Chapter
24
By Julie
The
next morning, when Brian awoke, Kevin was already on the phone.
“Yes…
thanks a lot… ok…yeah, see you then.
Bye,” Kevin said, hanging up the phone.
He turned around to face Brian.
“Morning,
Bri,” he said.
“Hey,
Kev,” Brian replied. “Were you on the
phone with the construction company?”
“Yeah,”
Kevin said. “They’re sending a few guys
over here at ten.”
“Cool,”
Brian said. “Is this going to totally
ruin our basement?”
“Probably,”
Kevin said, chuckling slightly.
“Oh
well, this is something we have to do,” Brian said.
“Yeah,”
Kevin agreed. “The dude I talked to on
the phone didn’t understand why we wanted this done.”
“What
did you tell him?” Brian asked.
“I
just said we thought there was something very important buried under the
basement floor and that we needed to dig it up,” Kevin said, laughing. Brian
chuckled and set to work fixing a bowl of Lucky Charms for himself.
***
Promptly
at ten, a big white ran pulled into the driveway and three men hopped out,
carrying tools with them. Brian and
Kevin met them at the door and led them down to the basement, explaining
exactly what they wanted done.
A
few minutes later, the men were busy breaking up the cement floor with crowbars
and jackhammers. Brian, Kevin, AJ, and
Howie sat around the living room, for it was too noisy in the basement.
About
an hour later, the noise suddenly stopped.
Moments later, one of the men appeared in the living room.
“Gentlemen,
would you come down and take a look at this?” he asked. Exchanging glances, the four of them stood
and followed the man down to the basement.
They gasped when they got to the bottom of the steps. The cement floor was in pieces, exposing a
dirt floor below.
“Look
here,” another man said, pointing down at the dirt. Brian hurried over to where he was standing
and looked. There was something sticking
out of the dirt. Brian squatted down and
carefully brushed the dirt away from it.
He gasped as he realized it was a bone.
It looked like a finger bone, pointing out of the dirt.
“Guys,
come here,” he said, taking a long shaky breath. The guys all looked down and gasped.
Kevin
turned to the construction workers.
“Fellows, I think that’s all we need,” he said. “Thanks so much. Just send the bill here.”
“You’re
welcome, sir,” one man replied. Then
they packed up their tools and left, glancing behind them as they walked up the
steps, confused looks on their faces.
As
soon as they were gone, the four guys set to work digging, trying to uncover
what they hoped was the thing they were in search of.
***
Two
hours later, they gazed down at the ground, shocked, yet happy at the same
time. Lying on the ground at their feet
was the almost fully intact skeleton of Lucy O’Malley, a skeleton that had been
buried underground for over sixty years, ever since the house had collapsed,
burying her beneath the rubble.
“We
have to call the police.” Kevin whispered, his voice cutting through the
silence of the moment.
“Yeah,”
AJ agreed, his eyes not leaving the skeleton.
“Ok,
I’ll go call now,” Kevin replied, slowly turning away and stepping carefully
over the broken bits of cement that littered their basement. He made it across the room and disappeared up
the steps.
***
A
few minutes later, he came back downstairs.
“The police are on their way,” he said.
“Ok,”
Howie replied. “We better go upstairs and
wait for them.” AJ and Kevin nodded, and
the three of them went back upstairs.
Brian grabbed a tarp that was lying on the other side of the basement
and carefully spread it over the delicate skeleton, then followed the guys
upstairs.
***
