The rest of that particular school day was uneventful, but something else occurred while walking home from school. I was about to the halfway point between school and my grandparents’ home, which also happens to be, where the entrance to Memorial Gardens Park is, when I had the oddest feeling wash over me. It was as if I knew that I was being watched. It was very much like when out in the middle of the ocean all alone and some sixth sense would tell me that one or more sharks was around even when I couldn’t see a shark fin for miles. For a panic filled second, I thought maybe Bertha and those guys had followed me home; however when I spun around, no one was there.

I didn’t think much about it until it happened again the following afternoon, except this time, the feeling was ten times stronger.

In a lot of ways, Tuesday was a repeat of Monday. Once more at lunchtime, I found myself smack-dab in between Larry and Bertha. Where Fish and BB were, I didn’t know and frankly, I was glad they weren’t around. Larry and Bertha were enough trouble. Heaven knows why, but they have taken a liking to me and unlike Monday, I wasn’t able to shake them. They stuck right with me, as I found a place to sit and eat. However, I couldn’t eat. The toxic fumes that swirled around Bertha, made me lose my appetite. I wish I could have just got up and walked away, like everyone else around us had done, but I knew Larry and Bertha would have followed me.

After school, as I was walking home, I felt that peculiar tingling on the back of my neck and the hairs on my arm stood up again. Like I said before, the feeling was much stronger than it had been on Monday. I stopped in mid-stride and threw my head around so fast, that my neck cracked. However, same as the afternoon before, there was no one anywhere within sight. It took longer for me to shake off the feeling. I don’t think it left me, until after I was within sight of my grandparents’ home.