Halloween Fiction Cooperation: The tale of Thomas Braum.

Discussion of general Halloween topics
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JACKRYAN592
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Post by JACKRYAN592 » Thu Apr 05, 2007 8:33 am

So, Charlie Brown being a block head, sold the jewelery in his pocket at a pawn shop. He needed the money to add stuff to his Hallowen costume.

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Post by Nostalgiascape » Thu Apr 05, 2007 5:47 pm

And the thread is dead.
The dark night beckons. Bear us your soul, it whispers. Expose your wicked delights. Join the rest of us on the wind. The dark night beckons and we answer. Sailing into the shadows.

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Post by geekmidwinter » Fri Apr 06, 2007 11:08 am

Unless . . . .

Fifty years later, on Halloween, Tom's son Tommy Jr. goes into the same junky pawn shop and notices some old jewelry in a dusty box in the corner. It's hideously ugly, but for some reason Tommy picks it up. It's tarnished metal should be cold, but instead feels warm in his hands. There is a necklace with a large red stone in the middle of the pendant, a bracelet with smaller red stones inlaid in it and a ring of the same strange dark red color, they all seem to match. As Tommy stares at it, he thinks he sees a firey light smoldering identically in all of the red stones.

Arnold, the owner of the shop calls to him, "Can I help you with something, son?" As Tommy turns around, the same firey glow is reflected in his eyes and Arnold gives him a squinty eyed, suspicious look, but when Tommy answers him, the red light is gone. "No, sir, I was just looking at this old jewelery, do you know anything about it?"

"I know I'll let you get away with all of it for fifty bucks! That could be real antique stuff, there, you know." Arnold tries to make a sale. Tommy isn't sure why, but for some reason cannot imagine putting the jewelery down and walking out of the store without it.

Tommy is walking down the sidewalk with very little recollection of actually purchasing his new acquisitions or of leaving the store, but he feels the warm comforting weight of the jewelery in his jacket pocket and oddly knows he made the right decision.

The light is fading from the brisk fall day as he makes his way down the sidewalk and home to the dilapidated townhouse that he, up until recently shared with his father. His beautiful red haired mother died when Tommy was just a baby, and his life had been a hard one. As far back into his 20 years as Tommy could remember, his father had been strange. Shortly before his death last year, he had started talking to people who weren't there and insisting that Tommy "make her go away," yelling in the middle of the night in a fevered rage.
I saw a werewolf drinking a pina colada at Trader Vic's. His hair was perfect.

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Post by Nostalgiascape » Sat Apr 07, 2007 8:56 pm

That evening while he looked at the jewels, trying to match them with anything he could find online, he recieved a call on his cell phone.

"Hello?" Tommy answered.

"Hey there doll, what are you up to?" Brenda asked.

"Oh nothing." Tom answered.

"Liar, i'm standing outside the window behind you, you're playing on the computer, you boring stiff. What am I going to do with you?" Brenda asked

"Well...."

"OH STOP." Brenda half jokingly shouted. "I swear you perv."

Brenda walked inside, knowing she was always welcome there.
The dark night beckons. Bear us your soul, it whispers. Expose your wicked delights. Join the rest of us on the wind. The dark night beckons and we answer. Sailing into the shadows.

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Post by JACKRYAN592 » Sun Apr 08, 2007 8:42 am

Finally school was over, and everyone went trick or treating. The auutumn breeze felt cool and crisp agains't their faces, as the sun slowly set behind the dark Hallowen cloud cover. The rustle of leaves was heard as they joyfully ran amuck to each house to say trick or treat, and collect a horde of tasty delights. Most went into their bags, but many others were gobbled on the spot. It was exhilarating to see all of the different costumes other kids were wearing, but :mine: was always the best!

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Post by uncletor » Sat Apr 14, 2007 9:57 am

Tommy had a zombie costume for this year. It included a face mask made of latex that showed a lot of gore. An old suit from Goodwill. He looked like George Romero City.
He might have seen the old lady if he hadn't put on the mask. Or maybe not. It was possible if she was not calling attention to herself to think she was dressed like some goth version of LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE.
But the tall, thin, pale lady WAS making him notice.
She was right in from of him, all of a sudden. And she was holding him in place with her two hands on his shoulders.
She reached down, expertly removed the stones from his pocket, and said;"Do you have ANY idea how powerful these are, and how LONG I have tried to get someone to use them for me?"
Future events such as these will effect you in the future

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Post by Nostalgiascape » Sun Apr 15, 2007 4:21 am

Woooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.....

Addi addi addi, my head is spinning.

We have two stories going on, not only that but they are apparently alternate realities.

I want to enjoy this folks but we all have to be aware of current progress.

Let's start over in a new thread using same character.

Tommy Braum.

He loves halloween, loves it loves it. Something weird happens on his way to school.
The dark night beckons. Bear us your soul, it whispers. Expose your wicked delights. Join the rest of us on the wind. The dark night beckons and we answer. Sailing into the shadows.

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Post by uncletor » Mon Apr 16, 2007 10:10 am

Tommy moved down the street towards school, smiling as he thought about the ways he KNEW people would be celebrating Halloween.
The Martins would have "This is Halloween" booming out on the front lawn. The father would dress like Jack Skelington and dance really crazy.
The Williams would be inside with a party and a trailer tape of old horror movies on. When you knocked at the door, you'd get a look at CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON on the tube, and he'd give you a bag of Doritos.
Miss Fleming would be dressed up as a leopard or a tigeress or something like that.
The Stokes had a killer lawn display...a guy rose up from a coffin and Mrs. Stokes would dress up like Norman Bates' mother.
But...shouldn't it be Mr. Stokes that did that?? Tommy had to laugh. He remembered the year the resident medical student sat on his front porch and drank a Coke at the end of the night. The student was from Thailand or Shang hai or someplace, and was almost crying.
He thought Halloween had to be the coolest, most beautiful holiday North Americans had ever thought up. What generosity! What community spirit! What a huge amount of fun to have scaring people who WANTED to be scared...
It HAD to be real...NOBODY could THINK such a holiday up in a book..
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Post by uncletor » Mon May 07, 2007 9:50 am

The fun continued when he got to school.
Even the teachers were dressed this year. Class would SORT of go on in the morning. But the afternoon would get very slack and you could put music on and get the party going by about two. Then there would be the costume parade.
Then Tommy looked up and saw something that made him forget costumes and parades and music.
Old lady. Dressed in black. But like a pioneer school teacher. And she was walking down the aisle RIGHT AT HIM.
He sat bolt upright, and the teacher caught the movement.
"Tommy! You must have jumped a foot! What happened?"
The black lady was right beside his desk now. He looked at her. Looked at the teacher. Looked at everybody else.
The lady in black reached down and touched his shoulder and said:'Only you can hear me. Only you can see me. Now. Make an excuse. I have a JOB for you to do. Don't make me ANGRY.."
Tommy reached out and tried to touch the hand. His fingers went right through.
Ohhhhh boy....
"I...uh...I guess I looked up and FORGOT that everybody was dressed up..sort of STARTLES you when you get going in your work..pardon..shoulder's itchy.."
The teacher smiled and went back to the black board. The class giggled good naturedly and went right back to the notebooks. Tommy stared straight ahead. Part of him wanted to cry. Part of him wanted to ask what she wanted. But most of him just stared straight ahead. He did NOT want to look up to see her.
The old woman crouched down beside his desk and whispered;"VERRRRRY good..You are going to do FINE...Now..take it easy. RELAX. You are NO good to me all excitable. And you are doing the right thing. No sense being sent to the druggest if they think you have gone out of your head talking to shadows..Work with me, do as I say, and you will come out of this ahead. I have scores to settle, but you aren't one of them.
"I have NO reason to be MAD at you..but DON'T overplay your hand. It's like a lead pencil I guess..you STILL HAVE lead pencils?..yes..anyway, the pencil does what you want, you keep it, maybe even have a favorite one..but if the pencil BREAKS..well..there's lots more when THAT one came from. Don't break on my Tommy.
"Remember Cuthbert...last year???"
And Tommy got all goosepimply.
Cuthburt had been a year or so ahead of him. Last year near Halloween, he suddenly started to go nuts. Talked to the walls. Said someone was after him, someone who wasn't there..Cried and swung at things.
They took Cuthburt to a hospital and gave him lots of pills, and then sent him home. He came back..but it was never the same. He would STARE at you, and sometimes LOOK around the room like he was expecting something to come out of the walls at him.
"Yes..I remember Cuthburt." Tommy whispered under his breath. "Nice, fat kid. But he never watched a TWILGIHT ZONE episode in his life. And when the really WEIRD stuff hit the fan, he was totally unprepared. I bet you can HEAR this, even when I'm barely making a noise."
"Yes. Yes I can." She smiled. "Now. Relax. I have to go and do somethings. But I'll be back for the party."
And she was gone like she had never been there. But Tommy knew different.
Tommy took a deep breah, and tried to just hold on. His hands felt tingely and his head was light. But nobody else was wise to what was going on, and he wasn't being taken away for yelling and swinging at the walls.
She said something about coming out of this ahead. Pefect. He was her man.
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Post by uncletor » Wed May 09, 2007 5:21 am

Tommy waited until the parade, knowing she would be back for that.
The whole thing was done in the gym at the middle of the school. The little kids went around first, and then the bigger ones...The senior grades dug seeing the munchkins in their cuttie pie outfits, while the big kids were a hit with the toddlers with their scary stuff.
"Tommy...i'ts me.." he heard her from behind."Don't LOOK.."
So naturally, he HAD to..
She was walking right through a classmate.
It was horrible.
In the movies and on t.v. , they always did a clean job. HERE, it was like coffee coming through one of those steel filters Dad still used when they went camping..you saw all sorts of little black dots on Becky, and they they CONGELED together in this sideways flow and poured into the old ladies form.
"Okay, just listen. My name is Mrs. Promise. I always kept my word. And I promised to come back and get what was taken from me and to set matters right against the people who ripped off my family. I'm chained to a wall not far from here..or rather my skeleton is...you'll have to get that put in the ground when it's time..don't worry..you can get help..but you have another job to do in the meantime..you're just the right size to get down a hole I need you to scurry into and return my stuff...Watch out.."
Too late. Tommy had been listening too intently and walked right into the teachers butt..
Mrs. Little had extra padding in her passenger seating area, and he just bounched off...and only a couple of people laughed..even Mrs. Little just shrugged it off...they had stopped pretty suddenly anyway..
"Well, alright..I'll pick you up after school..when you start your Halloween rounds...I'll explain your job then..keep out of trouble...I don't need the whole town angry at you and chasing you down for one thing or another.."
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Post by uncletor » Sun May 13, 2007 9:02 pm

Tommy got home and took a deep deep smell as he walked into the kitchen.
Tonight would be octoberfest sausages and saukraut and that dark yellow mustard. Mom would have a chicken soup on the stove that you could help yourself to. A big bowl of Roundtree candies in the little boxes were on the dining room table already to go. Smarties, Kit Kat, things like that.
Dad was home really early..nothing wrong, the plant ran out of a part so eveybody went home. As he passed by, Tommy took a gamble and asked if he knew anything about town history.
"Well, we can TRY.." Dad said from behind the newspaper."I remember most of it..Christopher Columbus and I build this town together...slapped the frst bricks of your school together."
This was a family joke. One of Tommy's cousins once asked if Tommy's Dad had fought in World War One. How dumb can you get??
"Well, did you and Columbus or you and Betsy Ross ever run into someone called Mrs. Promise?"
The newspaper came down with the quick crunch of paper. Dad wasn't joking now."Where did you hear THAT name??"
Tommy like most kids has an excuse already cooked up in case a question took him into dark water like this;"One of the TEACHERS mentioned it..by accident to another teacher..they said something like 'You promise??' and the other teacher said;'What about Mrs. Promise?' and the first teacher corrected the mistake and went on, but I was wondering WHO Mrs. Promise was..seemed like they both knew what they were talking about."
Tommy was careful here. Not to look TOO interested. Not to look like he was WORRIED he had gotten into something really big. Just look curious. Like he as asking what kind of bug had an orange body and green wings.
Dad went along with the easy deiivery and relaxed."She was a bank robber. Ran the Promise Family Gang. Must have been over fifty sixty, years ago. Mammy Promise. Took out maybe fifteen, twenty banks. The gang died in a big shoot out. She survived, though, went to the chair. Don't know too much more. Hey, Mom..whadda YOU know about the Promise Family Gang??"
Mom was coming in from the backyard after putting up some flood lights."Ah, let's see..Mammy Promise. Always kept her word, was the story. The family name was really Promisa..but it got turned to Promise after she always did what she said she would do..there was maybe six or seven in the gang..a couple of guys from not in the family...Crazy crazy ambush...they never had a chance...taking local history is school now?
Tommy went through the story again on auto pilot and got some soup. He took the bowl out the front porch and sat down in the lawn chair. No sense hiding. She would find him.
He wondered what she wanted.
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Post by uncletor » Thu May 17, 2007 1:37 am

Tommy thought it was her coming to see him when a gust of wind blew down the street and took the trick or treat bag out of the hand of a little kid.
But nothing. Nowhere. He finsihed the soup and handed out a couple of bags of chips to a little kid. The kid looked at the two bags of chips as if he had hit the gold mine.
Tommy smiled at how easy it was to make people happy tonight.
He saw her sitting on the front porch when he turned from the kid. Even when he KNEW she was coming she could startle him. He deliberately breathed slower.
She stared out towards the street and didn't look at him."So..you know.."
"That you robbed banks and led a gang? Yeah. Guess you can read my mind, huh??"
"Within limits.." She got up and crossed the porch and stood beside him."Okay, I need you to think of television. I have to figure out some sort of common ground between us to explain things..and you only watch movies on that television, mostly..so clam up for a second while I figure out how to get my point across.."
Tommy watched her fade for a seocnd, and he handed out some more candy. He heard a low laugh, and she came back into full contrast again.
"Okay. Got it. You watch IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE every year at Christmas...okay..imagine what would have happened if Potter WON..remember Mom when George wasn't born? Mean? That was me. "Potter" in this town made it his business to make my life hard. And I was no George Bailey. George would have been my son. He was drafted by Potter's help and sent to die on some invasion of a Japanese island.
"I was never the same. It doesn't excuse me robbing banks. That was wrong. But on the other hand, cold blooded murder, what "Potter" did to me, wasn't right either..we were supposed to surrender that night..and walked right into an ambush.
"Now..I'm going to touch you and give you a 'gift'..when I touch your shoulder, if you want me to...you will be able to see ALL the spirits that are outside tonight...I never warned Cuthburt about this. It took him by surprize..and it was only THEN that he realized just how MANY dead people there ARE on this planet...the living are a pretty small percentage.
"Do you want me to touch you???"
Tommy thought about it for a full minute. Mammy Promise waited.
"Sure. Let's do it."
He felt the fingers on the shoulder, and suddenly, everything was white in front of him.
Then he realized it was forms in the shape of white...people made out of a sort of smoke...or mist ...you could see through them. But the forms were there...all ages...old, young. All different costumes. Some from the 60's...some from the 1860's...some Indian tribe members. It was like a Mardi Gras parade. The street was full of them.
They walked through kids and cars. They were involved in their own problems and arguements and interests. They didn't see Tommy because they didn't think he could see THEM...
"Can you turn it off??" he asked.
"Sure."
A touch of the shoulder.
The ghosts went out like a light being turned off.
Tommy puffed out his checks and exhaled." THAT is REALLY wild.."
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Post by uncletor » Thu May 24, 2007 10:50 am

"...so how much of that was REAL?" asked Tommy.
"Good quesiton."Mammy Promise replied."First of all, remember WHY halloween is celebrated??"
Tommy exhaled. He had sat through Rev. Phelps before and his lecture that it was a holiday celdbrating Satan. He didn't buy it. Then he heard the Tanners down the street..the sound of THE HALLOWEEN TREE was coming from their living room.
"Why don't you tell me?? I have the feeling it's part of the answer anyway."
Mammy Promise started to tell him about 'a philosoher guy' named "Hy Zen Burg" or something who's theory boiled down the idea that you are never really sure what the heck was going on.
"See, I don't KNOW if all of those spirits and ghosts are there because I want to see them, or if I want you to see them."
"Or if I dreamed YOU up in the first place."Tommy was getting good at the game.
"Right. Now remember. Halloween used to be Scottish New Year. November 1st. Lunar cycle, stuff like that. You'd fake out the bad guys by having folks dress up like plague, famine, stuff like that, and they would go through town and get gifts and that would help to lure away bad stuff..the theory being that everything bad had ALREADY been in town..
"Now, Americans, we LOVE to dress up and play the bad guy. And the Halloween we have here is a giant deli sandwich of customs from every country you can name. The Romans gave us the bobbing for apples.
"I take it as an excuse to face the fears we all have and say to each other at the end of the night;'See, it ISN'T that bad..' we made it through again..it lets us get in touch with those simple issues."
"Okay.." Tommy was completely lost."Connect it back to what we're doing..here and now."
"Maybe what is happening is because we EXPECT it to happen. Maybe we can see these spooks because they and other scary stuff are on our minds tonight..Look, kid, you are not going to have to rob a bank. I'm finished with that....I want help for my son. He's been stuck on this rock now for decades. He needs to pass over to THE BETTER LIFE. We can help him.
Tommy walked down from the porch and inspected the inflatable Casper on the front lawn Mom had bought years ago, when the movie was big. Everything was cool. "And you??"
The old lady looked into the sunset, would not return his glance."Ever hear of a midwife who can't have kids herself? That's probably me. I led that group of bank robbers. I took my kids and their friends down a WRONG ROAD. I'm stuck here getting THEM to the next life. Maybe. After the last kid and his friend get some sort of peace, I can find some myself. Like I said. I don't know if this is how it works for everybody, or just for me, or if I just think it works for me..
"But I know I can't make you do anything you don't want to, and I know I can't make you do wrong. If what I want you to do doesn't add up to you, and I can't make you see that it's a good idea, you are allowed to leave. Fair?"
Tommy had turned to look at the house and murmmered:"Fair. By the way..do I have to use my voice for you to HEAR me??"
"No. You can think your thoughts. It might work better and keep you out of the Bug House."
"We call them mental hospitals now.."
"We call WHAT mental hopsitals now??" asked his Dad, who had come up from behind the house, bringing another skeleton."
"Bug Houses..someone in a movie called a mental institution a bug house." replied Tommy, getting a little clammy with sweat from having to think on his feet.
"What made you think of that??" Dad place the skeleton down on a lawn lounge chair with an umbrella and drink on a table near by. Sunglasses.
"You carrying the skeleton. Guess it reminded me of THE BODY SNATCHERS that old movie you showed me with KARLOFF..you know..in the school..and the way that the guy goes NUTS at the end..he would have been sent to 'the asylum' or 'bug house'.."
Dad put a straw hat on the skeleton and a sign that read;"Too much UV, not enough sunscreen."
"Classic movie..LOVE watching that guy JUST LOOSE IT at the end with the corpse in the buggy.."
Tommy looked at the sunscreen victim his Dad has just finished..maybe there was something to this facing your fears at Halloween after all..who didn't wory about the ozone now??
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Post by uncletor » Tue May 29, 2007 11:02 am

The sounds of Daffy Duck's QUACKBUSTERS was coming from somewhere. Tommy was sure that was the one..there were a few that Warners made that were half hour specials that didn't stink. QUACKBUSTERS was the one with Monsters Make the Very Best Friends? Couldn't think of that.
He and Mammy Promise had been sitting there giving out the Dorritos to the Baby Brigade..toddlers with their folks who trick or treated before it got too dark and freaky.
One costume was very freaky. Some kid was in a homemade Sponge Bob Square Pants outfit. But the placement of the kids face so he could see was so low and so perfectly centred over the mouth that the outfit should have been called Cannibal Bob Eats Kids...
Tommy was getting better at doing the thinking of thoughts so he wasn't muttering to himself like a frustrated New York Yankees fan. He was thinking to Mammy Promise.
{Okay, why me??? I mean what do I HAVE for you? I can feel your touch. Just go and get what you need done YOUSELF..}
He heard her thought just like a voice in his head. Was it stereo? Mono? Who knew?
{I need someone small. You are going to have to crawl through some tight spaces for me. Does that bother you??}
{ No. I used to sneak into buildings as a kid. But again, why not just MATERIALIZE where you want to go??}
To answer this one, she touched his shoulder again.
The landscape changed. Buildings were jutting out of the houses across the road. There were roofs that didn't match, walls that came out of driveways and didn't connect to anything, and stairways leading to nowhere from nowhere.
"That's so confusing and freaky" Tommy said outloud.
"Thanks a LOT!!" a little boy dressed as Beetlejuice crowed."My Daddy helped!"
Tommy was impressed they still showed the cartoon on t.v. someplace..or did the kid like it because the old man still watched it at home on his own?
Mammy chuckled in his head.{See, every building and structure is in my field of vision..I can't sort out where one era ends and the other begins..and if I want to get what I need, I have to be accurate..it won't be GOOD to suddenly materialize in the middle of an Assemblies of God church and start heading to the front of the room..you could UPSET people.}
She touched the shoulder again and Tommy was left looking at houses and streets he was used to. He involuntarily breathed a sigh of relief.
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Post by uncletor » Fri Jul 13, 2007 2:05 am

Rufus Thorndyke waited.
He was behind his desk with a loaded 12 guage shot gun, pointed at the office door. It was simple. If the kid came in, the kid would die.
One blast.
No kid. No probs.
Every year Mammy Pleasant would get a new stooge. Every year they got tougher and closer. One of these years, one of those little brats would make it up here. Maybe this year.
"Here" was the top floor of the THORNDYKE BUILDING. It was the towns leading financial and banking centre. The town had changed undernearth this floor, but the decor around him had pretty much stayed the same as it had been since 1952 or so.
That was when he went to ground.
His birth certificate would show he was something like 110. He looked 55.
Rufus Thorndyke has discovered the fountain of youth. The ability to cheat death. And when you have an empire, that was all that mattered. Keep it going. Keep running it. Keep the power.
By 1952 he had flunkies who would do what he told them, when he told them to do it. They took over giving his orders, he just stayed upstairs with The Jars.
When THOSE flunkies got suspicious he would hire ANOTHER layer of flunkies. Simple. It was like the rings on a tree...One ring for...what?...every five or ten years?? And evetually the old rings died off..
But Halloween messed it all up.
Thorndyke sighed without thinking about it. Most folks had Halloween all wrong. Like Rev. Phelps, thinking the holiday was evil or something. Fool.
You wanted folks scared all the time. Fearful. Halloween and it's close cousin Christmas made them HAPPY...the positive engery from Christmas alone just about finished him off some years. But Halloween was WORSE. People went out in the streets and sashayed around and gave each other treats and got each other in a good mood. City wide.
You had folks get ROMANTIC with each other..doing things in their costumes they would NEVER do without them..Halloween used to be a romantic holiday in America almost exclusively. Secret lovers. Masks. That sort of thing. It would have killed him dead. The only thing that saved him was he started his perservation long after that custom died out.
With Christmas, you would have a quiet town..but Halloween...much more boisterous, much more community. No negative engery AT ALL.
And Rufus needed the negative to live.
He had to have people ALONE and SCARED to fuel The Jars in the room.
To run them off the battery in the basement. Yes. The battery.
And when folks started to get in a good mood, like tonight, or in spring, or if the local team got into the World Series, he could die if he didn't get some good old fashioned bad vibrations going.
He would feel himself getting weak, losing control..and then SHE would send some little kid or someone up to try and take The Jars.
No.
He had MADE this Empire. More money then Rome. Bigger then Egypt. And he would run it for ever.
Come on, kid. Step through that door. It must be a good time this year..He was barely able to support the shot gun on the desk..come on, kid..
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