Reba
“Hello. Can I sit here?” I said.
I had just got down from my late night flight and going towards the airport exit when I saw her. She was about six or seven years of age, sitting alone and staring at nowhere in particular. Her hair was short and wavy, and her face, even the lips, was pale, as if a vampire had sucked all the blood out of her.
She looked up at me and nodded, and turned back again. I sat beside her.
“What’s your name?” I said.
She turned her face towards me and said, “Reba. R. E. B. A.”
“Hello, Reba. What are you doing here? Are you waiting for someone?” I said and looked around. Except us, there was nobody else in the arrival area as far as I could see. The only light bulb in that place was directly above us, and it flickered often as if it would burn out anytime soon.
“I’m waiting for my mom,” she said. “She went to collect her bag. But, she might have forgotten me and went out with someone.”
“Oh. Does she look good?” I felt stupid immediately after asking that question.
“Not as much as me,” she replied.
I laughed. “Are you hungry, Reba?”
“Very.” She pouted her lips.
“Do you want anything to eat? Chocolates?”
“No. I want to go home.” She hugged herself tight.
“Well, where is your home?”
“It’s near that telephone tower on the boogeyman shop street.”
I smiled at her. “I don’t know any boogeyman shop and telephone tower here, Reba. Okay, do you know how to get to your home?”
“Yeah. But I am scared to go alone in the dark.”
“Okay. I will take you. Come on.”
“No. My mom told me not to go anywhere with strangers,” she said and turned away from me.
“Oh. Well, I’m Bob. Bob meet Reba. Reba, meet Bob,” I said and shook her tiny hand.
She chuckled.
I opened my bag, took out a huge chocolate bar and showed it to her. Her eyes grew large and she hesitated only a moment before taking it from me.
“Now we aren’t strangers, are we?” I said.
“I guess so,” she said and started munching on the chocolate.
“Okay. Let’s go then,” I said and whisked her up in my arms and went out of the airport.
“Go straight and take the first right turn,” she said.
“Okay.”
She hugged around my neck and put her head over my shoulder.
Walking with her in my arms, I said, “Are you scared of the dark, Reba?” and I laughed like a monster.
She turned her head towards mine and rolled her eyes. “No, silly. I am scared of the creature hiding in the dark.”
“What creature?”
“You don’t know? Everybody knows the creature hiding in the dark.”
“Well, I’m not everybody.” I laughed. “Tell me about that creature.”
“We call it the Life drinking creature.” Her face looked grave. She appeared to be really scared of whatever that Life drinking creature was.
“Okay. Cute name it has. What does it do?”
“It just drinks your life out of you. It takes all your warmth and leaves you frozen and crumpled on the floor. They say that when it drinks your life, first you will feel a sharp pain throughout your body, and then you will feel your life being sucked out of you, a bit by bit.”
“Oh. It’s disgusting. How does it look?”
“It doesn’t have a shape. It can take any shape and form it wants.”
“What kind of shape and form?”
“Um.” She put a finger on her chin. She appeared to be thinking. “The form that you would least expect.”
“Ah. That’s a bit scary.”
I took the right turn and walked a few steps. She said, “That’s the boogeyman shop.” She pointed a shaking finger towards a closed shop, and clung tightly to me.
“The shop is closed, Reba. No boogeyman is there.”
“I guess so.”
“Okay. Now, which way?”
“Go straight. Can you see the telephone tower now?”
“Yes. But it’s so dark over there.”
“I told you so. That’s the darkest and scariest place.”
“You don’t have to be scared when I’m with you, Reba.” I held her close to my chest.
“I guess so.”
She didn’t speak any more until we reached the tower. I only felt her cold breaths on the back of my neck.
“Well, Reba. Look, we have reached the tower. We are in the darkest and scariest place. And nothing comes out of the dark to drink your life.” I smiled.
She turned her face towards mine and smiled back at me. She placed her hands on my cheeks and moved her face closer. She put her lips on mine. First, I felt a sharp pain throughout my body, and then felt my life being sucked out of me, a bit by bit.
