The boombox sits alone on the counter.
No one is there to see it
Click
turn on by itself and
auto tune through some advertisements
to soft static.
Zoom in.
The static gets louder…
(from outside)
Hoot
Owl hears the wind first.
The leaves ruffle and skip down the street.
Sad windchimes play.
Approaching footsteps,
someone singing softly…
The soft glow of the phone lights up his face.
He is not from around here.
Lost, by the looks of it.
A quiet engine drives by
then pulls back around
Vroom
A pop song from long ago faintly heard on the car stereo.
The wind stops.
Car door opens.
Footsteps quicken.
Sneakers on pavement hardly make a sound.
Woof!
A dog barks from inside the nearest house
A scream cut off so quickly
the nearby night jogger doesn’t think twice
or even slow down.
A sick dragging sound.
A car door shuts.
Wild laughter.
The volume on the stereo gets loud.
It’s a harmless old song:
“Run rabbit, run rabbit, run run run
Bang! Bang! Bang!
goes the farmers gun.
Run rabbit run”
Squeeeeeel!
The car peels out of the tree-lined street,
causing some neighbors to get on their feet
to look out the front window.
Nothing to see.
The annoyance is gone now.
Probably some teenager anyway.
Wait.
What is that noise?
Is the damn radio on in the kitchen again?
(abduction in the suburbs is always quiet)
Inspired by the opening sequence in GET OUT
Spook du jour 