Ghost Mining

by Scott Weaver

faded yellow light.

  "That's not possible," Jimmy replied, the pain in his stomach changing to ice, raising goose-bumps on his skin in the ninety degree afternoon. "That bulb was cracked in half."

  Bobby shrugged, turning back to the mine shaft. "Works now, besides, it should make you happy, since now I can see in here."

  "Yeah, I feel great," Jimmy mumbled.

  "Anybody down there?" Bobby yelled into the hole now in front of him.

  Jimmy scratched at his arm, even though it didn't itch.

  Bobby leaned down, Jimmy couldn't tell for sure, but he was guessing Bobby's head was hovering above the open mine shaft, his hands right on the edge of the hole. A slight shift of dirt could send his best friend tumbling down to his death.

  Jimmy shook his hands up and down, like they were on fire. He wanted to yell at Bobby to get back, but was afraid that it might startle Bobby, making him fall into the darkness.

  "I think I heard something," Bobby said, glancing back at Jimmy. Jimmy shook his head violently, but Bobby was already looking back into the abyss.

  "Please, Bobby," Jimmy whispered, knowing full well that Bobby couldn't possibly hear him. "Please!"

  Bobby was talking into the hole now, but Jimmy couldn't hear what he was saying.

  "Come on!" Jimmy's fear took over his volume, as he yelled the words as loud as possible, shaking his white knuckled fists.

  "I knew you'd come back." Bobby said loudly into the abyss. "I knew you wouldn't just leave me and dad alone," he reached his hand into the pit.

  "Bobby!" Jimmy screeched, suddenly knowing what this was all about. "Your mom died of cancer in the hospital! She didn't die in the mine! Why would her ghost be someplace where she didn't die? Remember the rules?"

  Bobby's light showed his hand as it came out of the pit, holding onto another larger, grayer hand. As he kept pulling the rest of the arm came out of the abyss and then a face. A smiling face that looked somewhat like Bobby's mom, only paler and the skin seemed thinner, showing more of the skull beneath it.

  "Holy shit," Jimmy whispered.

  The dead thing seemed to hear him, because suddenly it turned and looked at him. The smile disappearing, replaced with a scowl. Its eyes burning with the same eerie yellow that the hardhat light glowed.

  Jimmy did two things simultaneously; he turned and ran like hell and he lost complete control of his bladder. He ran through the two miles of forest in a blurred panic. Once out of the woods, he ran right past his bike and straight home. The sun was sinking into the horizon, which meant both Jimmy and Bobby would be expected home soon, which was the last thing on Jimmy's mind, he just wanted to be home before it got any darker. He couldn't care less about getting in trouble with his parents. His living parents that hadn't climbed out of a hole in the ground.

  Jimmy ran inside his house, slamming the door behind him and hitting the stairs at a full run.

  "That you Jimmy?" his mom asked from the kitchen.

  "Yeah," his voice came out in a loud squeak.

  "'Bout time," she replied. "Get washed up and ready for supper. Your dad should be home soon."

  He didn't reply, running into his room and closing the door. Grabbing clean underwear and shorts, he quickly changed out of the soiled one he had on and then stuffed them deep into his clothes hamper, so they would be hidden.

  Sitting on his bed, he stared at the clothes hamper, trying to catch his breath. "It was just a trick," he said out loud. "Bobby was just messing with me."

  He heard his dad's car pulling into the drive, making him feel a little safer now. His dad was tough, he'd be able to protect him and mom from any old monster. Running to his window he saw his dad's headlights turn into the garage, going across old man Miner's house for a moment, lighting up two shapes, one tall, the other short, moving out of the woods towards the old house. The sun had completely gone down by now.

  Jimmy shook his head frantically. "Just the cat," he told himself. "Just the shadow of that stupid old cat," running down the stairs, he walked into the kitchen the same moment as his dad.

  "Hey sport," dad said with a smile. "How was your day?"

  Jimmy shrugged, not really knowing what to say. "How was yours?"

  His dad gave the same shrug. "Same as yours, I guess."

  "My two great communicators," mom said, sitting the casserole down on the table.

  "I'll say anything you want me to, my dear," dad replied, standing up to give her a kiss on the lips.

  "You can start by telling me how good this tastes," she pointed to the casserole.

  "I'm sure it will," dad replied. "It smells great."

  The phone started ringing, making mom sigh as she walked towards it.

  "Let it ring," dad called to her. "Whoever it is should know better than to call at supper time."

  "Could be something important," mom replied, answering the phone. "Hello?"

  "Oh, hi Mike," she replied. Jimmy's eyes froze on his mom's face. Mike was Bobby's dad.

  "Yeah, Jimmy got home just a couple of minutes ago", she said into the phone, turning and looking at her son. "Wasn't Bobby with you?" she asked.

  His throat went dry and started closing up, making it hard to breath. His mom raised her eyebrows at him, waiting for his response.

  "Oh," his mom's eyes suddenly moved off her son and back to the wall the phone hung on. "That's great. No problem Mike. Talk to you later," she hung up.

  "Everything okay?" Dad asked.

  "Yeah," his mom answered. "He heard Bobby come in while we were on the phone. He must have been hunting fireflies or something before he came."

  "It wasn't fireflies he was hunting," Jimmy thought to himself.

  Jimmy picked at his food, but couldn't take one bite, fearing it would come right back up. He told his parents he didn't feel good, so his mom gave him some medicine and he went up to his room to lie down.

  He stayed in bed with his light on, staring at the wall until his mom came in.

  "How are you feeling, honey?" she asked, sitting down beside him.

  "Alright, just tired I guess."

  She touched his forehead. "You don't have a temperature. Maybe you were just out in the heat too much today."

  "Yeah, probably," Jimmy replied. "I just need to get some sleep.

  "Okay," she said, kissing his forehead. "Good night," she said getting up and turning off his light.

  "Night," he replied. "Could you do me a favor?"

  "What's that?"

  "Could you turn on my closet light, so I'll be able to see better if I have to get up in the middle of the night?"

  "Sure," she said, switching the light on, which outlined the closed closet door with a white glow.

  "Could you leave my door open too?"

  "Okay," she said, letting go of the door knob instead of closing it. "Love you."

  "Love you too."

  He laid there, wide awake long after all of the other lights except his closet had been shut off. Staring at his wall.

  He heard something moving across the roof in front of his window. He closed his eyes, trying to will away the sound.

  The window slowly slid open, even though he had triple checked that it had been locked before he ever laid down. Something moved into his room and climbed onto his bed, sitting right behind him. He scrunched his eyes tighter, trying even harder to will away whatever it was on his bed.

  "Jimmy," it was Bobby's voice, only much drier, like leaves in November. "I gotta show you something, it's really cool. You're gonna love it, it's so much more than what we thought it was." A hand touched Jimmy's shoulder, its coldness traveling right through the sheet and into his flesh. "Once I show you, we'll come back and get your parents and show them, and then we'll show all the other neighbors, and eventually the whole town." Bobby's lips were now right at Jimmy's ear. "Eventually, we'll show everybody." He pulled Jimmy's sheets off of him. "Everybody."