The Blob - A Story for |Halloween

Andrew yawned for the fourth time. It was a not so subtle attempt to let his wife Mary know how bored and fed up he was.

“It’s not use you pulling that face,” she said with a fond smile “You’ll be stuck here for at least a week. Remember what the doctor said.”

As if he could forget. He’d picked up some infection which had sent his temperature soaring. They were still trying to identify the cause. In the meantime he was confined to bed rest.

Morning painted the room with light as Mary drew back the curtains. This made Andrew’s large muscular frame seem out of place in bed. He would usually be out working in the fields at that hour.  She pummelled his pillows, bustled out of the room and left him alone to gaze out of the large bedroom window.

Bright morning sunshine lit the hillside view and threw everything into sharp detail. It was then he noticed it. A patch of the hill was covered by a clearly defined oblong of pure white fuzz. Everything else was sharp so Andrew knew it wasn’t his eyesight. To his surprise as he watched, the egg shaped fuzz moved down the hill a little.  He rubbed his eyes, closed them and opened them again. The blob was still there. It wasn’t his imagination, he was sure.  He watched for quite a while until he got tired. He wanted to put it out of his mind but couldn’t help wondering what it could be. He hated mysteries and only felt at ease when everything was in its place.

Next time he looked it had moved further down and was much larger. Andrew pinched his arm to make sure he was awake. He stared hard trying to make out some detail. The ‘blob’ as he now called it had moved much nearer and was only a few yards away. Andrew reached for a glass of water. If it got any closer he would throw water over it. He turned to look again just as a blast of cold air hit his back. The ‘blob’ was in the room with him. 

It spoke, startling him. “For heaven’s sake, why don’t you leave me alone?”  Andrew could feel its anger.

“I’m fed up with you staring at me all day,” it complained.

Not one to be at a loss Andrew responded at once. “I didn’t ask you to come, whoever or whatever you are.”

“Don’t you know that you draw to you whatever your attention is on?  Your interest has drawn me to you and into your world, and I don’t want to be here,” Blob grumbled. “It’s all your fault.”

"Don’t blame me,” said Andrew. “What can I do about it? What do I know?”

“What are you doing in bed?” Blob asked, changing the subject quickly.

“I mustn’t get excited and I must rest,” explained Andrew, laughing at the irony of this as he spoke.

The Blob quivered before it spoke again. “You can ask me to go away. Sometimes that works. We have to obey,” he said.

Almost reluctantly, Andrew shouted with all the force he could muster “Go Away!” The Blob vanished.

Next thing Mary flung the door open and rushed into the room. “What’s the matter? she said. “Why all the shouting?” 

Andrew told her all about the Blob.  This was a big mistake and the doctor was sent for immediately.

“He’s hallucinating,” he said, “It must be the fever.” and promptly gave Andrew an injection.  The odd thing was that neither Mary nor the doctor noticed that Andrew’s temperature was back to normal and if they’d looked they’d have seen grass and dirt on the floor.