Oddest of All

The brilliantly bizarre Coville is back with a new collection of nine curious and thought-provoking tales filled with terrifying and ghoulish details, told in the tradition of Edgar Allan Poe.

In Our Own Hands JULY 22 I am so totally freaked out. Of course, that is probably true for everyone on the planet. How could we not be, after what happened this morning? I was sitting at the kitchen table, sparring with my mother over how much sugar I could put on my breakfast cereal which is kind of silly for a guy home from college when it started. The telescreen on the wall made an odd sound. I looked up and forgot all about the sugar. The meat puppet who usually reads the morning news had been replaced by a woman who had scaly blue skin and close-cropped green hair. Her ears were much too small for her head, her eyes much too big. Despite all that, she was beautiful, in a weird kind of way. My first reaction was to laugh, because it was kind of cool. I figured some idiot at the station was playing a joke. "Someones going to be in big trouble for this," predicted Mom. "I bet whoever did it gets fired." We stared at the screen, waiting for the news to come back on. When nothing happened I picked up the remote. But before I could change the channel the woman said, "Greetings, people of Earth." I burst out laughing. Mom shook her head in disgust. "What a stupid joke. Change the channel, Johnny." I did. The woman was still there. I changed it again, and again, and again. No matter what channel I turned to and we get 208 of them the blue woman was still there. Moms eyes got wider, and she slid her chair closer to mine. "Johnny! Whats going on?" I shook my head. I had no idea. But a strange feeling some combination of fear and excitement was starting to blossom in my stomach. Finally the blue woman spoke again. "I assume most of you have now realized that this broadcast is on all channels. That is because the message I bring is for all people, and it is important that as many of you as possible hear it. However, what I have come to tell you will not make sense unless you know two things." As far as I was concerned, nothing made sense right now. "First, we are not here to threaten you." It was such an odd thing to say that I almost laughed again. But part of me was too scared for that. I wished that Dad was here. But he was gone, a victim of the air-quality crisis that had killed so many people the year I was thirteen. The blue woman spoke again. "Second, you must know that we can do what we say. I will now prove that to you. Please do not be frightened. This demonstration is just to help you accept the truth of what I have to tell you." Mom reached for her coffee. I noticed that her hand was shaking, which made me feel better about my own trembling fingers. Before she could pick up her cup, the light went out. Not the lights. The light. Darkness was everywhere, as if the sun itself had disappeared. "Johnny!" cried my mother. "Do not be afraid," said the voice from the TV which was also dark, of course. "We will return the light soon." I

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Excerpted from Oddest of All by Bruce Coville
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