Hanky and the Thousandsleeper. Marvin Roth

in the lurch here. He decided to inspect the surroundings of the farm a little more thoroughly. When he stepped out of the living room, all he could hear was some grunting noises from Walt Kessler’s vantage point on the couch - the older man was snoring.

      After Ray Bergson had snuck out of his son’s and daughter-in-law’s house, he hurried down the hill into Prisco. He wanted to ask around to find out if anyone had spotted Hanky this morning. He passed the school house and heard the voices of the children, cheerful sounds coming from one of the open classroom windows. Just a few cars were parked on the small school parking lot, including the one of Richard Miller, who was a reporter with the local paper. He’d probably chauffeured his wife to school. Ray decided to wait until he could ask Richard about Hanky. A few minutes later, Richard stepped out of the school house. He noticed Ray Bergson, waved and came over to the old man, smiling.

      “Morning Ray,” he called from a few feet away.“Is your grandson doing any better today?”

      Soon Ray Bergson knew in great detail what had happened the day before. Richard also shared the specifics of the frightful murder that had taken place alongside the country road overnight. Ray listened attentively and recalled the grizzly event that had taken place in the woods so many years ago. He could not understand why his mind would bring up this memory while he was listening to Richard Smith. Finally, he raised his hand to stop the endless stream of words that flooded out of the reporter’s mouth and simply said: “Hank’s gone.”

      Richard Miller smelled a good story. Even as the old man uttered the first few words, the newsman figured he’d made the connection. Ray confided in him about the premonitions he’d had in the morning after he first woke from his restless sleep. After some hesitation, Ray even disclosed the old secret of what had happened to his brother-in-law. All of these stories combined with the incident his wife had told him about were enough for the reporter to follow up on the lead. He quickly dismissed all of the chores he’d had on the list for today. No one would be interested in the corn harvest after they heard about all these fascinating tales.

      The men decided to first talk to the doctor and subsequently head out to look for Hank. Richard ran back into the school house for an instant to tell his wife that he and Ray would be searching for the old man’s grandson. Minutes later, the twosome walked over to Doctor Ness’ practice.

      It proved difficult for the creature to use its victim’s thoughts and memories for the purpose of navigation. Apparently Padre Frank Marcus was about to go insane. The host body seemed to work rather well and listened to its commands, but that was rather useless given that the thing had so much trouble getting to the information it needed.

      “Where is your home?,” the being asked without making a sound.

      “Oh God! There it is again! The Evil has taken a hold of me! I hear voices. It must be a demon. Is the Lord testing me? What can I do, what do I do?”

      “Where is your home?,” the voice nagged once again.

      All the thing could see was a huge building with a tall tower. This could not be the house of the victim, nor could it? Given that the priest’s thoughts appeared to turn into a maze, the creature decided to search for the large house with the tower after all. The car rolled into the town and the thing looked around with its interest peaked. It had never seen so many people in a single spot before. So many victims! People were riding around in vehicles everywhere and its future prey was walking around fancy-free as far as the eye could see. Nonetheless, the first order of business was to find a safe hiding place. Still, it had not forgotten the man who had shown the creature his power. It still had not completely overcome the panic and how it had to flee from this man. The man would be searching for it. The man had recognized the beast. It had identified the creature - who it was or what it was. That was very dangerous.

      The priest’s Lincoln rolled through town in the morning hours and no one noticed that a monster was in control of the vehicle.