Pearl River Community College's award winning literary magazine

Special Edition—Spring-Summer 1998

Short Story Section

by Lowell G. Erwin

As they approached the hour of their death, Boochi and Leroy stood in the darkest shadows across from the house on Pauline Street and planned the way they were going to rob and maybe kill the old woman who lived there.

"If she don't give it up, I'm gonna off the old bat. I know she's loaded with money, and she got a lot of stuff we can sell," said Boochi.

Leroy told him, "Man, you know what people say about this place. None of us knew you were planning on hittin' this house."

"I ain't listenin' to your crap, Boy. I don't believe in that kinda stuff. I got my nine with me and I ain't bein' scared of no superstitions. Anyone tries to back out now, I gonna pop a cap in 'em myself."

"I don't like it Boochi. If we go in, we gonna kill the old woman. I ain't gonna be givin' her no chance to do nothin' to me," said Leroy.

"That's fine with me. You can cut her if you want. There won't be no noise that way. Get the others out of the van and let's do it!"
 

There is a house on Pauline street. Only the mailman knows the street number. To everyone else it is simply the house on Pauline Street. Never in living memory has it been painted, yet it gleams freshly white as though painted yesterday. No one has ever seen anyone work in the yard, yet the grass appears freshly cut and all the shrubs are well pruned. The only activity is the comings and goings of a few delivery people. The only residents are an elderly woman and her two miniature Doberman Pincers. The old woman wears colorful clothes as a gypsy might wear. The two little dogs wear spiked collars like bulldogs wear. There is nothing to inspire fear in anyone, yet the kids of the neighborhood, who can often be little vandals, would not dream of doing anything to the house on Pauline Street. Even the criminal element, which overwhelms the surrounding area, leaves it alone. The cunning and wary know, without anyone saying so, that it would be very unwise to practice their specialties there. The smart simply know there was no profit there for them. Tonight this will change.
 

The five who gathered were in various stages of withdrawal and need. They were not a gang, they had simply come together in their need and decided they would work together to make a score so they could continue their drug laden life. Boochi had a gun. In street talk, he "had a nine." Leroy had a machete. Stu and Joey had sticks. Beans had a piece of pipe. Their courage was in proportion to the way they were armed. Boochi was hardly scared at all--Leroy just a little--Stu and Joey just enough to hype themselves, but Beans...Beans was in a funk--not by the notion of the crime, but because he had been raised in the neighborhood and knew that something bad was going to happen if they messed with that house. He couldn't stop though. Boochi had sworn that he would kill anyone who tried to chicken out at the last minute.

The group hid in the darkest shadows across the street and made their plans.
 

It was nearly midnight and the house was there, shining brightly in the moonlight. The windows were like dark eyes looking out from a dismal soul: they seemed to be watching everything. There were shadows all over, even in places where there was nothing to make a shadow. The shadows chased each other around the turrets and back and forth across the slate roof. From time to time a piece of gingerbread trim on the old Victorian house would seem to disappear and then reappear. The house exuded a sense--not of evil, but of danger: of watchfulness that should not be disregarded.

Inside the house Sera Comeneci and her dogs sat quietly waiting. The two little dogs looked at the old woman, and finally she looked at them and said, "It won't be long now. We have waited a long time but it will soon be over."

Across the street there was movement. Five people slipped from shadow to shadow as they approached the house. As they came closer the house seemed to be watching them. The five never noticed. Leroy slipped around the side of the house and cut the phone wires where they entered the service box. Stu and Joey went to the back door and waited quietly, ready to grab the old woman if she heard them and tried to escape that way. Boochi walked up to the front door with Beans and waited for Leroy. Leroy joined them, nodding his head to signify he had cut the wires. Boochi took a step closer to the door and abruptly raised his foot. He kicked the door as hard as he could and it crashed open and then bounced back as he was going through. He rushed into the living room where he found the old woman sitting in a chair, hands folded in her lap.

"Don't move, old lady," he screamed at her. "If you don't do as you told, I kill you! Understand?"

"I understand you, she said. "I cannot do anything to you unless you try to hurt me or my dogs."

Boochi really didn't understand what she was saying and wouldn't have cared if he had. He sent Leroy to let Stu and Joey in. Soon all five were standing in the living room, arrayed in front of Sera. Boochi told her, "I know you got plenty money stashed around and we takin' it. Give it up or I hurt you, old lady. I want all you money and jewels, and I mean right now!"

Sera told him clearly, "I have nothing for you. I can do nothing to you unless you try to hurt me or my two pets. If you were to attempt that, you would be fair game. I think you had better leave before something bad happens!"

Boochi started raising his gun then. He was going to shoot her. Then he staggered as the room seemed to move. He saw that the dogs were all of a sudden normal sized Doberman Pincers. Then reality shifted again and the dogs were as big as small ponies. They sat in the same place, one on each side of the old woman, but now they grinned at him with red tongues lolling, watching him from eyes glowing red like the hot coals of hell, and showing fangs at least three inches long. They no longer looked as nice as Dobermans. As he watched they started salivating, large drops of white foam dripping from those awful teeth. Then Boochi made the last mistake of his life. As he turned to shoot, the one closest to him, the hell hound, seemed to flow toward him with impossible speed. Its head shot out and the jaws closed. Boochi heard a thump by his feet, and when he looked down there was his hand, with his gun still in it. The same thing happened to Leroy with his knife. They both stood there with the stumps of their arms spurting blood, painting the beautiful old hardwood floors slaughterhouse red. Then the old woman was there in front of them. As they watched in horror the woman reached out to them with both hands. They felt her hands go into their chests and grasp their hearts. They watched as the old woman started becoming young again. Her stooped body straightened and her hair turned from white to gray to salt and pepper and then to a black as dark as midnight. The eyes that had been a dark brown, lightened to a blazing emerald green. As Boochi and Leroy dropped to her floor dead, she turned to Stu, Joey and Beans. Stu wet his pants. Joey was terrified. Beans was almost unconscious with fear and dread. Sera visited each one in turn and they each felt her hand on their heart and watched in fear as her breasts and hips became shapely and the wrinkles left her face. When the transformation was over, they dropped limply to the floor.

Sera stood looking at them for a moment, then she took them, one at a time, and pulled them to the stairs and down into the basement. Once they were all in place, she straightened up and walked to the old furnace. She turned the damper and pushed at the same time. The furnace pivoted out of the way, revealing a crypt. When she looked in, she saw a large pile of bones. She stacked the bodies carefully so they would all fit. Sera swung the furnace back over the crypt. Then she went back to the living room and sat down. It was almost one o'clock and she was tired. It was her bedtime and she was in the habit of retiring at this time every night. Sera called Castor and Pollux, her little dogs, and they went upstairs. She turned back the covers while the dogs found their accustomed places, one on either side of the bed. They were the most faithful of guardians. She slid under the covers, and all was quiet in the house on Pauline Street.

There is a house on Pauline Street. No one bothers this house. The kids who live in the neighborhood don't even knock on the door trick-or-treating on Halloween. This is strange because all kids like haunted houses. The house sits with shadows chasing around it in the night and it is safe from harm by anyone. Except when people mean harm to the woman and her dogs everyone is safe from it. There are many stories about the woman who lives there. Fortunately for the woman, some people haven't believed...