‘John! Johnny! Wake up!’

‘Huh? What?’ He sat up, his hair all tangled tufts and clock-springs.

‘It’s started,’ she said, and giggled shrilly. ‘The rain of frogs.’

‘Toads,’ he corrected. ‘Ellie, what are you talking ab…’

Thud-thud.

He looked around, then swung his feet out of bed.

‘This is ridiculous,’ he said softly and angrily.

‘What do you m…’

Thud-CRASH! There was a tinkle of glass downstairs.

‘Oh, goddam,’ he said, getting up and yanking on his blue-jeans. ‘Enough. This is just…  fucking… enough.’

Several soft thuds hit the side of the house and the roof. She cringed against him, frightened now. ‘ ‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean that crazy woman and probably the old man and some of their friends are out there throwing things at the house,’ he said, ‘and I am going to put a stop to it right now. Maybe they’ve held onto the custom of shivareeing the new folks in this little town, but…’ THUD! SMASH! From the kitchen.

‘God-DAMN!’ John yelled, and ran out into the hall.

‘Don’t leave me!’ Elise cried, and ran after him.

He flicked up the hallway light-switch before plunging downstairs. Soft thumps and thuds struck the house in an increasing rhythm, and Elise had time to think, How many people from town are out there? How many does it take to do that? And what are they throwing? Rocks wrapped in pillowcases?

John reached the foot of the stairs and went into the living room. There was a large window in there, which gave on the same view, which they had admired earlier. The window was broken.

Shards and splinters of glass lay scattered across the rug. He started toward the window, meaning to yell something at them about how he was going to get his shotgun. Then he looked at the broken glass again, remembered that his feet were bare, and stopped. For a moment he didn’t know what to do. Then he saw a dark shape lying in the broken glass – the rock one of the imbecilic, interbred bastards had used to break the window, he assumed – and saw red. He might have charged to the window anyway, bare feet or no bare feet, but just then the rock twitched.