s what I heard downstairs And what you said to me is--you said it was just an old house, they creak"

"They do creak This happens to be another issue"

When Mr Lyss stepped back frohed with relief, but he didn’t feel much better

"I wish Norman was here"

"Oh,with us"

The longer he stared at the sacks, the ht they looked … ripe All swollen up with ripeness and ready to burst

"How is it," Mr Lyss asked, "the reverend and his wife have four children, but there’s only three cocoons, not six?"

For a moment, Nummy didn’t understand, and then he did but wished he didn’t

"Maybe there’s three ot to go"

"Not yet, Peaches I’ve got to check the other rooivestarts to happen"

Mr Lyss"Hey, wait, no, I can’t stay here alone"

"You stand guard right there, Peaches, you keep a close watch on theun I will blow your head off and bounce it down the stairs like a basketball I’ve done it before more times than I can count You want me to play basketball with your head, boy?"

"No," Nu himself to say sir

Mr Lyss stepped into the upstairs hall and went away to poke in other roo the day, there had been tio away and leave him alone, but now that it happened, he really, really ain, a series of creaks thatacross the plaster, but there weren’t any cracks

No matter what happened on any particular day since Grandmama passed away, no matter what kind of awful probleh about it, he reh the proble about outer-space iant cocoons

In other rooms, Mr Lyss opened and closed doors He didn’t suddenly screa

When the old man returned, he said, "It’s just the three You wait here while I go downstairs and find so to burn them"

"Please, please, I don’t want to stay here"

"We have a responsibility, boy You don’t just walk away and leave so burned"

"I don’t s, and neither should you"

"You think they’re bugs?"

"I don’t knohat the hell they are, but I know I don’t like the starts to happen"

"What ht happen"

"What should I yell?"

"Help would seeood idea"

Mr Lyss hurried into the hall onceNummy alone on the second floor Well, not exactly alone He had a feeling that the things in the cocoons were listening to hi creaked

Chapter 59

The pale brunette with the silver face jewelry sat two tables away from Carson and Michael Her waitress was the same one who had served them, a perky redhead named Tori

Carson could clearly hear Tori as she approached the wo?"

Denise didn’t reply She sat as before, stiffly erect, hands in her lap, staring into space

"Denise? Is Larry co?"

When Tori tentatively touched the brunette’s shoulder, Denise reacted al the waitress by the wrist

Startled, Tori tried to pull away

Denise held fast to the waitress and said, in a slow thick voice, "Help me"

"Oh, my God Honey, what happened to you?"

Carson saw a thread of blood unravel from the silver button on the brunette’s temple

Even as Tori raised her voice and asked if anyone in the café knew first aid, Carson and Michael were on their feet and at her side