KNITTING NEEDLES
By
DL Kaiser
Ginger looked across the
street into her neighbors’ living room and shrugged.
“John, I don’t know what Carmine
is up to, but I can tell you that it’s no good.”
“How can you tell that, huh?”
“Her friends disappear I tell
you! They go in, but they don’t go back out!”
John laughed, pointed at
Ginger, and laughed again before getting up out of his chair with his beer and
walking into the garage to putter with his Harley.
Ginger paled. It was obvious no one was going to believe
her so she may as well do some spying until she could prove that something was
wrong. So that night she told John that
she had some errands to run and snuck out behind the neighbors’ house. She peeked into the kitchen and didn’t see
anyone. Then she went to the left window
and barely got a glance before someone walked across the room. She just about screamed but someone put a
hand across her mouth.
“I can’t believe you are
spying on your neighbor!” John whispered
in her ear.
“Shhh…” Ginger pointed inside. John’s curiosity was peaked so he glanced
inside and froze.
There standing before him was
a person completely made out of yarn. The creature was frantically trying to get out of the room, but it was not
strong enough to turn the door handle!
“Let’s get out of here!”
Ginger whispered into John’s ear.
They crouched down and ran to
the back of the property and a few doors down where Ginger had parked her car. Ginger was actually relieved that John figured out that she was going out to spy.
When they were seated back at
their kitchen table, both of them were shaking.
“That is impossible. There must be an explanation!”
“John, you saw it with your
own eyes. That creature, whatever it is,
is desperate to escape. The question is,
is it dangerous? Why would Carmine have
a prisoner in her home?”
John shook his head back and
forth until Ginger elbowed him.
“Hey! Snap out of it John!”
“Okay, but I am NOT going
back there.”
“Well I am.”
“No you are not.”
Ginger finally convinced John
that whatever it was that they saw needed help.
So the next few hours were
spent in planning. The next night they
were ready. Step one was to dress in all
black. John loved wearing his leather
biker pants, which Ginger rolled her eyes at.
Next, they had their flashlights and their cell phones were charged to
text one another. They went to different
windows around the house.
Ginger saw Carmine sitting
down with a man about her age, about forty or so. She got him a drink and he sat in front of
the television set. He ignored her as
she pulled out her knitting needles.
Then something incredible happened.
As she knitted, his body began disappearing. Carmine’s needles began to create his body in
exact proportions with her knitting needles.
She laughed and her eyes glittered with madness.
Ginger texted John that they
needed to meet at home.
“Ginger, you would not
believe what I saw. There is a whole
village of yarn people living in that house!
I don’t know how they are alive, but they are!”
“Yeah, and I know how she
does it!”
“How?”
“She uses these knitting
needles and makes them disappear from their human form into yarn people.”
“So how do we help them?”
“Maybe we steal the needles
first, and then see what we can do for them.”
“This is a bad idea.”
“Well, calling the police
wouldn’t work, so what else are we going to do?”
So John and Ginger waited
until Carmine was out of the house and then broke in. They searched all over the house but could
not find the needles. They carried out
the yarn people in big trash bags and hid them in the car.
John was carrying down the
last bag from the second floor when Carmine slammed the front door.
“I know someone is in here,
so come out with your hands up!”
“Don’t shoot!” John raised his hands.
He felt foolish when the only
thing in her hands were her knitting needles, poised to knit.
She stared at him and began
to knit. He felt himself being pulled
apart and screamed.
Ginger started banging on the
door.
Carmine opened the door and
pushed Ginger to the floor.
“Your next!”
Ginger grabbed one of the
needles and the yarn began to unravel.
John’s arm was starting to come back together again, and he felt
suddenly stronger.
He jumped at Carmine and
tackled her. Ginger grabbed the other
needle.
“Unravel the knitting! Hurry!”
Ginger pulled the knitting
out and John was restored to his former self.
They tied Carmine up and
demanded that she tell them about the knitting needles. Carmine confessed that the needles were
stolen from a magician friend, and he died recently. There was some type of haunting or curse on
them, and she could not help herself.
At home, they gently unloaded
the bags and then Ginger spoke to the knitted people.
“We know a way to restore you
to your former selves, but we aren’t sure.
We think that if we unravel you, that your human tissues will be
restored. Any volunteers?”
Several knitted people tried
to raise their limp arms.
So Ginger and John began the
careful process of unraveling a knitted creature. To their relief, it worked. It took another day and a half to restore
all of the people to their former selves.
Then they all met together to determine what to do about Carmine and the
knitting needles.
“No one would ever believe
any of us if we told them the truth.”
“Yeah, well I think we should
run Carmine out of town forever if you ask me.
We’re lucky none of us died.”
“Yeah, that will be easy
enough since there are so many of us.
What are we going to do with those knitting needles?”
Everyone looked at the pouch
with trepidation.
“Let’s bury them.”
So they did. Carmine agreed to leave town and never
return.
Three days later John turned
to Ginger.
“Don’t ever take up knitting
in your old age, okay?”
“Not a problem.”
THE END
