*****
It was mid-afternoon by the time Uncle Jeff dropped the boys off and they knew they had better clean up the kitchen before their mother got home. It didn’t take long. Lex washed and Ricky dried the dishes and swept the floor. By the time Ricky was finished his end of the bargain, Lex had already planted himself in front of the flat screen and hogged the Playstation in the living room. Ricky wasn’t interested in fighting about the game today, so he threw on his jacket and grabbed his shoes headed back through the living room through the sliding glass door to the to the deck out back. The rectangular, aged grey cedar deck extended from corner to corner, the entire width of the back of the house. He stood there for a moment looking through the sliding glass door into the living room where Lex sat on the couch less than twenty feet away. Lex must have caught Ricky’s movement out of his periphery vision because he turned and smiled briefly at him before returning to his game. Ricky took a couple of steps back and sat on the bench attached to the railing that ran along the whole outside boundary of the deck, and laced up his running shoes. Ricky was grateful for one more day with Lex the way it used to be.
Next week he was starting at a new school with no friends and for the first time, no big brother to look out for him. Ricky felt a chill and stood to zip up his jacket thinking it was much colder up here than in the city for this time of year. Theirs was one of only six houses scattered along a gravel road maybe three soccer fields long, carved out of a forest that loomed all around. The backyard was long and there was no real separation from their property to the adjacent field they trekked across to take the trail into the bush. Although it wasn’t yet 3:00 it seemed like dusk wasn’t far off because the sun was cresting the Coast Mountains to the west, casting long shadows that didn’t seem right for the strength of the light.
As Ricky surveyed the area a familiar odor beckoned his subconscious and he noticed the empty doghouse at the back of the yard. He was crestfallen when he learned that his parents were splitting up and he would be moving so far away from his father. The double tragedy was in losing his golden retriever, Ginger. He wanted to bring her with him but mom said it was impossible because they had enough challenges moving to a new place and all. Ricky slowly approached the old white paint flecked, tarpaper shingled doghouse feeling all melancholy about his Ginger girl. He was thinking that it must have been made for a large dog but a long time ago and noticed a small fist sized shape giving a reddish glow deep in the shadows of the doghouse. Ricky bent down and reached in to pull out a smooth, dark red lava stone just like the three he had already collected from the pile in the bush off the trail. He stood up and looked into the forest behind the doghouse holding the stone cupped in his hands one over the other feeling the heat that still radiated from it, but he was not afraid.
A Guest for Halloween: A Lex & Ricky Mystery Page 4