The Ghost of Lizard's Rock (15 page)

We walked through the
front door. I noticed that their furniture was worn, but very
clean. In fact the entire house was spotless!

Allie took my things,
placed them on the couch in the living room, and motioned me to
have a seat.

“Dad will be along in a
minute,” said Allie. “He checks on us for a few minutes and then
goes back to work.”

“What does he
do?”

“He’s a carpenter,”
answered Allie. “He can build houses and pretty much anything
else.” Allie looked around the living room for a moment. “Our last
house was much nicer. Dad actually built it, but we lost it when my
mom’s medical bills got really bad.” She let out a deep sigh, “So I
guess you’d say we are starting over.”

I felt my own emotions
skyrocketing. My problems looked so small in comparison to what
Allie was dealing with.

Allie’s brothers walked
into the living room with a glass of sweet lemonade for Allie and
me. The boys sat down on each side of Allie and stared at me. Each
of them had looks similar to their big sister.

Allie put her glass down
and placed an arm around the brother on her right, “This is Josh.”
She placed her other arm around the one on the left, “and this is
James.” Allie squeezed them close to her as both started
giggling.

I stared at the two boys
trying to see something different so I could learn who’s
who.

Allie must have noticed,
“Look close at Josh’s eyebrow over his left eye. See the scar. He
fell out of the tree and onto a rock below.”

“That must have really
hurt.” That’s all it took and Josh was right in front of me showing
his battle wound up close.

“I’ve got one too,” said
James as he got closer. He pointed to his arm.

“Yes you do!”

Allie looked at me and
just smiled.

“Hey guys,” came a voice
from the front door.

In walked a man that was
clearly Allie’s father. He was much taller than Eric; I’d guess
somewhere around 6’2”.

Although, Allie did have
some her dad’s physical traits, I guessed she must have taken more
after her mother in size and in the darkness in her eyes and
hair.

He dropped down on one
knee and wrestled with Josh and James for a few minutes before
Allie got her time with him in the form of a huge hug.

I remembered when my dad
used to do the same with me.

“Dad,” said Allie as she
stepped back a little, “this is Kati - my new friend. We were
wondering if I could go with her to the school dance tomorrow night
and hang out together Saturday morning for a while. Kati’s mom will
take us to the dance and bring me home afterwards.”

“Hi Kati,” said her dad.
“I’m glad to meet you.” He looked back at Allie and nodded his head
yes. “On Saturday you must be home by 1:00 to watch the boys. I’m
going to go work on a fence for some people across
town.”

“Great!” answered
Allie.

I heard a car honk
outside, “Come on. I want you to meet my mom.” I grabbed Allie’s
arm and dragged her out the door.

“Mom,” I said, “this is
Allie. Allie this is my mom.”

“Hi Allie,” answered my
mom. “So… are we going to our first dance?”

Allie and I looked at each
other and screamed in pure joy. “Our first dance!” I stopped and
stared at Allie with a puzzled look, “Where did quiet Allie
suddenly disappear to?”

Allie placed her hand over
her mouth, “It has been a long time since I did that.”

“Hi… I’m Allie’s father.
You sure it is no problem to take the girls to the dance?” He
leaned over to look at her through the passenger window.

Mom seemed stunned for the
moment, “It’s no problem.”

“We’ll talk some more
tomorrow.” I opened the car door and slid in. Allie’s dad closed it
gently for me.

On the way home, I told
mom all about Allie’s family and how her mother had
died.

“Do you think you will be
able to stay friends?” asked Mom.

“It’s strange - but I
think Allie is the best friend I have ever had or ever will
have!”

Mom smiled all the way
home without saying another word.

Hidden Secrets

That night I lay on the
bed looking at the old leather journal on my lap. I gently opened
the cover, excited to read Josie’s next entry.

I stared once more at the
names of the gang on the first page - Josie, Wesley, Rufus, and
Maggie – and then turned the pages one by one until I reached the
next entry.

“What was each of them
really like?”

My mind pictured Maggie
and Josie sitting on the edge of Lizard’s Rock that first morning
looking out over the forest below and talking about the things they
were interested in. I suppose they weren’t a whole lot different
from Allie and me.

As I looked down at the
next journal entry, I tried to imagine Josie sitting with her pen
at the table in the hideout writing on this very page.

July 1, 1918

We’re just wasting time in
the hideout until it gets close to 5 o’clock. That’s when the men
working in the grain fields north of town will shut down for the
day and either head for their homes or go back into town. Some of
the men will stop at the store in town. Maggie’s little brothers,
who haul water to the men all day, will stop there too.

The work in the fields is
very hard and the men get real thirsty for water. There is no water
near the place where the men are harvesting grain, but there is a
cold-water spring about a half mile from the field.

Maggie’s little brothers
haul two pails of fresh water from the spring to the men working in
the fields by horseback. The first pail is for the men to drink and
the second one is for the horses.

The boys do this all day
long and earn a quarter for the day, of which they usually spend on
some candy at the store before they go home. That’s where all the
trouble has been happening.

Jerry Halter and two other
boys wait for Maggie’s brothers to buy their candy and then steal
it from them just as they leave the store. It’s so unfair. They
work all day and then Jerry steals their treats.

That’s where we come in.
We’ve got a plan to stop Jerry and his friends for good. We’ll see
how he and his buddies like it when the shoe is on the other
foot.

Wesley just pulled out his
pocket watch, looked at the time, and closed it. It’s time to head
for town!

I will write all about it
when it’s all over, but for now it is time for some sweet
revenge!

Josie

I turned the page quickly
in anticipation of Josie’s next entry and stared down at the next
journal page – it was blank and so was the page next to it. I
flipped another page and it was blank as well. Confused, I turned
each page of the journal expecting to see Josie’s writing again,
but each page was as blank as the one before it.

There were no more
entries! I was in total shock. What could have happened to gang
after they left the hideout? Did something go wrong with their
plan?

Something stuck between
the pages of the journal caught my attention. I turned the journal
upside down and flipped the pages back and forth a couple of times
until a small piece of paper fluttered down to my blanket. I picked
it up gently and moved it closer to my eyes for a better look. The
small piece of paper was an old newspaper clipping.

GIRL FALLS TO HER
DEATH

Local girl’s body was
found in the forest just about a half mile from Tiny. The body of
13 year old Josephine Grace Jones was found yesterday evening by
searchers after Jones did not come home for dinner. The sheriff’s
office believes Jones may have been playing on a gigantic rock in
the forest known as Lizard’s Rock, slipped, and fell to her death
on the rocks below. Funeral arrangements are set for Wednesday,
July 3, 1918.

I held the clipping in my
hand and looked back at the journal for a moment. I figured that it
was highly unlikely that any of the gang was still alive today, but
I never ever thought about Josie dying just after she had written
her last entry in the journal – she was only my age and kids my age
aren’t supposed to die.

What at first seemed very
cavalier, much in the same way we romanticize pirates, now seemed
sad and tragic. I sat quietly staring at the cover of the old
journal and wondered what had happened to Josie on top of Lizard’s
Rock. Was it really an accident?

Nothing made sense! How
did the newspaper clipping of Josie’s death get in the journal? Why
weren’t there any more entries?

Disappointed, I laid the
opened journal on the nightstand next to my bed and decided to put
out my clothes for tomorrow. After about ten or fifteen minutes, I
crawled back into bed and reached for the switch on my
night-light.

My eyes noticed something
on the blank pages of the journal. It was as if something was
suddenly becoming visible on the page.

“What the…?” I quickly
pulled the journal over to my lap and stared at the pages even
closer. The journal’s pages were warm to my touch. I looked back at
the nightstand and the lamp. The light bulb in the lamp must have
caused the pages to heat up.

I leaned forward to get a
closer look at the pages and whatever it was that was barely
visible.

My eyes grew larger as I
exclaimed, “It’s invisible writing!” I placed my hand over my mouth
to keep from shouting it again and again.

I remembered from science
class that people in old times would write secret messages on paper
with lemon juice and other stuff. When the paper dried, the message
would disappear, that is, until the dried juice was exposed to
heat. The heat would make the original words darken, and thus it
could be read.

I stared at the pale,
barely legible writing for a moment, jumped up, ran into the
bathroom, and brought back my hair dryer. I plugged it in, turned
the setting up on high, and began blowing the hot air across the
pages of the journal. Page by page the secret words began to appear
- until five pages of a new entry were visible for me to
read.

I turned off the hair
dryer and began reading the hidden message.

September 24,
1938

My name is Maggie Wilson.
Twenty years ago, I was a member of the Cow Pie Gang and best
friend to Josie Jones. I came back to the hideout this last time to
write the final message in our journal – a message of tragedy and
sorrow beyond anything imaginable.

I have never said a word
about what happened that day. None of the Cow Pie Gang has ever
said a word about what happened to Josie on that day when we went
after Jerry Halter. Maybe, we were ashamed of the stupidity that
caused her death, or maybe it was because we were so very
frightened to tell the truth. No matter which it was, Josie’s death
affected each of us in ways we never saw coming. It’s been 20 years
but being back here it feels like just yesterday. Like Josie is
still here.

My mind pictured Maggie’s
words on the page like a movie inside my head as I read
on…

I can remember every
detail of that day. It seemed like such a good idea at the time. We
just wanted to make Jerry and those other boys stop.

That afternoon, just
around 5 o’clock, we picked up our things and left the hideout.
Each of us walked quietly without saying a word through the tunnel,
out the entrance, and through the forest to town.

We had carefully planned
our revenge on Jerry Halter and his so-called buddies. When it was
over, each of us would scatter in different directions and find our
way back to the hideout. Once there, we would wait together until
sunset, and then work our way quietly back to our homes. If we did
it right, no one would ever know it was us.

Rufus led us to the back
of the old wooden store. He motioned the rest of us to stay back as
he walked up to the window and peeked inside. The first thing he
saw was my little brothers at the counter paying for some candy.
Across the room, Jerry Halter was already getting in position near
the front door to intercept my brothers.

Wesley walked over to an
old burlap sack next to the corner of the building that he had
placed there earlier in the afternoon. He grabbed his nose and
pinched it together with one hand, as he dragged the huge sack
across the ground with the other. I remember the conversation so
clearly that I can almost hear their voices.

"That smells horrible,"
whispered Josie.

"Fresh from the barn,"
laughed Wesley.

Rufus joined them,
"They're all in there.” He had such an anxious look in his eyes,
“Everyone ready?"

"Okay Josie," I said, "Go
inside." I wish I hadn’t said anything. I have wished I could take
those words back for the past 20 years.

Josie led the way to the
front door and walked inside. She walked over to my brothers,
whispered something in their ears, and moved towards the front
door.