“We frantically shoveled dirt into the grave covering Chulita’s body with each toss. Shovel-load after shovel-load the grave finally began to fill to the rim. After a few more tosses of dirt, it quickly became obvious the grave was far too shallow. Chulita’s left rear leg, stiff as a board, was sticking up well above…
“The house was watching as a horrible nightmare infected my mind, seeping in cell by cell, like touching the corner of a thin tissue to a drop of blood. The leopards … they were in the house! They were sniffing about, growling, gnashing their teeth at each other anticipating a fight for food, saliva dripping…
“Back in the old house, things were deteriorating fast. The time between the Braydon event and the beginning of my senior year was the start of the end of my desire to care. It was the end of my desire to try.”
“Nothing about Jenny Grey was fake. This morning she was wearing old, faded, button fly jeans, red tennis shoes, and a peach-colored sweater, the sleeves of which she had just stretched down over her hands while clenching up her shoulders in a brief self-conscious moment she wasn’t even aware of.”
“While the feel of Corpus Christi was always like an ocean-front vacation, Pleasanton was a hot, dreary, dusty, rugged place. There were no tourists, no coastlines, and no water. I had to look hard to find anyone not wearing cowboy hats, rough faded jeans, and weathered ranch boots. Guns, high school football, livestock, hunting, the…
“Immediately I sensed something was near me. I couldn’t see anything, but I felt it ever so subtly. As I stepped past the door threshold and into the master bedroom, I became aware that the air had become very thick, colder now, and much heavier. Something about that room sent the hair on the back…