The Secret Life of Owen Skye Read Free Page B

and told the story.
    The Bog Man used to be a nuclear biologist at a secret government lab underground. One day when he was mixing acid and plutonium there was a terrible explosion. The scientist barely survived, and wandered in the middle of the night into the bog, where he collapsed. Most of his skin had been burnt off in the explosion, but the cool waters and black moss of the bog soothed him. Because of the plutonium he absorbed natural radiation from the surrounding bog minerals, and so now was able to live forever. However, he had to eat one body every twenty-four hours to keep up his strength.
    One day he thought he’d want a child. Of course, being a man, he didn’t know how to make one, so he needed to find a wife. No woman was able to look at him without being paralyzed by fear. Desperate, he went to the orphange and stole a blind woman whose father had married his own cousin.
    â€œIt’s lucky she didn’t have two heads,” Andy said. “Everyone knows you can’t marry your own cousin.”
    She liked him well enough, but thought that he smelled boggy. Also, she wanted to live in a regular house, since the bog was so wet and froze over in the wintertime. Because she was so kind to him the Bog Man agreed to build her a house in the woods. He worked on it by himself, stealing the materials from lumber yards, using his extraordinary strength to dig the foundation, raise the walls, carry the roof beams. But just as he was getting close to finishing, she started to get ill. The radiation that gave him his eternal energy was killing her. He brought in the red couch so that she’d have something to sit on while he worked on the house. But she died before he could finish, so he abandoned the house to go live in the bog again.
    When Andy was through telling the story, Leonard and Owen were quiet for a long time. Then Leonard asked, “Did she tell him how to make a baby before she died?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œYou’d think she would have told him,” Leonard said. “Since she loved him, and she was dying anyway, and he’d never find another wife.”
    â€œI don’t think she did love him,” Andy said. “She thought she loved him for awhile, then she got angry at him for making her sick. So she must have decided not to tell him in the end.”
    â€œIt wasn’t his fault he made her sick,” Owen said. “He didn’t know.”
    Andy stood up then and flicked on the flashlight. “We only have a couple of minutes to have a look,” he said. The light was pretty feeble. “I just want to see if she’s on the couch. She won’t be able to see us,” he added, “because she’s blind.”
    â€œBut she’ll be able to hear us,” Leonard said.
    â€œCome on!” said Andy, and when he said it like that you had to follow. He could have led snowmen on a march into summertime.
    They slipped through the window beside the boarded-up front door, then stood still, barely breathing, while Andy shone the weak light into the house.
    â€œDo you see anything?” Leonard asked.
    â€œNot sure,” said Andy. He took a step forward and listened.
    â€œWhat is it?” Owen asked.
    â€œShhh!” said Andy.
    The light started to flicker. Then it died.
    â€œLet’s go!” said Leonard, who turned around to go back to the window. But Andy caught him by his Living Corpse costume.
    â€œWe have to stick together,” he whispered.
    â€œWhy?” Leonard asked.
    â€œShhh!”
    Andy took a few more steps. There was a full moon shining through one of the windows. It wasn’t shining directly on the couch but beside it, so that the couch itself was cast in deep shadows.
    â€œSee anything?” Owen asked.
    â€œI’m not sure,” Andy said. He took several steps forward. Leonard and Owen stayed back near the window.
    â€œAndy?” called