Peanut and the Butcher...

Peanut and the Butcher… is a short story about Peanut that is contained on ten framed pages in the first puzzle room the player encounters. It takes place at night as Peanut explores his neighborhood after his babysitter falls asleep but before his mother returns home. Some elements are exagerrated and many inanimate objects are given life and are described in such a way that they appear to be living characters. The style of writing indicates this story was written by the artist.

Stanley
Stanley (aka Stan) is described as being ten feet tall with yellow stripes around his belly and chest. He is covered in fangs and claws and red eyes. Peanut imagines that he also has a wide, glowing smile. Chuck Carter revealed that Stanley was a bush in front of his house when he was a child.

The Butcher
The Butcher is a garbage truck.

MaryStone
MaryStone is friendly and is able to break the law of conservation of momentum in that she can start and stop a swing and its occupant at will.

Red and Yellow Eyes
Peanut described red and yellow eyes that watch and follow him from the woods. These are autumn leaves, and the rustle they make is interpreted as inviting whispers by Peanut.

Can Folk
The Can folk are street garbage bins.

The Boxer
The Boxer is described as having bright eyes that look straight ahead and slice through the fog. It also has a circling red eye on it. The Boxer is a police car.

NoWhere Man
The NoWhere man is a vagrant and a World War II veteran. During the war he commanded several tanks and eventually moved to automobile production until he was relieved of duty.

The Tedkins
Squirels?

Exact Text
'' [ Note: This text reproduces the story as it is presented in-game. Please compare with the in-game pages before making corrections. ] ''

Peanut and the Butcher…

Peanut waited until his babysitter went to sleep on the couch - he could always tell because she turned off the TV and promptly started snoring. He looked at the clock and it was close to midnight… It was time. He very quietly climbed out of the lower bunk, and tiptoed to the open window and looked out. His brother was sleeping in the top bunk while in the bed on the other side of the small room slept his baby sister. The leaves rustled with the warm breeze in the dark night of the small back yard. A dim green light shined on the garage door at the end of the driveway from the neighbors yard. He could see the sickly yellow street light on the next block though the fall colored trees.

It was unusually warm this fall night. The babysitter had done him a favor by opening the window before they went to bed. Peanut's routine had been the same now for almost 6 months. It started after all of the yelling and crying and sobbing had stopped. Which was right after his father left. Sometimes the sobbing he heard was not his mother. He didn't understand as he was only 6 years old when things changed. His world was crushed as his father was just gone. No goodbye, no I'll be back - no one to tuck him in. He was just gone and now Peanut did not sleep.

In a little more than a months time the US President John F. Kennedy would be assassinated. The world would change and Peanut would hardly notice except for his teachers, his babysitter and his mom would be crying and so upset over something he really didn't fully comprehend. But his dy life was pretty much consumed in a dreary, sleep deprived fog. Not sleeping for months now had begun to take its toll on him. His school life and grades suffered. while at the beginning of the year he was reading at a 6th grade level and getting straight "A"s. Now he was getting "D"s and "F"s. His teachers were worried.

He clambered out the window into the warm embrace of the night. The air smelled of the fallen leaves with just a faint hint of the now long gone dummer. Fall has a special scent to it and it washed over him and he felt comfort. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He felt…. good.

He looked up and could see stars. Brilliant whie points of light blotted out only by the leaves of the old tree in his backyard.

--

He quietly made his way around to the front of the house, and as usual Stanley was there. Stanley was big, 10 feet tall, dark and furry with a set of yellow stripes that went around his chest and belly. All fangs and claws and glowing red eyes. But when Stan saw Peanut he smiled and bent down and patted him gently on the head. Peanut smiled. Stanley said softley, with a touch of sadness in his deep gravely voice - Peanut - the butcher is out tonight. Be careful. And you remember the night watch rules - yes?

Peanut stood as tall as his little body could and said - Yes sir! Number one: Run and hide in the bushes if I see the lights of a car! Number Two: Run and hide in the bushes if I see a person, or the butcher!

Stanley looked at little peanut sadly and said, - you got it buddy. Be careful out there. I'll be right here if you need me.

Peanut then strode quietly down the street, aiming for the woods at the end. In the inky blackness there were pools of yellow light... street lights, casting black shadows fro, the trees and cars lined up and down the curb. Above long lines snaked up and down through the light from the power lines and telephone cables hanging loosely from pole to house to pole to house. Like some weird alternating zigzagging zipper holding the street together from 20 feet up. Disappearing into the total darkness between street lights.

He looked back at his own small house and saw Stanley standing like a large dark and striped bowling pin looking over to him with bright red eyes. He felt his heart lighten when Stanley flashed him his scary grin with what must have been a thousand glowing white teeth from the blackness of the fur around his big face, but they stretched so far that they looked like they went around his whole head… It was a little weird he thought.

Peanut turned and walked the quarter mile to the end of the street. The small houses that dotted his neighborhood were mostly dark. Every now and then he could hear the faint static buzz of a TV turned up too loud due to people falling asleep in front of them with stations going off the air to grey and black noise. In a couple of houses he could see a light or two on. But it was so quiet that the only sound he could otherwise hear was the rustle of the drying leaves above him.

For some reason this was peaceful for him - perfect. He felt complete in the quiet darkness of the street and it felt good.

--

At the end of the block, standing behind a rusted red and metal striped guardrail he looked up at a massive and dimly lit wall of trees. One of these days he was going to go in… but not tonight. Deeper in the trees were little red and yellow eyes staring and blinking and looking directly at him. He thought he could use the flashlight his dad used to have before attempting it. Instead he turned right and worked his way through the Freely's back yard to the next block. The glinting and glowing little eyes were following him in the woods to his left - quiet whispers reached his ears inviting him to come into the woods and play… but Stanley told him he should ignore those voices. Only bad things could come of it… So he came to Gully Street and Milligan Park. One lone light lit the playground on the other side, lighting the slide, teeter totter, roundabout and swings. And on the swings he could make out the small white form of MaryStone.

MaryStone was small and round. Almost like a white ball with arms and legs and a long neck with a tiny head at the end. She had long red hair which in the faint light looked black. Her hair flew back and forth as she swung from one side of the swings to the other. It was almost as if she was flying. She went as high as you could imagine - any higher and she would fly over the swing set. Her laughter sounded like strange music as she went back and forth.

All of a sudden she just stopped swinging. No slowing down, not dragging her feet - she just stopped. Dead stop. Her small head and face turned and he could see her looking right at him. She smiled brightly in the dark playground. Still, he could see her clearly and she looked happy to see him - her little hands waved at him as she motioned him to come over.

Peanut started to cross the filed when to his left he saw Martin. Martin was in the shadows by the baseball backboard and was never happy about anything. He was squat and thick. And had six eyes stiking out of the top of his head which really wasn't much of a head as opposed to a bulge on the top f his body. He was almost spider like with four squat legs and two arm sticking out of the side of his torso - but he was harmless like a pile of old worn out ties. Just grumpy and sad.

Peanut said - Martin - come over to the swings and we can play with MaryStone. Martin just looked at him with those six eye stlaks glinting in the reflected street lighting. He said not tonight Peanut. The Butcher is out and I don't want to be here

--

if he comes around, you know what he does with folks like me. Peanut thought about asking him again but the idea that the butcher was out was a lot to think about and he did not want to push it with Martin.

So he ran over to the swings and saw MaryStone and smiled and said hi.

As he stopped, skidding in front of MaryStone she looked at him from her swing and said, Hellooooooo Peanut! My, you look so dapper in those Dr. Denton's tonight! Are those Superman jammies? And wow - what big muscles you have!

Peanut smiled hugely, his face lit up like a bright little star and leaning forward pointing to his arm, looking at MaryStone after checking to make sure no one else was around he said, It's just toilet paper I put in there to make it look like I have muscles. Then poking his arm with his little finger he says, See? Soft and fluffy!

MaryStone laughed! Well the Peanut - you sure folled me! Good for you!

Peanut was happy to see MaryStone - she was always nice to him and her voice was like listening to a piano - not that Peanut had ever seen a piano, but he imagines she sounded like one.

Magically MaryStone started to swing again - she was swinging up as high as you can go. He asked her how she did that and she said she just though really hard about moving your body sway from the top pole and close your eyes and imagine yourself swinging up and down. So while you're on the seat - it tries to move far away from the bar the chains are connected to and it swings.

Peanut thought for a moment... and closed his eyes and though really hard and suddenly the swing moved a tiny bit. He opened his eyes in amazement laughing and said out loud - did you see that?!?! Did you MaryStone?!?!? And she said yes I did Peanut - very good now close your eyes and do it again and try to think about going much higher. Think about the Butched chasing you and the swing if the only way to escape his huge smelly mouth!

Peanut gasped at the mental picture and closed his eyes and then slowly the swing started to move. Up and down - a foot at a time and soon he was as high as MaryStone and laughing so loud he was afraid he'd wake the people living next to the little park.

--

Look MaryStone - look!! I'm doing it! She laughed as they swung together so high he could see the street lamps over the houses on the next block... She said, Good Work Peanut!! You are doing great! See how easy it is if you just put your mind to it? His smile was as big as Stanley's! He continued to swing effortlessly back and forth.

They sung for what seemed like hours, laughing and telling jokes to each other. After a while, Peanut noticed a subtle change in the park - it was starting to get foggy. The pools of light from the few street lamps were turning into murky glowing blobs of yellow in the surrounding darkness - He knw what fog was because his mother always told him how fog scared her at night - that sometimes she felt things came out of the mist - scary things! MaryStone suddenly stopped. She waved her long arm and Peanut came to a stop as well - feeling nothing.

Peanut, she said - I think you should go home now. But Peanut replied... MaryStone - It's too early!

Suddenly a rora came out of the thickening fog. Like a low howling noise and big jaws snapping open and shut! The Butcher! He was still far away, and yet he struck fear into both MaryStone and Peanut! The sound of that roar scared everyone in Peanuts world.

Another rora blasted out of the foggy darkness... Just a little bit louder and closer. Then he could hear the faint yells of the Can folk. They were scared. Bits and pieces of banging could be heard as the can fold gave up their belongings.

MaryStone said, Peanut - you need to go home now! Ok! Ok! He agreed, as he did not want to be caught by the butcher and his henchmen. So he started to run down to the ball diamond. When he turned to look at MaryStone he saw she was gone. And he then looked for Martin - he was gone too. So he ran and ran.

When he got to the side street at the end of the park, all the light was gone. Just faint pools of glowing yellow orbs above dark streets. Suddenly he saw the dim top of a red eyed black and white boxer coming down his street - its bright eyes shining straight ahead like knives slicing through the now thck fog. Quickly he jumped into the bushes next to the park entrance. The Boxer's red eye was glowing - circling around like a dangerous

--

red lighthouse in the fog from one of the children's stories his mother read to him. It saw everything he was sure of it!

As it started to pass Peanut, now laying low under the bush, it stopped right in front of him! Then it opened another eye from its side and the light from it cut over him as it passed through the bushes he was hiding in. He thought he was a goner but after a few seconds it moved on to the park where the brightness was swallowed by the dark fog of the fields behind him.

Just as fast as it appeared, it was gone. Disappearing into the blackness that now was almost total. It's red eye and the two little ones in the back faded too. Even the glow of the street lamps above were almost invisible. Peanut stood up and started walking again to his house, when suddenly the quickly forgotten Butcher was right in front of him. It's huge eyes glaring at him from the darkness and it roared so loud that he almost flew out of his skin! He could hear the can folk yelling from behind the huge head as the butchers maw was grinding up and down the other side of those huge bright eyes! And so were the henchmen - smallish creatures with huge leather hands and big arms! They were picking up the poor can folk and crashing them into the mouth of the monstrous beast then throwing them back into the lawns behind it!

Peanut turned and ran and ran as fast as he could in his Superman Dr. Centons. He shot back down through the foggy park and out the other side at the End Street forest. He couldn't see where he was be he knew the streets so well he could find his way blindfolded. He stopped once again at the great wall of trees. Behind him he could hear the butcheer closing in as it cut through the park after him to the end of the street.

Once in the forest he noticed the Tedkins were running away - little voices yelling in fear. The Butcher is coming, the Butcher is coming, came from the darkness! Peanut made a decision - he was going into the forest. He had no choice now.

He stepped behind the large trunks of the first row of trees, squeezing from between trees growing think and large. He stumbled around in the darkness for what seemed like forever, thin slivers of faint shadowy Butcher light cutting through the darkness and fog behind him. He stumbled around until he found a path - more likely sensed it and finding no more trees to block his way - he ran on!

--

After what seemed like hours he ran, he passed by dark ponds with frogs croaking and the mosquitoes were thick and biting! He kept running until he came to a small long hill and once at the top, it has huge metal rails running over it, stretching to the left and right for what seemed like forever. It must be a railroad he thought - like the toy trains and the rails they ran on that his neighbor Steve had, only much, much bigger.

He climbed up and over it and as he started going down the other side, he suddenly skidded to a stop when he saw a huge man sitting next to a fire on a big rock warming his hands over the flames. A small tent with a pole at each end and a line between them with the tent wrapped over. There a couple of blankets under it and cans of corn and beans laying every where. A pile of wood lay next to the fire.

The man stood up and he was so big! And he looked at Peanut like he was a ghost in Superman Dr. Dentons. Then Peanut noticed there were things flying and buzzing around him. Catching the light from the flames of the fire in their wings - dozens of dragon flies! They were zigzagging all around him circling this way and that and never once landing on him. They were almost moving as if they were dancing - they were beautiful the way they sparkled in the fire light, fog and darkness.

He looked down at Peanut and Peanut saw big dark eyes looking him up and down and strange man asked, who are you and do your parents know you are out in the End Street forest in the middle of the night?

His voice was loud but gentle. Peanut told him his name and that he had to be out at night because no one yelled and it was so quiet and nice and dark and there were mostly no people around. The huge man sat down again and said - sit over there by the fire.

Peanut did so and then the man spoke again. Im the NoWhere Man. I have a story to tell you.

Peanut say there... And the NoWhere Man told him a story.

He was once a great king who made hige machines that were used to fight creatures called Nazis in something called a world war. Peanut had never heard of such things so he just sat there and listened.

--

He had an army that made things called tanks. Huge monsters that could shoot things out of their giant snouts and they had a way to crawl over everything in their path. He was ing of the tanks for many years.

When the World War was over he started making Boxers... But these were different than the one with the hige red eye. These were used so people could go from one place to another. His parents had one and he always fell asleep when ever they took him in one.

One day a bigger king came to his kingdom and told him it was time to go. He was no longer needed because they were done making tanks and the Boxers were being moved to another kingdom. The NoWhere man was sad... He told Peanut that this changed his life. With no tanks or Boxers to make he could not find another kingdom to rule and somehow he lost his family and moved to a place called California.

When Peanut found him, he was sitting here by the tracks waiting for a train to carry him back to his wife and kids and maybe in California he might find another kingdom to rule, maybe even make some new tanks.

He seemed very sad. Peanut felt bad for him, he knew a little about losing part of your family. The NoWhere man grew quiet for a moment. Peanut once again noticed the dragon-flies flittering around him and asked him how he did that. The NoWhere Man said that he some how had a power to control them. Maybe it was something only kings could do. He told Peanut that they kept the mosquitoes from biting him and that was all he knew. But he liked them and when he slept they would land on him and rest with him. He called them his shiny shield and they were like his only friends. Peanut thought for a second thinking that was kind of cool.

Suddenly off in the distance a train whistle blew, still far off in the foggy night but moving towards them. The NoWhere Man jumped up and grabbed his tent off the pole and laid it out flat. He then piled all of his belongings on it, the cans of food, blankets and a couple little odds and ends. He wrapped and tied everything up in a neat tody little package and pulled the poles from the ground and put it through the end of the tent bag and threw the thing on his shoulder.

He started to climb back up the little railroad hill when he stopped. He reached into his pocket and searched around for a bit

--

- his pants were really looose and for the first time Peanut noticed how skinny the man was. It was the loose clothes and old patched up suit jacket that made him look huge. He pulled out a small silver tank on a chain and handed it to Peanut. Take this he said to remember me by. It was my son's once a long time ago. Now you go home and get to bed young man. Peanut just looked at the small toy and shook his head yes and watched as the NoWhere Man climbed up the small hill to just below the tracks and out of site of the rail.

The train whistled again but now it was a roar. It almost sounded like the Butcher but it only had one eye in front and was squat and smooth in front, it had a friendly, but stern face... Not like the blunt, grey and blue, scary butcher. It looked like the toy trains his friend Steve had but looked content and really huge.

Finally it passed by him in a stream of flying leaves and dust with a deafening chuk - a - chuk - chuk - a - chuk of the wheels on the rais made him close his eyes and wince. The NoWhere Man ran up to the top of the hill and started to run after the train... He caught up to a big red train boxer and jumped up, like magic it seemed and was suddenly up inside the opening of the big boxer with his tent pack. He looked one last time at Peanut and waved. He could hear him yell, nice to meet you Peanut - go to bed! Then he was gone.

Just as fast as it arrived it disappeared and it was dark and foggy again. Peanut turned around to see if the NoWhere Man left anything behind and was surprised that the fire was gone, with no wood and no sign that anyone was ever here but Peanut. Just darkness and black bushes. A lone Dragon Fly landed on Peanuts shoulder for a second and took off heading quickly down the tracks into the darkness. It was so quiet. Not a sound except what may have been wind chimes tinkling faintly and far off in the distance like the onces his grandmother had.

The fog was lifting finally and a faint light was coming up in the sky. It was time Peanut went home. His mother would be there by the time the sun came up So he ran back over the hill and onto the path. He could see the Tedkins standing by the trees but they did not bother him for some reason. As he got closer to them they started to fade and blend into the still dark woods.

He finally emerged out of the trees and was standing at the end of his street. Farther down the street was a green porch light

--

like a creepy goblin eye looking for food in the still slightly foggy night... But lucky for peanut it was a few houses past his own. He saw nor heard any sign of the butcher and that was a relief.

He rushed back to his house and Stanley was there. I see you got away from the Butcher, eh Peanut? Yes sit, I did said Peanut. Stanley said you better huurry and get back inside before your mom gets home. Good night Stanley, Peanut said as he ran around to the back yard and climbed into the window and suck quietly into bed. Before he could pull up his covers all the way to his chin he was sound asleep in the lower bunk, his brother snoring quietly above him and his sister sound asleep with her arm hanging out of her crib and her baby face squished against the rails.

Just another night in Peanuts world.