Unsettling Laugh

Photo by Christian Holzinger on Unsplash

It was an unsettling laugh that had a deep shrillness to it. Ralph didn’t like the sound of it or how it went through his insides and up his body, from the bottom of his toes all the way to the tops of his ears. He shuddered, dropped the small bag of cheese-puffs he held, and looked around the chip aisle to see from where the noise was coming.

There was a frantic mother throwing every bag of popcorn, pretzel and potato chip in her…