in my room (which seems like the way it was when my grandfather had come to live with us and my parents had their bed in next to mine for a while...) there is a rectangle shaped box of soil that contains the possibility of a plant of unknown origin, but that it just might grow...after i have discussed this with some of the other people who live here, i watch the plant grow...it is not unlike a carnivorous plant, the top fronds seem mouth-like...it is known that if this plant is fed something (or watered? much like "Gremlins"!!) it will become a feral animal...this has occurred; and i am sitting on the floor in my room, feeling the presence of the animal/monster in another room of the house, and the dread that accompanies that knowledge...it means to do us harm, and i can feel it...i have a hollow pit of fear in my abdomen, and i want out...i tell the others there in the room with me that i cannot take it any longer, and i am leaving...they are upset with me for this, and block me from re-entering the house briefly to retrieve my camera...i say "fine" and take off down the driveway, my father comes out on the porch and hollers at me to return, he has $325 for me, i decline and keep going...i pass through many towns, mostly on foot, sometimes in vehicles...i come to an auto-repair shop, and hang out in the garage with the mechanics*, talking and feeling at ease: safe...my father and mother (?) find me there, how did they locate me?... they drive into the garage and we are talking...i look out one of the windows and see some people next door, it seems to be a school yard activity of some sort, next thing i know, the police are bringing in three animals that belonged to the monster, in cages...i begin to feel fear again...next the police bring in the monster, and my father decides to kidnap it, he hooks the monster's box/cage to his car and we take off...i am so alarmed!!! i can see the monster, and it looks like a cartoon of a dead animal, with black X-s for eyes, but i KNOW that it is still alive and could come to and get us at any moment...i am crammed down in the floorboard of the back of his car (mom is there also) as far as i can go, but i can still see it out the window, and feel the fear too strongly...
*Later I read Charles de Lint's book 'The Mystery of Grace', and don't you know a lot of it takes place in a garage? Grace is a mechanic!
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