Alan Baxter - The Gulp - Five Tales of Horror

He texted Maddy.

if docs call say yeah the woman saw mum then left again all good. explain later

Maddy messaged right back.

What?

docs came, saw mum, all good. you weren’t home i was. explain later

His phone started to ring immediately, Maddy calling…

The last thing he wanted to do was talk about it over the phone. He rejected the call then messaged.

TALK LATER! when you home?

I don’t know. Should I come now?

nah come later

About 6 then?

okay

He switched his phone off and went to watch a movie. It was rubbish, but took his mind off stuff. About four he started walking the main road out of Monkton, thumbing for a lift. He walked a good twenty minutes, then a truck picked him up and dropped him at the Gulpepper turnoff. He thought he’d end up walking all the way back from there, but about halfway along a car slowed. It was a local he’d seen around but had no idea who it was. They were kind enough, didn’t talk much, and that suited him. They dropped him by the harbour just after five and he walked home. He slumped onto the couch, turned on the TV and waited for Maddy. He didn’t dare even look at his mother’s bedroom door, let alone open it.

Maddy stared ata pair of pristine blue and white Nike sneakers sticking out of the massive, bulbous whiteness. The soles were barely even scuffed. Every other part of the woman was consumed. Vomit threatened to burst forth at any moment. “What the fuck , Zack?”

“Mum told me to.”

“What do you mean? Mum’s dead!”

“But she talks to me, I think maybe she’s in there, like, transforming or something?”

“Into what, Zack, Optimus fucking Prime? She’s dead, this is fucked up. You killed that woman!”

“No, I didn’t. Mum told me to give the woman to her, so I did. It’s okay, it’s all good now.”

Maddy took a deep breath, swallowed down bile. “All good? Are you insane? What about when she doesn’t report back? What about when they send someone else?”

Zack pushed gently against her, moved her out of the room and shut the door. “Come on, I’ll explain all that happened.”

By the time he’d finished his story, as they sat across from each other at the kitchen table, Maddy’s hands had mostly stopped shaking. “Did anyone see you leave the car in Monkton?”

“Nope. And if they did, they wouldn’t have seen my face. And that hoodie I had on was an old one, I’ve already thrown it away.”

Maddy nodded, thinking, chewing her lower lip. “So no one saw anything? If they call or send someone else around, we can tell them the woman never even came here?”

“Yeah, we could, actually. And when they find her car in Monkton, they’ll assume that’s as far as she went and the search will be focused all the way over there.”

“So we just need some plan for when the next one comes around.”

“By then, the fungus will hopefully be done,” Zack said.

“What do you mean, done?”

“I don’t know, finished its lifecycle kinda thing? And Mum’s body will be gone and we can use the story about visiting her cousins. It’s only another year, less than a year, until you’re a legal adult. Not much longer for me. Then we’re free. We claim the house, say Mum fucked off to Bega and we’ve lost touch, whatever. They can search all they like, but they’ll never prove anything, right?”

“Why did you push her in, Zack? Why didn’t you use the cousins story today?”

Zack looked down at the table, at his hands, picking at his nails. “Partly I panicked. But also, Mum said to give the woman to her.”

“It’s not really Mum, you know that, right? I can’t be.”

Zack nodded, picking at his thumbnail until a bead of blood sprang up.

Maddy reached over, put her hand over his. “Zack? It’s okay. We’ll be okay. But we have to be smarter.”

The next morning, Maddy got up early because sleep had been elusive since dawn. She made coffee, tried to eat breakfast, but had no appetite. At seven she opened Zack’s door and called in.

“Monday morning, school.”

He made muffled noises of annoyance and consent and turned over. Maddy stared at the lump of doona for a while, then left. She’d give him another ten minutes. Poor kid, all this was pretty tough. Kid! Why did she have to be the responsible one all the time? She remembered being five when Zack was four and her mother going out and saying, “Watch your brother. Any trouble when I get back and you’ll get the hiding of your life!”

“Fuck you,” she spat at her mother’s bedroom door as she went past.

A hissing came from the other side.

Maddy jumped and stopped, turned to look back at the closed door. Another hiss, like a snake under a rock disturbed by movement. She reached out, put a hand to the door handle, then shook her head and walked away.

She was surprised when Zack scuffed into the kitchen a few minutes later, eyes bleary. “It’s smaller.”

“What?”

“Come and look.”

Reluctantly she got up and followed her brother back to their mother’s room. The fungus was as smooth and white and rounded as ever, and there was no trace whatsoever of the social worker. But Zack was right. While the pale thing covering the bed was about the same shape, it was smaller. Shrunk back away from the light fitting, the bulbous edges a little off the floor.

“Maybe it’ll shrink away to nothing soon, yeah?”

“Maybe.” What was the hissing she’d heard? Was the thing deflating somehow?

The curtains shifted in the soft breeze, a little cooler today as autumn approached. Maddy watched the soft undulations for a moment, mesmerised by it, then shook herself and closed the door.

“I have to go to work. Don’t be late for school, Zack.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

When Maddy stepped out the front door, grumpy Jack Parsons was shuffling along his driveway towards the letter box, a grubby dressing gown hanging on his skeletal frame, tatty ugg boots on his feet.

He glanced up and Maddy forced a smile, and a nod.

“Social worker, was it?” Parsons said.

Maddy’s heart pulsed once extra hard. “What’s that?”

“Yesterday. Nice looking lady came by, hadn’t seen her before. Didn’t see her leave though.”

“You didn’t see her leave?”

“Went to see my sister across town. I still drive, you know.”

Maddy nodded. “Right. You went out.”

“That’s what I said, are you deaf? I’m the old one. She come to see about your mother, did she?” The old man gave a crooked half-smile as he asked, something glinted in his eye.

You fucker! Maddy thought. You called DoCS on us . “Just routine, I guess,” she said. “I wasn’t in, but she had a chat to Mum then left again.”

“Don’t see your mum much these days. Used to chat over the fence quite often, good to have a yarn, eh?”

“She’s sick. Doesn’t like to go outside any more, not even the garden.”

Parsons nodded, mouth hanging slightly open. Maddy heard his rasping breath as he stared at her. She quickly patted her pockets, then said, “Damn it, forgot my phone.”

“You young people and those things!” Parsons said.

She flashed him a forced smile and ran back inside. She hadn’t forgotten her phone at all, but it was the first excuse that came to mind. “Zack, for fuck’s sake!”

He looked up from his bowl of cereal, milk dripping off the spoon. “What?”

“Jack Parsons saw the social worker arrive!”