Wamego, Kansas was the quintessential small town suburb of a state capital. With Topeka being less than an hour’s drive away, many of the families of the state politicians live within the city limits. One of those politicians, State senator John Christianson, and his family resided in a pretty decent sized subdivision off of Main Street.
John, his wife Carol, and his two boys, Chad, the 18 year old starting high school quarterback headed to Kansas State on a full football scholarship, and John, Jr., a 10 year old who, unlike his brother, was nonathletic, short, and tubby, lived in a two story house on Richardson Rd. Richardson Rd. was the main thoroughfare of the subdivision. The Christianson home was the most elaborate in the neighborhood, as the home of a state senator should be.
Next door to Christiansons was another smaller house. Not small, per se, but modest and a stark juxtaposition to their neighbors. The Christiansons like to flaunt their wealth, Lilly always thought, but they were nice to her. Lilly moved into the subdivision recently when the house she and her son live in became a foreclosed in the mortgage crisis of 2007. She and her only son, Christopher, also a 10 year old, moved from New York City because Lilly got a job as a professor at Kansas State University. She had been a single mother since college when Christopher’s Dad, the star forward for Cornell’s basketball team, knocked her up and had to transfer schools. Luckily, Lilly’s parents helped her out while she finished graduate school and got her PhD in Biochemistry.
Needless to say Christopher and John were inseparable, being the same age, in the same school, in the same class, and both being social outcasts. Wait, a state senator’s son being a social outcast? It was because John was short for his age, 4’2”, and rather chunky, at 95 pounds, and a little on the nerdy side, being very smart for his age. John was often teased and called Tubbs. However, that didn’t bother John since he was more mature and received a lot more ribbing from his older brother. Soon, once the bullies realized calling John Tubbs wasn’t affecting him in the way they thought, John adopted the unlikely nickname as a status symbol and doing so raised his confidence level.
The same wasn’t necessarily true for Chris though. His social outcast plight was different than John’s. Chris was taller than his classmates, standing at a whopping 5’3”. However, Chris was very skinny, weighing in at 98 pounds, soaking wet. He was all skin and bones and as such the bullies nicknamed him Sticks, since that’s what his arms and legs looked like. Despite his towering frame, Chris did not have the same security as his best friend and would often cower when confronted by the bullies of school. This made him an easy target. Chris thought about something a lot. If only he had a male influence in his life that could teach him to stand up for himself. Chris always hated that he didn’t have a father around to look up to.
On their walk home from the bus stop, Chris and John had this funny feeling someone was following them. John turns around but only sees the rustle of some bushes. ‘Must be the wind,’ John thinks to himself. But was it?
“Did you see that,” John asked Chris. “I swear someone or something is following us.”
“Yeah, I had the same feeling but I was too scared to look,” Chris replies.
“Something was in those bushes. I thought it was the wind but it’s pretty calm today,” as John turns around and points to some bushes in front of the old Henderson house, a couple blocks from the entrance to their subdivision. While both kids were looking at the shrubs in earnest trying to decipher if in fact there was something there, the school’s biggest bully, Ty Overlord, a rather well developed 6th grader, comes up behind the pair, unbeknownst to them.
In a deeper than normal voice you’d expect from someone just starting puberty, John and Chris hear, “Lookie here, I think I have found the jackpot! Not one, but two nerds that I can pick on.” As Ty holds his fist and cracks his knuckles.
Tubbs and Sticks are rattled out of their wonderment and realize that their nemesis Ty is about to open a big ol’ can of whoop ass on them. Chris begins to run towards the old Henderson house with John lagging behind him. “You guys can run, but it is going to be inevitable that I’m going beat your asses!!”
Chris and John barely escape Ty and run into the Henderson house. Ty screams, “Now you’re going to get it. Everyone knows that no one comes out of the Henderson house alive.” Chris hears this and stops dead at the front door, too scared to go in. John comes up behind him, almost out of breath, he manages to say, “C’mon Sticks. Go in. Whatever is in there can’t be worse than what’s out here.” Jon pushes the door from behind Chris with his right hand and shoves Jon in with his left. Jon closes the door and locks the deadbolt preventing Ty from coming in after them. However, Ty was still at the curb. He was not about to chase in after them. The things he heard about what the Hendersons did while they lived in the house made his blood curdle.
Once inside, Tubbs and Sticks immediately know why the house was abandoned. The floors creaked when they walked, there was a musty smell in the air, and the cobwebs must have been created by spiders the size of an adult fist because they were huge and in every corner of the ceiling in the parlor. Despite his diminutive height, Tubbs felt it was his duty to take control of the situation for if he left everything in Stick's control, they would still be out at the corner facing whatever menacing torture Ty had in store for them. Taking the lead was a common role for Tubbs within the friendship. It also was a role that felt comfortable to Tubbs. Sticks didn't mind following either. It was strange that someone so short and young could command such attention and a following. However, Tubbs only had this confidence, this bravado, with Sticks; with anyone else he was as meek and subservient as Sticks was to him.
"Well, we're not going back out there for a little while. Let's look around this place. It can't be that bad. Come on Sticks."
"I don't know Tubbs, what about the things Ty heard about this place? Did people really die in here?"
"No, that was just a tactic Ty used to keep us out of the house and with him so he could beat us up. You've watched enough CSI to know that if someone dies in a house, there is police tape and a lot of people investigating. When have you ever seen something like that here? This is Kansas Sticks, not New York City. Everyone knows everyone else and their business around here. Everything will be fine. Let's look around a bit and see if there is anything interesting here," Tubbs explained to ease Stick's mind and get him to come along in the journey. Slowly and closely Sticks followed Tubbs around the house.
What’s in store for Tubbs and Sticks in the old Henderson house?
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