Phantom (35 page)

Ned was still taking in the second item of
bad news and he couldn't think for a moment.

"How about it?" Cloudy asked.

"If I go there, I'll cry again. I can't help
it."

"That's okay, Ned. I know how you feel. You
want to cry one more time, you do it. But I'd like you to come with
me this last time. Will you?"

"All right."

Cloudy changed out of his work whites and
into his old suit. They didn't say much more until they were away
from the center of town and on the road to the baithouse.

"Ain't you got school startin' pretty
soon?"

"Monday."

"Sounds like you ain't lookin' forward to
it."

"I'm not."

"I didn't care for it much neither,
leastways not till I was out a few years. Then I wisht I was back
in."

"Cloudy, when are you leaving?"

"Oh, a few days, I guess."

"By the weekend?"

"By then, I guess, yeah."

"Before you leave, will you go fishing with
me again? For largemouth bass. Peeler said September is a good
month to fish for them."

"I could do that, sure. But I ain't never
caught no largemouth bass before, so don't expect me to know much
about how to do it."

"Me either, but I'd like to try."

"Why not?"

Ned stopped when the baithouse came into
sight.

"Are you okay?" Cloudy asked, touching the
boy's shoulder.

"No."

Then Ned started to walk forward again.
Cloudy felt good to see the boy struggling to be brave and strong
in the face of grief.

"Cloudy."

"Hmmmn?"

"Did you ever make a scarecrow?"

"I can't recall."

'Tm going to make one. In the field out in
back of our house."

"How come?"

"I don't know. I just want to."

Phantom
is #3 in our
Necon Classic
Horror
Series