Ghouly

We drove through beautiful Walker Pass, Kern, etc. and down Highway 99 (pah!) for awhile,^([sic]) and across to 33 and through the Los Padres National Forest. There is a ghouly feeling of alarming hostile vibrations in many parts of Los Padres. We struck one of those at twilight and drove through it, not wanting at all to stop, but we did have to stop for the night, choosing some higher ground, with a tremendous view, and after a Pipe in Tioga, we felt protected and able to keep apprehension at bay.

A finger tapped him lightly from behind, / And Jackie turned quite suddenly to greet / A ghouly stranger with a corpse-like face, / Who left a box, then faded from the place.

And for the sentimental among you, the trusty old Succubus (that’s a submarine not a ghouly undead thing in a skimpy negligee) is apparently still around somewhere.

To impress the leader of the Goths, a ghouly senior who wore a trench coat and painted his nails black, Michael stole a fax machine from his father and gave it to him.

He’d asked, ‘What do you mean? Of course they see you when you’re there, right in front of them.’ / ‘It’s because they don’t want to see you, sucker,’ Freya had answered. ‘So you give them the chance. We’re part of the other. No one wants to recognize the other.’ She’d given the words a ghouly quaver. ‘Makes them nervous.’