Fracture After Dark

by Shawn Jolley

  "Did you recognize them? The person?" Eden knew he was pushing it, but this was the question he wanted answered most.

  "No. You still hungry?" asked Dustin. "I have some chips if you want them." He took a bag of potato chips out of his backpack and tossed them to Eden.

  "Thanks," he said while opening them. He loved plain potato chips more than any other type of food. They ate for a few minutes and Eden asked, "Have you told anyone?"

  "No. Have you?"

  "No." The thought was comforting. "Want to know what was in the bag?" he asked through a mouthful of chips. He couldn't believe he had said it.

  Dustin stopped chewing and looked up with furrowed eyebrows. Eden raised his hands in defense. "I don't know. I didn’t look. But," he added, "don't you want to know?" He didn't know why he was obsessed with going out into the field. The idea didn't feel like his own.

  He turned away from Dustin and swallowed the last of the chips just as the bell rang. They stood up, and Dustin said, "I wish the principal had just sent us home." He opened the front door and Eden disappointedly followed him into the hallway. They walked down the hall to the classroom but just before they went in Dustin turned to Eden and said, "Of course, I want to know."

  Eden smiled and realized it was the first time he had since moving. He tried his best to ignore thinking that his mom had been right. She was, but he wasn't going to tell her. He wondered if telling her she was right was the same thing as thanking her.

  They were the last ones to sit down, but Principal Bolt wasn’t there to lecture them about punctuality. He arrived two minutes later and made the class watch another movie about dinosaurs before the final bell rang. Eden waited by the classroom door for Dustin to finish putting his pencils and notebooks away (which he had taken out for show more than anything else).

  The Veres twins were the last ones to leave besides Dustin, and they giggled as they passed Eden. He smiled and pretended he didn't think they were laughing at him. For all he knew, they weren't.

  Dustin finally caught up, and they headed out the front door. It was still hot, but a rare breeze was blowing from the south. Eden only saw a few of the other kids walking home. He saw a dingy yellow bus heading the opposite way from where they were going.

  "Where does everyone else live?"

  "On the north end of town near the factory. A few live out our way." He sounded disinterested. Their feet scraped along the sidewalk as they walked.

  "Does a girl live by you?" The question had just popped into Eden's head.

  Dustin looked up. "What?"

  Eden felt stupid for bring it up. "My mom said she thought a girl our age lived near you."

  Dustin shook his head. Eden wondered if his mom had mistaken Dustin for a girl at a distance because of his blond hair and skinny build. They walked along Main Street, then Ardburn Avenue, toward the blue house and the dirt road which led to Dustin’s trailer.

  At the corner of Eden's yard, Dustin asked, "Are we doing what I think we're doing?"

  "Yeah." Eden thought for a second. "I need to tell my mom I'll be at your place." He knew she would be thrilled. He ran inside the house, while Dustin waited on the dirt road. He called for his mom from the front room, but nobody answered. The car wasn't in the garage when he checked so he went back outside and told Dustin they could go. They walked to his trailer, both avoiding looking at the field.

  When they entered the trailer park, Eden got the feeling that Dustin didn’t want him to come inside, so he stopped near the front door. They had only known each other for a day, but he figured from the yelling the previous night that his Aunt Heather wasn't someone he wanted to meet if he could help it.

  He looked at the cluster of trailers around him, but nobody was outside, and all the structures looked like they had been abandoned for years. A partially hidden rusty old truck stood in some tall weeds next to the farthest one.

  The screen door clanged shut behind him and he turned around to see Dustin waving a bag of beef jerky in his face. Eden grabbed the bag and read the label. "Super Beef, 75% more!" He wondered, more than what? He took two pieces out of the bag and handed it back to Dustin, who was chewing on some already. It tasted better than the school meatloaf, but not the potato chips.

  Dustin squinted at Eden. "I told her I'd be at your house."

  "Good thinking. And thanks for the jerky."

  "No problem," said Dustin. He took out the last piece and shoved the bag into his front pocket. "If we're really going to do this, I’m going to grab the shovel."

  Eden nibbled on a piece of jerky while Dustin ran to the side of the trailer. Staring after his new friend, he wondered what it would be like to not have any parents. Dustin came back with the same wooden shovel they had made their pact on the night before. He propped it on his shoulder so that he looked like a toy soldier carrying a musket. Eden looked across the field to see if anyone was there. Nobody was that he could see.

  "Should we cross here?" asked Eden.

  "Let's go back up to your house. It's closer there."

  They walked back up the dirt road in silence until they came to the spot where they had been the day before. The basketball was still sitting in the ditch next to the fence. Eden picked it up and threw it toward the blue house so he would remember it later. He looked over at Dustin who was scanning the tree line across the field with his eyes.

  "Do you see anything?" asked Eden. The heat waves made the trees shimmer on the other side of the field.

  "No." He didn't sound sure of himself.

  "Good, let’s go." Eden took a step forward.

  "Hold on," said Dustin, leaning the shovel against the fence. "Shouldn't we make a plan if we’re caught? What if you're mom comes out, or somebody else?"

  "Good point." Eden thought for a moment and said, "I’ve got it. We don’t get caught."

  Dustin looked at him doubtfully, but he didn't say anything else. He used the shovel to gesture for him to go first. Eden crouched down and slipped between the barbed wire, scratching his hand on the way through.

  They started walking across the field, Eden leading the way. Even though the sun was still out, he felt like he was making his way into a cold, dark place. Dustin followed close behind him; Eden wondered if he was afraid.

  The field was almost perfectly flat, but every once in a while, they had to dodge a rock or a hole. He stopped about ten feet away from a fresh mound of dirt and Dustin came up beside him, the shovel still propped over his shoulder. His expression wasn't one of bravery.

  The dark-colored mound told them this was definitely where the person had been yesterday. Eden glanced back at Dustin who gulped and looked into the woods. They both turned back toward the mound. Time seemed slow. The woods thickness and the trees age could almost be felt in the soil beneath their feet. A few of the leaves rustled on the nearest tree for a second, then stopped, as though waiting. Eden shook his head and stepped toward the mound.

  Dustin handed the shovel to him but Eden held up his flat palm. He didn't think he could grab it just then. Dustin trembled a little as he brought the shovel back to himself. He stared at the mound. The sweat on his forehead started to trickle down into his eyes.

  "I’ll keep watch. You dig," said Eden.

  In silence, Dustin placed the shovel's tip in the dirt. Then, the first shovelful toppled from the mound. Eden looked around the edge of the field, but his attention soon turned to the deepening hole. Dustin slowed down as he went and shook even more with each shovelful. One minute became five, and Eden started to get worried. Hardly any dirt was making it out of the hole now because of Dustin's trembling arms. The heat from the sun made both of them sweat.

  He finally handed the sweaty shovel to Eden, and this time, he took it. He couldn't let Dustin do it all by himself. He shoveled a few more times and saw the garbage bag glint in the sun. The situation became more real.

  Whatever was inside the bag didn't fill the edges like grass or hay would have. The plastic was filled with odd dep
ressions and bumps. Dustin looked like he might faint. Eden carefully poked at the bag with the shovel until it began to tear, and a little hole formed.

  "Look," said Eden.

  Dustin took a step back.

  Eden decided he would need to make the hole bigger if they were going to see what was inside. He placed the shovel on the ground and knelt beside the hole. He had never felt so alert. The buzzing power lines above the dirt road sounded like they were directly overhead. The plastic was surprisingly warm as he placed two fingers through the hole and tugged.

  His hand recoiled and the rest of his body went rigid. She stared at him. A woman's face, murky, white, and sunken in. Eden wanted to scream but couldn’t. Neither could he bring himself to look away from the mystery woman’s gray, open eyes. There was no going back now. The smell hit him and he backed away.

  Dustin ran toward the dirt road, and Eden got up and rushed after him. The weeds stuck to his socks as he plowed through the field as fast as he could. He dodged rocks and holes by luck more than anything else. His legs moved mechanically, if it hadn’t been so, he would have stayed next to the shallow grave, paralyzed and unable to move. He slowed down a little as he approached the fence. Dustin was already on the other side.

  Eden slipped through the barbed wire as quickly as possible and fell to the ground, panting hard. Even as he tried to catch his breath, he stood back up. "The shovel!" he shouted, putting his hands on his head. They looked back toward the woods; they were still deserted. Eden didn’t want to go back, but they needed to get rid of the evidence before someone questioned them about the body. "We've got to go back."

  "You go. I'll stay here. I'll watch." Dustin was already backing up toward the trailer park.

  "Come on!" Eden grabbed his arm and pulled him toward the barbed wire fence.

  Eden slipped through first, and Dustin followed. As they walked back to where the shovel lay, Eden couldn’t help but feel a familiar sense of dread. He didn’t look directly at the dirt pile when they came to it, scanning around the area instead.

  Dustin walked around to the far side, looking as well. They both stopped at the same time, having come to the same realization. The shovel was gone.

  3

  A week passed, the temperature dropped, clouds loomed constantly on the horizon, and Dustin and Eden didn't tell anyone about the body. Eden briefly considered confiding in his mom, but he decided she had enough stress to deal with already. At least, that's how he justified not telling her.

  The truth was, he thought he could ignore the whole situation until it went away. No matter how many times he woke in the middle of the night, or couldn't fall asleep to begin with, he held to the hope that it would all go away.

  Part of him hoped the cops would stumble into the field for one reason or another and figure the whole thing out, preferably without his help. In the meantime, with each passing day, it seemed more and more likely that nobody would find out. How could they?

  Most of the time, he felt relieved. Some of the time, he couldn't believe that a person could lose their life and that nobody would ask questions about it. Then again, somebody might be asking questions somewhere, but how could he know? And then, there was still the troubling matter of the disappearing shovel, which neither he nor Dustin could explain.

  He lay in bed and thought it over for the hundredth time. Leaving the field. Not looking at Dustin. Running home. Approaching his mom. Acting calm. "Where have you been?" she had asked. Eden didn't hear her, he was too surprised. She was drinking a smoothie and wearing a black dress, high heels, and brilliantly red lipstick. Eden hadn't seen her that way since leaving the city. Dumbfounded at her appearance, he stood there in silence.

  "Sorry, Mrs. um… Eden's mom. I wanted to show him the new machete I got yesterday."

  "A machete," she said dryly. "You mean one of those big knives used for cutting paths through jungles? I hope you weren't causing any trouble with it."

  Eden snapped out of it. "What? No. No trouble. Yeah, sorry. It was cool, though. But, don't worry, we were really careful with it. So, where did you go?"

  Her stare deepened, and she said, “Looking for a job." Her tone let him know not to ask her how it went, so he didn't. For a moment, Eden almost told her what had really happened, but he stopped himself. It suddenly seemed so simple. He made the decision that she didn't need to know, and that nobody else needed to know either, and that it would just go away.

  From that moment on, Eden and Dustin didn’t talk about the field or anything related to it. They went to school and feigned interest during Bolt’s boring lessons, which were mostly "educational" films. Sometimes they talked about movies, while other times they discussed music, but they never dwelt on anything that reminded them of the woman’s body. The problem was, the situation never truly left Eden's mind. He couldn’t ignore the woman’s face forever.

  Another Monday came, and Eden was woken by his mom pounding on the bedroom door. He hadn't slept well and couldn't believe it was morning already. What had his dream been about again? The images weren't coming back to him. The only thing left was a feeling of loss. He glanced at his dark window. The sun wasn't even out yet.

  "Time to get up. Your new teacher is starting today, and I want you to be on time. You know how important first impressions are, especially since I'm still looking for a job!"

  Eden groaned and rolled out of bed. Everything he did the past few days somehow related to his mom getting a job in town. "Don't stay out too late or I won't get a job," and, "Remember to thank Principal Bolt every day so I can get a job." The last thing he wanted to do now was meet a new teacher. He was getting used to Bolt’s useless television.

  He thought about faking sick, but he knew she wouldn’t stand for it unless she saw him puke up a lung. Even then… he didn't know. The warm water in the shower helped to wake him up. He wondered why she hadn't acted like this on his real first day of school.

  She had a bowl of cereal waiting for him when he came into the kitchen, and she handed him the milk. He felt like a toy on an assembly line about to be boxed up and shipped out. The milk splashed off the bowl as he poured, but he didn't need to worry, his mom wasn't about to let him be late because of some spilled milk. She wiped it up as soon as it hit the table, stuck a spoon in his hand, and took the milk carton back to the fridge.

  The moment Eden finished eating, his bowl was whisked away and she pointed toward the living room, and said, "Your backpack is waiting for you on the chair."

  When Eden opened the front door, Dustin was waiting for him on the porch steps. His eyebrows were raised, and he looked agitated. Eden looked up. The sun had already risen. How late was it, he wondered. Eden had expected to be waiting for Dustin.

  "About time," said Dustin.

  Eden shrugged his shoulders and started walking across the lawn. This was the coldest morning he had experienced in Fracture so far. He reminded himself to wear a jacket on the following day. Dustin walked next to him and glanced in his direction every few seconds.

  "What do you want?" asked Eden, shivering slightly.

  "Nothing. Why?" The words came out short and quiet.

  Eden stopped. "Because. You keep looking at me."

  "No I don’t," said Dustin. "And even if I did, why would that mean I have something to say? I mean, maybe I'm looking past you. Did you ever think of that?"

  Eden knew something was on Dustin's mind, but he didn't know how to coax it out of him. "No. I don’t know. You’re being defensive. Can we just go to school?"

  "Yeah, sure."

  They walked for a minute in silence. The sun was covered up by a large patch of clouds. The silence was broken by Dustin. Eden rolled his eyes without thinking about it. He didn't know why he was so angry this morning.

  "I’ve been, you know, thinking. Well, about the shovel, and… and what we found. Um… shouldn't we tell the police?"

  Eden stopped again. "Are you crazy? What are they going to do? They'll just ask us why we didn't
tell them when we found out. What do we say then?" He waited for an answer.

  Dustin looked down at the ground. "I don't know. I’ve just been thinking. They wouldn't have to know it was us. We'd just leave an anonymous tip."

  "They would find out it was us. You know they would." He continued walking and Dustin followed the rest of the way to school.

  When they reached the entrance, Eden noticed a long white banner with red lettering which read: "Welcome Ms. Kozi!" Eden thought back to what his mom had said that morning.

  "Did you know we were getting a new teacher today?" Dustin shook his head and opened the door. A bracing smell of cleaner greeted them, and the tile floor gleamed like Eden had never seen it gleam before. He had always known that the tiles were white, but not that white.

  The bell rang as they walked into the classroom, but nobody noticed them because everyone was watching Tony shove something up his nose. It looked like a bug, but Eden couldn’t be sure. Ignoring everyone, they walked to the back of the room and sat in their usual spots. Eden looked around but didn’t see a new teacher anywhere.

  At the front of the room, Tony sneezed and everyone let out a harmonious, "Ewww!" The tall Veres twin covered her mouth and ran out of the classroom while her sister laughed.

  "That’s gross," said Dustin.

  The door opened and a skinny-yet-flabby blonde woman in black heels click-clacked across the floor. Her skin hung loosely in all the wrong areas. She looked puzzled, and her eyebrows were raised unnaturally high.

  "Does anyone know why that girl was running in the hall?" she asked.

  A few kids snickered, but Tony was the one who answered. "I think that’s her problem right there," he said, pointing to something on the floor at the front of the room.

  "Sorry, what?" the woman asked, her eyebrows raising even further up her forehead.

  Dustin swayed back and forth in his chair before bolting out of the room while covering his own mouth. Eden had no clue that he was so weak in the stomach. All the kids laughed again, Tony loudest of all. The woman click-clacked into the hall as fast as her pencil skirt would let her, but Dustin was long gone before she made it to the door. She stepped back into the room and placed her hands on her hips. "Will someone please explain to me what’s going on?"