Normâs legs and torso began to slip back out. The bottom edge of the loading door scraped the shirttail out of his pants. He yanked savagely and pulled himself back in like a man doing a chin-up.
âHelp me,â he was sobbing. âHelp me, you guys, please, please.â
âJesus, Mary, and Joseph,â Myron said. He had come out of the generator compartment to see what was going on.
I was the closest, and I grabbed Norm around the waist and yanked as hard as I could, rocking back on my heels. For a moment we moved backward, but only for a moment. It was like stretching a rubber band or pulling taffy. The tentacle yielded but gave up its basic grip not at all. Then three more tentacles floated out of the mist toward us. One curled around Normâs flapping red Federal apron and tore it away. It disappeared back into the mist with the red cloth curled in its grip and I thought of something my mother used to say when my brother and I would beg for something she didnât want us to haveâcandy, a comic book, some toy. âYou need that like a hen needs a flag,â sheâd say. I thought of that, and I thought of that tentacle waving Normâs red apron around, and I got laughing. I got laughing, except my laughter and Normâs screams sounded about the same. Maybe no one even knew I was laughing except me.
The other two tentacles slithered aimlessly back and forth on the loading platform for a moment, making those low scraping sounds I had heard earlier. Then one of them slapped against Normâs left hip and slipped around it. I felt it touch my arm. It was warm and pulsing and smooth. I think now that if it had gripped me with those suckers, I would have gone out into the mist too. But it didnât. It grabbed Norm. And the third tentacle ringleted his other ankle.
Now he was being pulled away from me. âHelp me!â I shouted. âOllie! Someone! Give me a hand here!â
But they didnât come. I donât know what they were doing, but they didnât come.
I looked down and saw the tentacle around Normâs waist working into his skin. The suckers were eating him where his shirt had pulled out of his pants. Blood, as red as his missing apron, began to seep out of the trench the pulsing tentacle had made for itself.
I banged my head on the lower edge of the partly raised door.
Normâs legs were outside again. One of his loafers had fallen off. A new tentacle came out of the mist, wrapped its tip firmly around the shoe, and made off with it. Normâs fingers clutched at the doorâs lower edge. He had it in a death grip. His fingers were livid. He was not screaming anymore; he was beyond that. His head whipped back and forth in an endless gesture of negation, and his long black hair flew wildly.
I looked over his shoulder and saw more tentacles coming, dozens of them, a forest of them. Most were small but a few were gigantic, as thick as the moss-corseted tree that had been lying across our driveway that morning. The big ones had candy pink suckers that seemed the size of manhole covers. One of these big ones struck the concrete loading platform with a loud and rolling thrrrrap! sound and moved sluggishly toward us like a great blind earthworm. I gave one gigantic tug, and the tentacle holding Normâs right calf slipped a little. That was all. But before it reestablished its grip, I saw that the thing was eating him away.
One of the tentacles brushed delicately past my cheek and then wavered in the air, as if debating. I thought of Billy then. Billy was lying asleep in the market by Mr. McVeyâs long white meat cooler. I had come in here to find something to cover him up with. If one of those things got hold of me, there would be no one to watch out for himâexcept maybe Norton.
So I let go of Norm and dropped to my hands and knees.
I was half in and half out, directly under the raised door. A tentacle passed by on my left, seeming