“A body?” Christopher asked in a state of shock.
“I didn’t know what it was…,” Kylie whispered, sounding angry and frustrated. She covered her eyes with her arm. “I was only eight…. I didn’t know what it was.”
“It’s not your fault,” Christopher said, placing his arms around Kylie and gently holding her.
“My grandfather turns around and sees me…,” Kylie said, her voice quiet and muffled. “I’m just standing there, crying…. I was so confused. My grandfather tells my dad to ‘Take care of it,’ and my dad rushes over and drags me back upstairs. He tells me that…all of this isn’t real, and that tomorrow he’ll be my normal happy dad again. He tries to make me think that I’m crazy, and that whatever I thought I saw, I didn’t see.”
“So that’s why you probably hate him so much…,” James said. “Maybe you just forgot exactly why.”
“When I got home, he made me drink an entire cup of something.… I didn’t know what it was back then, but now I know that it was vodka…. I was sick for hours…. When my mother got back the next morning from work he just told her that I had gotten into it…,” Kylie continued, sobbing once again. “That bastard…. If that was a body, then he knew about it all this time…. My grandfather was a monster and my father knew about it and just let him be one.”
Christopher could find no words to comfort Kylie; he wrapped his arms around her as tightly as he could as though trying to shield her from all the unhappiness.
“I’m sorry…,” James whispered, at a loss for words.
“I need to talk to Bones,” Kylie whispered. She gently pushed her way past Christopher and got to her feet. “I need to find out some things about this.”
“All right,” Christopher whispered, saddened that things had taken such a decidedly horrible turn.
“Do you think that Bones knew your grandfather?” James asked.
“It’s possible…,” Kylie said in a quiet voice as she made her wait back up the winding passage, not even pausing to wait for James and Christopher to collect their things and follow. “If my memory is right, then who knows what horrible things my grandfather and father have done….”
The three walked back in complete silence, now with Kylie in the lead. She did not pause for breath or stop for the brothers as she marched her way out of Alena’s Cave. Christopher was scared; he had never seen this side of Kylie. She was acting so strangely, although he could definitely understand why. Just the thought of someone keeping that kind of secret horrified him.
Outside the cave the rain was coming down much more strongly than before. Kylie, however, did not even pause to raise the hood on her rain jacket. She was drenched and her hair clung to her face. Christopher worried that she would get sick, and he had a hard time even keeping up with her as she walked hurriedly, almost running, all the way back home.
“I was just about to come after you guys, with the rain like…,” Bones began as the front door flew open, and he stopped mid-sentence when he saw a very cold and rain-soaked Kylie.
“Bones…,” Kylie said with tears and rain soaking her face. “Did you know my grandfather…?”
Bones quickly rose and made his way to the bathroom in great strides, knowing that Kylie was following him. He reached for a towel and started drying her face off. “I only ran into him a few times…. Often he’d be at the store when I first moved here; your dad ran the place then.”
“What kind of man did you think he was?” Kylie asked, her voice sounding deeply saddened and hollow.
“I don’t know…. I’m sorry…,” Bones whispered, knowing how upset Kylie was about this. “He would always eyeball me, but I just figured he hated outsiders…. I wish I knew more…. What is this all about?”
“Her memory…,” Christopher said. “Her memory in the cave….”
“My grandfather and father are hiding a body in the cellar of the bait shop…,” Kylie whispered, tears coming down again from her eyes as though she had finally let it sink in completely.
“Are you sure?” Bones asked with his mouth open in shock. “I mean, you saw this in the cave?”
“Yeah…,” Kylie said. Her feet gave out beneath her and she fell heavily on the cushions of the couch.
Christopher quickly made his way to be at her side, holding her hand tightly. “None of this is your fault Kylie. None of it.”
“He’s right,” James said.
“If they did anything…,” Bones said as he sat down next to her, visibly disturbed by the revelation, “…then you should not feel responsible in any way…. If it’s true, then people should know about it, and the family of whomever is down there….”
Kylie quickly brought her hand to her mouth as a shocked look washed over her face. “What if…what if Alena’s parents didn’t just leave after losing her…?”
“We don’t know anything,” Bones said, trying to reassure her. “Just please, don’t think about it. Wait until we know more.…”
“It makes sense though…,” Kylie said. She had a vacant look on her pale face as she shivered from the cold. “Why else would the cave show me that…unless it had something do with Alena…?”
“If it does, then maybe they just wanted to be found…,” Christopher said, squeezing Kylie’s hand. He just wanted her to be okay again. He was starting to worry that she would never be all right ever again!
“We have to go…,” Kylie whispered. “We have to go see who is down there in the shop’s cellar.”
“We can go…,” Bones said. “We can take the truck out in there. We’ll take some tools and we’ll search the cellar.”
“Oh—Kylie…,” James said, as though he finally remembered something, “…was there anything for any of us in the room?”
“Right,” Kylie whispered. She quietly reached down into her pocket. She carefully pulled out what looked like a large white claw or some kind of huge fang. “It’s for you…Christopher.”
Christopher reached out to accept the item, his fingers trembling. “But should it be my turn again?”
“I thought it would fall back to me if it didn’t go to someone else,” James said, sounding a little disappointed.
Christopher rolled the large item around in his hand, which he was pretty sure was a claw, and saw that “Christopher” was crudely written upon it in black ink. Staring at the claw, he thought long and hard yet could retrieve no memory of ever seeing it before. “Why…why me? I don’t want to go back in.…” It was the truth too. He was perfectly happy and content with the memory that he had gotten. Then he paused, thinking that perhaps this wasn’t about him anymore.
“So first we check out the shop, and then tomorrow we’ll have to check out the cave…,” James said, shaking his head. “This has got us running all around.”
Kylie looked at the three around her and let out a heavy sigh. It appeared as though she looked better, or at least maybe felt a little better. “I’m sorry…,” she finally said as she reached over and gripped Christopher’s hand tightly.
“It’s not your fault. None of this is,” Bones said, placing a hand on her head and playfully tousling her hair. “Don’t ever feel that you should have to apologize for it.”
“I’m glad that you’re all here to help me with this…,” Kylie said, nodding to everyone in the room. “I don’t think I could go through this without any of you.”
“We are glad to be a part of this,” James said as he smiled. “Besides, if this has something to do with Alena then we owe it to her to figure it out.”
“That’s true…,” Bones said as he rose to his feet. “Kylie, are you ready?”
“Yeah,” Kylie calmly answered. “Let’s go to the shop.”
Chapter 13: The Body
In silent dreams, alone for years. No one to talk to, no one to care for, and no one to care.
The wind howled against the truck as rain came down in torrents against the window. It was raining so hard it was as if they were passing directly underneath a waterfal
l whose breadth was never-ending. Already tired and worn, the old white Ford truck struggled with each gust of wind. Christopher was worried that they might be blown off of the road at any moment.
“I didn’t think it would be this bad out,” Bones said, wiping away a bit of sweat from his forehead with the front of his shirt. “I’ve never seen it come down this bad out here….”
“Are we going to be able to make it all right?” Christopher asked as he jostled around a bit for a better position, as he was squeezed tightly between James and Kylie. The Kylie part he didn’t mind that much. However, James’ elbow was tunneling a little home in his ribs with every jolt of the truck.
“Yeah…,” Bones answered, sounding uncertain. “Probably.”
“Probably?” Kylie asked, knitting her eyebrows and frowning.
“Yeah…,” Bones said as he strained his eyes to see the road ahead. “I’d give us good odds.”
The world outside the window was so obscured from the rain it looked as though it was some kind of abstract painting. The lights of the truck could hardly be seen on the road and there was a thick fog emanating from the earth that hindered things even more. Every now and then lightning would flash, lighting up the air and rain like a giant flash of a camera, further disorienting everyone who tried to gaze outside.
“He’s just messing with us,” James said, shaking his head. “He enjoys this kind of thing.”
“Just can’t get away with anything anymore…,” Bones muttered under his breath. “Got me all figured out then, eh?”
Kylie let out a little laugh, a bit relieved that they weren’t going to fly off the road and die in the trees, burning in a super hot fireball. “How can you joke at a time like this?”
“Does it help at all?” Bones asked.
“It does,” Kylie said with a little smile. “Although I’m not sure I should be in a good mood…especially if I’m right about what I saw.”
“Don’t look at it that way then,” Bones said, still concentrating on the road ahead. “If it’s true, look at it like this: if it’s Alena’s mother or father and she is the one in the cave, then maybe this will bring her a sense of peace. Maybe you were shown this so that you might be able to help her back in some small way. Maybe just knowing that the truth is out there…maybe that’s what she wants.”
“I didn’t really think about it that way,” Kylie said in a whisper. “I’ve been feeling a little guilty about it…. Why didn’t I tell my mother? Why didn’t I ever say anything? For that matter, why didn’t I even remember?”
“You were scared,” Christopher quickly answered. “You were little, and the whole thing was too big. Besides, if your grandfather was hiding a body, and he knew that you and your mother knew about it.…”
“Who knows what he would have done to the both of you,” James finished.
“Exactly,” Bones said as he shook his head. “You can’t blame yourself for something that you couldn’t have any control over.”
“I guess that’s true…,” Kylie said quietly. “I didn’t really look at it that way before…. For a while there I thought I was being shown that as punishment.”
“I don’t think the cave ever intended that,” Bones said, a serious tone to his voice. “It just wanted you to know the truth.”
The truck skidded into the small gravel parking lot of the Bait ’n‘ Tackle shop, sliding a few odd feet due to the rain. Bones got out and hurried to the back of the truck, gathering together the bundle of tools that he had packed up for the search. Kylie, James, and Christopher quickly ran around to the back of the building, which was where the cellar door was located.
“It’s locked!” Kylie yelled over the rainstorm. “I don’t have a key to the cellar.…”
“Stand back!” Bones declared as he came grunting around the corner. He kneeled down for a moment as he unpacked a large sledgehammer from the black oversized tool bag. Getting back up to his feet, he brought the large hammer over his head, paused for a moment to aim, and then let the hammer come crashing down on the bolt and lock.
The heavy metal cellar door jolted violently and seemed to jump up from its hinges. The lock and bolt, however bent, stayed intact and kept the door secure. A flash of lightning filled the air around them. A branch from above came crashing down, hitting the roof of the store and giving everyone a good healthy scare.
“I’m going to hit it again!” Bones yelled. He brought the heavy hammer back above his head, letting it fly down with tremendous force. This time it seemed to do the trick, and the lock flew in fragments into the rain. Bones quickly reached down, flinging the door open and holding it as Christopher, James, and Kylie ran down.
“That was pretty cool,” James said as Bones let the cellar door slam shut behind them.
“I just didn’t feel like being out in that rain anymore,” Bones said with a funny little smile on his face. “Besides, that hammer needed to be broken in.”
Kylie led the way, cautiously making her way down the cellar stairs. The floor below looked as though it was flooding, and there was about an inch of water reflecting back the hanging lights from the ceiling. She slowly led the group down, looking around for something familiar. “Things are a little bit different than I remember,” she said.
“How long since you’ve been down here?” Christopher asked as he followed behind her.
“I don’t think I’ve ever needed to come down here since. Even my mother doesn’t really come down here. She hates spiders anyway and I bet this place is crawling with them,” Kylie said as she slowly rounded the corner, her feet making splashes with each step she took in the dirty brown water.
“I could see why; this place is a mess,” Bones said as he rounded the corner, taking in all the sights.
Christopher looked at the area around him; it was full of old metal junk and rotted cardboard boxes, and everywhere he looked he just saw more and more crap—rusted broken bicycles, lawnmower parts, old pipes and rotten wooden boards…. It would take forever for someone to go through all the stuff, and maybe that was why it was all placed down here: to hide something much more sinister.
Kylie cautiously paced farther into the cellar. It was almost like walking through a maze. In some places she had to turn sideways to squeeze through, and in others the group had to climb or maneuver over and around things. “The far wall there.…”
“Is that where you saw them?” James asked as he pushed a very large box out of his way.
Kylie nodded as she approached the bricked-over wall. She ran her hand over the rough surface of it, as if she was searching for some kind of hidden opening. “I don’t think this wall was here….”
It’s possible,” Bones said as he made his stood next to her. “It’s leaking in quite a few areas. There must be something behind it.”
“So how do we get through?” Christopher asked, surveying the area. The entire back wall was covered in brick, and there didn’t seem to be any other way around it. They would have to go through in order to find out what was behind it.
“You guys move all this stuff from behind us, and let’s see if we can make enough room for me to swing this,” Bones answered, bringing the sledgehammer to his chest.
“Do you think you’ll be able to break through?” Christopher asked as he and James struggled with a large pile of metal that was in the way.
Kylie quickly went to work on the other side of Bones, pushing back more and more boxes. “It’ll have to work; otherwise we’ll have to wait.”
“And no one wants to do that…,” Bones said as he nodded, eyeballing the wall as though it was some manner of opponent. Confident that he had a clear path to swing, he slowly brought the hammer behind him, tightening his grip and gritting his teeth.
“Give it hell,” James encouraged, covering his ears.
“Cover your face,” Christopher said, looking over at James and shaking his head. “You don’t want to get hit from flying crap.”
“Oh, good point,” James said as h
e removed his hands from his ears and shielded his eyes instead.
Kylie joined the others and crouched down to the ground, covering her face and biting her lip in anticipation of the coming blow. Bones carefully brought the hammer back just an inch more or so, and then let it fly forward with all of his might. The wall cracked and crumbled. Bricks flew in several directions, bouncing off of all the metal junk around it, and a cloud of dust rose up and around Bones.
“Hmm…,” he said as he dropped the hammer to the ground, rubbing his hands and wincing. “That was jarring.”
“It did make some progress…,” Christopher said as he lowered his arm from his face and surveyed the newly formed hole in the wall. It was a pretty good-sized chunk, but it was not big enough to let them through yet. “A few times should do it.”
Window in the Earth Trilogy Page 18