Chapter 20: Chain Letter by Stephen Simpson
Amy, a teacher from London, is sitting on the train on her
way home. It has been a long day and she cannot wait to get there.
All she wants to do is take a long hot bath, the bubbles
standing high with a glass of wine on the rim of the bath and a good book.
She wants to lie in the bath until she turns pink and her skin wrinkles up. Delightfully she can already imagine the feeling of the warm water engulfing her, folding itself around her and cocooning her safely into its relaxing arms.
She is late tonight because she had to attend a
parent-teacher meeting.
Some parents are just plainly dense when it comes to the
capabilities of their children. She understands that to parents, their child is
the genius; their child is the Einstein of the twenty-first century.
Yes, some children in her class have the potential to be
anything they could ever want to be, but not all of them.
The lights in her section of the train unexpectedly go off
and the only other person with her in this carriage, an older woman, gasps
loudly.
A while later, Amy notices the door at the end of the
carriage opening. Simultaneously the light from the next carriage pours through
the opening towards Amy and she sees the elderly woman walk through the door
into the light.
Quickly Amy gathers her bag and jacket lying on the seat
beside her. She is just about to get up to follow the other woman when the
lights come back on brilliantly, blinding her for a second.
She yells involuntarily in surprise when her eyes focus on a
pale white face inches away from her own face.
This thing in front of her sneers most hideously and Amy
opens her mouth to scream.
A scream that stops even before it has started. A scream
that ends when her heart bangs loudly to a stop.
*
Kenneth, a construction worker from Africa, logs onto his
computer quietly. He presses the keys softly and slowly so that he does not
make a sound. His wife is asleep, and he does not want to wake her. He does not
want her to know about his secret addiction to on-line gambling.
He feels ashamed and even though he promises himself every
morning he would never do this again; at night he finds himself lying in bed
unable to fall asleep.
He needs to win the money back, the money he and his wife
have saved over the last twenty years for their retirement. Money, he thought
he would just use a little of, but a little at a time adds up and now there is
not much left over.
The stress, anxiety and guilt eat at him daily. Somehow, he
must win the money back, because she would be extremely disappointed in him
should she ever find out. He convinces himself every night that he is doing all
of this for his wife, but in the morning, he knows the truth. He knows he has a
problem; a problem he could never admit too late at night.
Tonight, he is losing steadily. He wins a few every now and
again, but the winnings do not make up for the losses, not even by half.
Now, though, he has an excellent hand. He knows he is going
to strike it rich with this one set of cards and it will solve all his
problems. He will never gamble again after tonight. He has a good feeling.
His computer screen flickers on and off and he loses his
Internet connection. His computer resumes its humming. The screen glimmers back
on and cursing softly under his breath, he sees an image of a woman in front of
him on his screen.
Annoyed he thinks that people are getting more ingenious
every day. The email he deleted today had a virus, which took over his computer
by filling his entire screen with a graphic of the crazy jungle woman. A
vindictive individual had designed this virus and sent it forth into the world
and now he has lost everything, every cent he and his wife have ever saved.
Tomorrow he would have to sell something; something his wife
would not notice missing so that he can try again in the early morning hours of
the day when she is fast asleep. For now, he will use just a little from their
daily expense account, he decides as he waits for the settings on his computer
to load.
Frustrated he wants to hit the escape button with all his
might, but he leans slightly forward and presses it lightly and repeatedly.
The graphic on the screen does not go away, but it opens its
mouth.
He shakes his head annoyed and sighs deeply while he reaches
down to push the reset button.
Suddenly, the woman's face is coming out of the computer
screen towards him. The one moment she is an image on his monitor and then
seconds later she is real, here in front of him.
He opens his mouth to scream.
*
E’lisa has been walking close to Lisa all the way back to
the car, clinging to her arm and looking backwards fearfully every few steps.
“Do you think it is really over now?” E’lisa asks when they
get to the car past midnight and climb in exhausted.
“Yes, I think so,” Lisa says as she sits back in her seat
and closes her eyes, while Adèle starts the car.
They drive in silence, not wanting to talk, not wanting to
relive the horrific past hours.
Adèle’s phone rings suddenly and all three of them jump with
fright.
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