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Daddy Long Legs
 
a short story by Kody Boye
Originally published in the New Voices in Fiction Webzine, July 2008
It was hard to sit back and wonder whether or not your dad was human. I had had my
doubts about my dad’s humanity ever since I had caught him in the act one night a few months
ago. My dad was a man of many morals, many
good 
morals, but he was also a man of manysecrets.Every night, my dad would come into my room and tell me good night, even though Iwas sixteen and near the age of becoming a man. He would then leave and go to bed, sleepingsoundly.At least I
thought 
he was going to bed; that quickly changed when I caught him.I had gotten up to open the window when I had seen him standing near the edge of theforest. He was staring at the trees, almost as if something was beckoning him to come intothem. At first, I thought he had just gone out for some fresh air, so I ignored it. When he starteddisrobing, that kept my eyes on him.When he was done, my dad stood there, naked, still staring at the forest. It frightenedme, seeing him standing outside, naked, with only the moon to guide him. I had thought aboutcalling out to him, and when I had the window open I almost
did 
call out.
I hadn’t called out to him because small hairs started sprouting over his body. I watched
in mute horror and fascination as my dad fell to his knees, pushing his hands down to supporthimself as the hairs continued to sprout over his body. Then, when the moon went behind acloud, everything was dark for several minutes.When the moon came out from behind the clouds, my dad was gone.I had waited for what seemed like hours until he came out of the forest. The smallestamount of blood ran from the side of his lip, and some even stained his legs, crusted andhanging to his skin only because the hairs on his legs was keeping it there.When my dad walked toward the house, I ran back to the bed and crawled under thecovers, closing my eyes and pretending to be asleep. I heard the door open. My dad waschecking on me, like he always did throughout the night.When the door closed, my sense of worry only continued to get worse, because I knew
that something was different about my dad…
 Something
very 
different.
“Blake? Are you all right, son?”
 I looked up at my dad and nodded, giving him a small smile.
“I’m fine, Dad.”
 
“Are you sure? You haven’t
 
touched your eggs.”
 I looked down at my eggs and frowned. I
hadn’t 
touched him.
“Just not feeling well,” I said. “You want them, Dad?”
 My dad shrugged and accepted the plate from me, spooning the eggs off my plate andsetting them on his own.
“Are you
 
sure you’re all right?”
 
“I didn’t sleep very well last night,” I said. “Don’t worry, I’m fine.”
 
Yeah, I’m really fine,
I thought, smiling at my dad’s nod.
I just found out that my dad’ssomething else than I thought he was. Nothing’s wrong, nothing at a
ll.
I stood and walked to the sink, where I washed my hands and looked out the window.From the window, I could see the forest that my dad had entered. The tall, menacing trees
 
Daddy Long Legs
–
Page #2
 © Kody Boye 2007-2009
 
seemed to reach out and block anyone from entering by extending their branches, their thinfingers of branches touching the ground.Somehow, my dad had gotten in, right after he had changed into something that I
hadn’t saw.
 
“Blake?”
 
I jumped as I felt Dad’s hand on my shoulder.
 
“What’s wrong, son?”
 
“Nothing,” I laughed. “I was just thinking.”
 Dad nodded and set his plate in the sink, looking out the window before wrapping anarm around my shoulder.
“You want to go do something?”
 
“Like what?” I asked.
 
“I don’t know, go to a movie or something? We haven’t done something
like that for a
while.”
 
“It’s because you work,” I said.
 
“I know, and I’m sorry I work so much… Did you want to go do something?”
 I nodded.
“Yeah, sure.”
 
“How come you decided to take the back way home, Dad?”
 My dad looked over and smiled, returning his eyes to the road.
“It’s nice,” Dad said. “I like driving out here sometimes. It reminds me of the woods.”
 
It reminds me of them too,
I thought, shivering.
“You cold, son?”
 
“No.”
 
“Are you sure? I can roll my window up if you are.”
 I looked over a
t Dad’s window and saw that it was open. I nodded, deciding to let my
dad brush off my shivering as a result of his window being open and not anything else.
“Thanks, Dad.”
 
“It’s no trouble,” Dad said, rolling the window up. “All you have to do is ask for
 
something and I’ll try to do it for you, Blake.”
 I nodded, leaning against the door and looking out the window, watching the woods roll
by. It wasn’t long before the woods disappeared and was replaced by an image of thousands of 
tiny hairs sprouting over
Dad’s body.
 
“Look here, son; the first spider of the summer.”
 I looked down at the spider. It stood there, watching us, its long legs poised at anawkward angle that supported its small, thin-legged body.
“It’s a daddy long leg,” I said.
 
“Yeah,” Dad grinned. “Cute little thing, isn’t it?”
 
“I thought they were poisonous if you let them crawl over open wounds?”
 
“That’s an old man’s tale,” Dad laughed. “Come here, little guy.”
 
I shivered as the thing crawled onto my dad’
s hand. He looked at it for a short momentbefore tossing it out an open window.
 
Daddy Long Legs
–
Page #3
 © Kody Boye 2007-2009
 
“What’s wrong?” Dad smiled. “It’s just a spider.”
 
“I think they’re creepy,” I said, sticking my hands in my pockets. “We’re not going to getany more, are we?”
 
“Not with your birthday present.”
 I frowned.
“Birthday present? Dad, my birthday’s not…”
 
“For another week, but I can’t keep him in the car all by himself.” Fad smiled andopened the door. “I’ll be back in in a sec.”
 I nodded as Fad disappeared out the door, sitting down and waiting for him to come
back in. It wasn’t long before my dad came in with a box, sitting it on the table in front of me.
 
“Open it,” he said.
 I nodded and stood, opening the top of the plain brown box. Inside, a white ferret rolledaround for several moments before taking notice of me.
“I didn’t know you were getting me a ferret, Dad.”
 
“I seen you looking at him a few days ago, when we were in the pet store,” Dad said,
wiggling his finger inside the box, smiling as the ferret licked his hand
. “I figured I’d get him foryou.”
 
“They didn’t sell him? Stupid question. I mean, how did you manage to get this exactone?”
 
“I had them hold it for me,” Dad said.
 
“Does it have a name?”
 
“No, but it perked its ears up when it heard the name Zack on the radio.”
 I smiled and picked the ferret up, cradling it close to my chest.
“Then Zack it is,” I said. “It
is
 
a boy, right, Dad?”
 
“That’s what the woman said,” Dad grinned, winking.
 I smiled and hugged Dad, thanking him for the ferret before taking him up into my
room. I stared into Zack’s small, beady eyes and all my worries seemed to disappear.
 That night, I held Zach close to my chest. It was a cold summer night, but I could dealwith it. The ferret squirmed and I let it go, where it snuggled in close to my neck. I smiled andstroked its thin, lean body, looking out the window.
Dad’s going out tonight.
 
There was no doubt in my mind that he would be out there, doing whatever he wasdoing. I wondered what actually happened when he sprouted all those thin, tiny hairs. Did heturn into some kind of monster and run off into the woods, or were the hairs not really hairs at
all? Maybe he was dissolving into the night…
 
“Stop it,” I said.
 The ferret squeaked, nibbling the end of my nose. I smiled and pushed it away with afinger, rubbing its stomach.
“At least I got you,” I said, continuing to rub Zack’s belly. “You make me feel better.”
 A boom shook the side of the house. I jumped and Zach screeched, crawling under thecovers. I looked around, my heart beating like a jackhammer inside my chest.
What the…
 
I heard it again, but this time it didn’t scare me as badly. I grabbed Zach and held him
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