The Blanks (The Shivers Collection, #3)

by Grady Hendrix

Then Tom Docks showed up at our screen door one morning and asked Steven to go for a walk on the beach. Every morning their walks got longer while I fed Zee, and I don’t know what they talked about, but one day Steven came back to us.

I don’t know why you need a pool if you live on the beach.

out here with no cars, fewer screens, and slower schedules, everyone was their best self.

Back in the city, their classmates have panic attacks and social anxiety. They have eating disorders and self-harm. But every summer, Zee and Callum and our neighbors’ kids run free with sand in their hair and sunburn on their noses, and they go back to the city with a force field of self-confidence and independence that keeps them safe.

my Super Hits of the ’90s playlist

These are the lucky moments when I’m not Mom or Wife or Neighbor. I’m just me, a human being walking down the boardwalk, listening to the ocean.

We always tell the kids that if they see something funny, look away. Ignore it. But we never worried too much. The Blanks never act like this. They haven’t acted like this in years.

Someone tried going somewhere once, before we moved here. They say that made it even worse.

Nothing bad happens if you leave them alone, if you just pretend they don’t exist. Nothing bad has happened to anyone for so many years. Except to the Litvaks, but that was one time, and everyone told them not to stay past the end of the season.