vignette: zombie

It was Charlie, in a fit of inhuman brilliance, that christened the strange new girl “yucky Zombie”.

It was something only someone like him could come up with – Charlie was like that - though all the kids we knew, ourselves included, had nicknames like that. The girl was new because she and her mom had just moved into the old house that used to belong to the de Vera’s; it had been abandoned for years and Charlie and I had decided it was because it was haunted.

The girl was strange because she looked strange. Her left eye bigger than the other, her hair was usually tangled and mussed up, and she had an odd way of walking. She didn’t walk, she shambled. All these were evidence enough for Charlie that she was one of the undead.