Sanitation Business - Ch 4

Chapter 4

I gasped. The thing gasped. “Dad, what are you doing here?” I yelped. I ran up the flight of stairs like a kid meeting Santa Claus! “Son?” he asked. “Boy what are you doing here at this time of the night? I passed through the back. I should have known your anxious behind would have come on your own!”

“Monster, Pop!” I yelled to him. “MONSTER!”

The beast already heard the ring, so I knew it wouldn’t hurt to warn my dad in such a loud voice. “Where?” He asked with just as much alarm. “Down there!”  My right hand pointed to the bottom of the stairs where the galloping, oozing man-thing appeared. I reached my dad as the wet-mop sound stopped. “What are you doing, Pop?” I asked, pulling at his arm. My Pop is a strong man and not easily moved. He didn’t budge. Pop, you aren’t John Wayne, and that thing isn’t another cowboy!” I yelled . “Hush, boy.” He replied.

“We meet again, Johnson.” The creature breathed through slits in its neck. The human mouth didn’t move, sound only coming from the gills. “I warned you against continuing your hunt. Well, now I come to avenge the fallen.”

“Pop?” I asked. “Shut your mouth, boy!” he snapped. I stood at attention. He pulled a bottle of cleaner from his belt and handed it to me. “This is our business. The contents of these bottles aren’t only for cleaning tables, boy. It’s for cleaning these parasites.”

“Pop?” I asked confused. “Lookahere, son.” He began, that thing down there is something that isn’t human, but an infection, a parasite. That thing, there, is what your father has been killing all these years. My father killed them under the name of Johnson and Son Extermination.” “Well..” he continued, looking to me with his tired, brown eyes. “This is the business that you inherit.”

The thing ran toward us. Pop didn’t need to tell me what to do; I screamed, aimed, and sprayed. “Welcome to the Sanitation Business, Son.”