The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek(5)

Jessica nods, tearry-eyed.


DAD

I know. I wish that darn motorcycle had never hit him. Hey, here’s a Frisbee. Why don’t you go throw it around a bit, have a little fun?


JESICA

Okay, Dad.

Jessica walks around the party. She throws the Frisbee to no one, then stops in her tracxks when she sees a dog.


JESSICA

Mr. Bones…? Is that you?

The dog barks twiice.


JESSICA

Oh my gosh!! I knew you were still alive!

Jessica runs to enbrace Mr. Bones, but then he tries to pounce on her!


JESSICA

Mr. Bones stop! Why are you doing this?

Jessica notices that Mr. Bones now has a long white tale.


JESSICA

Wait a second…Your not alive, are you? Your a g-g- g-ghost!!! Ahhhhh!!! 1

Jessica starts to run, weaveing in and out of people. Mr. Bones chases and barks evilly.


JESSICA

Somebody help!!! My dog is a ghost!

She runs into the arms of DAD.


JESSICA

Help, Daddy! Mr. Bones is back and he wants to kill me!

DAD looks. Mr. Bones is gone.

CLOSE-UP on Jessica, scared and confused.



“Okay, got it. Let’s shoot this thing,” said Alicia.

“Well, actually,” Rex said, “I just had an idea. If we wait to shoot until lots of people are sitting down, we can get a really good reaction shot from them.”

“Yeah, that’ll be perfect,” Leif said. Though they were practically brothers at this point, Rex still felt proud when Leif complimented one of his ideas. “In that quiet moment after they say the blessing, Alicia will come by screaming, with Tucker on her heels. It’s gonna feel so real.”

“Plus,” Alicia said, “I’m gonna deliver a highly authentic performance. I won’t be surprised if somebody steps in to rescue poor Jessica from her ghost dog.”

“PolterDog.” Rex and Leif corrected her in unison.

Alicia nodded and winked. “Right. PolterDog. It won’t be long before people all across North Carolina are saying that.”

The three of them looked at each other, their excitement palpable. The deadline for the Durham Film Festival was in three weeks, and though it would get a little trickier to find time to shoot (not to mention edit) once school started, they were still on track to get PolterDog finished and submitted just under the wire.

“All right, great,” Rex said. “So let’s save the dialogue for later and start with Tucker chasing Alici—”

“Rex, sweetie,” Martha interrupted. “Are y’all gonna sit down and join us?”

“Oh,” Rex said. “Yeah, Mom, in a sec, after they actually serve the food. We, uh, just have to film a quick shot for our movie.” He knew it would be wiser to give some kind of heads-up, so it didn’t seem like he was trying to pull one over on them.

“Now? Here?”

“It’ll be really quick. People probably won’t even notice,” Rex said, unconvincingly.

“We’ve talked about this, son,” his dad said. “You need to spend less time on your little movie and more time practicing, so that you’re ready for basketball tryouts.”

“I know, Dad,” Rex said, a tightness settling in the pit of his stomach, like he was six years old again and had just wet the bed. “But it’s not like I could practice here anyway.”

“You can practice your defensive stance anywhere.” His dad dropped into a squat and stretched his hands out to his sides.

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” Rex’s mom said, breaking the tension. “As long as you sit down with us once you’re— Oh, hey, Alicia!” Rex watched his mom’s mouth twist into the manufactured grin that Martha McClendon offered to people she had reservations about. “Didn’t see you there. How are you, hon?” She didn’t dislike Alicia, but she definitely liked Leif more. She’d once said to Rex that she didn’t trust “girls who make so many jokes.” It hadn’t helped that Alicia had been caught earlier that summer pulling down the pants of every mannequin in the display window of the Belk department store. Even though the only thing exposed was a series of smooth, mild bulges on the androgynous dummies, the store manager, Faye Johnson, had found the whole scene so scandalous that she’d fainted, toppling over a pyramid of pantyhose. Word had spread quickly throughout town that Alicia Boykins was to blame.

“Excellent! Thanks, Mrs. McClendon,” Alicia said.

“We’re gonna go get ready for this quick shot,” Rex said, leading Leif, Alicia, and Tucker—Leif holding tight to Tucker’s leash as he pulled and licked his lips at Alicia—away from the picnic tables. Hungry Bleak Creekians had already filled the seats and were patiently waiting for Pastor Jingle of Second Baptist to say grace, giving them the green light to gorge themselves on pig parts.

Rex surveyed the area, holding up his hands in the shape of a box like he had seen Martin Scorsese do in a picture from the set of Goodfellas, a movie he and Leif had watched after sneaking in through the exit of the Twin Plaza theater two years before. Rex still had an occasional nightmare where he was lying in a trunk and Joe Pesci would open it up and begin stabbing him. He never told Leif.