Scarecrow

Ed Kiley wanted to be back in Chicago, not looking at a scarecrow in an Indiana cornfield. It didn't help that for three nights in a row he had nightmares.

He turned to the black ball of fur stretched across the other end of the couch. 'You're why I'm here.' he sneered.

He adjusted his reading glasses, pressed several buttons on the remote control and winced: 'They had me goin', Sheba...there's only one 'True Grit' for me though.'

An owl was calling. He always hated owls. He hated everything about the country. He pulled himself to the window but saw only the silhouette of swaying corn and the scarecrow.

''t wasn't that close.' he muttered. He watched the form suspiciously for almost a minute.

'Sorry Sheba' he apologized, sinking back into the couch, 'Your babysitter watches too many Twilight Zones.'

A grin came to his lips. 'Da da Da da' he chuckled.

'I thought owls like trees, Sheba?' he said, glancing back at the window 'Why would an owl-'

The thought remained incomplete, rendered unimportant by a development which Ed Kiley hoped wasn't real.

He reached the bottom of the staircase when he heard the explosion of the plate glass window, and moments later the nightmares of Ed Kiley were over.