The Curse of the Yoders

The Curse of the Yoders

Adam had always loved the sea. He daydreamed of living a pirates life. He spent much of his spare time down at the dockyards watching the men make repairs on the fishing boats that provided a living for most of Brady's Harbor. He also spent as much time as he could visiting Uncle Art.

Uncle Art was actually his mother's uncle. He had spent much of his life at sea, retiring to Brady's Harbor when he grew tired of roving. He was a squat man with a big head, a jutting jaw, a wide mouth, a flat nose, and eyes like green glass. Adam loved to visit Uncle Art's house, which was filled with curios and incomprehensible objects. Adam's favorite was what Uncle Art called his Aquarium of Dreams.

This was a large tank of water which covered one entire wall of the living room. It was filled with exotic and interesting creatures; crabs and mollusks and brightly colored fish. Not least among these were the sea monkeys. These were tiny froglike creatures that swam aimlessly about. Sometimes as Adam stared into the aquarium, a sea monkey would swim upto the glass and spread out against it as if looking back at him.

One day, Adam walked into Uncle Art's kitchen and saw a rusty key lying on the table. "What's this?", he asked, picking up the old key.

Uncle Art, who had not heard him enter, turned and snatched the key and put it in his pocket. He seemed embarrased by his hasty act and tried to pass it off as nothing. "Oh, thats just the key to the old Yoder House.", he said.

The Yoder house was a legend in Brady's Harbor. It sat empty on the seashore next to the dockyard. It was the same gray color as the driftwood that washed upon the beach. "Wow!", a Adam exclaimed. "you've been in the Yoder house? What's it like? Is it really haunted?"

Uncle Art gave a barking laugh. "Haunted? You might say that. Haunted or not, you stay away from there. That place is old and falling down. You might get hurt."

"Who were the Yoders?", Adam persisted. Any information he could get wuold be eagerly listened to by all his friends. "Why don't they live there any more? What happened to them?"

"They were, uh, Irish immigrants." Uncle Art seemed to be making this up as he went along. "They, uh, spent a lot of time at sea, um, kind of like I used to. Then they all, um, moved away. No one knows where they went. Look, never you mind about the Yoders. Just you stay away from there."

Uncle Art had no children of his own, so perhaps he can be forgiven for not realiisng what a bad thing that was to say. A week or so later, Adam came in to find the old key again on the table and Uncle Art nowhere in sight. After carefully checking that the house was empty, Adam grabbed the key and ran to the Yoder house.

As he neared the house, he slowed down. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all. But if he backed out now, the other kids would never let him live it down. Finally, he screwed up his courage and unlocked the weatherbeaten old door and entered.
The dirt encrusted windows didn't let in much light, but Adam could see he was in a long hallway with doors on both sides and another at the far end which probably led to the back yard. It was dark and dusty and smelled of mildew, but nothing seemed frightening or dangerous. "If that's all there is, why was Uncle Art so upset?", Adam asked himself.

He walked down the hallway to the first doorway. There was no actual door. He peeked around the jamb and saw a room filled with cloth draped furniture.There was a fireplace on the back wall. There was an odd smell coming from the room, and Adam noticed that the dust on the floor had been disturbed as if by shuffling feet.

As Adam moved into the room he saw that there were ashes and blackened bits of wood in the fireplace. He saw that a chair had been pulled up to the fireplace and that the dust on its dropcloth was disturbed as though someone had been sitting there. When he moved further towards it he saw a pile of trash on the other side.

The pile consisted mainly of empty clam shells, but sitting atop it was a lobster. Adam was surprised to see that its antennae were moving. He picked it up, then recoiled in horror. Its tail was gone! He looked down and saw the tail laying at the edge of the trashpile half eaten. He dropped the lobster and backed hastily out of the room.Whatever had eaten it must still be somewhere near, but where?

As if in answer to his question, he heard some sort of rattle from beyond the back door. Almost against his will, Adam was drawn toward it by his curiosity. He slid back the bolt, opened the door, and peered out.

The creature he saw beyond was vaguely manlike, but it's skin was a mottled grayish green. He could see slits on the side of it's neck moving as it breathed. It looked oddly familiar, and after a moment's confusion he realized it looked just like a giant sea monkey!

It was walking around in a circle waving its webbed hands and emitting a sort of rhythmic moan. Adam was paralysed with fear. What was this strange creature that ate live lobsters? Despite, or perhaps because of, his desire not to be noticed, Adam gave an involuntary squeak.

The creature turned its head and looked at him with it's lidless, staring eyes. It gave a sort of rumbling croak and began to move toward him. Adam was too frightened to turn his back on the beast, so he backed down the hall until he was standing against the front door. The creature pushed open the back door and began to move toward him.

Suddenly the front door burst open, knocking Adam to the floor. When he looked up, there was Uncle Art standing over him with a gun in his hand that looked like a small cannon. As he looked at it, it spoke with a sound like the roar of God. He scrambled to his knees and looked toward the creature, which was now crawling out the door, it's greenish brown ichor splattered on the wall above it.

Uncle Art grabbed Adam by the shoulders, literally lifting him off the floor, and shook him. "You just couldn't leave well enough alone, could you? You would have had to learn about the Yoders soon enough, but not like this!" He stopped and set Adam on his feet., then looked at him searchingly. "Are you all right, boy?"

Still unable to speak, Adam merely nodded. Uncle Art went distractedly down the hallway and shut and locked the back door. He stood facing it for a moment, then spoke without turning. "It would probably be best not to mention this to your mother. I don't think she'd understand." Without another word he turned and put his arm around Adam's shoulders and they left.

When Adam got home, mom was hanging laundry in the back yard. "Hey, kiddo,", she called, " where have you been?"

"Down by the old Yoder place.", he replied as if it was of little consequence.

"You know,", mom mused, "My grampa Elmer was a Yoder on his mother's side."