by Rusty Kontos
“Are you ready?” Sally asked.
“I can’t go yet. I got to do my chores first.” Nickole sighed.
“Great. I snuck out on mine. Well how long?” Sally asked agitated.
“At least an hour. If I hurry.” Nickole told her.
“Okay, I’ll just take this stuff over to the hideout and get started on it. When you get done, you can help me finish it.” Sally told her.
“I don’t know, don’t you think you should just wait for me? On the other hand, you could help me do my chores, and then I can be done faster! What do you think?” Nickole said with a little smile.
“I think you’re nuts if you think I’m going to do your chores and have to go home and do mine, too!” Sally said with a scrunched look on her face.
“Well, I would help you with yours when we got back. I thought you might not want to be there alone, that’s all.” Nickole answered.
“Don’t act like an ass. I’m not afraid to be there alone. You just hurry up.” Sally said with a stubborn look.
“I will be there as soon as I get done. See ya.” Nickole said as she turned and went back into her house. She gave Sally a little wave before she went inside.
“I’ll be waiting!” Sally called out as she rode down the driveway. Sally crossed the street and into the park. She stopped her bike at the shack’s door and got off. She unloaded the boxes and the other things she had in the basket of her bike. She hid her bike and wagon in some bushes nearby. She didn’t want anyone to see what she was doing. She was afraid it would get back to her brother. She nailed up a long string of wire. She took out Old Bones and hung the
skeleton on the wire. She stood on an old barrel, attaching another piece of wire with a pulley on the
end. She attached the other end to the door so when someone opened the door, it would make Old Bones roll toward the person opening the door. She giggled with the thought of how it would scare her brother and his friends. She heard the door squeak as it opened.
“Boy, am I glad you’re here. You sure got your chores done fast. Wait until you see how he works.” Sally said with her back to the door.
“I’m glad I am here, too. I finally have you to myself,” a man’s voice said. Sally’s heart leaped as
she could feel a knot tie quickly in her stomach. She snapped her head around to see the tall man standing
in the doorway.
“Who in the hell are you?!” Sally snapped.
“I’m your boyfriend,” he laughed.
“You’re nuts. You had better get out of here. My Dad will be here any minute. He will kick your ass if he hears you talking to me like this.”
“Uh, you are lying, doll. Your Daddy is at work like all other Daddy’s in this one-horse town.”
“No, he ain’t. He stayed home today.” Sally said with panic in her voice.
“You are lying. I saw him leave this morning,” he said shaking his head as he started walking toward Sally.
“You had better stay away!” Sally yelled at him. She threw the hammer at him as he reached for her. It hit him on the shoulder.
“Ouch, you’re a wild little bitch, aren’t you? I like that. Come here!” He said as he lunged at her grabbing her by the hair. He yanked her off the barrel. She screamed, kicked, and scratched at his face, trying to fight back as hard as she could. She was no match for him. He hit her hard with his fist. Her glasses flew off her face to the floor. She felt herself feeling faint from the pain she had in her head as he drug her by the hair out of the shack into the woods. He threw her to the ground on top of a pile of leaves, next to a large tree log that had fell to the ground some time ago. She was about fifty feet behind the old tool shack. He checked to make sure no one noticed. He made sure no one was around. He wanted to torture her as he did to the others. He plunged his knife into her chest, gutting her, as a hunter would do with a deer. He cut her heart out, wiped his knife on the leaves. He went over to the lake and washed off Sally’s blood. He went back to
Sally’s body, covered her with the brown, crisp, fall leaves that were on the ground. They quickly became
saturated with Sally’s blood. He wrapped Sally’s heart in his hanky and put it a brown paper bag. He made sure that there was no one in sight as he exited the park.
NICKOLE HAD JUST FINISHED her chores. She glanced up at the kitchen wall clock. “Darn it’s almost five o’clock. Sally is really going to mad at me.” She said aloud to herself.
“Who are you talking to? Who is going to be mad at
you?” Her little sister, Tiena asked as she climbed on a chair at the kitchen table.
“Nobody. I was just talking to myself.” Nickole answered.
“Papa says people who talks to their self is crazy. Are you crazy?” She giggled.
“No I’m not crazy. There are people who talk to themselves and answer back. Those are the people that are crazy.” Nickole informed her.”
“Well, do you answer yourself?” Tiena giggled again.
“No, you little monkey!” Nickole said as she tickled Tiena under the arms, making her giggle louder with delight. “I have to go meet Sally now. I am already fifteen minutes late. Mama, I finished. May I go now?” Nickole called out to her mother who was dusting the living room.
“Okay. But you need to be back here by six-thirty to take your brother and sister begging with you,” her mother called back.
“I will. I am going now. Bye, Mama.” Nickole said as she hurried out the back door.
She jumped on her bike and rode off for the park to meet Sally. Nickole got off her bike. She put the kickstand down with her foot. She looked around. She didn’t see Sally’s bike or wagon. “Geeze, I hope she didn’t go home.” Nickole thought to herself.
“Sally, are you here? Where are you? You better not be messing with me. I know I’m late, but you know it wasn’t my fault. Come on Sally!” Nickole called out as she opened the tool shed’s door. She looked around the room. She saw Old Bones hanging on the wire. “Sally, are you hiding to play a trick on me? Ah, come on Sally, you had your fun. Come on. It’s not funny anymore.” Nickole said as she started to get a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. She moved toward Old Bones. She felt glass crunch under her foot. She looked down to the floor to see what it was she stepped on. A cold chill ran down her spine as she picked up Sally’s broken glasses. One of the lenses was what Nickole had stepped on; the frames were just a few inches away under the old workbench. Nickole picked up the frames and felt a sticky substance on the nosepiece as she gave her fingers and glass frames a closer look. She could see it was blood.
“Oh Sally, what have you gotten yourself in now?” Nickole whispered to herself. Suddenly, she heard a
twig snap and the sound of crunching leaves from someone’s footsteps. Nickole was overcome by fear
and panic. She stood up and bolted for the door. She jumped on her bike and peddled as fast as her legs would go. Her heart was pounding in her chest. Tears welled in her eyes, making everything a blur. She raced across the street. A car skidded as the driver slammed on his brakes and horn blaring as he barely missed hitting her. “Stupid kid!” He yelled out his window at Nickole. Nickole never saw or heard him.
She dropped her bike by the back porch steps. She frantically ran into her house. “Mama! Mama!” She screamed.
He mother came running from the dining room. “What is it?! What’s wrong honey?!” She asked as she held Nickole by the shoulders.
Nickole could hardly talk as she tried desperately to
catch her breath. “Maaama, it’s Sally. I think something bad has happened to her, look.” Nickole panted as she held out Sally’s broken, bloody glasses.
“Oh my! Maybe she just fell down and broke them and she probably is at home.” Her mother tried to assure her.
“No Mama, Sally can’t see two feet in front of herself without her glasses. If she did try to get home, she could have fallen in the lake or went deep into the woods! She could be lost somewhere!�
�� Nickole cried. “Please mama, we have to do something!” Nickole cried pleading with her.
“You calm down. I am going to call Sally’s mother.” Mary sat Nickole down on a dining room chair. She went to the phone in the living room to call Sally’s mother, Kate. In a worried panic, Kate came over to
Mary’s house to question Nickole. She had talked to Nickole asking every little detail. It was now five-thirty. Kate called her husband at his job. He drove home with Benny. He too had left work because they took turns driving each other to work.
John and Benny drove into the driveway. Mary and Kate met them. “Did you call the police?” John asked his wife as he got out of the car.
“No, not yet. I thought we should look for her first.” Kate said, trying to be brave.
“Go into the house and call them. Benny and I will go look for her. After you call the police, call around to some of the neighbors. Ask if anyone has seen her.” John said as he and Benny started for the park.
The police showed up twenty minutes later. The sun was going down fast, it would be dark soon. Other men from the neighborhood joined the police. There were no little trick or treaters out on the streets. Mothers were afraid to take their children out of their homes. They feared the lunatic that killed the Blake woman as well as the other killings in the nearby towns, might have killed Sally. Men joined in the search for Sally from the mill where her father worked. The park was full of more than two hundred searchers. They carried lanterns and flashlights. They called Sally’s name as they slowly searched the park. Sally’s brother came home when he heard about her on the radio when at his friend’s home. He and all his friends searched through the night for Sally. The police called off the search a little after midnight informing everyone they could come back at first light.
Equipment was being pulled out in case they needed to drag the lake. Benny, John Malone and his son, Danny, decided to take flashlights and keep looking.
Nickole begged her parents to let her go with them. “Please, Papa, please. Let me go. Sally is my best friend. I need to help find her. Please let me, just for a little while?” Nickole pleaded.
Benny looked over to her worried mother. “Let her go, Mary. She will be okay. She will have the three of us to look out for her,” Benny smiled at Mary.
“Yes, Mary, please let her go. She can show us places where they go and play.” Sally’s father spoke up.
“All right, but you go and put a sweater on. It is getting chilly out there.”
“Thank you, Mama.” Nickole said as she ran upstairs to get a sweater.
“Can I go, too?” Paul spoke up with his pleading brown eyes.
“No. You may not. You are much too young to be out so late.”
“Darn. I never get to do anything,” Paul grumbled in protest.
“Paul, you heard your mother. No means no! Now you apologize to your mother. Go upstairs to your room and get ready for bed, young man!” Benny said sternly. Paul apologized to his mother and stomped off to his room pouting.
Mary stayed with Kate who was staring blankly out Mary’s living room window. Her face filled with tears, and red from crying. Her face looked painfully heart-broken from worry over her missing child.
Nickole, her father and the Malone’s crossed the street to the park. A young police officer stepped in
front of them.
“Sorry folks, I have orders to stop everyone. The park is closed to the public.” The officer stated with authority.
“We came to keep searching for my daughter,” John said firmly.
“I’m sorry, sir. I have my orders. You cannot go in,” the young officer told them.
“Young man, I don’t give a damn what your orders are. We are going in, so if you want to call your boss, you call him. Tell him from me that we pay your salaries with our tax money, so you work for us, and that means we are your boss, so step aside. We are going in!” John said holding back his anger. The young officer stepped aside to let them pass. Then he went to his car to use his radio to tell his watch commander what had just happened.
Nickole led the way to the tool shack. She showed Sally’s father, as well as her father, where she found Sally’s glasses. Danny walked around to one side of the shack. His light caught a glimpse of something shining. He went into the bushes to investigate.
“Dad! Mr. Martino! Come quick!” He shouted. John and Benny ran out of the shack. Nickole followed close behind.
“Did you find her?” John said with his heart pounding as he called to his son. He stopped short. A knot tightened in his stomach. He saw his son pulling Sally’s bike and Radio Flyer wagon from the bushes.
“No Dad, just Sally’s bike,” Danny said sadly.
Benny put his hand on John’s shoulder. This means she is still here in the park somewhere.” Benny said in a low voice. “We have got to keep looking. My little girl may be laying somewhere hurt, or....” His voice broke off as tears filled his eyes at the thought
she may even be dead. Then he called out as loud as he could, “Sally! Sally! Daddy is here, Baby, please answer me, Sally!”
Benny still held his hand on John’s shoulder. He could feel John’s whole body shaking. “John, let’s go back to my house and get some hot coffee. It will be light in a few more hours. Then we can start looking again. Come on, we can do more when it is light outside. We are just walking around blind right now. The flash lights aren’t giving us enough light to see into the woods.” Benny said, trying to comfort and calm John as he sobbed out of control.
“Mr. Martino is right, Dad. We need more light. Let’s do as he says. We can come back in a few hours. I think Mom needs us to be with her right now, please Dad? Listen to Mr. Martino.” Danny said as he held back his tears.
“All of us will look for Sally.” Nickole spoke up also crying.
The four of them left the park, back to the Martino house. Danny pushed Sally’s bike and wagon as he followed close behind on the path. Kate saw them as they crossed the street under the streetlights. She turned from the window to where Mary sat on the sofa. “Mary, I think they found her. I see her bike,” she said with joyful excitement in her voice as she raced to the front door, running down the steps to meet them as they walked up the driveway. “John, you found her? Sally honey, where are you?” Then she saw her son pushing the empty bike and the old Radio Flyer wagon rattling close behind. Her heart sank as she realized that Sally was not with them. She fell to her knees weeping. John went to her, kneeling down he put his arms around her. They clung to each other as they both wept.
“I’ll just take Sally’s bike home.” Danny said in a solemn voice.
“Wait up, Danny. “I’ll come with you. I mean if it is okay with Papa.” She said looking at her father.
“Go ahead, but you come right back.” Benny said.
“Thank you, Papa.” Nickole said as she followed Danny over to his father’s garage where he put Sally’s bike and wagon away.
Benny and Mary helped John and his wife, Kate, into their house. Mary put on a fresh pot of coffee. Nickole and Danny came in the back door. Danny went to the table and sat down across the kitchen table from his parents. Nickole sat down next to Danny. It was Mary who broke the silence. “How about I fix everyone some ham and eggs to go with the coffee? If you guys are going back in a few hours, you need to eat to keep up your strength.”
“That sounds nice honey. I could go for something about now.” Benny spoke quietly.
“John and I have not had dinner. I know he must be as hungry as I am.” Benny added, trying to change the gloomy mood in the room. He knew what they were feeling because he had felt hopeless and helpless when he lost his brother and his parents.
“Danny, I bet a growing young man like you could eat some eggs and ham.” Mary said as she pulled a basket of eggs from the icebox.
“Yes, Ma’am. I am a little hungry.” Danny said.
“I’ll help you, Mama.” Nickole said as she got off her chair and walked over to the sto
ve.
“Oh, honey, aren’t you tired?” Her mother asked.
“I need to help.” Nickole said sounding like a grown up.
“OK, you can break the eggs into bowl and I will slice the ham.” Mary said as she gave her a little smile.
Everyone sat at the table eating in silence. Kate barely touched her food. She just sipped on her coffee and stared at the clock on the wall. Nickole and her mother cleared the dishes and filled the coffee cups with fresh coffee. Suddenly the silence was broken with the sounds of people’s voices and loud engine sounds of trucks and cars. Kate got up and went to the living room window to look out and see what was going on. Mary and the others joined at the window.
“What is all the noise?” Mary asked.
“It’s the police and searchers. They brought in the boats to drag the lake. They think my baby is dead?” Kate cried.
“No, no, Kate, they just have to make sure, that’s all. Look at the people out there. They are searchers that are going to cover the whole park and we are all going to join them soon.” Mary said as she tried to sooth Kate to calm her down.
“Mary is right, honey. Come on, let’s get out there. It is starting to get light outside.” John told her as he put his arms around her. A knock came to the front door. Benny went to the door to see who it was. Benny opened the door and found his next door neighbor, Mrs. Portman, an elderly widow in her late sixties.
“Hello, Mr. Martino. I came over to see if I can help in some way.” She smiled at him with her gentle blue eyes full of honest concern.
“Why yes there is something you can for do us,” Mary interrupted Benny before he could answer as
she stepped up from behind him.
“Well that’s why I am here. I’m too old to walk the woods, so I thought maybe I could help in some other way.”
“Oh yes, would it be too much to ask if you could stay with my two youngest children while we go on the search?” Mary asked.