found a space movie where spacemen in space suits were poking around in
some spooky place. Derek made happy sigh and said,
“This is good. I like their hats.”
“Helmets,” Thomas said.
“Space helmets.”
“I wish I had a hat like that.” When he reached out into the big dark
again, Thomas decided not to picture a mind-string unraveling toward the
Bad Thing. Instead he Pictured a raygun, shooting some invisible rays.
Boy, did that work better! Wham, he was right there wit the Bad Thing
in a flash, and he felt it stronger, too, so strong he got scared and
clicked off the raygun and got all of himself back into his room with
the rest of himself right away.
“They got telephones in their hats,” Derek said.
“See they’re talking through their hats.” On the TV, the spacemen were
in an even spookier place poking around, which was one of the things
spacemen did most, even though something ugly-nasty was usually in those
spooky places just waiting for them. Spacemen never learned. Thomas
looked away from the screen.
At the window.
The dark.
Bobby was scared for Julie. Bobby knew stuff Thomas didn’t know. If
Bobby was scared for Julie, Thomas had to be brave and do What Was
Right.
The raygun idea worked such a lot better it scared him, but he figured
it was really good because he could easier snoop on the Bad Thing. He
could get to the Bad Thing faster and get away from it faster, too, so
he could snoop on it more often and not be scared about it maybe
grabbing the mind-string and coming back to The Home with him. Grabbing
an invisible raygun ray was harder, even for a thing as fast and smart
and mean as the Bad Thing.
So he pictured pushing buttons on a raygun again, and a part of him went
through the dark-wham!-and to the Bad Thing right away. He felt how mad
the Bad Thing was, madder than ever, and thinking lots of thoughts about
blood that made Thomas half sick. Thomas wanted to come right back to
The Home. The Bad Thing felt him, you could tell. He didn’t like the
Bad Thing feeling him, knowing he was there with it, but he stayed just
a couple clock ticks longer, trying to see any thoughts about Julie in
all those thoughts about blood. If the Bad Thing had thoughts about
Julie, Thomas would TV a warning right away to Bobby. He was happy he
couldn’t find Julie in the Bad Thing’s mind, and he quick raygunned back
to The Home.
“Where you think I could get a hat like that?” Derek asked.
“Helmet.”
“Even has a light on it, see?” Rising up a little from his pillows,
Thomas said,
“You know what kind of a story this is?” Derek shook his head.
“What kind of story?”
“It’s the kind where any second something ugly-nasty jumps up and sucks
off a spaceman’s face or maybe crawls in his mouth and down his belly
and makes a nest in there.” Derek made a disgusted face.
“Yuck. I don’t like that kind of stories.”
“I know,” Thomas said.
“That’s why I warned you.” While Derek made a lot of different pictures
come on the screen, one quick after the other, to get far away from the
spaceman who was going to get his face sucked off, Thomas tried to think
how long he should wait before he snooped on the Bad Thing again. Bobby
was real worried, you could tell, even if he tried to hide it, and Bobby
was not a Dumb Person, so it was a good idea to check on the Bad Thing
pretty regular, in case maybe it all of a sudden thought about Julie and
got up and went after her.
“You want to watch this?” Derek asked.
On the screen was a picture of this guy in a hockey uniform with a big
knife in his hand, going quiet-like across a room where a girl was
asleep in a bed.
“Better raygun up another picture,” Thomas said.
BECAUSE THE rush hour was past, because Julie knew all the best
shortcuts, but mainly because she was not in a moo be cautious or