شبی با عروسک زنده 2 فصل 05

Night of the Living Dummy 2 - Chapter 5

“Ohhh.” I uttered a sick moan and jerked my hand out as fast as I could.

I could still feel the soft, warm mush on my fingers.

“Amy—what’s wrong?” Dad cried.

“His—his brains—!” I choked out, feeling my stomach lurch.

“Huh? What are you talking about?” Dad grabbed the dummy from my hands. He turned it over and reached into the back.

I covered my mouth with both hands and watched him reach into the head. His eyes widened in surprise.

He struggled with something. Then pulled his hand out.

“Yuck!” I groaned. “What’s that!”

Dad stared down at the mushy, green and purple and brown object in his hand. “Looks like someone left a sandwich in there!” he exclaimed.

Dad’s whole face twisted in disgust. “It’s all moldy and rotten. Must have been in there for months!” “Yuck!” I repeated, holding my nose. “It really stinks! Why would someone leave a sandwich in a dummy’s head?” “Beats me,” Dad replied, shaking his head. “And it looks like there are wormholes in it!” “Yuuuuuck!” we both cried in unison.

Dad handed Slappy back to me. Then he hurried into the kitchen to get rid of the rotted, moldy sandwich.

I heard him run the garbage disposal. Then I heard water running as he washed his hands. A few seconds later, Dad returned to the living room, drying his hands on a dish towel.

“Maybe we’d better examine Slappy closely,” he suggested. “We don’t want any more surprises—do we?” I carried Slappy into the kitchen, and we stretched him out on the counter. Dad examined the dummy’s shoes carefully. They were attached to the legs and didn’t come off.

I put my finger on the dummy’s chin and moved the mouth up and down. Then I checked out his wooden hands.

I unbuttoned the gray suit jacket and studied the dummy’s painted shirt. Patches of the white paint had chipped and cracked. But it was okay.

“Everything looks fine, Dad,” I reported.

He nodded. Then he smelled his fingers. I guess he hadn’t washed away all of the stink from the rotted sandwich.

“We’d better spray the inside of his head with disinfectant or perfume or something,” Dad said.

Then, as I was buttoning up the jacket, something caught my eye.

Something yellow. A slip of paper poking up from the jacket pocket.

It’s probably a sales receipt, I thought.

But when I pulled out the small square of yellow paper, I found strange writing on it. Weird words in a language I’d never seen before.

I squinted hard at the paper and slowly read the words out loud:

“Karru marri odonna loma molonu karrano.”

I wonder what that means? I thought.

And then I glanced down at Slappy’s face.

And saw his red lips twitch.

And saw one eye slowly close in a wink.