Weird Stories

There was only a hole in the earth. Of course it was the meteorite. Perhaps some mineral element from the stone has entered the soil, said the professors, but the water will soon wash it away. The trees produced buds prematurely around Nahum s place, and at night their branches danced menacingly in the wind. Fifteen-year-old Thaddeus, Nahum s second son, insisted that they danced even when there was no wind. The entire Gardner family became nervous, and soon people started saying that something was wrong with them. In April, farmers stopped using the road near Nahum s place because of the strange colors of the vegetation; Nahum s boys were scared by what was said in town, especially Thaddeus, the most sensitive of them. In May the insects came, and Nahum s place became a nightmare, full of buzzing and crawling12. Before long, Nahum s people became so familiar with strange things that they did not notice. But one night Nahum realized that there was a distinct luminosity in the grass, leaves and flowers near the farm. I was now the only person to visit the place, said Ammi, and when school closed and the boys no longer went to town, I sometimes went shopping for the Gardners. 12. buzzing, crawling: sounds and movements typical of insects. 13