(Chapter 1) NIGHTMARES
                                        
     "Eddie! Bring Toomie in for the night and then it's time for bed,"
shouted Eddie's mom from the bottom of the stairs.
     Eddie stood at his bedroom window and pushed the window wide open,
he dropped his elbows down on the window ledge followed by his chin into
his hands and sighed. His harmonica, tied on a string around his neck,
whacked the window ledge. He picked it up and looked it over, remembering
that this was the last birthday gift he received from his dad before he died in
a car accident three years ago. He put it to his mouth and blew out a little
tune his dad taught him. Eddie pulled the harmonica from around his neck
and put it on the window ledge. Leaning his head out the window he took in
a deep breath of the summer night air and watched the next door neighbour,
Mrs. Butterworth, fuss over her cat who really didn't want anything to do
with her. He looked out over the top of the nearby houses, imagining he
could jump from rooftop to rooftop. But what would be the point in that, he
thought to himself. Lockville is such a small town, I would run out of roofs to
jump on.
     Lockville has a population of 1,852 1,853 if Mrs. Johnson has her
baby tomorrow. The town sits in a valley surrounded by high rugged
mountains and the nearest city to the east is a five-hour drive, and to the
west eight hours. The winter months are long and cold. You were known as a
homebody if you didn't have a snowmobile and with the summers being so
hot, if you had a pool you were treated like royalty. The town sits at the
bottom of a large deep bowl and it is either filling up with snow, rain or
sweltering heat. The heart of downtown consists of a grocery/hardware and
drug store all in one, a ten-lane bowling alley, which has only six working
lanes, two gas stations at either end of the town and a couple of small stores
that change from year to year. The only library is in the Lockville Secondary
School. The Town Hall you couldn't miss. It stands out at the end of the
main street, painted yellow with green trimming and has a bell at the top
that bongs once every morning at eight o'clock sharp. The favourite place for
the teenagers to hang out is the video arcade, next to the Grand Movie
theatre.
     As far as Eddie is concerned Lockville is boring, he has explored every
inch of the town and is sure he knows everyone in it. If it wasn't for his five
best friends, one of which is a dog, he is convinced he would surely go crazy.
     Eddie is a 10-year-old boy, with a very curious nature, and adventure
on the brain which usually means trouble.  
Eddie is slowly developing into a troubled child, since his father passed away.
His mom does her best to discipline him, but Eddie can't accept the fact that
his father is gone and finds other ways of expressing his frustration. He is
generally a good kid, but when the mood strikes, he is off and running. He
enjoys school, but not for the reasons his mom would like. He enjoys the
challenge of making a disturbance in class without getting caught. Eddie sees
the Principal, Mr. Harris at least once a week. He spends most of his time
with his friends and constantly involves them in his adventures. It's better to
get into trouble with a group than by yourself, is his experience. The person
whom he'd rather spend less time with, and wishes an alien ship would beam
her up, is his annoying seven-year-old sister Patsy. She is cute as can
be most seven-year-olds are.  But, she seems to think that to communicate
with her big brother and to be a good sister to him is to torment him. Why
not? It always seems to get his attention. As most children do at a young
age, they latch onto some sort of security blanket; with Patsy it is Mr.
Tuddles, a small light brown teddy bear who has seen the washing machine
many times.
     Together they live with their mom in a modest two-level house, with a
large back yard and neighbours on either side of their house. There's Mrs.
Butterworth, who prides herself on having the best looking garden in town,
leastwise 'til Eddie's dog chases her cat through her yard. On the other side,
is Mr. and Mrs. Longley who have lived there for three years and own a small
dreary antique shop in town. They never speak unless spoken to, never
spend any time outside, their curtains are always closed and the yard has
dead grass, no flowers and weeds out of control. Eddie is sure they are
wanted by the FBI or something, the story changes from day to day as the
gossip passes through.             
     Eddie woke from his day-dreaming to hear Mrs. Butterworth's cat
scream an angry meow and then it bolted from her arms into the night
shadows. 
     "Come back Muffy, here Muffy, Muffy," said Mrs. Butterworth as she
bent over into the bushes to look for Muffy.
     "He only wants to explore leave him alone," Eddie said to Mrs.
Butterworth with a soft voice so she couldn't hear him.  "Lucky cat, he can
go wherever he wants, probably even the rooftops," Eddie muttered to
himself.       
     "Eddie! Eddie, do you hear me?" shouted Eddie's mom once again.
Suddenly realizing he recognized that tone of voice, he ran out of his
bedroom and down the stairs.
      "Ok Mom." Quickly pulling on his shoes, he ran outside. As he crossed
the backyard, Eddie had to watch where he was stepping on the ground so
he didn't fall in the holes left by Toomie, who had a large collection all over
the yard.                
      "I wonder if my water gun is buried out here somewhere?"  Walking
toward the dog house. Toomie was jumping around with excitement waiting
to be greeted by Eddie.  Toomie is Eddie's dog, a three-year-old golden
retriever, with selective hearing as far as commands go. But no matter what
trouble Toomie gets into, he will always be Eddie's best friend.
     As Eddie untied the leash, Toomie greeted him with wet slobbering
licks, then began leaping into the air, barking at Eddie to play. As he bent
down to grab Toomie by the collar, a creepy sensation ran down his back.
His imagination ran wild as he was now sure that he could feel something
breathing down on his neck. His heart started to race, as he was sure
someone was about to grab him. He swallowed hard then quickly spun
around expecting to find someone standing there. But, to his relief no one
was there. Eddie looked around the yard. Nothing. Feeling relieved and silly
at the same time, he then looked over to his neighbour's house just in time
to see Mr. Longley quickly shut his curtains, but he could still see Mr.
Longley's shadow behind the curtain. Eddie continued to stare at the
window, 'til the shadow disappeared when someone turned out the light.
Eddie felt a shiver run through his body. That is so creepy, he thought to
himself. Eddie picked up Toomie's ball and threw it over the fence into Mrs.
Butterworth's vegetable garden, knowing very well Toomie would fly over
the fence and race through the garden. Toomie bolted after the rolling ball,
slid a few feet across the garden and took out most of the tomato plants.
Grabbing the ball with his mouth, Toomie hopped the fence, ran back to
Eddie and dropped it at his feet. As Eddie tried to pick it up, Toomie pounced
on the ball, grabbed it and ran off. 
     "You still suck at fetch; bring it back!" Eddie shouted at Toomie, as he
watched the dog race back and forth across the yard with the ball in his
mouth. "Come on."
Eddie finally caught Toomie by the collar and headed toward the house,
when something caught his eye. He looked up at his bedroom window and
thought he saw a shadow of someone in his room, then realized there was a
strange glowing green light coming out of the window. 
     "It must be Patsy playing in my room again. You're lucky you don't
have a little sister Toomie," said Eddie as they both walked into the house. "I
have to remember to put the lock back on the toybox." 
     Eddie threw off his shoes and ran to his room to catch Patsy playing
with his toys. He stopped at his door and noticed the strange green light
coming from under the door. Eddie put his ear to the door and listened. He
could hear some noise, but wasn't sure what he heard. It sounded like
someone giggling. Then another sound came from his room, like someone
was blowing on his harmonica. Then it stopped, and the green light started
to fade. Toomie sniffed at the bottom of the door, stuck his paws under the
door as if to dig his way in. The only person it could be is Patsy, Eddie
thought to himself.
     "Get ready to go in Toomie, we'll surprise her," he whispered. Eddie
flung the door wide open and yelled, "Got you!" But to his dismay he was
standing in his room in the dark. He turned on the light and looked around
the room for Patsy, but she wasn't there. "She must be in the closet," he
said, and tippy toed over to the closet, slowly turning the door knob until it
would open with ease. Once again he flung open the door and yelled, "Got
ya!" But once again no one was there, just a messy closet.
     "What are you doing?" asked a little voice from the hallway. 
Startled by the voice, Eddie turned to see Patsy standing in the doorway
holding her teddy bear, Mr. Tuddles.
     "Were you in my room?" he blurted at her. "I'll get Toomie to bury
your dolls in the backyard again, if you were!"
     "Mr. Tuddles and I where having a tea party in my room! Besides your
room is smelly and your toys are stupid!" said Patsy turning her nose up at
him as she stuck out her tongue and walked away. "Come Mr. Tuddles, that
boy is so rude," she muttered.
     Eddie was left feeling a little confused about the green light in his
room. Who was playing my harmonica? he thought to himself as he looked at
the window ledge for his harmonica. The harmonica was not where he had
left it. Eddie scanned the room, then noticed the harmonica across the room
on the floor sitting next to the toybox. He picked it up, wiping his hand
across the edge, feeling that it was still wet from someone playing it and
threw it back on the floor.
     "Toomie!" Toomie started scratching the toybox, then tried to lift the
lid with his nose.  "Toomie! Stay away from my toys. The last time you got in
there you buried my GI Joe, baseball mitt, and my two best racing cars!"
yelled Eddie. Pulling Toomie away from the toybox he noticed that a sock
was caught under the lid. Not thinking too much about this, he grabbed the
sock and threw it in his closet where he tosses all his other clothes so his
mom thinks the room is clean. Eddie walked back to the toybox and opened
the lid. 
     "Bark! Bark!" Toomie cried, making Eddie jump.
     "No Toomie be quiet," said Eddie staring into the box. "There doesn't
seem to be anything wrong here." He pushed a couple of toys around.
     Crash! Eddie leaped back, then rolled his eyes up. "Toomie get out of
the toybox, you have enough toys buried out in the back yard."  Toomie was
digging through the toys like Patsy digging for the prize at the bottom of the
cereal box. Toomie started choking as Eddie grabbed him by the collar and
pulled him out.
          "Stay out of there," he said and closed the lid.
     Eddie got ready for bed, turned off the light and climbed under the
covers. Laying in bed he put his hands behind his head on the pillow and
stared at the window, still thinking about the green light he saw. It couldn't
have been any of my toys, none of them have lights on them, and Patsy
couldn't have passed me when I opened the bedroom door, but there was no
one in the room, he thought to himself.  Maybe there was some sort of
power surge, like we had last Christmas and two light bulbs exploded. That
was neat. Yeah that must be it...the harmonica?   While Eddie slowly drifted
off to sleep, Toomie laid down at the end of the bed, next to Eddie's feet and
continued to stared at the toybox.
     The sun was about to break the night, when Toomie was rudely
awaken by something kicking his side. Toomie looked up to see Eddie rolling
his head back and forth, making a funny noise and yet his eyes were closed.
Eddie was having a nightmare.
     Eddie burst through a red puffy cloud. Eddie was flying, his arms
stretched out just like an eagle gliding across the sky. He flew over the
neighbourhood roofs, flying higher and higher so he could reach out and
touch the red streaked sky. He then soared across the sky to race a seagull
passing by. He looked to the ground to see Patsy jumping up and down
saying, "You're going to get in trouble." Eddie banked to the left and started
to dive downward like an F16 fighter jet about to strafe his enemy. He
banked to the right and headed straight for Patsy who by now was screaming
at the top of her lungs. Still coming down as fast as he could, getting closer
and closer to Patsy, now waiting 'til the last second, he suddenly pulled up
and in doing so plucked a string of hair off Patsy's head. Laughing while
Patsy ran into the house holding her head yelling, "I'm telling, I'm telling."
Eddie continued flying. "This is great, I could do this all the time, wait 'til the
gang sees me," he said as he flew upside down.  "Maybe I'll fly over and
buzz Sue, that should make her..."
     Bang! Bursting out in front of him was a flash of blinding green light,
then a green fog moved in and hovered over top of him. He tried to see what
was in front of him, but the green light was so bright he was sure he would
go blind.
     Once again Toomie was kicked in the side. Looking up at Eddie, he
realized that with this thrashing about, he would never get any sleep. So
Toomie moved onto the floor and allowed Eddie to continue with his
nightmare.
     From the green fog came a sound that Eddie quickly recognized; a
song Eddie's dad used to play to him on the harmonica when he was little. 
     "Dad!" Eddie yelled out. "Where are you?" He listened, but only heard
his own echo. Eddie felt his body start to spin in the air. Before he could tell
if he was still flying or not, he was on the ground standing in a field of long
green grass. Looking down at his hand he noticed that he was holding
Patsy's one strand of hair and there was a baseball size rock attached to the
other end of it. When he looked up, his eyes exploded wide open with fright. He
was surrounded by furry faces with red eyes. These monsters or whatever
they were started to growl. Eddie screamed, suddenly his eyes shut and he
couldn't get them to open, even when he tried to pry them open with his
fingers.  He continued to scream as now he could not see what the creatures 
were doing. He tried to run, but he couldn't move his feet. His mouth
suddenly shut and he tried to scream for help, but no sound came out. He
was overwhelmed with panic. Believing that this would never end he felt
something touch his shoulder; his heart stopped. 
     "Eddie! Eddie wake up you're having a nightmare, come on honey
wake up," said Eddie's mom as she shook his shoulder. Eddie sat up in bed,
gasping for air. His mom brushed his hot and sweaty forehead with her hand
and whispered, "It's ok,it was just a bad dream, do you want to talk about
it?"
     "No," said Eddie, catching his breath. She kissed him on the cheek as
Eddie rolled his eyes up. "Mommmm!," he whined while pushing her away.
Eddie's mom quietly closed the door on her way out. Eddie still trying to calm
down stared at the closet, then the toybox and decided that neither one was
a good thing to look at. So he tried to stay awake by looking at the ceiling
for the rest of the morning, hoping he wouldn't fall asleep again. But,
eventually sleep won over.
     The morning sun cast a shadow from Eddie's baseball cap onto his face
as he rode his bike over to Joey's house where the gang was to meet at ten. 
     "Hey Eddie, isn't this great? No school for a whole two months!"
shouted Joey sitting on his bike eating a banana.
Eddie slammed his brakes on and left a skid mark on the road next to Joey.
     "Yeah, great, what are we going to do for two months in this town?"
asked Eddie with a yawn.
     "You look tired, did you stay up all night and watch movies?" Joey
mumbled with his mouth full.
     "No, I had a dream, a kinda bad dream," said Eddie trying to
remember his nightmare, then remembering the green light in his room.      
     "Have you ever seen a glowing green light at night anywhere?" asked
Eddie shyly.
     "What, you mean like the kind from the movie, The Green Blob Who
Ate New York!?" asked Joey excitedly.  "It was a  green blob and ate
everything in sight, it was really cool when it ate the cars and then the
Statue of Liberty and then..."
     Joey has a little weight problem, he never leaves home without filling
his pockets with food and his imagination is no larger than all the monster
movies he watches on TV.
     "No, no, you duffus! Never mind, I must have been dreaming it," said
Eddie and turned to see Sue, Griffin and Kennedy riding their bikes towards
him.
     "Hey guys, Eddie has nightmares of glowing green monsters!" shouted
Joey across the street.
     Eddie turned to Joey and gave him a dirty look and said, "Shut up
Joey, it was just a dream." 
     Sue began to snicker as she stopped next to Eddie. Meanwhile, Griffin,
not paying any attention to where he was going, sideswiped the sidewalk
curb and ran into Joey.
      "Watch it," said Joey moving his bike over.
     Griffin is the smartest kid in Eddie's class, but wishes he was more like
Eddie. He tries very hard not to be the nerd, but the harder he tries not to
be, the clumsier he gets. And wearing glasses with thick black frames
doesn't help, but without them he is blind as a bat.
     The others stood staring at Eddie waiting for the story.
     "Never mind it was stupid, let's ride down to the old railway station,"
said Eddie.  "We'll cut through Old Man Watermen's apple orchard and grab
some apples."
     "You know how mad he gets when kids cut through his yard, I heard
that he caught a kid once in his yard and scooped out his eyes and keeps
them in a jar and ...," said Kennedy with her eyes getting bigger. 
     Kennedy has always been a follower, she has short curly black hair and
dark skin. She is very shy, mostly around adults. She will believe just about
anything she hears and hopes she never has to make a decision, for fear it
would be the wrong one.
     "Don't be stupid, he's just an old man," shouted Sue. "Follow me," Sue
started to ride ahead, but then the rest ignored her and rode past her. 
     Sue is the tallest of the group, has long blonde hair down pass her
shoulder blades. Her looks are important to her, painted finger nails must
match the clothes and the clothes must express the mood of the day. She
feels she should be the leader, but has trouble convincing the gang. She is
sure that once they notice how pretty she is and that she's the best dresser
they will have no choice but to follow her.
     They arrived at the edge of the orchard and looked around for Old Man
Watermen. Surrounding the orchard is an old wooden fence with a small gate
at the end of the road. The orchard is as big as a baseball field with hundreds
of apple trees in nice little rows. From the gate running alongside the fence is
Mr. Watermen's driveway, leading to his house. 
     People say that Mr. Watermen's parents were some of the first settlers
in Lockville. Mr. Watermen was married when he was only 18, his wife died
some 40 years later, they never had any children and he has been alone for
seven years. He is always seen wearing old black suits, whether he is in town
shopping or working in the orchard. The adults see Mr. Watermen as a nice,
caring old man who has worked hard all his life tending his orchard. But kids
see him only as a mean and cranky old man who chases them out of his
orchard.
      Seeing no signs of anyone they opened the gate and rode into the
orchard.
     "Look, there are some apples in this tree, I'll throw them down to you,"
said Eddie as he grabbed the closest branch and pulled himself up. Eddie
climbed about eight feet, and positioned himself with one hand holding the
branch, and with the other hand reached out toward the apple.
     "Don't like green apples," muttered Sue. "Hurry up Eddie, before we
are caught." 
     Eddie was almost there, only an inch away, he stretched one more
time and put his hand around the apple. Suddenly Eddie couldn't see the
apple any more and a green light flashed before his eyes.
     "Eddie what's wrong with you," asked Kennedy. "Hurry up."
     "Hey! What are you kids doing here?" shouted an angry old man
running toward them.  
     Eddie's eyes focussed back on the apple, and losing his balance fell to
the ground. The gang looked with horror as Old Man Watermen was running
toward them shaking his rake. They looked down at Eddie who was rubbing
his sore butt, then looked back at the crazed man running at them and
screamed, "Run!" Grabbing their bikes they bolted out the gate, and rode as
fast as they could 'til they reached the end of the road.
     "Hey, where's Eddie?" asked Joey huffing and puffing.
     "He's still back there," said Kennedy. "Oh, no, Old Man Watermen is
going to scoop out Eddie's eyes, what will we do?"
     "That won't happen, that just happens on TV," said Sue. "I think."
     Eddie stood up, continuing to rub his butt when someone grabbed him
by the shoulders and spun him around. Eddie looked up to see Old Man
Watermen glaring down and spitting out words.
     "You darn kids, always in my orchard, damaging my yard." Old Man
Watermen continued to shake Eddie.  "Who are your parents? Maybe I
should take you down to Sheriff Atkins and he'll..."  Eddie looked up at the
old man yelling at him, certain that he was about to get hit and tried to make
himself small as possible. To Eddie's relief, the old man stopped talking and
shaking him. Mr. Watermen stared over the top of his glasses into Eddie's
eyes, looking from side to side. At first, not sure if he saw something, he
pulled Eddie up closer to his face and looked again into his eyes. Trying to
refocus, he looked down through his glasses. He squinted a couple of times,
then with a jolt he pushed Eddie back and took his hands off the boy's
shoulders. 
      "How can this be? It was destroyed, some 53 years ago!" he said with
a shaky voice. Eddie, not sure if he should scream or run, then thought
maybe he should just play dead because his legs were shaking so much.
     "You've seen it? " Old Man Watermen said and stood back in disbelief
at what was standing in front of him."You have seen Zaff, haven't you?
Answer me boy!" he shouted.
     Eddie stepped back a couple paces, not knowing what this old man was
talking about. Yelling, "No!" Eddie quickly turned to pick up his bike and
started to run. As he ran through the gate he looked back to see if he was
being chased.
     "You've seen the green light, haven't you? Beware!" shouted the old
man.  
     Eddie jumped on his bike and pedalled as fast as he could to where his
friends were waiting.
     "What happened?" asked Joey with anticipation.
     "Did he scoop your eyes out?" asked Kennedy, looking down the road
for Old Man Watermen.
     "Don't be such a duffus, Kennedy, his eyes are still in his head," said
Sue shaking her head.
     "Are you Ok Eddie, did he hurt you?" asked Griffin.
     "Yeah, I'm ok; my butt hurts a little though," he said with his heart
beating so hard he thought it would burst open.  Eddie stared down the road,
hoping Old Man Watermen wouldn't come after him or tell his mom. Yet, part
of him wanted to know what the old man was talking about. The green light,
how does he know I saw a green light and what's Zaff? he wondered.
     "Hey, come on, let's go to my house and get something to eat," said
Joey rubbing his tummy.  "All this excitement has made me hungry."
     The gang agreed and pedalled off down the road, with Eddie taking one
last look back, then racing to catch up to the rest.
     Eddie arrived home late in the afternoon, dreading the lecture he
would be receiving from his mom about today's little incident at the orchard. 
     "Eddie, is that you?" yelled Eddie's mom from the kitchen.
     Eddie swallowed hard, "yes Mom."
     "Dinner's ready, go wash up," she said.
     "I guess Mr. Watermen didn't tell you what happened," said Eddie not
realizing he was talking out loud.
     "Tell her what?" asked Patsy, who was standing behind him hoping to
pick up some juicy little stories to tell mom.
     "Nothing you little weasel," snapped Eddie as he walked upstairs.
     Later that night, laying in bed, Eddie remembered part of the
nightmare from last night. Then Old Man Watermen flashed in his head.
Looking around in his room as best he could in the dark, his heart began to
race, he quickly shut his eyes and held his blankets tight around his neck.
     Like the night before, Eddie had another nightmare. His eyelids
twitched as he got deeper into his dream. Once again he was in a field of
long, green grass, he looked down the front of his body to see that he was
wearing clothes made of some sort of animal fur. These are so soft, I wish I
could wear them all the time, he thought to himself. He looked around only
to see rolling hills of grass and nothing else. He started to walk, then felt a
chilly sensation around his feet; looking down he found himself standing in a
small puddle of water. As he looked up, the small puddle started to spread
out. The puddle extend beyond view in all directions, now leaving Eddie
standing in the middle of a lake. Eddie lifted his right leg to start walking
again, but his foot was stuck. He tried his left leg, but it too was stuck. He
grabbed his right leg with both hands and pulled up as hard as he could. His
leg started to give a little, but stopped as his foot lifted out of the water.
Giving a couple of hard tugs, he looked down to see why he couldn't lift his
foot. Eddie gasped and screamed in horror. There was a hand holding onto
his ankle pulling him down. He grabbed his other leg, and tried to pull it up;
but, again, there was a hand holding onto that ankle. As he struggled, the
hands held on tighter. The water was now up to his knees; he was being
pulled under. His thoughts were now on what was attached to those hands
pulling him under the water. It wasn't 'til the water reached his neck, that he
realized he could drown. Holding his chin as high as he could, he called out
for help one last time before he was dragged down. Eddie held his breath,
feeling the water rush up his body. Exhausted from the struggle, he finally
gave up the fight, his lungs about to explode, he opened his mouth hoping to
feel air rush into his lungs. Nothing happened and he continued to be pulled
downward. Feeling a thud at the bottom of his feet, he felt himself standing
on solid ground and the water rushed away, leaving him dry and standing in
what looked like a large cave. There was a yellow light glowing in the cave. 
Looking for the source of this light he realized that it was coming from his
hand. He was holding a small rock that was glowing yellow.
     Shreeeck! Echoed a noise from the cave. Startled by the sound, Eddie
stretched his neck forward to see if something was there.
     "Ahhhhhh!" A piercing scream made Eddie's knees buckle and his body
shivered as he heard a different sound, a human-like scream came from the
cave. He put his left hand up against the cave wall to hold himself up, and
felt something wet run down his hand. He brought his wet hand down to his
other hand holding the glowing rock. Rubbing the wetness between his
fingers, he took a closer look at his hand. It was red, red like blood.  "This is
blood," shouted Eddie and tried to shake the blood off, then quickly wiped it
off on his pants made of fur. He was soon distracted by a thunderous
pounding noise which shook the ground, the sound was so intense he could
feel the pounding inside his rib cage. As the pounding got closer another
shrilling noise echoed through the cave. Eddie turned to run, but something
knocked him to the ground. Struggling to get up, he screamed.
     Eddie woke with a jolt, to find Toomie sitting on top of him licking his
face. Relieved that this was just a dream, he worked on catching his breath.
Hearing his mom opening the door, he quickly shut his eyes and pretended
to be asleep. His mom looked in to see why Eddie screamed, but then
decided to let him sleep and closed the door.