“Quincy And That Unusual Friend Of His”
By Brian Roberson
Chapter 11
Carol went down the stairs as
the Spook Stalkers followed.
"I don't understand. The readings vanished right before we entered the room. It
must have heard us coming and left the house." Ellen said.
"So it can leave the house if it wants to. We might want to check around the
outside of the house too." Michael said.
The Stalkers entered the den as Carol went into the kitchen. It was then that
Dr. Singh came bursting through the front door and stood panting in the
entrance. He had a wild, unkempt, and mad look about him. He had a blackened
left eye from Steve's assault earlier. He was disheveled, sweaty, and apparently
had Steve's pistol in his hand. Gary turned around with his camera to where the
doctor was standing.
"Where is the boy!" Singh yelled as he waved the pistol and dropped Steve‘s keys
to the floor.
Carol came out of the kitchen and shrieked. Singh quickly glanced into the other
rooms and then bounded up the stairs. Singh reached the top and ran right to the
last door on the left, where he knew he had seen the strange light in the
window. He burst into the bedroom as a startled Quincy quickly turned his head
away from his computer and towards the intruder. Singh shut the door behind him
and leaned his back up against it to hold it shut.
"You've talked to it! Where's the spirit! You've talked to it! I must know!
Please Quincy! Tell me what it said to you! I must know!" To Quincy's horror,
Singh pulled the pistol out, turned it towards himself, and held it up to his
temple.
"Quincy, please...tell me..." Singh sobbed as he cocked the pistol, and he
looked as though he was about to shoot himself with it. “Please, I’ll die if you
don’t tell me. You know the secret…”
Just then the door was kicked open, and Gary, the bearded camera man, came
bursting through the door. Singh was knocked forward towards the bed and the
pistol landed on the floor near the closet. Gary immediately tackled Singh and
put him into a headlock. Carol had gotten the revolver out of the master bedroom
and appeared at the door holding it in front of her with her hands trembling.
Gary frog walked Singh backwards out into the hall while still holding him in a
headlock.
"Quincy! Are you OK?" She sobbed.
"Mom!" Quincy said with a look of confusion and terror on his face. Gary dragged
Singh by the neck away from Quincy's room. Carol rushed into the room, put the
revolver down on the bed, and threw her arms around Quincy, who immediately
burst into tears.
"Don't worry!" Michael said as he fumbled his cell phone in his hands . "We're
calling the police now!"
"No! Don't anybody call the police!" Everyone in the hallway turned and saw
Steve at the top of the stairs. He was holding the back of his head with his
right hand where he had been hit. He walked over and repeated for no one to call
the police. "Carol!" Steve yelled.
"Is Quincy OK?"
"He is but that man came right into his room!" Carol wailed.
"I'm guessing that since you have cameras all over my house, you have footage of
this man entering here and bothering my son in his room?"
"We certainly do, right on this!" Michael said as he pulled a disc out of his
computer and handed it to Steve. Steve put the disc in his pocket and walked
over to where Gary had Dr. Singh in the headlock and told Gary to release him.
Steve then walked right over to Singh and got right in his face.
"Get out!" Steve said.
The others all gasped. "Mr. Lenhardt," Michael said. "This man just burst into
here and threatened your son with a pistol!"
"Yes and he assaulted me in my own driveway!" Steve said. He then picked Singh
up by his collar. "I have it all on recording., You get out of this house and
you stay away from my family forever, or I'll use this footage in court to back
up every charge that I can have thrown at you, got it?"
"Steve!" Carol yelled from the doorway with Quincy clinging to her with his face
buried in her bosom. "You can't really be serious about letting this man go! He
just assaulted our son!"
"I only want to know what it said to him!" Singh cried out. Steve immediately
slapped him hard across his face and cut his lip.
"GET OUT OF HERE NOW!" Steve yelled into Singh's face. Singh scurried down the
hall, and Steve chased him right down the stairs and out the door. He stormed
back up the stairs over to Carol and Quincy. He took Quincy into his arms and
hugged him close. Quincy buried his face into Steve's chest.
"Oh Dad!" Quincy sobbed.
"It's all right, son. Shhh...it's all right. He's gone now. The bad man is gone
now.” Steve said as he hugged Quincy.
"Steve how could you!" Carol whispered harshly. Steve then let go of Quincy, who
went right back into Carol's arms. He walked out into the hall and over to
Michael and got right in his face.
"I want all of you idiots out of my house in five minutes or I'm calling the
police and having each of you arrested for aiding and abetting in an attempted
assault on my twelve year old son."
"Sir! Your wife has already signed the agreement to allow us to..."
"You people showed up with that maniac!" He then pulled the disc out of his
pocket. "I have what he did right here! Both myself and my wife can provide
testimony that Sanjay Singh was a member of your party. That makes you and your
TV show liable for what happened just now, doesn't it? I guess that would null
and void any agreement that's been made, doesn't it?"
Michael smiled at Steve. "Well played. I can see why you went into politics.
It's a fitting profession for you."
"You get the hell out of here, ALL of you, get out! And don't even try to use
any of this footage against me! You won't know what you're dealing with!"
"Well I guess that your threats are pretty much irrelevant considering that all
of our footage and all of our data is on that disc that I just handed over to
you." Michael said bitterly.
"Get out!" Steve repeated.
The Stalkers quickly gathered up all their equipment, and were out the door post
haste. Once they were gone and out of the driveway, Steve went back into
Quincy's room and hugged him some more while Carol glowered at him.
"Steve, I need to talk to you in the bedroom, please!"
"Quincy, we'll be in the bedroom if you need us, OK?" Steve said. Quincy nodded
and wiped away a tear as Steve hugged him again, and then left to go into the
bedroom with Carol.
Quincy lay on the bed on his side as he listened to his parents argue in their
bedroom.
Carol was upset that Steve wouldn't call the police and Steve was upset that
Carol allowed all of those people into the house. Quincy could hear Carol say
that Dr. Singh had showed up with the Spook Stalkers, and that she had thought
that they were from Georgetown University. Steve apparently let Singh go due to
wanting to keep all of what happened from getting out into the public. Steve had
apparently taken a pretty good blow to the head from a blackjack, but was only
momentarily stunned. Carol wanted to take him to the hospital but Steve didn't
want to go, so they started arguing about that. Quincy could only think about
Singh's insane face as he burst into his room, and the pistol that he was
holding. Eventually, he slipped into a troubled sleep as his parents argument
continued to rage on well into the night.
Quincy woke up from a bad nightmare at around 6 am. There was then a loud burst
of thunder outside from an early morning thunderstorm. He cried out as the
thunder blasted outside. Steve came rushing into the room and lay down on the
bed behind Quincy, who fell back asleep in his father's arms.
Quincy woke up late, around 10:00. Steve had left his bed at some point during
the morning. He trudged over to the bathroom and took a long pee into the
toilet. He was about to flush it, but he remembered that Erik was probably still
down in the sewer pipe, so he walked back to his room without flushing. As he
got dressed he heard his mother out in the hallway.
"Quincy! How many times do I have to tell you to flush!" Quincy winced as he
heard her flush the toilet. He finished getting dressed, and went down to
breakfast.
After an especially long prayer, he and his family tucked into a large breakfast
of bacon, eggs, juice, toast, waffles, and oatmeal. Steve explained to Quincy
that he could count on being safe in the house, and that they had guns and a
security system, so he shouldn't have to worry about anything like that
happening again. Quincy nodded, but he kept expecting to see Dr. Singh's face
pop up through a window, or around a corner.
After breakfast, Quincy went out to the garage to get the air purifier and
return it to Mr. Williams. He carried it across the driveway and into the
Williams yard. He knocked on the door and Mrs. Williams answered. She was an
older lady with dyed black hair and a Guatemalan accent that fifty years of
living in the US had done nothing to diminish.
"Hello. Mrs. Williams. I live next door. I'm here to return Mr. Williams’ air
filter."
"Oh sure, come right on in. Would you like a glass of milk?" Mrs. Williams said
as she let Quincy inside.
"Yes Ma'am. Thank you."
Quincy followed her into the kitchen. She then yelled towards the basement
steps.
"Spence! Quincy is here with the air purifier!"
"Okay, Cora! I'll be right up!" Mr. Williams could be heard saying from down
below.
Mrs. Williams put the glass of milk in front of Quincy. Quincy put down the air
purifier and started drinking the milk.
Mr. Williams came up and into the kitchen. "Thanks for bringing this back to me.
Did it work like it was supposed to?" He asked.
"Sure, except, I have a couple of questions about it..." Quincy said.
"Cora, I'll be downstairs with Quincy. Come on, Quincy, follow me. You can bring
your milk with you." Mr. Williams then picked up the purifier and Quincy
followed him downstairs.
Mr. Williams had a nice finished basement with a pool table and a small bar. Mr.
Williams put the filter into a corner.
"So you have a question for me?"
"Yeah...how do you know about Erik?"
"Well what do you know, just the question I was expecting." Mr. Williams sat on
a bar stool facing the sofa, which Quincy sat down on. "I've known Erik since he
was a little guy running around in his diapers. His family and mine both moved
in at the same time, right after they built these houses."
"I mean...how do you know him...you know...now?"
"You mean how do I know he's still there next door?" Quincy nodded his head.
"Erik and my son Spencer Jr. were always very close friends. Ever since we all
moved in. There used to be a big sandbox out back that they would play in. We
had a baby pool set up for them during the summer. These fences weren't here
then, so they would go back and forth between the houses. There was another boy
across the street and down named Aaron Bailey. They were all around the same
age, so they became The Three Musketeers. They used to cut through the back to
go down to the creek. I would sometimes go with them and we would catch minnows
with a big net that I had, or we would fish or look for frogs. Looking back I
guess I was reliving my own childhood through those boys." Mr. Williams smiled.
Quincy watched Mr. Williams as a look of pain crossed his face. "Erik was one of
those really nice kids that everybody liked." He said. "He didn't have a mean
bone in his body. He was always smiling and laughing. He was absolutely bursting
with energy. He loved life and it loved him back. When he was killed..." Mr.
Williams voice cracked and he had to clear his throat while he took off his
glasses, rubbed them with his shirt, and put them back on. "When he was killed,
it devastated all of us. My son cried for a week straight after that. He wasn't
even able to hold it together enough to go to the funeral. I don't think that
Aaron Bailey has recovered from it even to this very day. After Erik died, Aaron
started drinking and doing drugs, skipping school, running away from home. He
came from a really big family and his father was a US Marshall, and a real hard
nosed type. Aaron at one point was kicked out of his house and was living off of
garbage cans in the neighborhood here. I finally grabbed Aaron and drove him to
his house and threatened to call the police on his father if they didn't start
taking care of their child. It was a bad situation. Today he works at that DVD
store and lives in a rented basement somewhere. He's usually getting drunk at
that bar up at the shopping center when he's not working."
"Erik got run over by a car, right?"
Mr. Williams went behind the bar, took a large bottle of Smirnoff vodka out, and
poured himself a good sized slug. He did the shot, and returned to his stool.
"Yes he did. Right in front of your house. It was a horrible scene. Spencer and
Aaron had to see the whole thing happen right in front of them. Absolutely
horrible. The kid who hit him was going the wrong way down the street at over
forty miles an hour. Erik never stood a chance. That kid committed suicide on
the day of Erik's funeral. It was so terrible all around."
Quincy shuddered at the thought of the horrible images from the accident that
had entered his mind.
"About a year after the accident, sometime in August, Spencer's mother and I
started to become very concerned about him. He became very withdrawn, and we
were starting to hear him having conversations with himself. He would go over to
the house next door, stand in the garage, and then walk away looking like he was
talking to somebody. One night, he came back from the creek really late. I was
sitting out back. When he entered the yard, I saw a green, fuzzy glow around
him. I then began seeing that glow in the windows of your house from time to
time. Finally one day, I stood in front of my son's bedroom door, and I could
clearly hear him having a conversation with 'Erik' in there. I was starting to
wonder what was happening with all of that. But eventually it all stopped and
nothing happened for another year, until it started again the next August, and
then the August after that. Eventually Spencer started going to high school,
moved out to go to college, and now lives in Seattle with his wife and our
grandson. During all this time, all the reports about that house next door being
haunted started up, pretty much as soon as the Westergaards moved out. I would
see that green, fuzzy light from time to time, always in August, or very early
September. Other than the Walkers, I don't think that there was one family that
stayed for more than a year in there." Mr. Williams went behind the bar and
poured a second slug of vodka, drained the glass, and sat back on his stool.
"One night around Christmas, when Spencer was home from his first year of
college, he told me that he had been in contact with Erik's ghost since a year
after the accident. He said that he went over to borrow something from The
Westergaards, and he saw Erik sitting in the living room and waving at him. I
told him about the strange lights in the windows of that house that I had seen
from time to time, and Junior confirmed to me that it was Erik that I was
seeing. He said they had stayed friends right up until he started going to high
school. Spencer said that as he grew up, Erik never did. He said that every year
Erik would show up, and it was as if the previous year had never even occurred,
and that it was as if the accident had only just happened. Eventually Spencer
just stopped going over there. I think that's the reason as to why I was seeing
Erik in those windows. He was waiting for Spencer to come over so that they
could play. When Spencer stopped going over there, Erik began to show himself to
the different tenants of that house trying to gain a new friend to replace
Spencer. I'm guessing that's how you met him."
"So Erik only shows up for about a month?"
"Yep. Every year right at this time, and every year about this time someone
always winds up moving out of that house in a big hurry, that is except for last
year when the house was empty."
"It was empty last year?" Quincy asked.
"That house was empty for two years before your family moved in."
"Oh...so how did you know that I saw Erik?'"
"I figured it out yesterday when I saw you floating out of your window and then
yelling 'come on, Erik' while running across my yard to get away from a ghost
hunting team that was in your house. " Mr. Williams smiled.
"Oh." Quincy said embarrassed. "So how did you know that the air thingy would
hide Erik from them?"
"I didn't. I just guessed." Mr. Williams laughed.
"Spence! I need your help up here, quick!" Cora yelled from the top of the
stairs.
"Be right there!" He yelled. "You can let yourself out the back. Here, I'll take
that for you." Mr. Williams then took the glass of milk, which had grown warm in
Quincy's hand. Quincy watched him go up the stairs, and he then got up and let
himself out through the sliding glass door.
Quincy returned to his house and went up to his room. When he entered he saw
Erik sitting indian style on his dresser.
"Hi Quincy!"
"Hey Erik!" Quincy smiled. "Well those people are gone obviously."
"Yeah, I went into your parents room first to look down into the driveway and
make sure they left."
"I hope you don't get mad, but they sort of all left last night." Quincy said as
he sat on the desk chair.
"Oh really!?" Erik said with a peeved expression.
"Yeah, I'm sorry. I guess I should have tapped on the pipes or something."
Quincy said.
"Oh well. It wasn't too bad down there, kind of peaceful actually. So how did
you get rid of them?"
"One of them beat up Dad and waved a gun around in here."
"What?!"
"Yeah, it was that doctor guy. He went crazy and tried to force me to tell him
about you."
"He's lucky I wasn't in here! I would have made him pay!" Erik said.
"I guess it worked out good because Dad took the disc that had all the proof of
you on it."
"That's good, so hey, let's go down to the garage so that I can stand in front
of that machine some more!" Erik said with a grin.
"I took that back to Mr. Williams today."
"Oh man!" Erik said.
"What? I thought that thing tickled you when you had to stand in front of it."
"Yeah it did." Erik grinned.
"Erik...you didn't rub your wiener on it or something did you?" Quincy whispered
with a grin. Erik blushed beet red and both of the boys burst into a flurry of
giggles. Just then the doorbell rang downstairs and Quincy just about jumped out
of his skin. He was still nervous about what had happened the night before.
"Hey, did you find out how Mr. Williams knew about me?" Erik asked.
"Yeah, Spencer told him about you. He's known that you've been here this whole
time."
"Spencer told him... of course..." Erik said with a dreamy, far away look, like
he was remembering something long forgotten.
"Quincy! Timothy's here!" Carol yelled from the base of the stairs.
"Timothy! I forgot all about Timothy coming over!"
"Timothy's coming over?" Erik asked with irritation.
There was then a single knock on his door, and Timothy came walking in. He had a
stack of comic books under one arm and a board game under the other.
"Quincy! I brought my Hungry Hungry Hippos game and some of my Marvel
collection!" He said proudly as he dumped these items onto Quincy's bed. Quincy
looked at Erik who looked back at Quincy, and then looked at Timothy. "Thanks
for inviting me over, Quincy! No one has ever invited me to their house before!"
Timothy said as he sat down with a plop onto the bed.
"
Sure, Timothy, no problem!' Quincy said. Erik let out a brief giggle.
"Wow, this bed feels really soft and comfortable! Maybe I can sleep over
sometime!" Timothy said.
"Yeah, maybe so. " Quincy said. Erik giggled again and Quincy shot him an
annoyed look.
"So what are you doing sitting there without your computer on or anything? Are
you just staring at the wall?"
"No Timothy, he's picking his nose!" Erik said with a grin.
"Actually I was about to turn it on." Quincy said after shooting Erik a nasty
look.
Timothy started bouncing up and down on the bed from where he sat. "So go ahead
and turn it on then."
"In a minute." Quincy said.
"Why do you keep it so cold in your room?" Timothy asked while he rubbed his
arms.
"It feels fine to me!" Erik laughed.
"It's the air conditioning, it's really strong in here or something." Quincy
said.
"So you do you wanna look through my comic books with me?" Timothy asked.
"Sure, I guess." Quincy said. Erik made a loud, yawning noise and Quincy shot
him a dirty look. He could tell that Erik was going to be a big pain in the ass
while Timothy was there.
"Actually, Timothy, I was kind of thinking that maybe my Mom could drive us to
the mall, or maybe we can go swimming at the community center." Quincy glanced
over at Erik, who looked shocked and angry.
"Oh come on, Quincy! You're not really going to leave me here by myself, are
you?" Erik said.
"I will if you don't stop!" Quincy blurted out without thinking.
"Stop what?" Timothy said.
"Huh...? Quincy said, trying to play it off.
"You said you will if I don't stop. I don't understand what you mean." Timothy
said. Erik burst into laughter on the desk.
"No, I ...uh..I was just talking to myself." Quincy stammered.
"You said that to yourself?"
"Yeah, I say things to myself sometimes." Quincy said.
"Isn't that a sign that somebody is menatlly ill? " Timothy asked. "I mean, it's
OK if you are. I feel a little menatlly ill sometimes." Timothy then put his
fingers on his lips and started making a high pitched bibbling noise while
shaking on the bed like a spastic.
"Why did you make friends with this kid?" Erik said with genuine wonder in his
voice.
"That's MENTALLY ill, Timothy, not 'menatlly'. Quincy said.
"I was just kidding. So yeah, I think swimming sounds cool. I'd rather do that
then go to the mall." Timothy said.
"So do you feel sorry for him or something?" Erik asked.
"Shut up!" Quincy said to Erik.
"What? But it was your idea!" Timothy said in a hurt voice.
"No, not you!' Quincy said.
Timothy looked puzzled for a second.” So did you want to go the mall instead of
swimming? We can do that instead I guess, whatever you want is fine with me."
Timothy said, sounding like he was trying not to make Quincy mad.
"I'll decide in a minute what I want to do." Quincy said while he glowered at
Erik.
"Well then you should come over here and check out my Spiderman comics then!"
Timothy grinned as he patted the space on the bed next to him. Erik rolled his
eyes upwards.
Quincy's mom then called and said that she was going to the store and that the
boys would need to go with her.
"Okay, we'll be right there! Come on, let's go Timothy."
Quincy and Timothy got up to leave the room. Quincy glanced over at Erik as he
walked out, and Erik gave him a sour look that was filled with jealousy.
Quincy, his mom, and Timothy all drove to the store. Quincy's dad had to go to
his office, so he took a Congressional limo into town, and he had already left
by the time they set out to the grocery store. They went to the Safeway and
spent a little over an hour there while Carol did her weekly shopping. After
they returned, Quincy and Timothy went back up to the bedroom. When they opened
the door, they both gasped in shock.
Timothy's comic books were strewn all over the room. They were all over the bed,
on the floor, on the desk, everywhere. Some were taken out of their numbered
plastic covers. Timothy let out a big groan.
"Oh no! My books! What happened?"
"Don't worry, I'll help you clean them up." Quincy said with a reluctant sigh.
Quincy and Timothy spent the next hour collecting the books, getting them
returned to the proper plastic covers, and getting them all resorted. Timothy
was upset and had tears in his eyes the whole time. When they were done, Timothy
said he wanted to go home. Quincy and Timothy went downstairs and Timothy called
his mother to come get him. While they waited for her to show up outside in the
driveway, Quincy apologized again to Timothy and assured him that he had nothing
to do with what happened to the books, but Timothy didn't seem to want to hear
it.
"I guess I'll see you in school on Monday, Timothy." Quincy said as Timothy got
in the car.
"OK, I guess." Timothy muttered as he closed the door. Quincy watched the car
pull out of the driveway and he then headed back into the house and up to his
room. As he entered his room, he saw Erik sitting on the desk and laughing.
"Erik, how could you do that!" Quincy said as he closed the door. "That was not
cool!"
Erik continued to laugh. "Did you see the look on his face...?" He chuckled.
"Yes I did! I can't believe you actually did that! That was so mean of you!"
"Oh come on! It was just a joke! I didn't hurt any of the comics!" Erik said.
"That's not the point! I brought home a guest and you were mean to him the whole
time! I thought that you supposed to always be nice!"
"It was just a joke, Quincy! I didn't mean anything bad by it!" Erik objected.
"Erik, I want you to go away..." Quincy said as he turned his back to Erik.
"What?"
"I want you to go away. I don't want to see you."
"Don't want to see me?" Erik said softly, his voice trembling.
"Yes! I'm so mad at you right now! Just go! And if it's next August before I see
you again, then that's fine! If it's never again at all, that's fine too!"
"But, Quincy..." Erik whimpered.
"GO!"
Erik's lips began to quiver and a choking sob left his throat as he disappeared.
Quincy started to take the sheets off of his bed to have them washed, and then
threw them back down onto the bed. He then sat down at his desk and buried his
face in his hands.