Ghost Summer Stories: Tananarive Due

This was a FABULOUS collection of eerie short stories. The Lake: A woman buys a house after taking a short tour of it and friends warn her about how she rushed in. She was captivated by the lake by the house and starts swimming in it every afternoon, then all evening, then all night. No one in town warned her about not swimming in the summer when there was chemical runoff. Her feet grow webs and she grows gills on her side. She teaches at the local school and asks a boy to help her with the house. The one afternoon invites him for a swim. Once in the water she swims underneath him and realizes everything has led up to this moment because he looks delicious and she tries to keep herself from eating him, but the story ends with her going after her prey. Summer: A woman gets married and finds herself back in the town she grew up in, but living at her grandmother's house near the lake. A cousin she reconnected with at her mother's funeral tells her to watch her baby while living at that house so close to the water because something possesses babies under two years old. She referred to them as "leeches". One night about 3 weeks after this conversation She is awaken in the night but a shadow that seems to stare at her and then goes to her daughter. The next day her daughter is well behaved and seems to admire her. She knows her daughter has been possessed. She calls her cousin who takes her to a relative who has a medicine for it, but once she realizes the "possession" will make her daughter sweet until the end of summer she seems settled on letting her daughter be possessed until fall so she can have some peace. Ghost Summer: A 12 year old boy Davie, his sister, and Dad spend a month with his paternal grandparents. Davie is excited about finding ghosts since his older sister says being able to see and hear them stops when you turn 13. He gets more than he bargains for. First he follows some boys into the woods near his grandparent's house and sees them burying a dog in an extremely deep hole. He doesn't realize until a couple nights later that they were ghosts. That night a ghost dog goes by his bedroom door. He then convinces his little sister to stay up with him and they living room turns to swamp and 3 ghost boys yell at them to run because they are being chased down by a dog. Davie spend the day at the local library and hears the tale of the 3 boys who went missing in 1909. They were moving and the eldest went to say goodbye to his girlfriend when they were chased into a well by the old plantation owner's dog. Their remains weren't rediscovered until Davie convinced his dad to stay up with them and they followed the ghosts into the woods. The ghost occurrences came into the lives of the living, the window in the house broke and both Davie and his sister were attacked by the ghost dog, the dad even heard and felt the dog. The local sheriff gets an excavation team on the well and they do in fact find the remains of the 3 boys. What is really interesting is that the author gets a call years after writing this story that an unknown relative's remains were found at the Dozier School for boys in Florida. Free Jims Mine: This was a story about a slave girl, Lottie, and her Cherokee husband, William, trying to escape Georgia for the North. Her uncle runs "Free Jim's Mine" and she goes to him hoping he can get them and their unborn child to freedom. He is angry that she comes to him and hints that freedom is never free. He puts them in the mine for the night and tells them to say their last words together because they won't see morning. Sometime during the night a "Walasi" a giant frog-like creature appears and William takes off after it. After several minutes Lottie realizes he isn't coming back and that her uncle sacrificed them to the mine. After a short sleep the creature comes back and Lottie cuts off a finger of the creature. She then falls asleep again and is awakened by her uncle calling for her. Her uncle isn't shocked that William is missing and is missing a finger just like the creature. The Knowing: A 12 year old boy talks about his nomadic life because his mother is a drug addict and can't hold a job. He regrets leaving Miami because it was his favorite spot to live, but his mother knows the date people will die and told her landlord who didn't want to know, how long she had left. She even told her son and he knows he only has three years left, though he doesn't know how he will die. The story touches on how people react differently to knowing their own immortality. Like Daughter: A woman reminiscences about a childhood friend and how horrible her life was compared to hers. She remembers as a child wondering why she was born in her house and her friend Neecie was born in her life as they could have easily been swapped. We find later in the story that Neecie wants her to take her child and possibly raise her as her own? The next whammy is that Neecie's daughter, also named Neecie is a clone, created to see what she could have been had she had a good upbringing. Aftermoon: This was a clever story about a girl who tries ignoring the moon as she walks home thinking about her raw steak in the freezer. She passes a sign she never noticed before that advertises dermatology and lycanthropy, irritated she bounds into the office. The Doctor seems like a werewolf himself and instantly recognizes her for who she is. She goes back to him to talk about hair removal and ends up talking to the DR about her fiancé, who does not know of her condition. She muses that she may be able to tell him and he might be supportive. The story ends leaving the reader to wonder how things will turn out for her. Trial Day: A little girl, Lettie, can see into people's souls. Her brother is tried for a robbery he didn't commit and her father refuses to stand up for him because of the trouble it will cause for him. Lettie is told by her mother that she needs to sacrifice something she loves to save another thing she loves, and suggests her cat. When Lettie is in the middle of sacrificing the cat her father walks in and realizes he must go at least try to help his son. One is left believing that Lettie sacrificed her father to save her brother. Patient Zero: Jay, a child is the only person seemingly alive in the world after an epidemic hits and he is the only person, with the exception of two girls in China who mysteriously die, that survived getting the virus. He tells of his life locked up and used for testing, until one day his teacher gets sick and informs him if she doesn't come back he should leave his room to look for food. Once he gets back out into the world it is in shambles and we are left wondering if he can survive. Danger Word: A 9 year old boy Kendrick is living in the woods with his grandpa and slowly we learn why. People are getting sick and turning into Zombies. Kendrick's parents were tricked by neighbors who they invited into their home. Fortunately they have about 10 minutes after getting bit before they go to sleep and wake up inhumane and they were able to hide him in the basement and call his grandpa to come get him. His grandpa was supposed to say the "danger word" so he will unlock the basement door and come out. When grandpa got to the house he had to shoot the Zombies in the yard including his daughter, Kendrick's mother. Grandpa takes Kendrick to a gas station that is still operating to get him a coke because he has started talking again. Once inside he realizes the owner has turned even though he can carry on a conversation, which zombies aren't supposed to be able to do. He is bit before Kendrick shoots the store owner and grandpa gets them back into the truck in hopes of getting Kendrick home before he turns. He realizes he can't make it the 20 minutes home and tells Kendrick to run 20 miles to the nearest help and not to stop and shoot anyone. about 10 minutes later he wakes up because he fell asleep before he was able to shoot himself. He catches up with Kendrick who knows his grandpa has turned, but is still hopeful that they can survive. Grandpa's last words were "breakfast" and the reader is left hoping Kendrick is wise enough to shoot his grandpa and survive. Removal Order: A woman in grad school is taking care of her grandmother who has cancer and fortunately? not the 72 hour illness. Everyone in her neighborhood has evacuated and she moves her grandmother to a neighbors house so they can escape the fleas their house is infested with. Once she gets her grandmother moved and cleaned up she sits on the porch. A police car drives by then stops and informs her she needs to be evacuated within 24 hours because they are burning the neighborhood, hoping to burn the sickness. She explains that she can't she is still waiting, essentially, for her grandmother to die. He gives her some frozen chicken and says he will be back the next day for lunch. When he shows up the next day he eats with her and then as a kindness shoots her grandmother so she can leave. He gives her his family's address and leaves. With mixed emotion she loads up her grandmother's favorite cat and heads off. The cat doesn't want to be in the car so she lets it out to spend its last days in a place it knows. Herd Immunity: Nayima walks California looking for food and a place to live. She believes there will be others alive that have a natural immunity to the 72 hour virus and eventually finds a man who she follows for days hoping to one day meet up with him. They come to a town where a fair was occurring when the virus hit and fill a car with supplies. She tries to convince the man to come with her because she is lonely, but he calls her typhoid Mary and doesn't want to get close with her because he could catch the disease. She tries explaining to him that he precautions of not touching anything and covering himself up aren't what kept him alive and that he is naturally immune like her. He doesn't believe her. Once he falls asleep she kisses him and is awaken in the morning from him throwing up, she gave him the illness, he wasn't immune. Carriers: This story continues with Nayima. She is an older woman now and leaving on the outskirts of Sacramento. A man she met who was also immune to the disease visits bringing news of a daughter. Their eggs and sperm were taken and none of the other children survived but this one who is about 4 years old. She was accustomed to her life in solitude, but is filled with hope when she is united with her unknown daughter. Senora Suerte: An unlucky man is in a nursing home and has met lady luck. The night she comes to bingo she touches a lucky person and they win the game...they also die in their sleep at night. The protagonist still hopes she chooses him. Vanishings: Wow, this was a sad story. A mother of two girls is told by the police that her husband was in an accident and since there was no body- he "vanished". Their youngest daughter is very sick and she knows her husband left because he couldn't handle it, but then there is another explanation that he "vanished" so his insurance money would be paid out helping her with the mounting bills. She thinks her daughter is finally getting better, but then hears from her eldest daughter's teacher that she is upset with her mom because she isn't doing anything while the little sister is dying. The mom finally sees her daughter that night at dinner as she really is and can't believe how pale she has gotten. That night in the tub her daughter says she is "vanishing" as she hides beneath the bubbles in the bath.