The ‘Disappearance at Devil’s Rock’ novelist also announces three-book deal with HarperCollins.
Paul Tremblay has a story that will creep up on you …
Publication has been set for summer of 2018.
I wrote the short story Growing Things back in 2009, Tremblay tells EW.
Yes, I was creeped out by weeds…(I do need help).
Heres a selection from the short story.
Muttering to himself, he shares his secrets with the weather beaten door.
Recently, he stopped eating and gave his share of the rations to his daughters Marjorie and Merry.
There is no running water with which to wash her hands.
Marjorie is fourteen years old but only a shade taller than her eight-year-old sister.
She says, Story time.
Those stories, the ones Merry doesnt remember hearing, were about everyone and everything.
Merry says, I dont want to listen to a story right now.
She wants to watch her father.
Merry imagines him with a bushy tail and a twitchy face full of acorns.
Seeing him act squirrely reinforces one of the few memories she has of her mother.
Its a short one, I promise.
Marjorie is dressed in the same cut off shorts and football shirt shes been wearing for a week.
Her brown hair is black with grease, and her fair skin is a map of freckles and acne.
Marjorie has the book in her lap.Oh the Places I Will Go.
All right, Merry says but she wont really listen.
As far as she knows, it is still summer.
The gregarious colors of Marjories book cover are muted in the darkened living room.
Candles on the fireplace mantle flicker and dutifully melt away.
Still, it is enough light for the sisters.
They are used to it.
Marjorie closes her eyes and opens the book randomly.
She flips to a page with a cartoon New York City.
When it started growing there, it meant it could grow anywhere.
It took over Central Park.
The stuff just came shooting up, crowding out the grass and trees, the flowerbeds.
The stuff grew a foot an hour, just like everywhere else.
They couldnt stop the growing things and that was why there wasnt any more food.
Merry had heard her tell that one before.
Marjorie says, They couldnt stop it in the city.
When they cut it down, it grew back faster.
People didnt know how or why it grew.
Theres no soil under the streets, you know, in the sewers, but it still grew.
It grew fast there, faster than anywhere else, and there was nothing anyone could do.
Merry, half-listening, takes the green crayon nub out of her pajama pocket.
She changes her pajamas every morning, unlike her sister, who doesnt change her clothes at all.
Maybe itll stop him from putting on all the winter clothes, stop him from being squirrely.
He says, Were running low.
I have to go out to look for food and water.
He doesnt hug or kiss his daughters, but pats their heads.
Merry drops the crayon nub at his feet, and it rolls away.
He turns and they know he means to leave without any promise of returning.
Dont answer the door for anyone!
Knocking means the world is over!
He opens the door, but only enough for his body to squeeze out.
The daughters see nothing of the world outside but a flash of bright sunlight.
A breeze bullies into their home, along with a buzz saw sound of wavering leaves.
Heres more of Paul Tremblay discussingDisappearance at Devils Rockon EW Radio, Sirius XM 105.
