"Peter And The Mannequins" - Page 1

Just a quick note: check the very bottom of the blog for some news.

PETER AND THE MANNEQUINS

It was a Saturday afternoon, and Peter was cleaning plants.

Peter and Dill were in Duskerville’s only indoor mall, wearing orange plastic vests over their clothes and wiping the dust off of leaves. As part of their punishment for

wrecking a state park rangers’ station, they had to work for the rangers until they paid off a broken lock, smashed window, and a stolen raft and scuba tank. And at less that minimum wage, it was probably going to take about a hundred and fifty years to get rid of the debt.

Of course, nobody cared that they had done all of that to save two of their classmates from certain death, because nobody believed their story about the giant swamp monster in the town lake. This was Peter’s first experience with telling adults about the strange goings-on that had started when he moved to Duskerville two months ago. The week he moved in, he had to fight thirteen dead men who lived in the woods outside his grandfather’s ancient mansion. Two weeks after that he had to deal with a classmate who died and came back as a vampire. Then there was the fairie changeling that had swapped places with his two-and-a-half year-old sister Beth. And the swamp monster after that. All in all, it had been a busy eight weeks.

No adults other than Grandfather knew about his strange adventures, not even Peter’s mom. Grandfather knew because he had been dealing with the same problems all his life. In fact, Peter’s whole family had been dealing with horrible supernatural disasters for at least 200 years. Peter still didn’t know why; he had found mention of a centuries-old curse among Grandfather’s private papers, but the old man wouldn’t talk about it. In fact, Grandfather wouldn’t talk about much of anything unless a monster was beating down the door and trying to kill them. Most of the time he just kept to his study and read his thousands and thousands of books.

In Peter’s opinion, that reaction was far better than the one he got after saving two kids from being meals for the swamp monster. When the evidence disappeared and the victims couldn’t remember anything, Peter and Dill had been disbelieved by everyone, threatened by a sheriff’s deputy, and sentenced to community service. At the moment, they were cleaning the plants in the sitting area outside a couple of clothing stores. Well, Peter was; Dill just gazed jealously at what was taking place a hundred feet away.

The area around the Way Mo’ Toys store was roped off, and workers at the shop were demonstrating the newest SUV toy to a crowd of kids. It was one of those miniature plastic cars with an electric engine, the kind he’d always seen five year-olds playing with on the driveways of their parents’ homes. He had never had one, and had always associated them with rich kids. This particular one had a lot of pep; it could go really fast, brake on a dime, and turn in tight circles. It was the kind of thing that parents hated because it was dangerous, and that kids loved for the exact same reason.

“I gotta get me one of those,” Dill sighed longingly.

Peter sprayed another plant and wiped it down. “First you’ve gotta help me clean these plants.”

Dill grumbled as he went back to work. “If this is the way they treat heroes, man, I’m turnin’ into a supervillain. I’ll bet the Joker or Lex Luthor tried to save somebody from a giant frog, too, and that’s what turned them bad.”

“Um…I kind of doubt it.”

“Fine, then I’ll be the first bad guy who gets P.O.’d about having to clean plants cuz he saved somebody.”

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Copyright © 2009 Darren Pillsbury. All rights reserved.





Hey, guys!

I've decided to do a daily thang of my own besides the PETER tales. Just posting the stories is great, but sometimes I want to add a little something extra. Communicating with you readers is a lot easier when I don't just do it via the Comments section.

If you just want the stories, that's cool by me - you won't be missing a whole lot down here in the Crypt. If there's any really juicy news, like the prospect of a book, don't worry - it'll be splashed all over the site. I won't LET you miss that. This is more for the daily humdrum stuff, plus an occasional insight into the stories.

I thought I'd kick it off by explaining why Page 1 of MANNEQUINS reads like a "Previously on 24..." segment at the beginning of a television show.

PETER AND THE VAMPIRES was the generic title for the first book of stories, which included "Dead Men", "Vampires", "Changeling", and "Swamp Monster". We're now into what I consider to be the second book - PETER AND THE WEREWOLVES. Every book (aka every collection of four stories) will have a new title. For instance, I already know PETER AND THE FRANKENSTEIN will be the 3rd book in the series.

But PETER AND THE VAMPIRES just sounds cool. And I don't want a whole bunch of www.com addresses, so we're keeping it simple: www.PeterAndTheVampires.com for everything.

But since "Mannequins" is the first story in the second volume, I'm writing it with an eye towards its eventual publication on tree pulp. Hence, anybody who picks up WEREWOLVES without reading VAMPIRES might wonder why two kids broke into a ranger's station. What, are they hoodlums? What's this Pillsbury fool foisting off on the chil'rens these days?

Anyway, there you have it. That's why the page reads like we've been on a six month hiatus, instead of one day.

Settle back and enjoy the community service, cuz things won't get bumpy for a week or two.

But ohhhhh, when they do...

Darren out.