by Tim Wellman
"Let me see," Bonnie said. Sally marched her finger over to the old woman who grabbed her little hand, paused, and then touched the tip of her tongue to the red finger. "It's blood," she said calmly.
Steve bent down and touched it, then brought his finger up to his tongue. "Blood," he said. "Cain't be nothin' else but."
And then, one by one, everyone sampled the red liquid except Sally's mother. And everyone agreed it was blood.
"Can blood even last twenty years or more like that?" her mother said as she took another sip of coffee.
Everyone shrugged. "I reckon," one said.
"Why not?" Steve said. "Cops got them dogs now that can sniff out blood even years after a crime." He looked at Tim. "You still wantin' ta take this thing apart?"
"Your damned straight!" Connie said. "We ain't leavin' it a mystery no more!"
Tim looked a little nervous, now. "Well, reckon we can pull the back and take a look." He bent down and looked closer at the back panel and ran his fingers over a few of the screws. "Gonna need a Philip's head screwdriver and a flat one to hold some tension on the panel."
Connie rummaged through the box and handed Mary the tools Tim needed. Against her better judgment, she slid off the stool and walked them over to him. He grabbed the Philip's and quickly removed a few screws from the top edge, then used the flat screwdriver to pry it open a bit. He tried to look through the crack but it was too dark inside to see anything.
"Don't be in a hurry," Steve said. "Just take them bottom screws out and that whole panel will lift right off."
He removed one, then another, and was about to undo the last one when the panel seemed to pop out slightly, and fall open, held only by the bottom left corner screw. But what caused him to jump up and everyone else to back away was a slug. A lead bullet fell from the back and onto the floor.
"That there's the bullet," Steve said.
"What?" Connie yelled. "Ya found the bullet that killed Julie Black?"
But before anyone could answer, the old jukebox started up, playing the last song the murdered woman ever heard, and the song some still heard at 3:00am in the morning, sometimes, when walking past.
Sally stepped closer and touched the old machine, but just as she did, there was a loud bang, and then smoke boiled out from the record player. It had burnt the wiring and blown a fuse, apparently, because it stopped playing and the lights went out on the front.
Everyone jumped, most were scared enough to need a seat, but not Sally, the one everyone assumed would be crying and scared out of her senses. She simply turned to everyone else and smiled. "Julie Black has left the building," she said.
"Yeah, yeah," her mother said. "So has Elvis." She walked through the men and motioned for Sally to follow her. "Get back over here and finish eating. It's still a long time before dinner."
Minnie was keeping her distance, but trying to look through the glass at the record player. It wasn't turning; the machine was dead. It was as if a spell had been broken. "I reckon it's still filled with her blood, though."
"Best for a couple of us ta wrestle the damned thing out back and just let it sit," Steve said. "Ain't worth nothin'."
"Yeah, and git that old mop out there while ya's at it and wash up that floor, will ya?" Bonnie said. "We can sit somethin' there, maybe one of them fake palm trees. Not sure now why we ever kept the damned thing in the first place."
"That'd look real nice," Tim said. "Them fake palm trees from Heck's is real nice."
Minnie heard Sally burp. "Be right there, sweetie!"
What Was Lost
She kept a small wooden box hidden in the back of her dresser drawer. Nothing ornate or the least bit rare or expensive, it was just a small wooden box, velvet lined but empty. But the old red velvet showed the outline of something, a large ring perhaps, stained silver-black, that must have been in the box for a long time before she ended up with it. She realized that whatever had been in the box was expensive, at least compared to the things she owned, and the box was just a container, not much more than a wrapper, but still, just having the box made her feel a part of the luxury that must have surrounded it at one time. She sometimes got it out and pretended it was a gift from some rich, handsome boy and she would put it on her bed and dream about the contents, opening the box and finding exactly what she wanted. But she dreamed too much, her mother said. And Katie knew she was right; still, dreams were so much more important than real life. She smiled to herself. She knew that wasn't right, but real life was a stone pressing against her chest and pinning her to the dirty ground. In dreams she could soar like a bird.
"Katie!" her mother yelled from downstairs. "If you don't get down here to supper right now I'm gonna fling it out to the chickens!"
"Okay, momma, I'm comin'," she said, but she wasn't sure if she spoke loud enough for anyone else to hear. It didn't matter, dinner would be on the table whenever she finally got down to the kitchen.
"Ya ain't done your chores yet, either, little lady!"
"Okay, momma!" She yelled that time. She picked up the small box and placed it carefully in the back of the drawer, covered it with several pairs of panties and socks, and shoved the drawer closed. "I reckon some day I'll be ownin' whatever was in there," she said. "It wouldn't be fair for God ta keep that away from me forever since I been keepin' its box for so long."
She plodded down the narrow old stairway, jumping over a step each time until she jumped and landed on both feet on the hardwood hallway. "Hey momma, there's somebody at the door!"
Her mother came through the kitchen doorway wiping her hands on a stained dishrag. "I didn't hear no body knockin'," she said.
Katie pointed to the door with a large shadow outside it. It wasn't moving, but was definitely the shape of a person. But then as her mother walked toward it, the shadow disappeared and by the time she got to the door and looked out the window, there was nothing there at all. She opened the door and saw nothing.
"It just disappeared," Katie said. "Like a ghost or somethin'."
"Well, I'm almost certain it weren't no ghost," her mom said. "Musta been than Williams boy playin' a prank on us. His momma's gonna hear about it, I'll promise ya that." She shut the door and turned around. "Now, git in there and eat, young'un!"
"Fried tater's?"
"Didn't have no lard, so I had to stew 'em," she said.
"Poo!" Katie said.
"They are the same food," she said. "I saved you the fatty part of the side pork, though."
Katie smiled. She loved the fatty parts. Another girl at school said they would make her fat, but then the teacher said, no, they will make you dead! But she didn't care; the fatty parts were the best parts. "We got any salt?" she said as she hopped up in the big chair.
"They's some packets in the cream jar that Bernie Lynn brought from the diner," her mom said. "You take it easy on that salt, it ain't good for ya."
"I'm eatin' a big piece a fat, momma," Katie said. "I ain't needin' to worry about the salt."
"I want you ta burn the garbage and stay there till it's done," she said. "We're s'posed to have some rain comin' in tonight so if it gets wet it'll be layin' out there a week before it dries out enough to finish burnin'."
Katie nodded with a piece of pork in her mouth, holding it with both hands. "You think aunt Bernie is gonna bring those clothes over for me?"
"She said she would," he mom said. "Guess she's been busy."
Katie nodded. "I seen her with a different man every night this week down at theater."
"She ain't never pretended to be a saint," her mother said. "Just wish she'd be a sinner where other people couldn't see her."
"My friend Tammy says if aunt Bernie gives me her old clothes then I'd be a whore, too." She took another bite of meat, pulling it loose with some difficulty and then chewing noisily.
"Your friend Tammy needs a good slap 'cross the mouth," her mother said. "B'sides, ain't no reason for a nine year old girl ta be hearin' words like that, no matter who says 'e
m."
"I heared a lot worse," Katie said. "Some of the kids with television sets say they hear all kinds a stuff on there. Even see people havin' sex."
"We're gonna end this here conversation, young lady," her mother said. "Before you get a slap 'cross the mouth."
"I'd call them Wayne County do-gooders on ya in a second," Katie said with a smile. "But I'd come and visit ya in prison, I guess."
Her mother grabbed the empty plate and held it up and Katie tossed the clean bone into it. She shook her head and took it over to the sink. "I know I ain't raised you the way ya need raised up," she said.
Katie hopped out of the chair and hugged her mother from behind. "I know ya been doin' the best you could since daddy died, momma," she said. "I ain't complainin' as long as I get the fatty parts."
There was a knock on the door and they both walked through the house. "Might be Bernie with my whorin' clothes!"
But as they entered the hallway they both saw the same shadow figure they had seen earlier. There was definitely someone outside the door but as her mother approached again, it again disappeared. "I'll be damned!"
"They was definitely somebody there," Katie said. "I seen 'em plain as day."
"I think they's runnin' when they see me comin' to the door. Next time it happens, you try answerin'."
Katie burped. "I need me a big glass a water. Hey, Tammy said she heard they were talkin' about ending the war." She walked back into the kitchen and waited until the water got cold from the faucet and then held a jelly jar under it. She turned it up to her lips and gulped it down, then burped again. "Ain't nothin' better than cold water. President Nixon said he was bringin' the soldiers back home." She heard another knock on the door and went back into the hall.
Her mother waved her toward the door. "You try answerin'."
She took a few steps toward the door and saw the figure hadn't disappeared, so she jumped quickly across the floor and pulled the door open quickly "Gotcha!" Her face turned as red as her hair as she backed away. There was an older man standing in front of her. He was small and frail and dressed in an old black suit, not worn or tatty, but obviously from a past decade. His short black hair was greased back and he was clean-shaven and Katie instantly took him for a missionary or bible salesman because he was wearing shiny black leather shoes. "Sorry, mister!"
Her mother was almost instantly standing between the old man and her daughter. "We don't want none a whatever you're sellin'," she said. "And if yer a givin' it away it prob'ly ain't worth havin'."
"I'm neither selling or giving anything away, madam," he said. He bowed.
"Ya ain't from 'round these parts, are ya?" she said.
"Was it you who was knockin' and runnin' away?" Katie said. "I think you're too old to be prankin' people."
"I believe I found an item that belongs to you, miss," he said.
"Me?" she said and pushed past her mother. "What?"
The old man reached into his pocket and pulled out an old, tarnished silver ring and held it up. "This is yours," he said.
She bent in to take a closer look. "I think ya got the wrong person," she said.
"Please, look closer," he said and held it out for her to take.
She took it from his fingers and turned it around on her finger. It was an odd ring, with a design she had never seen. There was a star shape in the middle of a design that seemed to be vines and the whole top seemed to be a locket of some sort. "Nope, ain't mine."
"It belongs in the box," he said.
"The box?" she said. She turned around to her mother and shrugged. "Should I take it? Wait, how do you know about the box?"
But he was not there to hear the question. She stepped through the door and looked both directions. The yard stretched out flat for fifty yards before it ran into the old county road, and the closest neighbors were a hundred yards down the road in either direction. He had simply disappeared.
"This is somethin' ya don't want," her mother said. "Throw that ring away right now."
"Ya act like it's somethin' evil or somethin'," Katie said. She looked at the ring and then pushed it down her finger and held her hand up. "It fits."
"This just ain't a good thing, trust me."
"He's just some kinda salesman," Katie said. "Passin' off these weird rings then he'll be back tomorrow to try an' sell us the matching bracelet and necklace. Prob'ly heard about the box from down the road. Becky knowed about it and so does Jinxie."
Her mother grabbed her hand and took a closer look at the ring. "Ya need to throw that away," she said.
"It grows on ya," Katie said. "Kinda neat how the star thing glows when the light is behind it. It ain't nothin' like belongs in my box, though. I'm expectin' that to have big ol' jewels and diamonds and stuff all over it." She rubbed it with her thumb and then saw her thumb was silver-black. "It's real silver, though. Might be worth a dollar."
"Yeah, well, go git your old clothes on so ya can take out the trash and feed the chickens," her mother said. "And put your boots on. Don't ya go out there barefooted again, you'll get tetanus."
Katie stomped up the stairs; she wasn't angry, she just felt like stomping because it annoyed her mother. She had her good school pants around her knees by the time she walked through her door and quickly stepped out of them and kicked them on to her bed and then pulled her shirt over her head and grabbed her old blue cotton dress and slid in over her body. She preferred to do her chores in a dress, it was easier to keep her body clean. She sat back on her bed and looked at the ring for a moment before digging her boots out from under the bed. She stepped into them and headed back downstairs without tying the laces.
"Hold on!" her mother yelled. "Ya sit your butt right down there and tie up them laces b'fore you trip and kill yourself!"
Katie sighed, then sat down on the bottom step and did as she was told. She looked up and stared at her mother, and continued to stare.
"What?" she said.
"Ya didn't tell me ta tie my hair back b'fore I get it caught on somethin' and kill myself," Katie said.
"I'm gonna get me a switch!"
"What is that number fer Wayne?" She smiled at her mother and her mother chuckled and smiled back.
"Just get your scrawny ass out back and do as ya's told. And don't leave the back yard, okay? It's important with that old man out and about."
"You reckon since the soldiers are leavin' Vietnam, they ain't never gonna find daddy?" She stood up and grabbed a rubber band off the hall table and tied her hair back in a pony tail.
"I guess they had a year ta find his body," her mother said. "Guess that's more than a person can expect fer 'em ta be lookin'."
"Reckon so," Katie said. She walked into the kitchen and grabbed the small garbage can and then grabbed the bigger can just outside the back door and let the screen slam shut. The smaller can was not a problem but she had to drag the bigger one. She looked up in the air and sniffed. "Prob'ly gonna rain tonight," she said. "I can smell it."
"Hey Katiedid!" A girl about her age was running out of the woods across the gravel backroad and continued into her backyard. She was wearing old coveralls and had her short brown hair tucked under a straw hat.
"Hey Tammy!" She stopped her chore and waited for her friend to get to her. "Whatcha doin' out there in the woods?"
"I done found me a secret!" Tammy was out of breath, but grabbed the other handle on the bigger garbage can and helped Katie carry it toward the back of the yard.
"A secret out there in the woods?" Katie said. "Ain't nothin' out there 'ceptin' sassafras trees and blood roots that's worth being secretive about."
"Naw, this is a big 'un!" she said. "This old man showed me."
"Ya followed an old man inta the woods?" Katie said.
"It weren't like that," she said. "I coulda took him in a fair fight anyways if'n he tried to touch me improper." They both dropped the big can and Katie dumped the smaller one on the ground as Tammy started gathering up a bit of brush to help get the fire g
oing. "Anyway, he showed me this here secret and now I gotta show it ta you."
"Ya gotta show it to me?" Katie said. She waited for Tammy to drop the kindling onto the garbage, then struck a match and lit a few pieces of paper and tossed them onto the pile. "Like a curse or somethin'?"
"Naw! Well, sorta, I reckon," Tammy said. "If I can show ya, the old man said I'd be gittin' some big reward."
They both started tossing handfuls of garbage from the bigger can into the fire. "This old guy have a black suit and shiny black shoes?"
"Yep!" Tammy said. "Hey, how'd ya know?"
"He was at the house a bit ago," she said. "Gave me this ring."
Tammy grabbed her hand and took a good look at the design. "I seen this design out in the woods!"
"What?" Katie jerked her hand back and held the back of her hand close to Tammy's face. "This design?"
Tammy nodded. "Yep," she said. "That's part a the secret. They's some sorta big metal box thing out there and this design is on it."
"That's just plume weird," Katie said. "Ya's lying your ass off, ain't cha?"
"No way!" she said. "The old guy just wanted me ta get you to come and see."
"So he could kill us both, prob'ly, or sell us to a whore house er somethin'."
"Hey, they make good money, ya know!" Tammy said, and then burst out laughing. "Anyway, ya gotta go with me, okay? I want my reward from 'im."
"Ya really thinkin' this old man is safe ta be around?" Katie said. She was beginning to wonder about the metal box with the same design as the ring. "Help me dump the rest of the can on the fire and we'll go out there," she said. "But if anything at all strikes me as weird, I'm runnin' outa there screamin' 'rape' at the top of my lungs. Momma told me not to leave the yard."
"Deal!" Tammy said. She grabbed Katie's hand and tugged her toward the woods until they both began running.
"Hey!" Katie's mother yelled. She was standing in the back doorway. "Where y'all goin! Don't go out there!"