Window in the Earth Trilogy

by Fish, Matthew

  “Great…,” Bones said with a sigh. He picked up the hammer and brought it behind his back. He swung the hammer as hard as he could in an overhead arc, and its collision with the wall produced another resounding explosion of brick and dust, this time causing an even bigger piece of the wall to tumble down at Bones’ feet. He quickly stepped back as bricks spilled out and splashed into the water where his feet used to be.

  “Nice,” James whispered as he came over to inspect the now-much-more-impressive hole in the wall. It was almost big enough for him to fit his head into. His hands gripped the sides of it, and he carefully pulled himself up to peer into the hole. “There’s a big space here. Can’t make it out, though,” he said. “Did anyone bring a flashlight?”

  Kylie and Christopher shook their heads. Neither of the two had thought to bring a flashlight for the search. Bones had not either. He had remembered all the other necessary tools; however, the flashlight remained back at home.

  “We’ll just have to make a bigger hole,” Bones said, shaking his head and wiping away the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. “One big enough to crawl into, and with enough light to see from the cellar….”

  “Good luck with that,” James said sarcastically as he stepped away from the opening.

  Bones took in a deep, heavy breath and brought the hammer behind him once more. With an impressive amount of force he swung the hammer into the brick wall, continuing the trend of loud, crashing explosions of rock and dirt. That time, however, a large chunk of the wall that was still intact from top to bottom came crashing all the way down. Bones had to jump back to avoid the cascade of debris.

  “Well, shit…that did it,” Bones said, sounding rather shocked and exhausted. “I thought I’d have to hit it a few more times.…”

  “You did great…,” Kylie encouraged as she tried to wave away some of the dust that was all around her, coughing from all the bad air.

  “Good thing, too…,” Bones said. “Didn’t know how many more of those I could have banged out.”

  James, fancying himself as being the bravest, made his way to the large opening in the wall. “I see something.”

  “What’s in there?” Kylie asked, sounding scared of the answer.

  “There’s definitely some kind of long chest back here,” James said. “I can reach the handle, maybe we can pull it out.”

  “Let me get that…,” Bones said, noting the freshly painted looks of concern on everyone’s faces. “I should be able to pull it out.”

  Bones gently brushed James out of the way and crammed himself into the small space. A heavy scraping sound followed Bones’ shaky retreat as he and the trunk emerged from inside the wall. It was one of those massive steamer trunks, painted black with the word “Fragile” written on all sides of it in white stenciled paint.

  “I really hope that’s not what we think it is,” Christopher said, watching in disbelief as Bones brought the trunk farther out into the open.

  “It’s why we’re here…,” Kylie whispered as she took Christopher’s hand, gripping it tightly. “It’s the truth about my family.…”

  “Maybe you should look away when I open it,” Bones said as he glanced around the room at everyone. “I mean…just in case it isn’t pretty.”

  “I want to know…,” James said as he stood next to Christopher.

  Kylie shut her eyes, gripping Christopher’s hand even tighter, and Christopher did the same. An eerie silence descended into the cellar as everyone seemed to hold their breath at the exact same moment, all of them anxious, for the truth was about to emerge.

  As Bones turned the lock on the trunk, it answered with a resounding clank. He slowly opened up the trunk, holding his breath. The only sound in the room was the slow creak of the chest lid opening up, exposing its contents to both James and Bones.

  “Oh my…,” Bones whispered as he let the lid fall back shut.

  James quickly turned away, rubbing his palms together nervously. “So, that’s that, then.…”

  Releasing Christopher’s hand, Kylie strode over next to Bones and James. “What was it…what is in there?”

  “A body…,” Bones whispered, shaking his head, “…or what’s left of one anyway.”

  “Just bones and clothes,” James said. He looked away from the chest, as though he might never be able to look back at it.

  “Whose body though?” Christopher asked, still standing a good distance away. He felt as though he was too scared to just approach the crude coffin. It was the same sort of uneasiness and fear that he had felt at his parent’s funeral. He couldn’t bring himself to get near their coffins either, and had, in a way, always felt guilty about that. He felt that he should have at least properly said goodbye.

  “Look away…,” Bones said, and once everyone had, he laid his hands on the trunk lid and opened it again with a loud creak.

  A rustling sound could be heard, as Bones sifted around in the trunk. Christopher had his eyes tightly closed; he wanted no part in seeing what was going on inside the makeshift coffin. He already felt dizzy and sick in such a way that he thought he might pass out at any given moment.

  Bones closed the trunk, letting it fall shut with a piercing snap as the latch caught the upper hinge. In the trunk he had found a small brown bag, maybe even an old purse. “I’ve got something here,” he said.

  Christopher allowed his eyes to open, since the trunk was closed. “What is it?”

  “Some kind of purse,” Bones said, devoting all his attention to the mentioned item. He hesitantly reached his hand into the handbag, being careful not to destroy whatever was inside as it must be very old. He felt something, clutched it with his thumb and forefinger, and slowly pulled out an old, ratty leather-bound book. Bones began thumbing through the browned pages, and soon paused. “It’s someone’s drawings….”

  Christopher, Kylie and James rushed over to Bones as he showed them a page from the book. On the page there was a rather skilled drawing of two rabbits—two blue rabbits.

  Bones continued to flip through the pages, and there were more pictures, some of them rather crude and others showing more effort and impressive technique. There was a drawing of a blue bear, a stick house and some stick people, and a drawing of a cave entrance everyone knew all too well.

  “Is this Alena’s?” Kylie asked, her voice trembling.

  Bones turned to the very last page, and on it was a handwritten sentence. “Property of Alena Cartwright,” he read.

  Christopher felt his feet go soft beneath him, and he immediately fell to his knees in the dirty brown water. This was much worse than they had even originally thought. This wasn’t the body of one of the parents. This was Alena’s body.

  “My grandfather…,” Kylie said as she let herself fall down to the floor with Christopher, “…was responsible for Alena’s disappearance…. It doesn’t make any sense. I thought they found her necklace and shoes in the cave? What is she doing here?”

  “This doesn’t make any sense at all,” James whispered, his gaze firm on the book that Bones was holding.

  “Regardless…,” Bones began as he carefully placed the book down onto the top of the chest, “…she’s here…this is what we’ve been sent to find: not Alena’s mother…not Alena’s father, but Alena herself. For some reason, she ended up here…her body ended up here.”

  “I’ve never felt ashamed about who I am…,” Kylie said as tears came streaming down her face. “I’ve never felt bad about my last name before, but now I wish it was something else…anything else. I hate my last name. I hate my family….”

  “It’s okay…,” Christopher said, placing an arm around Kylie’s shoulders. “It’s not your fault.”

  “I know…,” Kylie whispered in stern anger. “I will just never acknowledge my last name, not ever again from this day on. I am no longer a Leiter.”

  “Just marry Christopher…,” James said, trying to slightly elevate the mood of the situation, “…then you can be a Janes.”<
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  Bones shook his head at James. Now was apparently was not the time for making jokes. “We need to get the police down here,” he said.

  “What will we tell them, though?” Christopher asked, drawing a complete blank. “Won’t they suspect Kylie’s mother?”

  “Shouldn’t,” Bones said as he slowly got to his feet. “This was before her time….”

  “Not before my grandfather’s time, though…,” Kylie said.

  “Right,” Bones said as he started back to the cellar door. “I’m going to go up and make a few phone calls. I’ll be right back, and don’t worry; I’ll take care of everything.”

  With Bones gone, Christopher turned to Kylie. He could see that she was still very upset at all that had happened. In a way he had wished that she had never gone into the cave, especially with such a horrible result. He wondered how it must feel, to hate your own last name…to hate a part of you and your family so much that you would turn your back on it forever. He could definitely understand why she would choose to do so; however, he could not even begin to fathom the pain it must have brought.

  Christopher tightened his embrace on Kylie and looked deep into her eyes. They were red and still damp from all the tears. “I don’t care what your last name is…it will never change the way I feel about you.”

  Kylie returned Christopher’s kind words with a genuine smile. She brought her body against his, wrapping her arms around him. She rested her head upon his chest, and just let go completely. Tears streamed down her eyes.

  Christopher ran a hand through her hair and just let her be there, let her release all of the feelings that she was holding inside of her.

  James took delayed steps over to the pair, and then hugged the both of them tightly. “We’ve come a long way. I think we’ve really done something good here.…”

  “Yeah,” Christopher whispered, nodding to James.

  “Yeah…,” Kylie said. “Alena won’t just be a story or legend anymore…she’ll be a real person who disappeared…. She’ll be buried, she’ll be remembered….”

  Bones came jogging down the stairs, and behind him was a tall lanky man dressed in a large black trench coat. It was someone that Christopher had never seen before. The man marched over to the three, rubbing his scruffy beard nervously.

  “Guys,” the man in black said, holding out a hand to Christopher, “I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m Jack Olen.”

  Christopher told him his name. “So you’re Jack Olen,” he said. He looked a lot more different than what Christopher had expected. He towered over the three, being much taller than even James, who they considered to be pretty tall. Jack had short-trimmed brown hair and looked as though he belonged in some kind of big city law office, rather than the country.

  “Good to know you,” Jack said as he extended a hand to James. “Jack Olen.”

  “James Janes,” James replied as he looked up to the tall man.

  “Kylie,” Jack said as he reached out for her hand as well.

  “Jack,” Kylie said, “good to see you.”

  “Definitely could have been under better circumstances, though,” Jack said as he nervously eyed the trunk on the ground. “So this is the problem then.”

  “Yep,” Bones said as he came up behind him. “Mr. Leiter and Grandpa Leiter were hiding a pretty big secret down here all these years.”

  “Yeah, I’d have to say so,” Jack said as he kneeled before the trunk and flipped through the small leather-bound sketchbook. “Janice would never be a part of this, though; I’ll make sure that they know about that. I know all the cops up in Springfield really well, so don’t worry; she or Kylie won’t be bothered with this.”

  “That’s why I called you,” Bones said with a confident smile. “You have a strange way of being able to take care of just about everything that goes bad around here.”

  “Yeah, I know,” Jack said with a smile and a nod. “I’m working on my guardian angel status. What can I say? I’m just lucky like that.”

  “So how do we handle this?” Bones asked, folding his arms at his chest.

  “Well, the way I’ve figured it,” Jack said, rubbing his beard as he thought out a solution. “We’ll run the kids back to your house. The police will be here in about an hour or so. We’ll say that you were watching the shop here for Janice and the electrical went out. So, you had to come down here to change the fuse, and noticed the wall here had collapsed due to the storm. Won’t be too much of a stretch with all the water here, not to mention the whole lot of it flowing through the wall back there. So you called me for help and we found this down here. That sound good to you?”

  “When it comes from your lips,” Bones said, “anything sounds good. I bet you could convince horses to eat horseshit.”

  “Well…,” Jack said, thinking it over a moment, “…probably, but that’s what I get paid the big bucks for.”

  “Well, let’s get you guys home…,” Bones said as he nodded to Christopher, Kylie, and James. “You’ve done your part; now just let us do ours.”

  “Yep,” Jack said as he clapped his hands and rubbed them together. “Bones, you hold down the fort here. I’ve seen your truck, and it’s an embarrassment operable vehicles—I’ll get these guys home.”

  Christopher, Kylie, and James piled into Jack’s truck. This truck, however, was a far cry nicer than Bones’. The truck, for one thing, was massive. Jack had to help everyone step up into it. Once inside it was like stepping into a nice hotel room, with nice, comfortable seats, immediate heating, and a working radio. Christopher looked around the inside of the truck in amazement. He had almost forgotten what a well-maintained vehicle looked like on the inside.

  With one quick turn of the key, Jack started the engine.

  “Nice truck,” James said as the truck jolted ahead. “You should convince Bones to get one of these….”

  “Convince Bones…,” Jack repeated with a laugh. He searched for something he found suitable on the radio station, and finally pausing at a familiar rock song. “He’s a character. I think he’s the only person in the world I couldn’t convince something to.”

  “Have you known him long?” Christopher asked.

  “Yeah,” Jack said. “We’ve had run-ins quite a few times. In fact, there was a time when he was probably the only one in this tiny little town that would talk to me, save for Janice, of course. First time I was rightfully asked to dinner was by him and Catharine.”

  “He thinks pretty highly of you,” Christopher said, “especially after you rescued him from the rainstorm and brought his dog back.”

  “Yeah, I know,” Jack said. “I’m ‘the nicest ass bandit he’s ever met,’ according to him.”

  Everyone in the car had a nice little laugh at that statement. That is so like Bones, Christopher thought. He was nice and caring in a way that was just a little bit off, but never so far off as to be inconsiderate. He did respect how Bones was always so upfront and honest about everything, especially since after his parents died and no one else in the family was so honest or caring.

  “Can I ask you a question?” Kylie asked, yet her words were soft and uncertain.

  “Kylie, of course you can,” Jack said.

  “Why are you helping us out? Aren’t you weirded out with what we found?” Kylie asked, still sounding rather uncomfortable. It was almost as if she had been through so many bad things that the thought of something good happening just had to be outright questioned.

  “Well…,” Jack said, tilting his head to the side and then shrugging his shoulders. “Remember when you guys ended up at my house, when your father was chasing you?”

  “Yeah…,” Kylie answered, nodding in reply. “I never really got to thank you for that. What you did to save us was amazing.”

  “Well, sometimes in my line of work I do things that I don’t feel good about, things I don’t like to do even…,” Jack said. “Doing things for you and Bones are things that make me feel better about myself. Besides, I trust both of
you completely. So, if you weren’t involved, I believe it.”

  “That’s an awesome thing to say,” James said, smiling.

  “I don’t know how to ever thank you,” Kylie said.

  “I do what I can,” Jack said as he drove the truck into the rock driveway of the Janes house. “So forget about it.”

  Christopher waved as he, James, and Kylie reached the front door and the exhausted trio made their way into the house. Jack honked the horn of the big truck twice as he backed out of the driveway, turned around, and the truck’s red taillights gradually faded into the night.

  Christopher made it to the couch first, plopping down and kicking his feet up on the table. Kylie quickly followed suit, wrapping her arms around Christopher as she sat down. James did as well, and sat on the other side of Christopher. They sat there quietly for many moments. No one was sure what to say, or even where to start.