The Haunted_Edit Copy 4-9-17 final final 5 Upload

I sank back into the chair and allowed my eyes to flick over
to Tucker. He had stopped watching me and was gazing blankly at
the screen. I wondered what was going on in his mind, and then
sadness gave me a sharp stab in the heart when I realized how
strange it was to not know. Then he glanced at me and gave me a
heartbreaking little smile. Ouch.
Poor Gunner was caught in the crossfire of way too much
tension. After a few minutes he put the pendulum down on top of its
little bag and stood up. “You guys want to roast marshmallows?”
“Over the stove?” Tucker asked, finally breaking our gaze to
look at my brother.
“No, we can use a lighter and do it right here. Hang on.”
Gunner disappeared into the kitchen. When he returned, the promise
of food proved to be enough to lure Trouble back into the room,
because the dog was right at his heels. He had to hold the bag of
marshmallows up by his shoulder to keep it safe.
Gunner paused to hand a fork and a marshmallow to me, and
then continued over to his seat on the couch beside Tucker. Trouble
plopped down next to me, eyeballing my marshmallow like it was a
four-course meal.
“Didn’t Gun feed you?” I asked him, reaching over with my
free hand to scratch behind his ears.
“I always feed him. And he’s always hungry anyway.”
Gunner rolled his eyes as he stabbed another marshmallow and
handed the fork to Tucker. Then he speared his own ‘mallow and
took our kitchen lighter out of his pocket. He raised the flame to the
marshmallow and made sure he browned all the sides of it before
passing the lighter on to Tucker.
“See, this way you eat all the crispy parts off and then you
go through and do it again.” He tried to smile and eat the
marshmallow at the same time, but it resulted in white goop all over
his top lip. He jumped back, licking at it with his tongue like a dog.
“Crap, that’s hot.”
I laughed in spite of the situation, and even Tucker cracked
a little smile as he toasted his own marshmallow. It faded quickly as
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