The Appointment

A sixteen year old boy worked on his grandfather's horse farm. One morning he drove a pickup truck into town on an errand. While he was walking along main street, he saw Death. Death beckoned him.
The boy drove back to the farm as fast as he could and told his grandfather what had happened. "Give me the truck," he begged. "I'll go to the city. He'll never find me there."
His grandfather gave him the truck, and the boy sped away. After he left, his grandfather went into town looking for Death. When he found him, he asked, "Why did you frighten my grandson that way? He is only sixteen. He is too young to die."
"I am sorry about that," said Death. "I did not mean to beckon to him. But I was surprised to see him here. You see, I have an appointment with him this afternoon - in the city."

The Last Kiss

Late one night, a biker was riding home along a dark country road. It was a Saturday night and it had just stopped raining. As he rounded a long curve, his headlight lit up a young woman standing at the side of the road. She was wearing a white dress and was all wet from the rain. He thought he knew what had happened: The girl had quarreled with her date and had chosen to walk home rather than stay with the guy. He skidded his Harley to a stop before the young woman could even raise her hand to thumb a ride.
He pulled up to her and killed the motor on the Panhead and looked her over carefully.
She slid onto the seat behind him and with a smile she said, "Would you take me home? I just live a mile down the road."
That was when he noticed how pretty she was. He almost couldn't think of anything to say, she was so pretty. He said, "Sure."
He took off his letter jacket and offered it to her. She leaned forward and draped it around her shoulders. She didn't bother to put her arms into the sleeves.
He kicked the Harley back to life and dropped the bike into gear, they never spoke as he made his way along the dark, winding road past the church and the graveyard and came to a two story house.
"This is my house," she said.
They stopped, and he walked her to the door. They stood looking at each other for a moment and before he could think of a way to ask her for a kiss, she leaned over and kissed him. He was so surprised that she had opened the screen door, opened the front door, and gone inside the house before he could speak. He realized that she was still wearing his letter jacket and for a moment he thought about knocking on the door. But the house was dark, and he hesitated...
Besides, the jacket gave him the perfect excuse to come see her again.
Sunday morning, about time for church, he came back to the house and knocked on the door. A tired, sad-looking woman answered. He asked if he could talk to the ladies daughter.
"My daughter is dead," said the woman. "She died one year ago last night in a car wreck one mile down the road or so at the long curve."
"That's not possible!" He said. "I gave her a ride home last night!"
"If you don't believe me," said the woman, "go look for yourself. She's buried in the graveyard there in the third row."
The young man walked into the cemetery. In the third row of headstones, he found what he was looking for.
A pink marble headstone was inscribed with the name Laurie,
and over the rounded corners of the stone was his letter jacket.


The Red Spot

While Ruth slept, a spider crawled across her face. It stopped for several minutes on her left cheek, then went on it's way.
"What is that red spot on my cheek?" she asked her mother the next morning.
"It looks like a spider bite," her mother said. "It will go away. Just don't scratch it."
Soon the small red spot grew into a small red boil. "Look at it now," Ruth said. "It's getting bigger. It's sore."
"That sometimes happens," her mother said. "It's coming to a head."
In a few days the boil was even larger. "Look at it now," Ruth said. "It hurts and it's ugly."
"We'll have the doctor look at it," her mother said. "Maybe it's infected." But the doctor could not see Ruth until the next day.
That night Ruth took a hot bath. As she soaked herself, the boil burst. Out poured a swarm of tiny spiders from the eggs their mother had laid in her cheek.

CLASSIC!

The Hook

A young couple out on a date parked along an old country road to be alone. They were listening to the car radio and kissing and hugging. Suddenly the music was interrupted by a news bulletin.
"A convicted murderer has escaped from a hospital for the criminally insane. The man was mutilated in a car wreck following a high-speed chase and is missing his right hand. A temporary hook has been attached to his right arm, which will make him easier to identify. The criminal's name is... "
The boy turned the radio off. He leaned over to his girlfriend, expecting that the frightening news flash would make her snuggle even closer. Instead, she was so scared that she didn't want to make out anymore.
"I'm afraid," she said. "Let's get out of here."
The boy tried and tried to convince her that they were in no danger, but she refused to listen. He decided that maybe she didn't like him as much as he had thought, and was just using this as an excuse. The girl reached over and locked her door as the boy angrily started the car.
Just at that moment, they heard a thud on the passenger side of the car.
The boy slammed the car into drive and spun out onto the road. The girl screamed and held onto the boy as they fish-tailed around the road. On the way back to town they both calmed down, but the girl still held on so tightly that the boy decided he had been wrong about her after all. As they came closer and closer to her house, he tried to think of a way to impress her.
They pulled up in front of the house and the boy said, "I'll make sure it's safe first." He left the keys in the ignition but locked the door as he got out. He came around to her side to politely open the door, like a hero.
For a long time he just stood there, looking down at the door. At first the girl couldn't figure out what was wrong; then she realized that her door was still locked. She smiled and unlocked it.
The boy still just stood there.
The girl looked puzzled and rolled down her window. Then she saw that the boy was looking down at the door handle. She slowly looked down herself.
A long splatter of blood ran across the door all the way to the back bumper. Hanging from the door handle was a stainless steel hook.