For some reason I think of Bill Murray. I have no idea why.

"Get in the car!"

"It's dead," I say through the window.

She rolls it down. "What's dead?"

"Whatever is under our car. Move up."

I wish I hadn't asked Mom to do that.

On the road is the body of a dead groundhog.

I say body because there's no head to the thing.

And I say dead because-well, there's no head to the thing.

If that thing jumps up and starts running at me, I don't care what happens, I'm going to be as far away as possible from the woods and Solitary and North Carolina and Bill Murray movies for the rest of my life.

Mom parks the car and then gets out. I walk her way.

"Just a dead animal."

"What?"

"A groundhog."

"You sure it's-"

"Yeah," I tell her as I block her from going any further.

Last thing Mom needs is any more reason to have nightmares.

Aunt Alice seems happy today. And when I say happy, I mean deliriously happy. Medicated happy. Or possessed happy.

"Come on in, come on."

Last time she wasn't as friendly. Her short, round figure seems to roll through the living room. The place is the same as I remember it before, dark and creepy, although there seems to be a bit more light this time. Maybe she has the drapes open or something. It still stinks. The black crow is still there. But thankfully, no mannequins.

"Just sittin' down for some lunch."

I follow Mom and look over her shoulder, and when I see the family at the table I stop and then get in a sprinting stance, ready to dash.

Sitting around the square table in the corner of the kitchen are four ...

oh man I see that Melissa the Mannequin has gone and found herself a family. A husband with blond hair and two kids. A boy and a girl.

Oh this is beyond creepy.

They're clothed, and their blank faces stare out like the rest of the things in this house, screaming Help us, we're trapped with a short devil lady.

"Sorry, I didn't know ya'll were coming."

"You're having quite the party, huh?" Mom says. She glances back at me. "Would you like anything, Chris?"

"No. But thank you."

She looks at me and gives me a "cut the crap" look.

Mom talks with Aunt Alice about the weather and about making jelly and about the weather while I feel claustrophobic. I look around the living room, and I see a picture of Uncle Robert in a frame, one I didn't see last time we were here. I'm tempted to take it and show Mom. But as I glance into the kitchen, she notices me looking at it.

"I gave that to her last time I was here," Mom says.

I nod. We don't have any pictures up in our house, not really. But Mom gives Aunt Alice a photo of Uncle Robert.

I'm standing and watching the crow when something catches my eye. It's the back of the girl mannequin's head, her dark hair unmoving and her shoulders stiff as my legs feel on a day off from track practice.

Suddenly, the head starts to move.

The face turns, and the eyes are blank and hollow.

No no no.

And worms and maggots suddenly start to pop out of them.

I blink, and of course I don't see this. This is in my mind, not a dream and not a fantasy. It's just me imagining something crazy.

I feel hot and dizzy and want to run in the woods for about five days.

"Mom-can I-bathroom?"

"Just down the hall."

I go down there and find a tiny room with barely space for a toilet, sink, and tub. A big plastic seat-thing sits on top of the toilet, like a basketball rim for a three-year-old. It takes me a few minutes to take it off.

As I'm washing and air drying my hands, I notice the shower curtain hiding the bath behind it.

Of course, I'm curious.

Of course, I can't let things go.

So of course, I pull back the grimy yellow plastic curtain.

In the tub sits the rest of the groundhog. I see the whiskered face looking up at me as if it's popping out of a goopy, bloody hole. But of course, there's no hole. Not in this tub.

I jerk the curtain back and half of it comes down. Then I curse as I turn on the faucet again and rinse my hands with cold water, then douse my face with it.

I look again, and it's still there.

I'm not imagining this.

I go back out to the main room, feeling woozy. "I need some air," I tell Mom.

I should tell her to maybe wait to use the restroom until we get back home, but I don't.

I can't.

I feel just-just not so good.

55. Double Date Spring comes, but it sure doesn't bring hope.

Sometime in March, as I'm minding my business and ignoring things like emails waiting to be read and missing students and the shadows of dead girls I once loved, I get approached by Dan something-or-other who is in my grade and has never acknowledged me once that I can remember. I'm surprised the guy knows my name.

"Hey, Chris, what's up?"

Dan says this as if we talk a lot.

"Hey," I say back, pretty confident he doesn't really want to know what's up in my life. How long does he have to hear my answer?

"Hey, I got a favor to ask you."

I'm wondering if he starts every sentence with hey.

"Yeah, okay."

I'm at my locker and can't help glancing around to see if this is a prank. He's not carrying anything from the salad bar in his hands, so I guess I'm lucky there. Not that I could see someone like Dan ever doing that. Dan's one of the midpack boys. I see him hanging around with Ray and his buddies. Or some of the jocks. Or some of the burnouts. I haven't really ever noticed Dan, because to be honest there isn't much to notice about him.

"You know Georgia, right? Georgia Wilson?"

I nod. Georgia is a pretty brunette I've seen hanging around with Kelsey. She seems a bit stuck up, but that's just based on her looks and on the fact that she's never looked or talked with me either.

"Hey, I got something to ask you, and man, I'll totally owe you if you help me out."

"Okay."

"Look, I've been trying to go out with Georgia for like ever, and she just gives me the cold shoulder. You know her, you know? I mean, hey, I get it, but still. I just want her to go out once, you know? So the thing is, I was with her and her friend Kelsey. You know Kelsey, right? Well, they were talking and Georgia was teasing her because she likes you but never in a million years would ask you out, so I kept on about Georgia going out with me, and Kelsey suggested a double date."

"Kelsey suggested that?"

"Yeah, totally. Not lying."

"She's asking me out?"

"No, are you crazy? Look, you can't even tell them that I was talking to you. She'd flip-Kelsey, that is. She'd die. I couldn't believe she even suggested something like this, but whatever. She must really like you."

"She's basically been ignoring me in art class."

"Yeah, that's girls. Georgia goes from talking to me one week to ignoring me the next. Whatever. It's their time of the month or week thing or whatever. Can't figure them out."

I might have expected some things to happen to me today, like falling into a black crater or seeing a life-sized bunny rabbit following me around, but I sure didn't expect this.

"So what do you want me to do?" I ask.

"Ask Kelsey out."

"What?"

"Come on, man. She's cute."

"I thought this was a double date."

"Yeah. Say that we want to double with them. Georgia will totally go for it, because she wants Kelsey to get together with you. She thinks you're like some mysterious guy or something." He laughs in a way that says you're not mysterious you're just kinda a loser that I need to use for the moment.

"Well, I gotta check my calendar," I say.

"Okay, you do that. But then let me know."

Dan apparently doesn't recognize sarcasm.

"So how am I supposed to do this?"

He slaps me on the back, and I feel like I've been permanently imprinted with his handprint. He might be middle of the pack, but the guy is strong.

"How do you ask a girl out? I mean, how'd you ever ask out Jocelyn?"

I look at him to see if he's joking. Or worse, to see if he's mocking.

"Man, a hundred guys wanted to go out with her. You had to be doing something right, huh?"

I nod, but carefully.

"Sucks that she moved, you know. But whatcha gonna do?"

Again I try to see if he's mocking me, but nothing I can see says that he is.

"Just let me know, okay? Talk to Kelsey sometime today. Let's do it this weekend if it works, okay, man?"

He takes off, and I'm left to wonder how I'm going to ask out a girl who no longer talks to me. We haven't spoken much at all since she gave me that Valentine's Day card. I've tried.

But you haven't tried that hard, have you?

And I wonder why I said yes.

Did you have a choice, really? And do you have any other pressing things to do, really?

I think about Kelsey. She's cute and fine, but I know that the best thing I can do for her is stay away.

It's one date. It's one thing to help a guy out. You could use some more friends, right? And you could have some fun. Right?