Nackles – The Story (Page 6)

Believe in Nackles

The police say he ran away, deserted his family, primarily because of Susie’s fourth pregnancy.  They say he went out the window and dropped to the back yard, so Susie wouldn’t see him and try to stop him.  And they say he didn’t take the car because he was afraid Susie would hear him start the engine.

That all sounds reasonable, doesn’t it?  Yet, I just can’t believe Frank would walk out on Susie without a lot of shouting about it first.  Nor that he would leave his car, which he was fonder of than his wife and children.

But what’s the alternative?  There’s only one I can think of: Nackles.

I would rather not believe that.  I would rather not believe that Frank, in inventing Nackles and spreading word of him, made him real.  I would rather not believe that Nackles actually did visit my sister’s house on Christmas Eve.

But did he?  If so, he couldn’t have carried off any of the children, for a more subdued and better-behaved trio of youngsters you wouldn’t find anywhere.  But Nackles, being brand-new and never having had a meal before, would need somebody.  Somebody to whom he was real, somebody not protected by the shield of Santa Claus.  And, as I say, Frank was drinking that night.  Alcohol makes the brain believe in the existence of all sorts of things.  Also, Frank was a spoiled child if there ever was one.

There’s no question but that Frank Junior and Linda Joyce and Stewart believe in Nackles.  And Frank spread the gospel of Nackles to other, some of whom spread it to their own children.  And some of whom will spread the new Evil to other parents.  And ours is a mobile society, with families constantly being transferred by Daddy’s company from one end of the country to another, so how long can it be before Nackles is a power not only in this one city, but all across the nation?

I don’t know if Nackles exists, or will exist.  All I know for sure is that there’s suddenly a new level of meaning in the lyric of that popular Christmas song.  You know the one I mean: You’d better watch out.

Watch out for Nackles

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