Del grinned mischievously. “All of these were on sale. Hey, everybody check this out.” He stuck his head down into the sack and when he looked up, his smile had changed. It was now huge, bulging his cheeks, and his incisors had grown long and tapered. The “Vampire Teeth” were obviously plastic, but that fact didn’t spare his mother any discomfiture. Bart had to intervene to keep her from smacking them out of his mouth.

“Delbert, I don’t want to see that stuff again, do you hear me?”

“But Mom—”

“It is not funny, young man. Now get in. We’re going to find Charlie.” She started around the front of the truck.

“Way to go, Cap,” Bart said, giving him a noogie on the noggin.

“But she didn’t even give me a chance to explain—”

At once all three boys suddenly became alert, ears primed, like hunting dogs on the trail. It would’ve been almost comical had the sound that stirred them not been so distinct. A woman’s gasp. “Mom!” Del cried, scrambling through the truck and picking up a claw hammer on the way while Bart went around the back and Ted around the front. They converged on the driver’s side like the troops at Normandy.

Despite her exclamation of surprise, Billie already had the situation in hand: to be precise, she held a man at bay with a gun barrel halfway up his nose. A sane person in that position would have gasped and recoiled himself, but this man just smiled wanly. He was not old, but looked it at first glance. His face was haggard and his hair unkempt and his eyes were so red they looked ready to pop from the sockets. His dress shirt and tie and slacks were the same he’d worn at services the day before and were well wrinkled and dirty by now. In fact, his whole appearance was so disheveled that at first they barely recognized Reverend Knutson. The Bible in his hand was the only real clue. Even his pastor’s smile was different. The warmth was misplaced, leaving it distant. Vacant. And he did not flinch at their abrupt defensive posturing. Instead he held that smile and reached out to touch Billie’s shoulder. “Did I startle you?” he asked.

She lowered the weapon, embarrassed, and had to slap at Ted to get him to shoulder his menacing ax. “I’m so sorry, Kevin,” she apologized. “I guess you did kind of sneak up on us. What are you doing out here?”

“His work,” he said with a subdued exaltation as he waved the book in front of them as proof. “At least I was trying. I thought I’d look in on some of the congregation, the ones who didn’t make it to church yesterday and all. But I can’t seem to find anyone home. It looks like we’re the only ones who didn’t go.”