Vanish (32 page)

“Right.” Mitch snorted and started dealing. “Like
that’s
gonna happen.”

Howard grinned. “Well, it was worth a shot.”

Mitch wound up with three sixes and a nine. And Howard cut him another nine. Mitch laughed and shook his head. “Looks like you’re gonna be keeping your secret a little longer, old man.”

After a few hands, Howard sat up with an odd look on his face. He got up, stepped onto the back porch, and peered off into the gray horizon, tilting his head. Then he came back and snatched the keys to his truck from the counter.

Mitch scowled. “Hey, I’m about to skunk you. Where’re you going?”

“Keep my seat warm, Hoss.” Howard nodded out the door. “I think we got company. I hear a car out on the highway.”

“Company? Again?” Mitch strained to listen for the sound. “I don’t hear anything.”

“You didn’t hear anything the last three times, either,” Howard retorted.

Mitch sank back in his seat. “It’s probably just more old people.”

They’d had a steady stream of visitors over the last several weeks. Mostly senior citizens and such. They’d show up for supper, all freaked out and disoriented, and by breakfast they’d be gone. Vanished. Just like Conner, Helen, and Devon. Mitch had gotten past being creeped out. It had become something of a regular business. But he was getting sick of it now. Everyone who ever came to this farm seemed to disappear mysteriously. Everyone but him. It was like he was living in his own personal…

Mitch looked up. His face was grim. “Hey, Howard?”

Howard paused in the doorway. “Yeah?”

“Seriously. Was Conner right about this place? Am I dead? Is this hell?”

“Hell?” Howard chuckled and shook his head. “Naw,
this
ain’t hell.”

Then his smile faded slightly and he shrugged.

“It’s Indiana.”

TOM HAS A BA in communication and works in the marketing field. He has also been active in Christian teaching, youth work, and music for over twenty years. His first novel,
The Way Back
, took second place in the 2004 Operation First Novel Contest run by the Jerry B. Jenkins Christian Writers Guild in association with Tyndale House Publishers. His second novel,
Vanish
, won first place in the 2006 contest. In addition to writing fiction, Tom is also an accomplished songwriter and musician who writes and records at his home studio. He and his wife, Colette, live in Ohio with their four children and one large dog. Visit Tom’s Web site at www.tompawlik.com.