The COCOON
THE COCOON
By Bullet Bob Wilson
Shirley, the café’s eldest employee, walked around the small mom and pop style restaurant inspecting the previous afternoon’s Halloween decorating party. It’d been fun but she’d only stayed for an hour as she had a more pressing matter to deal with. “Great job on the decorations!” She complimented. “Just the right amount to give it that spooky October feel.”
Terri, her daughter, was proud of the combined efforts of the previous afternoon. It looked good and the get-together had been fun. Mimosas were liberally imbibed. After two of the drinks she couldn’t help but giggle. It only took one for Tina, her best friend and co-worker to get silly.
Vintage advertising signs, fire department caps and photos from days gone by were the normal décor of the small restaurant but now spiders, skulls and other Halloween-appropriate items added to the decor. “Thanks Mom. Tina and Patti did most of the planning, I just put everything up as they directed.”
Shirley walked around the small café and stopped in the far corner to look at a figure hanging from the ceiling. It had the size and outline of a man with his feet near the ceiling and his shoulders and head about tabletop high, wound tightly in what looked like a giant spider web or a caterpillar cocoon. “It reminds me of the grasshoppers caught in that spider web in the garden. “This looks so real!” She exclaimed.
Terri walked over next to her mother and supervisor and nodded in agreement. “I was thinking the same thing myself. Looks like a man under all that silk!”
“Looks more like a mummy!” Tina added from behind the two women. She laughed nervously and added, “Kinda scary, if you ask me.” Tina did an exaggerated physical shiver and then promptly crossed herself.
Terri laughed at Tina’s over dramatization, then turned back to readying the restaurant for its early morning opening. Two cars were already pulled up in the pitch black night, their headlamps spotlighting the inside of the restaurant. “Coffee’s ready. Terri, go ahead and open the doors.” Patti, the owner, called.
The door was opened and the first customers trickled into the down-home eatery that always drew a crowd.
“Wow, this place is creepy!” Joe, one of the remaining WWII veterans, and a daily regular, stated to Terri as she filled his cup with black liquid.
“I love this time of the year,” Terri replied happily. She left his table without asking for his order. She knew it by heart.
Filling another customer’s cup and chatting with him, she caught movement out of the corner of her eye. Turning to greet another customer, it was the cocoon of web swaying back and forth. She was startled for only a moment when Joe began laughing, “Feels real!” He laughed. “Scared you, didn’t I?” He sat back down, watching the swaying form that hung upside down with the swivel creaking noisily as the form swung back and forth.
The day passed quickly as was usual working for a busy restaurant. “I really don’t like our webbed man!” Tina stated as the crew sat down after cleaning the last of the tables.
Terri looked over at it and it was still swaying very slightly back and forth as it had done all day. “Yep, he’s a bit creepy to say the least. Let’s call him Chester.”
“Chester the Molester got caught in a web!” Tina giggled at the decoration’s new name.
“There’s webs and then there’s cocoons, girls,” Patti stated. “This one looks like a cocoon. Probably gonna spawn a giant moth! Be ready to run when it starts to open.” She laughed at the idea but a cold chill ran down her spine.
The other waitresses felt similar chills. There was just something about the creepy form hanging from the ceiling.
The days passed quickly with each a repeat of the previous for the staff at the restaurant. “I swear that cocoon seems to sway on its own!” Tina stated one afternoon and, as the crew looked, the upside down hanging form was swaying ever so slightly.
“Creepy! I don’t know where you guys got it but I vote no for next year!” Terri stated.
“Who put it up?” Shirley asked with her brow furrowed. “I thought it was one of your decorations?” She looked at her daughter for an answer.
“It wasn’t Tina or I. We figured it was you or Patti. Maybe it was Dave?” Terri replied. Dave was the brother of the owner who often came in just to play tricks on the crew.
“That makes sense. He’s probably got some kind of motor in it to make it sway all the time!” Shirley felt relieved at the answer and let out an audible sigh.
“That damned Dave. I hate when he screws with us!” Tina exclaimed with a relieved laugh. It made sense that Dave would put up the all too real looking webbed body. He was the perfect candidate for doing such a prank.
“Morning Chester,” Terri patted the heavy form on the lower back. “How was your night?” Tina laughed at Terri’s greeting to the upside down, webbed figure. Terri had patted the figure every day since they’d determined it was a prank by Dave.
“I can’t believe you pat it!” Tina’s voice was shrill but always held a jocular tone. “What does it feel like?” She asked curious as to what the corpse felt like.
Tina stayed away from the figure. It still creeped her out and she’d be happy after tomorrow when they took all the decorations down. “Thanksgiving is my holiday. Halloween creeps me out.”
“I dunno. It feels like, well maybe like Play-doh or something,” Terri replied as she walked into the kitchen to prepare for the morning rush. “Quit being such a scaredy-cat, Tina! Go pat Chester, otherwise he’ll feel like you’re snubbing him!”
Tina shrugged her shoulders, took a deep breath and walked over to the webbed figure, “Morning Chester,” she said nervously as her hand moved closer and closer to the silk-encased form. Then she saw the slightest twitch in the webbed body.
“Holy Mother Of Mary!” She screamed stumbling as she jumped back from the webbed form. “That thing just moved!”
Terri and her mother came out of the kitchen. “You look like you saw a ghost, Tina!” Terri laughed not surprised that her friend and co-worker was so jumpy.
“I swear, it twitched!” Tina exclaimed.
“Go make the coffee. We’ll take it down tomorrow after shift,” Shirley shook her head in amusement. Tina was always happy; always had a smile on her face and made the customers feel at home, yet she was the most superstitious person Shirley had ever met.
Tina did as she was told. She refused to look at the swaying figure for the rest of the day. “I’m sure it twitched. I saw it with my own eyes.”
At the end of the day, after the last customer had departed, the three waitresses and the owner sat down. “One more day of that creepy thing hanging from my ceiling. Dave’s supposed to be back from his Alaska fishing trip tomorrow and if he doesn’t pick it up, we’re tossing it in the dumpster!” Patti stated.
“Good riddance!” Shirley agreed. “That thing caused two little boys to cry yesterday. They said they could see someone squirming inside of it!”
“Dave’s a clown, we all know it but he’s my brother and part owner so I can’t 86 him out of here. I’d love to take his key but that wouldn’t go over so well.” Patti stated. “Go home and get some rest. Five AM comes early!” She said excusing the women that were her employees but who seemed more like family than her own.
The next morning the heavy fog forced Terri to drive at no more than thirty miles an hour. She always left home early and still arrived ten minutes before she was supposed to. She parked her car across the street from the restaurant. All the workers did, as parking in front of the restaurant was limited and reserved for the paying customers. The fog swirled around her car making eerie images in the light from her headlamps. “I’m not going in till everyone else gets here!” She said to her image in the rearview mirror as she checked her makeup.
Another pair of headlights appeared from the East and she hoped it would be her mom. Then two more sets coming from the opposite direction. They seemed so strange looking in the heavy fog as if they were just large lanterns that barely moved. It was her mother and she breathed a bit easier and shut off her lights.
“So foggy I almost couldn’t see the T,” Shirley said to her daughter as she exited her car. The other two cars were pulling into the parking lot. “Come on, let’s get this day started.”
Terri nodded in agreement. They walked across the desolate street to the door. Shirley unlocked it and opened the door for her daughter. Terri held the door open for Tina and Patti, who were only a few feet behind them. “Morning ladies,” she greeted her co-workers.
“Morning,” both replied in unison.
Terri passed through the door and turned to the right to go into the kitchen. Tina was second and before she took three steps in she screamed. “Oh my God!” She exclaimed shrilly.
Terri and Patti both turned to see what had startled Tina so profoundly. “No frigging way!” Patti exclaimed at the sight that greeted her eyes. The webbed figure hanging from the ceiling was now just an empty shell, its contents removed through a large rip that extended from the bottom of the encasement to the middle.
“What in the heck,” Shirley added as she looked at the emptied cocoon and then down at the floor below it. There was a huge puddle of what appeared to be a tan-colored gelatin-like fluid below it. A wet trail led from under the empty cocoon into the kitchen.
“I don’t care if he is my brother. This has gone too far. It’s ridiculous to expect us to clean up this mess just because he wants to be funny. Nope, his key is history!” Patti swore as the thought of her brother’s antics had gone too far this time.
The four women followed the trail of slime into the kitchen and to the back door. The deadbolt was unlocked and the door was half open allowing anyone access. “Hey, I’m sure this was my brother’s handwork but let’s be a bit careful.” Patti stated not thinking this was the least bit funny.
“I thought Dave came home later today?” Shirley asked.
“Yeah, so did I but he probably caught an earlier flight and wanted to screw with us. Well he went too far this time.”
The four women, using the safety in numbers strategy, walked out the back door and followed the path of slime as it led them around the end of the building and then along the road, disappearing in the white fog. “Dave went a bit overboard on this!” Terri stated, equally not amused with the prank.
Tina visibly shivered. “Damn, he’s freaked me out. I can’t quit shaking!”
“He’s an idiot!” Patti said, her irritation at its boundaries for she knew the others would be less vindictive on him because of his status.
“Let’s go in and clean up this mess before the regulars start arriving.” Shirley was the last one in and made sure the back door was bolted. “Hey, first, can one of you go with me to check the restroom. Just in case some homeless person found the back door open.”
Terri nodded her head. “Good idea. I’ll go with you.”
“Nothing’s out of place in the restroom or the kitchen,” Shirley stated to the others.
“I’m sorry for this. We’ve humored him for too long.” Patti added.
The women got the mess cleaned up in short order and then Patti grabbed a chair, stood on it and cut the hull of web from the ceiling. It was light but the interior was coated with the same gelatin substance. She rolled it in a ball, walked out the front door and threw it in the dumpster.
“I’m glad it’s gone!” Tina stated. “It gave me the heebie jeebies!” She laughed nervously.
“Dave’s gonna regret this. Promise.” Patti shook her head in frustration at her younger brother’s antics.
The morning was passing smoothly without any more issues and the crew of four were happy with that. The fog receded its coverage only slightly with lapping banks of the thick mist trying to envelope the restaurant and everything around it. It was quite an eerie morning and the customers, few in comparison to normal days, marveled at the sight.
At ten Patti’s phone rang. “Hello,” she said into the phone after not recognizing the number.
“Hey sis. My plane was delayed in Seattle. Could you pick me up at the airport in a couple hours?”
Patti immediately became red-faced. “Funny, Dave. You’re already here and don’t say you’re not! We don’t appreciate the cocoon-mummy thing. Wasn’t funny in the least!” She released the anger that she’d held all day in her voice.
“What are you talking about? I’m in Seattle right now. The flight got delayed because of all the fog. What cocoon thing?” Dave’s voice sounded truly surprised.
“Get off of it, Dave. You even left the back door open. Jesus, someone coulda come in and trashed this place. That’s bull and you know it.”
“Seriously Patti, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m at SeaTac right now. Left Anchorage before dawn this morning like we were supposed to.”
“Are you with Lorena?” Patti asked knowing that Dave’s wife wouldn’t lie to her.
“Yeah, here!”
“Lorena, you guys are really delayed in Seattle?” Patti asked starting to feel just a bit worried.
“Hi Patti. Yeah, we’ve been here in Seattle for an hour already. They’re just gonna get our flight going.”
“And you guys—well Dave wasn’t here last night or early this morning was he?”
“Um, no. He’s been with me since we left. What’s going on?”
Patti took a deep breath and slowly released it from her lungs. “Nothing. Just a practical joke that I thought Dave was responsible for. Honestly do you know anything about a webbed figure hanging from the ceiling here at the restaurant?”
“Like Spiderman?”
“No, like a body in a web or a cocoon. You don’t know anything about that?”
“No. What was it? Like a Halloween prank?”
“I don’t know. I’ll talk to you guys when you get to the airport. Be safe.” Patti clicked the end button on the phone.
“Dave didn’t do the web thing?” Terri asked as her and Tina stood statue-still next to their boss, eavesdropping on her conversation.
“No. Well, I don’t know. I don’t know who else would have done this. Just go back to work!” Patti could feel the control of her own emotions being lost.
“What if there really was something in a cocoon?” Tina asked. “What if that slime this morning was like when a pregnant woman’s water breaks? What if…”
“Quit! Go get table nine’s order and take some more coffee out.” Terri ordered, refusing to contemplate what had really happened. It was too much to think about and she couldn’t do it.
At shift’s end, they were exhausted mentally and physically. Patti had left to pick up her brother, leaving the three short-staffed for the last part of the shift. It was a good thing because it kept them from thinking.
“Tina, Terri, Shirley, I swear I had nothing to do with the cocoon thing!” Dave swore as soon as he came through the door.
“I think he’s telling the truth. It had to be someone else that’s screwing with us,” Patti reinforced.
“But who would go to that much work and break into this place? Dave, you’re the only one with a key!” Terri said looking hard at the man who had pranked them before but never so elaborately.
“Where’s the cocoon?” Dave asked.
“In the dumpster. I threw it out after we cleaned up all the jello-looking crap that was all over the floor,” Patti replied.
Dave walked out the front door into the thickening mist followed closely by Lorena, Patti and the others. He opened the lid of the large dumpster and looked around. “Where?”
Patti stood next to him. “It was right there! I threw it right there!” She exclaimed, pointing at the corner where she’d tossed the bundled, slimy web. But nothing was there. She grabbed a broom handle and poked through the light amount of trash. There was nothing to be found. It was gone.
A heavy bank of fog rolled from the Columbia River and engulfed them, making it impossible to see anything more than a few feet. Off in the distance an eerie scream pierced the silence of the cotton-thick fog. “I’m going home!” Tina exclaimed yet moved closer to the others.
“You can’t drive in this,” Patti reasoned. “In all my years I don’t remember ever seeing fog as thick as this is!”
“I haven’t seen a car in forever!” Terri stated.
“Let’s get back inside. Maybe it’ll let up soon.” Shirley herded the group back inside to wait out the heavy fogbank.
Just after getting back inside the small well-lit café, the lights flickered and then the security of light was gone, leaving them in the darkness of the coming night…