Lisp • Richie Tozier (1)

8

We all walk by the railroad tracks. Richie's beaming proudly.
"Thanks guys but, you really shouldn't have done that," Mike says. "He'll be after you too now." Eddie shakes his head. "No, no, no. Bowers? He's always after us." He calls. "I guess th-that's one thing we all have in common." Bill says. "Yeah homeschool, welcome to the losers club!" Richie laughs.

Someone suggests we go into town, there's a huge parade going on. Richie immediately steals some guy's instrument and tries (and fails) to play it. I march over and snatch it out of his hands, handing it over to the guy. "You're ridiculous sometimes." I mutter. "Yeah, but you love me anyway." I shake my head. "You wish."

Bills pointing at a poster of a new missing kid. Betty Ripsom's poster was underneath it. "It's like they forgot about her. It's terrible." I say.

"What're you guys talking about?" Eddie asks, handing Richie an ice cream cone. "What they always talk about." Richie says with an eye roll. "I actually think it will end, for a little while, at least." Ben says. "What do you mean?" Ben takes a deep breath. "As I was going over my Derry research and I charted out all the big events.... the ironworks explosion in 1908, the Bradley gang in 35, and the black spot in 62, and now kids being.... I realized this stuff seems to happen every 27 years."

"Okay so let me get this straight... it comes out from wherever to eat kids for like a year... and then what? It just goes into hibernation?" Eddie asks, clearly confused. "Maybe it's like... what do you call it? Cicadas. You know the bugs that come out every 17 years." Stan suggests. "My grandfather says this town is cursed. He says that all the bad things that happen in this town are because of one thing... an evil thing that feeds off the people in Derry." Stan looks around at all of us. "But it can't be one thing... we all saw something different." Mike shrugs. "Maybe... or maybe it knows what scares us most and that's what we see." Chills are sent down my spine. Everyone looks uncomfortable. "I- I saw a lepor. He was like a walking infection." Stan's breathing gets slightly faster. He looks nervous. "But you didn't... because it isn't real. None of this is. Not Eddie's lepor, or Bill seeing Georgie, or Julie and the dark, or the woman I keep seeing—"

"Is she hot?" Richie asks. "No Richie! She's not hot! Her face is all messed up. None of this makes any sense. They're all like bad dreams." He says. "I don't think so. I know the difference between bad dreams and real life, okay?" Mike argues. "What'd you see? You saw something too?" Eddie asks Mike. "Yes. You guys know that burnt down house on Harris avenue? I was inside when it burned down. Before I was rescued.... my mom in dad were trapped in the next room over from me... they were pounding and pushing on the door, trying to get to me... but it was too hot. When the firemen found them, the skin on their hands had melted down to the bone. We're all afraid of something. . ." Mike finishes. "Got that right." Richie says. "Why Rich? What are you afraid of?" Richie adjusts his glasses and turns towards the stage behind him.

"Clowns."