Br’er Robert
“Yeah, I know. I killed her. I took her away so’s I could eat her! You know who I am, kid? I’m the Boogieman!” he roared, flapping his arms at them and spraying them with spit.
The kids exchanged a solemn look.
“You don’t believe in the Boogieman?” Frankie let some more froth drool down his chin. “That’s why I gotcha. I’d never a caught you if you’da believed in me! But now it’s too late!”
Little Brian spoke for the first time. He had a clear, pure voice, like one of those kids that sing on T.V. “I believe in the Boogerman,” he said. “But he don’t look like you.”
Decker let out a guffaw. Sometimes the strangest shit struck him funny.
Bobby said, “Aren’t you afraid, Mister? Aren’t you afraid of Jesus, what he’s gonna do?”
“Jesus won’t do shit.” Frankie knew there wasn’t any Jesus. He knew it ever since Reverend James took him back in the dark chapel after Youth Group one day and dropped his pants. “Jesus told me to take you, cause you been bad! If Jesus came here I’d kill him like I killed your momma! Jesus is scared of me! What do you think about that?”
The kids gave each other another look. Little Brian fixed him with those big round eyes and whispered, “_I know something scarier than you._”
The littlefuckers had no imagination, that was the problem. He was gonna have to prove how scary he was. At the same time, he felt a funny knot tying itself up below his ribs. He suddenly jumped at Bobby and wrapped his little head with his hands. “That’s it, you littlefucker. If you ain’t scared of me, I gotta eat you first!”
Bobby’s trembling went up Frankie’s arms like an electric shock. He was scared! But he just said, “Just don’t hurt Brian, okay?” in this little whiny voice. “If I let you eat me, will you let him go?”
Frankie chuckled deep in his throat. “Gonna eat you both!”
“Please, Mister? Please don’t hurt my little brother?”
The knot in his stomach started to loosen. He was getting a handle on this, now. But something about these two had him a little weirded. He wanted to talk to Decker about it, if he could only think of some way to ask him that wouldn’t sound pussy.
