I turn right onto Camden Ave. It’s smooth sailing from here to Brine. But I notice a doll in the middle of street. I don’t recall seeing it earlier.You notice microscopic changes in a world without people to change things. I get out of the SUV, leaving it running. The doll’s China-white face is half smashed. Maybe I ran it over yesterday not knowing. It’s wearing a dingy denim dress over pantaloons. And an apron over the dress. I think of Raggedy Ann. The doll has a pull-string ring on its back.
It’s occurring me that besides my Dad’s final word and my own chatter, I haven’t heard a human voice since the world ended. I pull the ring and release it. At first there’s static, then a slow crescendo of sound as some out-of-use mechanism struggles to rewind the string. The doll speaks, slowly, garbled, but clear enough: “new … creatures … coming …” I drop the doll and almost wet myself.
“Grandfather’s Room” appears in the post-apocalyptic horror anthology Down with the Fallen, edited by Jordon Greene and available now from Franklin/Kerr Press. Click here to order.
