Terrors Read Free Page B

ladies like Aunt Cora smelled of cooking and other ladies like Aunt Mary smelled like sweet flowers. Arlie thought thathe would grow up and marry a lady someday and he could smell her whenever he wanted to, not just when she came and put her cheek next to his.
    Aunt Mary stood up and went out of the room and Arlie could hear her voice and Aunt Cora’s together. Uncle Mort came over and sat on Arlie’s bed. That was nice. Uncle Mort was still wearing his overcoat and Arlie could see a few specks of snow on the shouldersof Uncle Mort’s coat. There were big pockets in Uncle Mort’s coat. He reached into one and pulled out a folded newspaper. He unfolded the newspaper and took something out and handed it to Arlie.
    It looked a lot like a comic book but it was thicker than any comic book Arlie had ever seen. Arlie looked at the cover. There was a picture of a castle on the front, with a full moon shining behind it.In front of the castle a big white animal sat with its head thrown back and its mouth wide open. It looked like a giant dog but Arlie knew that it was really a wolf, maybe even a werewolf.
    Arlie smiled. He liked the picture.
    Uncle Mort asked if he could read the name of the magazine.
    Arlie was annoyed. He was a good reader. He’d learned to read even before he started school, and he was oneof the best readers in his class before he got sick and had to stop going to school. He looked at the name of the magazine. It was printed in big yellow letters right over the dark sky in the picture. Arlie made a face. “It says
Haunted Adventures
. January 1945. In this issue Hounds from the Hills by Eduardo del Lobo, Marcus Billingham, Joseph Lester, Clarissa Norman, twenty five cents.”
    UncleMort grinned. “You’re right, Arlie. You’re a terrific reader. You want to keep
Haunted Adventures
?”
    Arlie opened
Haunted Adventures
. Unlike his comic books it was printed all in black words on white pages. There were some pictures but they were in black, too. He liked comics a lot and he wasn’t sure that he liked
Haunted Adventures
but he could tell that Uncle Mortwanted him to say that he likedit and he wanted to please his uncle.
    “It looks great, Uncle Mort.”
    “Think you can read the whole magazine, Arlie?”
    Arlie wasn’t sure about that so he didn’t say anything.
    “Well, you try one story and see how you do. You might want to try that Billingham. He’s a good writer. Don’t worry, Arlie, if you don’t like it we’ll go back to comics tomorrow.”
    Uncle Mort ruffled Arlie’s hair and walkedout of the room.
    That night after dinner of spaghetti and meatballs Arlie sat in his chair with the lamp over it. He could see the dark place on the wall, but the funny thing was, the lighter the room was the less he could see of the dark place. He wasn’t sure he could see the opening or the tunnel at all, and certainly not Homicide Sergeant Jack Martin or the lovely Marguerite Moran or the CrimsonWizard.
    But he was able to read the story that Uncle Mort said he would enjoy. It was called “Orchids for the Bride of the Spectre.” Arlie didn’t know what a
Spectre
was but clearly it was something scary. In fact the whole story was scary but still Arlie liked it and he was proud of himself for reading the whole story.
    It was better than anything he’d ever read in school books, and in a wayit was better than stories on the radio or in the comics. That was strange, because the comic books had bright, exciting pictures in them and the radio stories had real voices and sounds like spaceships blasting off or gunshots or the hoof beats of magnificent stallions. The stories in
Haunted Adventures
magazine only had words. Why were they so good, then?
    Suddenly Arlie understood. The storiesin the comic books or on the radio happened outside your head and you only saw them or heard them, but the stories in
Haunted Adventures
happened
inside
your head.
    Arlie realized that he liked the idea that Marcus Billingham