The Witch's One Stop Shop is selling organs
The air was crisp and cool, signaling the arrival of autumn.
The leaves had begun to turn to shades of fiery red and golden yellow, a
beautiful backdrop for the second weekend of October in the early nineteen
eighties. It was one of the last opportunities to sit around a campfire before
winter’s chill set in. Jack’s father had recently built a firepit in the
backyard, and a group of nine-year-old kids eagerly huddled around it, their
faces lit up by the dancing flames. They roasted marshmallows on sticks and
traded scary Halloween stories, trying to outdo each other with tales of ghosts
and ghouls. Jack, a lanky boy with unruly jet-black hair, couldn’t resist
sharing his classic story about the ghost that haunted the spooky house in the
woods.
However, Steve, his short blond friend, quickly protested,
declaring that they had all heard it countless times before. “Come on, Jack!
You told this story a gazillion times already.”
But Jack persisted, determined to give them all goosebumps
with his eerie storytelling skills. His face flushed with anger, and he was on
the verge of snapping at Steve, but Claire, a tomboy who hated girly clothes
and was known as the diplomat of their friend circle, stepped in. “Enough, you
two!” she scolded the boys, shaking her head. “Steve, if you find Jack’s story
boring, why don’t you tell a new story?”
“You tell a
story, smarty-pants!” Steve retorted with a sneer. Despite his tendency to
criticize others, he rarely had any original thoughts of his own to contribute.
His sharp tongue was often used to deflect attention from his lack of
creativity.
Claire’s voice
quivered as she spoke, “Okay. I’m going to tell you what I saw yesterday.” She
paused to take a deep breath before continuing, her eyes wide with fear of the
memory. “Grandma and I went to the Witch’s One Stop Shop, you know, in that
spooky house that used to be empty. And Marie’s mom, who works nearby, saw a
ghost there when she was walking home late one night.” The words hung in the
air, thick with tension.
“Come on,
Claire, you didn’t see a ghost, did you?” Steve cackled.
Claire replied
with a nervous tremor in her voice, “Of course not! It was in the middle of the
afternoon. But I’ve seen something that scared the daylights out of me.”
“What did you
see?” Jack asked, his interest peaking.
“When we went
into the store, there was a sign that said used organs for sale. And when the
woman came out of the back door, I could swear she was a real witch. She wore
black clothes, her hair in a messy bun, and she wore a black eyepatch over her right
eye.”
“That doesn’t
mean she’s a witch!” Charlie looked at Claire wide-eyed.
“No?” Claire
snapped. “She had bloody gloves on, and she just took them off and threw them
in the garbage.”
“Um…bloody
gloves?” Jack shivered. “You mean…if, as you said, she’s selling organs…”
“What?” Steve
whispered. “Like kidneys and livers and hearts kinda organs? Naw, it can’t be
true!”
“I guess so...and
what I saw made me think because I saw Marie’s mom leaving the store with a
small package in her hand that was smeared with blood,” Claire said, wringing
his fingers and taking a deep breath. “You guys know that Marie is very sick
and waiting for the right organ donor who can give her a kidney, right?”
“Jack let out a
heavy, sympathetic sigh. “Yes, poor Marie,” he muttered.
“I went to
visit her the other day,” Claire continued. “Marie was asleep, but her mom
insisted I wait for her to wake up. So, I sat in the living room and started
reading the book I got for Marie. But I couldn’t help overhearing Marie’s
parents talking in the kitchen. Her mom cried and said that there was still no
match for Marie and asked Marie’s dad what they were going to do. But then her
father got angry and shouted that if they couldn’t find a match soon, he’d have
to buy a kidney on the black market. He said there are plenty of organs for
sale; they just needed to find the right seller.”
Continue reading the story in the anthology:
https://books2read.com/u/mq5qNO
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