The Attraction by Douglas Clegg Page A

How had this happened? He tried to tell the teacher who came to get him that he was already in college, that he shouldn’t have to go back to the fifth grade, but the teacher—Mrs. Raleigh, who had once humiliated him in front of the entire fifth grade—told him that he needed to mind his P’s and Q’s. “But this isn’t right!” he shouted. “I’m almost twenty.” The other kids in the fifth grade looked at him funny, but paid very little attention to him. He noticed something even worse: He had no pants on. He sat there in his shirt, but no pants, no underwear. Hanging out. And no one said anything. Why hadn’t his mother noticed? How could she have let him leave the house without his pants on? He tried to pull his shirt down over his balls, but it wouldn’t go far enough.
    And then someone began banging at the window of the classroom. Someone was yelling at him.
    Josh opened his eyes, wrenched from the dream.
    10
    Tammy had already begun screaming—not just screaming, but it was like the sound cats made when they were in heat, a wail that barely sounded human. Bronwyn was up, and apparently had been shaking Josh.
    “It’s gonna get us!” Tammy screamed. “Oh my God, it’s gonna kill us!”
    But Josh saw headlights out the window. And then, like a nightmare come true, Dave Olshaker’s face suddenly appeared against the windshield. “Hey, you losers! How’s it hangin’?”
    11
    “Get out of here!” Bronwyn shouted.
    “How the hell did they get here?” Josh said, still wondering whether this might be an extension of his dream.
    Bronwyn had to slap Tammy to get her to stop screaming. Dave and his buddy were shaking the car up and down, trying the doors, running around the car.
    “We should tell them,” Bronwyn said.
    “Are you crazy? Keep your doors locked. That guy’s insane,” Josh said. He had already dropped the gun on the floor of the Pimpmobile.
    Dave was shouting, “Tammy! You’re coming with me, baby! Do you understand?”
    “Don’t let him take me,” Tammy said.
    “They have a car,” Josh said. “Oh my God. We can get out.”
    Bronwyn rolled her window down slightly. “Hey! Guys! We know you’re mad. We know it. But there’s some kind of . . .” She paused, unsure of what to say. “There’s a killer out here. We need help.”
    “Griff is dead!” Tammy shouted. “Griff is dead!”
    It probably was this cry that stopped Dave Olshaker in his tracks. He and Billy Dunne looked at each other for a second. Dave started laughing.
    “Oh my God,” Bronwyn said. Josh looked back at her. She was looking toward the headlights of the pickup truck. “They ruined part of our fire. Part of the ring we made.”
    “So?” He turned and saw the break in the circle of fire.
    “What if it’s been out there? Waiting? Just outside the fire?”
    “No, it’s not,” Josh said.
    But just as quickly, they all heard a woman’s high-pitched scream. Josh looked at Tammy but her mouth was closed.
    It was Billy Dunne.
    Or rather, it wasn’t Billy Dunne.
    He had been there, standing just in the headlights in front of the Pimpmobile, and suddenly, he was gone.
    They heard a thud beneath the car.
    Dave Olshaker glanced around the car, stepping back from it.
    Inside the car, they were silent.
    Josh said,
“Just go away. Just go.”
    “Billy?” Dave walked around the car. “Billy?”
    “We’ve got to let him in,” Josh said, leaning over to unlock the driver’s side door.
    “No,” Tammy said. “Don’t let him in.” She had a curious anger in her voice.
    “Dave!” Josh shouted. “Dave, come around here, get in!”
    But Dave Olshaker was looking around the car, crouching down as if looking under it.
    “Don’t let him in,” Tammy said.
    “Tammy?” Bronwyn asked, softly.
    “He did something bad to me,” she said. “Maybe this is what happens to bad people. Maybe . . .”
    “Dave!” Josh said, rolling his window all the way down, signaling for Olshaker to get over there. He was