Life changing yard sale, p.1
Life Changing Yard Sale, page 1
Life Changing
Yard Sale
Deals To Die For
Lazarus Spiral I
T. Kulp
Copyright © 2023 T. Kulp
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.
ISBN: 978-1-956612-22-6 (Paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-956612-21-9 (eBook)
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
T. Kulp asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
Making Adventure Publishing
16944 York Rd, Suite 62
Monkton, MD 21111
To Mom & Dad,
thank you for all
the evil toys.
Most of the evil in this world is done
by people with good intentions.
T.S. Eliot
Author’s Note
On the way home from Dunkin’ Donuts, my wife spotted a sign and laughed. She said, “That’s going in a story.” It said “Life Changing Yard Sale,” with an arrow pointing down the road. The sign was neon green poster paper written in thick black marker.
What did it mean? Life changing? Growing up in a small town, I had seen many yard sales, but none of them rose to the status of “life-changing.”
That day was rainy, terrible weather for a yard sale. My mind spun with ideas of why the person had to have the yard sale today. A few stories sprung up but nothing really caught me, and so I let the idea marinate.
A few months later, I was teaching a class on using Artificial Intelligence for story ideation and demoed my “Idea Store” method for building story concepts. The title that I landed on using a random book title generator was 2938: Beta. I was hooked! As I started writing 2938, the idea of the yard sale crept in as the initial setting. From there, more ideas, more toys started popping up in my mind. A collection of stories about haunted toys was born, all from one “Life Changing Yard Sale.”
I hope you enjoy this collection and have as much fun reading the stories as I had writing them.
And if you’re wondering, no, I don’t usually stop at yard sales. After exploring this world, I don’t know that I ever will.
Enjoy,
Tim
06/02/2023
29
ONE
Lucy shuffled through the antique game cartridges like a bulldozer in a mass grave. She didn’t have time to care for the discarded. She needed the game that would save her stream: Ninja Gaiden for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
This was her third yard sale today, searching for a game to reengage her viewers, but she struck out everywhere. There were lots of old games, but they were all the popular games. She needed something more obscure, something to show her gaming skills. Engagement was key to stop bleeding subscribers, and very difficult retro games always led to a hot stream.
While she struck out at the other two yard sales, this one’s sign promised big things. A pollen-yellow sign with jagged black letters said, “Life Changing Yard Sale.” She didn’t expect her life to be changed, she just hoped to save her live stream. Unfortunately, the Life Changing Yard Sale didn’t have Ninja Gaiden or any other obscure, difficult retro games.
Lucy wondered, why not just call it a Moving Sale, or an I Got Divorced Sale, or even an I died and My Family Doesn’t Want My Stuff Sale? “Life Changing” is dramatic, even by her sixteen-year-old, public high school standards.
Regardless of the drama, the sign worked. More people joined the crowded front lawn of the small ranch-style house. Chaos reigned over the scattered mismatched blankets. Old ladies bickered and swarmed over them, arguing who saw what first. Junk of all kinds was thrown over the bunched-up blankets except one: a burgundy patchwork quilt covered with well-organized toys. On this blanket, a gray rubber container overflowed with video games.
Lucy sighed as she checked the last game cartridge in the bin. She hadn’t heard of it, but the cute turtle on the cover told her it wasn’t what she needed tonight. She dropped it back into the bin. A plastic crack came from under the other games. Her hopes sparked. Did she miss the treasure she needed for tonight’s live stream? Lucy shoved the games aside. At the bottom she found something that didn’t belong with the video games.
A boxy VHS tape gleamed in the midday sun, pristine and bright white; not black like most VHS tapes. No yellowed stain from age or smoking or coffee on it, just a smeared thumb print near the black marker title. Lucy examined a black or deep crimson smear on the case, unsure of the color, but certain it was a thumbprint. The title on the tape was handwritten and scrawled with the same care as for the video games in the bin.
“Wow! I can’t believe you found that.” Her mom, Trudy, helped dig through the bins. “Is that an original?” She laughed.
“What is it?” Lucy waved the VHS tape like an ancient artifact.
“It’s a game. Well, it was a game.” Trudy took the tape. “Yeah, Captain Light and the World of Darkness.” She read the marker title, keeping her own thumb clear of the smear. “This came out when I was a kid. You played it on your VCR long before the Nintendo.”
Other shoppers moved around them. One old lady bumped Lucy out of the way so she could explore the game bins. Probably looking for potential eBay sales. None of these games were worth anything, but rude old biddies never cared about any of that. They just wanted the bargain.
Lucy searched again for whoever ran the yard sale. No one checked on the customers as they gathered armloads of junk, from lamps to velvet paintings. At the edge of the sale, there was a table with a money jar on it. Lucy watched the house to see if anyone came out. Maybe they just went in for a drink and were on their way back out? But that didn’t feel quite right. Lucy had been here for over an hour. No sign of anyone. A few people shoved money in the jar as they left, but most just left. Rude.
Trudy dug through a bin beside the games and pulled out a plastic spaceship that looked like a scorpion. It had a red body, boney red legs that curled around your forearm, and a handle that dropped from under the cockpit with a yellow trigger. Lucy examined the toy to see how it worked. She found an empty battery compartment and an infrared emitter like a TV remote.
“Was this one of those light gun games?” Lucy asked as she tried the ship on her wrist. She gave the trigger a few squeezes. She felt the spring’s tight resistance. Turning the ship over, the number 29 was written in the same handwriting as on the white tape. The handwriting on the ship and tape were jagged and messy, while the yard sale sign was crisp, almost calligraphic. She stared at the yard sale sign for a moment longer. Whoever wrote that didn’t write this.
“What’s 29?”
“I don’t know.” Trudy looked for more treasures. “But that game didn’t stay on the shelves long. It got wrapped up in the whole Satanic Panic crap from the 80s. Disappeared fast. I wonder if there’s anything more around. You need something great for tonight?” Trudy waved the tape. “This is something different. It’s retro. It’s unusual, like, I’m betting your viewers don’t know it. And when you show them a VCR, it’s going to blow their minds.” Trudy’s eyes popped open as her hands contained the imaginary explosion from her brain.
“Yeah, that might be cool. Do we have a…” Lucy searched for what her mom said. “One of those VCR things?”
“Yep. Your dad has one in the basement. He loves all that old tech stuff.”
“You know where?” Lucy thought about the junk piles in the basement, aka her dad’s treasures. With him away on business, Lucy didn’t know if anyone else could understood the chaos of his organizational system.
“I’ll find it. Want to get it?”
Lucy smiled. It’s not Ninja Gaiden, but it might be what she needed to hook more viewers in her live stream. “Yeah, I can’t find a price.”
“Probably fell off.” Trudy shuffled through the game box again, now competing with the rude old lady. “These look like they’re about five bucks each, so we’ll leave ten.”
Lucy noticed a small figure inside the scorpion ship. She popped open the frost-blue plastic cockpit. The sour tang of spoiled milk hit her nose, knotting her stomach. Thick spit lumped in her throat as she pulled the cockpit open to see the figure inside. The revulsion at what she saw squeezed a faint whine from her gasping chest.
She wasn’t sure if the face had melted or was chewed by an overly anxious dog, but it was mutilated in streaks of slashed plastic. One eye bulged wide, painted infected pus-yellow with a red dot in the center, while the other was proportionate but black. The mouth curled in a knowing smile. His clothes were molded plastic, high tech as if robotic, but the paint had chipped away long ago. A thick grease covered the figure. Lucy shivered at the idea of touching it and wondered if whatever that oily gunk was was what smelled so bad. She shut the cockpit with a thunderous click that silenced the yard sale around her.
“We better get home. If I’m going to do this, I’ll need setup time for the stream tonight.”
They pushed through the other shoppers and left the Life Changing Yard Sale feeling their lives were no different from when they arrived.
TWO
Nadia and Sam were waiting for Lucy when her mom pulled into the driveway.
Sam leaned his slight frame against the railing of Lucy’s porch. Of the three friends, Sam was the lankiest, with long arms and legs that still tripped him up in his clumsiness. His skinny jeans and track jacket only emphasized Trudy’s urge to feed him.
Nadia slowly swung in the gliding rocker. Her long black hair comfortably settled over her shoulders. She was short but ferocious, having chased Sam out of that rocker many times in the past. Nadia loved swinging to calm her anxiety. A constant fear of the world and all the horrible things that could happen were managed with hot tea, swinging, and, when all else failed, medication.
They were Lucy’s production crew. Sam did the video production to build his portfolio for art school after senior year. Nadia did the production setup as practice for her future interior design career. Lucy was the gamer and online personality, which wasn’t anything she was interested in for the future, but was a fun way to spend time with her besties. But losing subscribers wasn’t fun. It was a reminder that Lucy was the weak link, and she never wanted her friends to fail because she couldn’t cut it.
Sam and Nadia looked hopefully at Lucy, waiting to see a treasure that would save their stream. Instead, Trudy hurried inside to find the VCR and said, “Drinks in the fridge,” as she passed.
“Okay, so check this out.” Lucy held up the VHS tape. “This is a video game.” She held up the scorpion ship. “This is the controller. You play it on a VCR.”
Neither Nadia nor Sam reacted immediately; they only screwed up their faces wondering what Lucy was thinking. How would you stream this?
“Dino-tech?” Sam laughed. “Our plan to save our subscribers is Dino-tech?”
Nadia rolled her eyes. “It’s not that old. Only like almost three times as old as we are.” She laughed, and the others joined in. Forty years old is ancient when you’re sixteen. Trudy wouldn’t have laughed.
But the laughing stopped quickly as the three got down to business. They went straight to Lucy’s room and prepared for the evening’s stream. Her room was too small to keep up the cameras, lighting, and backdrop she used.
Sam set up the camera. Nadia took the spaceship controller from Lucy and set it on her desk as part of her backdrop.
“Here, the ship will be in your intro shot.” Nadia placed the red scorpion ship on the edge of Lucy’s computer desk. “Do you know where—” Nadia turned and hit the ship with her hip. It fell to the floor with a plastic snap, sending the figure tumbling out of the cockpit. “OMG! I’m so sorry!” She quickly swooped down to pick up the ship and its pilot but recoiled at the pilot’s gnarled body and hideous features. The appearance of the figure fused into a sense of loathing that Nadia never knew a toy could deserve. “Uh… What happened to that thing?” She backed away from it, startling when her butt hit the desk.
“Yeah, just ugly. Guess some dog got it or a kid tried to blow it up or something.” Lucy shrugged.
Sam picked up the toy without looking at it and set the figure on Lucy’s desk. Unconsciously, he wiped his hands quickly on his jeans, trying to scrape away the oily feeling left behind by the action figure.
They kept setting up as Trudy came in with a black rectangular box. She grunted as she set it down on Lucy’s desk. “This,” she sighed, “is a TV-VCR combo. You just put the tape in there, hit this button, and it will play.”
“How’s it hook up to my computer?” Lucy looked at the connection ports on the back of the VCR. Three plugs stuck out: yellow, white, and red. She’d never seen an HDMI cable like that before.
“It doesn’t.” Trudy chuckled. “Believe it or not, once upon a time, not everything hooked up to a computer.”
“Just need an adapter for your video card,” Sam chimed in as he inspected the ancient device. “Probably can pick one up from—”
“We don’t have time for all that. Stream’s live in an hour. We’ve gotta make sure all this works before then, or I’ve gotta cancel for tonight,” Lucy said. Missing a stream could be recovered. Having a bad stream was death.
“Okay, well, how about I setup the DSLR camera to record the screen and we’ll stream your intro from my phone?” Sam offered.
“Sounds good,” Lucy confirmed. “Can you set up the camera while we do a tech check?”
Nadia examined the tape. “How much data goes on this?”
Trudy laughed as she walked out of the room.
“Look, it can’t be that hard. We’re techies and smart. We can figure this out,” Lucy said. Much later, she’d remember these events and hear the hubris of someone who doesn’t know how badly things could go wrong. As if to further damn herself, she said, “Besides, it’s just a toy.”
Sam set up the tripod, set up the camera, and was eyeing the viewfinder. “Can you put in the tape? I want to see what kind of distortion we get.”
“Sure.” Nadia pushed in the tape and turned to help Lucy get her computer stream prepared. They jumped at the hiss of static that erupted from the TV-VCR. Nadia screamed. Both their eyes jumped to the TV screen. Both their jaws fell open at the view.
The camera on the screen was panning around a destroyed wasteland. Buildings in the background were skeletal hulks, gutted and crumbling. The sky was gray, and Lucy assumed, at first, that the video was black and white. She squinted at the ground as the camera panned across the landscape. What she thought was sand looked more like glass after the static cleared and the camera slowed down. The glass dunes rolled and coiled in razor waves, wrapping along the horizon in an ocean of desolation.
“Is the ground made of glass?” Lucy wondered out loud, in a dreamy trance.
“What is this?” Nadia held her stomach, the butterflies inside ready to evacuate through her mouth. The pilot was still the most horrible thing she’d ever seen, but this landscape, this world on the TV, was a close second. “That’s amazing production quality. The set design is so,” she coughed dryly, trying to bring spit back into her mouth, “so real.”
“Sam, how’s the shot?” Lucy shook her head, pulling her attention away from the TV screen. “Sam?” She looked back at the camera. Sam was on the floor spasming, with a thick white foam spurting from his mouth. His eyes were open, staring into nothing but screaming for help. Every muscle in his body fired in a coiling, writhing mass, jerking him up and down like a teetering ship on a stormy current.
“Sam!” Lucy jumped out of her chair and rushed to him. Nadia followed. Neither watched the TV screen as the view changed to black static. Flickering faces emerged from the darkness. Two teenage girls appeared, pressing their faces close to the camera. They called for help, but no sound was heard over the screaming in the room.
“Mom!” Lucy shouted. “Mom! Help!”
Static crackled through Lucy’s bedroom in a constant popping drone. Nadia grabbed her ears and clenched her eyes shut. She screamed for help too, but not just for Sam. She wanted the overload to stop—the static, the screaming, Sam’s gurgling, the rotten milk stink filling the room, the floor shaking from his seizures. Groping behind her, she found the power cord to the TV and ripped it out of the wall. The static stopped just as Trudy ran into the room and told Lucy to call 911.
Nadia rocked on her knees, squeezing her ears to keep the noises out, but it didn’t help. She could still hear Sam choking on the foam bubbling out of his mouth. She could still hear Trudy screaming at the 911 operator. And she could feel Lucy holding on to her tight, rocking with her as they watched their bestie die.
THREE
“Is he okay?” Lucy rushed to Sam’s parents as they came out of the emergency room.
The EMTs were able to get Sam to the hospital before it was too late. Of the three EMTs who arrived, two turned vampire white when they took Sam’s vitals. The third vomited in the bathroom after seeing his twisted body and smelling the nose-seering stench of whatever was leaking from Sam’s mouth. Trudy followed the ambulance with Lucy and Nadia, arriving at the hospital just a few moments after Sam’s parents. Sam was taken to the Emergency Room and his parents were swept into another room to talk with doctors.
