The 'Burbs Page #4

It was a night just like

this that it happened.

What happened, Mr Weingartner?

It was a long time ago. Hinkley

Hills was a lot smaller then.

Safer too. You never had to lock

your doors. Everybody knew everybody.

I must have been maybe

nine, ten years old.

- You know where the big mall is?

- Yeah.

There used to be a big

drugstore on the corner there.

- It had a big soda fountain. Remember?

- Yeah.

The guy who ran it was a

rotund guy, had glasses.

His name was Skip. Lived over on Elm.

Had a wife, a couple

kids. Not too sharp.

The guy's 40 years old, he's wearing

a paper hat and making cherry Cokes.

It's a cinch he's not

running for governor, right?

Anyway, it got hot that summer.

It got real hot. It was sweltering.

That heat where your underwear

sweats and it crawls up the...

Anyway, it's hot, okay?

And they start smelling this

really vile stench over on Elm...

and they figure it's

comin' from Skip's place.

No one wants to say anything.

Do you knock on the guy's

door, "Hi, your house stinks"?

So people are trying

to ignore it, right?

They're trying to pretend it isn't

happening. You know those pine things?

They're trying to cover up with those

pine things that you can put in cars.

People are hanging

those on their porches.

[Laughing]

- Oh, you think that's funny, Ricky?

- Well, yeah.

Let me tell you what happened next.

The state health inspector

shows up. They talk to Skip.

He says he's got a sump

pump problem. They leave.

The guy's got a sewer problem.

He says he'll look after it.

Everything's okay, right?

Wrong. A couple hours later...

there's smoke pouring out of

the windows of Skip's house.

- The firemen go in. Know what they find?

- What?

Skip's family, dead. Murdered...

by Skip... weeks

earlier... with an ice pick.

Yeah, the guy killed his whole family...

- [Gulps]

- With an ice pick.

Yeah. Yeah, just put 'em

in the cool basement...

covered 'em up with a sheet and went

back to makin' treats for the townsfolk.

Only Skip didn't count on there

being a big heat wave that summer.

You know what all those people

were smelling on Elm, Ricky?

What?

Skip's family's bodies...

- decomposing in the summer heat.

- [Whistles]

Apparently, one day Skip made Just

one-too- many lemon phosphates.

[Snaps Fingers] El snappo.

I remember that. I remember

hearing about that when I was a kid.

They-They tore down the

soda fountain that fall.

These towns are full of those stories.

They're happening right under your nose.

You know, speaking of noses...

ever since this family

has moved to this block...

I've been noticing a

weird kind of odour.

Kind of like death.

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