The girls went back into the living room. Rosie held the creepy book in one hand. A normal book might have suffered the however minor effects of being in high-powered microwave, but it was barely warm. It was almost cool to the touch.
"Harls?" Jean called out. They didn't see her. "You here?"
"Yeah?" Harley said poking her head around the corner of a couch. "Like don't even leave me alone again!"
"Are you afraid the cookie monster might eat you?" Nancy teased.
"I'm not afraid of the cookie monster." Harley said.
"Well you would be if you looked like a cookie." Desy explained. "What do we do?" She asked while the lights tried to come back on. They flashed on and off. They could hear a dull thudding. Harley felt the hair rise on her neck. She grabbed the nearest thing to her, Jean. She yelped as she felt fingernails grabbing her arm.
"Watch it!" She hissed. "I happen to like that arm. What's that noise?"
"It’s the transformers, the power transformers trying to come back on." Nancy explained.
"Does anything scare you?" Desy asked her.
"No." Nancy said. "If this were a movie it would get a mild PG at the most." She guessed. "No nudity or white towels yet." She smirked. Nancy got a punch in the arm for her trouble. "Okay, she scares me. She could be a wrestler. She could be the Desy-crator. Primary weapon a w...." She started to stay as Desy muttered something to herself.
"Knock it off you two." Rosie said. "Let's sit down."
"And do what?" Harley asked. "That ice cream is starting to sound better all the time."
"Read the next story." Jean said getting the book from Rosie. In her grab to get it, she gets a slight paper cut. "OWWWOwwwww." She sucked on her finger. "Okay, why am I getting hurt here? I'm a nice girl!"
"Who's the next story about?" Desy asked.
Jean looks at it. "Me." She said. She gulped. "The Car." She read. "It can't be that bad. Could be about a jerk car salesman!"
"And who hasn't heard of that before?" Nancy said. "Go on, and read it."
"It seems to be shorter." Jean said.
The car
"Come on; put your back into it." Jean said from the drivers of the car.
"I can't I left what's left of my back a mile ago." Harley said.
Jean stopped reading the story. "She wasn't in this story before. Nancy was."
"Weird. It could have changed when I showed up." Harley said. "Keep reading."
"I don't much like the idea of pushing a car anyway." Nancy complained.
"Shhhh." Desy shushed her.
"We're almost home." Jean said. "Just a little further."
"If we're so close how come we're outside the car dealership ten miles away from town?" Harley asked. "Why don't you push for a while?"
"Car dealership?" Jean mused. She turned the wheel. "To the right! This may be our stop after all."
"Thank god." Harley said. "Horses and buggies don't sound so bad right now." She said standing up.
"Do you want to clean up after them?" Jean asked. Harley shook her head. They went to look at cars as a salesman came out.
"And the car salesman is Dracula, and you guys totally go Buffy on him and kill him, the end!" Rosie said.
"Rosie!" Jean said.
"Come on, we didn't mst3k your story!" Nancy said.
"Easy for you to say." Rosie said. "Ok I'll shut up now."
Luckily for the girls, the car was traded in for a blue gremlin. Jean was totally in love with the car. She loved it so much she almost left Harley in the dealership parking lot.
"Oh yeah, I can see this. I do all the pushing and I do all the walking!" She waved to Jean. She backed up and Harley got in on the passenger’s side. A few miles down the road they thought they heard a thumping in the back.
"Are you doing that?" Jean asked Harley. Harley was capable of weird stunts.
"I'm right here." Harley said. "The sound is from back there."
"Hmmm." Jean mused as she pulled over.
They checked the tires.
"All right on this side, mate." Harley called.
"Here too." Jean said. "Maybe it’s something in the trunk?"
"You want to check the trunk?" Harley asked with a strange look on her face.
"Why not? It could be something rolling around." Jean explained.
"Nothing. Reminded me about something Nancy said about the movie Pulp Fiction once." Harley told her. They took the keys out of the ignition. They walked to the back and popped the trunk. Nothing was there.
"Happy now?" Jean asked.
"Yeah." Harley said. "We gotta get Nancy to stop freaking us out like that."
"Ohh so now its my fault." Nancy stammered. "Blech. I told you it was weird."
Desy shushed Nancy. "I don't care. Its slander." Nancy looked at her friends. "What? Keep reading."
As they got on the road again the thumping got louder and more insistent.
"Now that has to be something." Harley said. "Pull over."
Jean pulled over again. The thumping seemed to continue even after the car stopped. "I think I know where it is."
"Where?" Harley asked.
"Come here. Help me lift the seat." Jean said. In the all too quick sales pitch they were told it came out. Harley and Jean unhitched the removable seat and took it out. What they saw shocked them. It was a live man with blond hair. He looked tired and weak.
"What are you doing there?" Jean asked as they helped the man out.
"My name is Peter. I was in the Gremlin plant on a tour. I went back here to look at the back of the seat but got trapped in here. I think I have been here along time." Peter said.
"The car is two years old." Harley said slowly. "He's been in there two..."she turned to look again, all there was now was dust and a skull. "years...." She gasped. Jean and Harley jumped out of the car and slammed the doors shut.
"I think we can get our car back." Harley said backing away from it.
"I don't think so. I think walking is very in this year!" Jean said hysterical.
"You're right!" Harley said. "Driving, after all, is highly overrated!"
"Ewww. Okay." Harley said. "Any more stories?"
"Actually that's it." Jean said. "There was one for Nancy but its gone."
"Maybe we can pray to god that the microwave got it." Nancy said as the lights flashed on.
"Hooray!" Harley got up and did a dance. "The lights are on...all over the town. uh huh, yeahh ohh yeah...." She stopped when she realized she was getting stares.
"I'm getting that ice cream." Harley said making a dash for the kitchen. The others followed.
"What do you think of that?" Rosie asked.
"Harley? I don't think Britney Spears will lose any sleep worrying about her..." Nancy started.
"No." Jean said. "The book."
"I vote we give it back to Mrs Macky." Nancy said. "She can keep the sawbuck."
"Agreed." Jean said as the door opened. No one seemed to come through it.
"Must be just the wind." Desy said going to close it. Suddenly the guys jumped out behind them with masks on. Everyone, except Nancy, screamed.
"Really lame guys." Nancy said.
"We've had a scary enough night." Rosie said tossing a spoonful of ice cream at them. It landed on Davys head as he took off his monster mask.
"Eww, thanks Rosie. This was my best hair day ever!" Davy whined.
"So what was so scary about your night?" Mike asked.
"We'll tell them later." Desy said. "I think the video store is still open.
"Then what are we waiting for?" Micky said grabbing Nancy. He hoisted her over his shoulder. "Lets motor!"
The next day
Jean and Nancy found Mrs. Mackys place.
"So what do we tell her about the book? We're giving it back, why again?" Jean said.
"I could say its cause we can't read. But I think she would believe that too much." Nancy said as she knocked on the door. A woman with blonde hair answered.
"Oh we're sorry, we're looking for Mrs. Macky." Nancy said.
"I am Mrs. Macky." She answered.
"We're looking for your mother." Jean said. "She sold us this book yesterday at the neighborhood block sale." Jean explained as the woman burst into tears and went in the door.
A man came outside and asked what was going on. "We're here to return her mothers book." Nancy said. "We decided we didn't want it after all. She can keep the money we gave her."
"That’s not possible." The man said. "She could not have sold you that book." He explained. "Dorethea Macky died last week." He said slamming the door in their faces. "Some kids don't know when to quit." They heard him mumbling.
"That can't be. We both saw her." Nancy said.
"I don't know." Jean said, her eyes wide. She looked at Nancy, who was genuinely freaked by this. If she wasn't scared by the night before, she was now.
"We saw her! We did! We did!" She mumbled as Jean turned her away. Nancy looked back at the house. She shook her head. As they walked away, they could almost hear what could have been Mrs. Mackys laughter in the wind.
