Valley of the Scarecrow

by Gord Rollo

  “Sure. I’ll get the big pieces while you’re gone.”

  “Okay, but don’t cut yourself.”

  “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me.”

  “I do worry about you though. Always.”

  “Well don’t. I’m a big girl.”

  Dan nodded, disappearing into the house, and Kelly felt like reaching up and strangling herself. She hadn’t meant to be so cold. After all, he was only trying to be nice. I’m a big girl now? Jesus! What a stupid thing to say. Turnabout was fair play though. Dan had really hurt her and she was obviously still pretty pissed off. If he’d thought she was going to show up here and things would be just like the old days, he was kidding himself. Doesn’t mean you have to go out of your way to be a total bitch though. Point taken. She’d try to chill out and relax. At least give him a chance. After all, the truth was she wanted him back probably as much as he wanted her.

  Dan returned, handing Kelly the scoop while he worked the broom. Kneeling before him felt weird and made her skin start to tingle, wonderfully familiar and strangely intimate at the same time. Damn he looks good, she thought, a smile touching her lips as her eyes roamed over his shaven head, his hazel eyes, his full lips, his chocolate skin, his broad, muscular shoulders and washboard abs hidden only by a thin black cotton T-shirt. She stopped herself there, knowing if she looked much lower she might be in trouble here.

  “What are you smiling about, Kel?” Dan asked, encouraged. “See anything you like down there?”

  Kelly stood up, the moment quickly lost, mad at herself for instigating things. “Don’t flatter yourself, cowboy. I’m not your girlfriend anymore, remember? How’s that slut Tracey doing these days? She might be able to help you out.”

  “Ah come on. Don’t be like that. I was never with Tracey. Not then and definitely not now. It was all a big mistake. I’m really sorry I fucked things up. Honest I am, and I’m going to make it up to you, I promise.”

  “Just like that, huh? You’re sorry and I’m supposed to just fall back into your arms? It’s not that easy, Dan, and words are pretty damn cheap.”

  “I know they are. Look…all I’m asking is for you to give me a second chance. I screwed up. I was an asshole but I love you and you know I do. Give me a chance to prove it to you. No games, no promises, no bullshit. Just a chance, okay?”

  They’d finished cleaning up the broken glass and Kelly handed Dan the dustpan. “We’ll see. I need to think about it.” She walked away, headed for the fire pit where Rich and Lizzy were trying to pretend they hadn’t been trying to eavesdrop on their private conversation.

  “What did he say?” Lizzy asked after giving her friend a hug.

  “Said he was an asshole,” Kelly said, smiling, a fresh tear falling down her cheek.

  “I already told ya that,” Rich said, and they all started laughing.

  The bonfire party progressed surprisingly well. Dan minded his manners and gave Kelly just enough breathing room that she felt comfortable being there and having fun but not close enough she felt he was staking any claim on her. In fact, after a few Budweisers there were moments she wished he would get a little closer, the thought of his warm body pressed against her constantly on her mind the cooler the night became. She fought the urges to go to him though, determined not to be such a pushover. He had to learn there was no way she would ever put up with that kind of shit again. Until he did, they’d both just have to get used to being a little cold at night.

  Their friend Patrick Brannon showed up carrying a twelve-pack of Corona and his camera bag slung over his shoulder like usual. It was hard to label an unusual guy like him, but if asked, he’d probably describe himself as a “recovering goth” these days. Pat was a quirky guy who’d recently graduated from all the black lipstick and pancake makeup, but wasn’t quite ready to give up the spiky hairstyles or dark baggy clothing. He was definitely a bit of a weirdo, quiet and moody if he was depressed, but he’d always been too comical and cheery to live the solemn life of a true goth and for the most part he was a fun guy to be around. The very fact that he was so different from the rest of the gang was partly what had brought them together. Sure, he was still trying to find his way in the world, but hell, who wasn’t these days. They were all outcasts to a certain degree, and being a strange dude or not, Pat had always seemed to fit right in. Kelly couldn’t remember ever seeing Pat without his camera. It was almost a physical piece of him, another part of his body as important to him as an arm or leg. Even he would admit he used the camera lens as a buffer to keep the world at bay sometimes; his tiny shield he sometimes needed to help cope with situations he wasn’t comfortable in. Without it he’d be lost. He’d taken thousands of pictures of them over the years and Kelly was sure there’d be a hell of a lot of them she hoped no one else ever saw. True to form, he reached into his bag and started snapping pictures of Rich trying to get the fire started.

  “Hey, Pat,” Kelly said. “Why are you by yourself? Where’s Sheila?”

  “Who knows? She dumped me last week. I’m flying solo at the moment.” He announced his breakup with a smile on his face so he couldn’t be all that upset about it. Kelly asked anyway.

  “That sucks. You okay?”

  “Sure. No biggie. Apparently she thought I was going way too straight for her tastes. She’s pretty hard-core and I was getting tired of it. Goth is for kids, man. You gotta grow up sometime, right?”

  “We do?” Lizzy said. “Bummer.”

  “Sorry to break it to ya, but yeah. To be honest, I’m glad she’s gone. She’s already seeing some Marilyn Man-son dipshit in a band across town.”

  “Hey, easy now,” Rich said, wrapping his arm around Liz. “Nothing wrong with Manson, dude. I’ve been singing in bands all my life. Rock stars are cool!”

  “Yeah, which is why you cut grass for a living.” Pat smirked and held up his hands in a peace gesture. “Kidding, man. In fact, I was gonna ask you and Dan if you had any work for me? If I’m going legit here, I’d better get a job sometime…you know, make something of myself. My old man would probably have a heart attack if he heard me talking like this. Or an orgasm, I guess. What do you think, Rich?”

  “About your dad having an orgasm?”

  “No asswipe…about me working with you guys? You don’t have to pay me much. I just wanna hang out and see what this working-for-a-living thing is all about. See if I’ll hate it as much as I think I will.”

  “Thought you were going to be a professional photographer?” Rich said, stalling for time, not wanting to discuss this topic.

  “Sure, and I also wanted to be a chef, a race car driver, and I even considered becoming either a priest or a porn star, but none of those jobs have worked out yet, ya know? Just thought I’d try working with you guys for a while.”

  Rich turned to Dan and held out his arms, palms out, as if he didn’t know how to answer their friend. Luckily it wasn’t his decision to make anyway. Dan was the boss so it was he who needed to speak.

  “Can’t do it, buddy,” Dan said. “A year ago, definitely. Hell, three months ago maybe, but things really suck right now. We’re having trouble just finding work for Rich and me. If things ever pick up again, I’ll call you for sure, but I can’t promise you anything right now. Sorry.”

  “No worries. It was just a thought. I can work for nothing if that will help you guys out any? I don’t really give a shit about money.”

  “Wow. That’s really nice of you, Pat,” Lizzy said.

  “Yeah, it is, but right now we don’t have work for any of us.” Dan glanced around to look Kelly in the eyes, then quickly dropped his gaze to the ground. “I didn’t really want to get into this tonight, but now that we’re talking about it I may as well spill the beans. I was over seeing my accountant this week and things are bad. Really bad. In fact, there’s a good chance Rich and I will be shutting down the company next month.”

  “What?” Pat said, as shocked to hear the news as Kelly had been. “Business is that bad?”


  “Worse. I’m still trying to refinance a few things but the bank manager is being a prick, as usual, and I’m not holding my breath.”

  “Anything we can do to help?” Pat asked.

  “Not really. I hate to say it, but I think we’re screwed.”

  “Maybe not,” Kelly said. As soon as the words were out of her mouth she regretted them. She hadn’t intended to bring this up tonight, and maybe not ever, but she hated to see the beaten-down look on Dan’s face and hear the shame and disappointment in his voice. He worked so hard and deserved better than what fate was giving him. Still, was it really going to help telling them the fantastical story her grandfather had told her earlier today? Was running off on a wild-goose chase going to help the situation out any? Probably not, and having false hope might even be worse than no hope at all.

  “What do you mean by that?” Rich said.

  Now what the hell was she going to say? She felt like a horse’s ass for not keeping her big mouth shut. “Shit! Okay…have a seat around the fire, guys. This is probably nuts, but I’ve got a story to tell you and it might take a while…”

  Kelly told them everything she knew, from the city workers finding the dead suicide victim in the wall of the Paramount Theatre, to her grandfather’s confession about what the village elders of Miller’s Grove had supposedly done to the town preacher back in 1936. She ended her story with the rumor of Joshua Miller’s hidden treasure and how there was a chance, if it had ever existed at all, that it might still be out there somewhere in the nearby Iowa woods.

  Everyone was silent for a moment, chewing on what Kelly had said, not entirely sure she wasn’t yanking their chain and making the whole thing up. Dan evidently didn’t find her story amusing.

  “Rich and I going bankrupt is hardly something to kid around about, Kel. I know you still hate me, but we’re in some serious shit. I thought you wanted to help?”

  “What?” Kelly said, standing up and shaking her arms in front of her face to cut him off. “No, you got it all wrong. I don’t hate you…and I am trying to help. The story’s true. I swear it is.”

  “Then how come we’ve never heard about any of it before?”

  “Yeah. I’ve heard of Miller’s Grove, but none of this juicy shit,” Rich said. “Where is Miller’s Grove anyway? Sure as hell isn’t around here anywhere.”

  “Not anymore it’s not,” Kelly said, defending herself and once again sorry she’d even brought up the topic. So much for helping out; all she was accomplishing was making Dan mad at her. “And no one around here knows about it because that’s the way the villagers wanted it. They wanted all memories of what they’d done to die with them, I think. Makes sense to me, anyway.”

  “And your grandfather swears this shit is all true?” Dan asked, looking her straight in the eye. It was his no-bullshit stare and Kelly knew he wanted nothing but the absolute truth. “Your ancestors killed a priest and abandoned the whole community, leaving behind everything, including a possible fortune in harvest loot?”

  “That’s what he said, yeah.”

  “And you believe him?”

  “Yeah. I do. You would too if you’d been there. I don’t know exactly what happened in Miller’s Grove, but something sure did. I’ve never seen my grandfather so afraid in all my life.”

  “Okay, I believe you.”

  “So do I,” Lizzy said, “but I still don’t see how this helps. You’re not saying we should go on a treasure hunt for this lost gold, are you? That’s crazy talk…isn’t it?”

  “Why?” Kelly said. “If Joshua Miller’s treasure is real and more importantly, if it’s still there, why wouldn’t we go after it? Even if there isn’t much there, it’s probably more than enough to get Dan and Rich back on their feet. Maybe even enough for me to start my restaurant.”

  “Will there be enough for me to open a hair salon?”

  “One way to find out. What do you think, Dan?”

  “Shit, I don’t know. Sounds too good to be true; and even if it is, someone must have found the gold after all this time. Besides, we don’t even know where to start looking, right?”

  “I can find it,” Pat said, then looked shocked when everyone burst out laughing at him. “What? I can. Well, maybe not me. My dad. He’s a geography teacher, remember? He has a whole shitload of old maps and local charts down in the basement. Far as I know, they go back hundreds of years. If Miller’s Grove existed out in the backwoods of the state, I’m pretty sure we can find some record of it there.”

  “Wow,” Dan said, warming to the idea a little. “Might be worth a look, I guess. Too bad your gramps didn’t just tell you where their old village was. Did you ask?”

  “He’s not telling us squat. In fact, he freaked when I mentioned the gold. He made me promise I’d never try and find it but what do we have to lose? Every last one of us is out of work right now. Well, Lizzy, Pat, and I anyway. Rich and you won’t be far behind us, right? So why not take a shot at this. If we’re wrong, big deal, we’ll turn it into a camping trip and drink a few beers. But if we’re right…”

  Kelly left the sentence open-ended, looking around at her friends’ faces but finding it hard to judge their reactions in the flickering light of the campfire. For a while, the only sounds were that of the crackling logs and the silence was getting unbearable. Pat felt the tension in the air too, and snapped a few pictures while everyone stood around waiting for someone else to speak. Kelly ran out of patience first. “Well…don’t just leave me hanging here. You guys with me, or what?”

  “I’m in,” Pat said straightaway. “I got nothing better to do, and I can probably get some cool pics out in the woods too.”

  Rich and Lizzy looked at each other and both nodded. Lizzy smiled and said, “We’re in too. Might be a lot of fun!”

  “Me, horny in a tent…’course it will be fun!” Rich said, receiving a punch in the arm from his girlfriend.

  “Dan?” Kelly asked.

  Dan wasn’t sure what to say. He wasn’t happy that the business Rich and he had worked so hard to build was in such dire straits they were being forced into something as insane and potentially pointless as this, but what other choice did they have? And hey, like Lizzy said—maybe it would be fun. At the very least, he’d get a chance to spend time with Kelly and maybe put things right between them again. That alone would be worth the trip. “Let’s do it, I guess. Can’t believe I’m saying that, but what the hell. A sorrier bunch of adventurers I’ve never seen, but if it’s treasure hunting you guys want…treasure hunting it is.” Dan raised his bottle of beer in the air and offered a toast. “To Joshua Miller. Looks like we’re coming for you, buddy.”

  “To Joshua!” the rest of the gang joined in, the five friends clinking their beers together on high and speaking in unison. Then it was time to drink and party, to laugh and plan things out. It was a night of hope and friendship, where each of them could secretly dream about finding the treasure and what they might do with their share when they finally got back.

  None of them had any idea just how bad an idea they had committed themselves to, or the savage nightmare they were about to willingly walk themselves into.

  Chapter Ten

  The next day was a Sunday, and everyone had agreed it would be best holding off until Monday, when Pat’s father would be back at school and they’d have the house to themselves. He more than likely wouldn’t care if they used his maps in the basement to try locating Miller’s Grove, but he was a bit of a hothead and Pat and he didn’t always get along. Everyone preferred to just wait until Pat knew the house would be empty. Besides, with the amount of beer they’d all drank around the fire Saturday night, sleeping in and taking it easy had sounded like an excellent idea at the time.

  Kelly had spent the day shopping with Lizzy, knowing she’d need a decent sleeping bag and some other camping gear to bring along with them as well. Dan had called and wanted to tag along with them but Kelly had politely turned him down, the stubborn part of her not want
ing to give in to him too easily and wanting to send a clear message to her estranged boyfriend that he was going to have to work hard to get her back this time. Dan had taken the news okay and had promised to make sure Pat and Rich used the day to get their camping gear ready to roll as well. Between them, they had three small tents, but so far no one had discussed the sleeping arrangements. Obviously Rich and Lizzy would grab one for themselves, but it was still too early to tell if Kelly would let Dan in with her, or if he’d better get used to hearing Pat snore. She’d figure out the answer to that question on the fly and wasn’t too worried about it today. For now, Lizzy and she just enjoyed the day, getting their things ready and talking about what they might do with the money if they got their hands on the gold.

  “Maybe Richie and I could finally get married,” Liz said, stars in her eyes at the mention of something she’d wanted for years already. “If he can get his business in the black again, and I can open my salon, there’s no reason why we’d have to wait anymore, right?”

  “Absolutely,” Kelly said, smiling and giving her best friend a hug. “If anyone was ever more perfect for each other than you guys, I don’t know who. That’ll be great!”

  “Totally agree. Rich drives me insane, but I love the crazy bugger. I don’t know what I’d do if I ever lost him.”

  The smile fell off Kelly’s face, thinking of her own relationship problems. She tried to hide it but Lizzy saw her face and regretted opening up her big mouth. “Sorry, Kel. You know what I mean. Besides, you and Dan will be walking down that aisle right behind us. I know you will.”

  “Who knows? I certainly used to hope so. Now, I’m not so sure. We’ll see, I guess. Let’s get you married off first though, okay? And you damn well better have me as your maid of honor or I’ll kick your ass. Got it?”