Read Online The Ghostly Hideaway by Doris Hale Sanders - Free Book Online

those dates at
the library or the health department, Mrs. Wroe.”
    “Thanks, again, Sheriff.”
    Penny began a more thorough search of the old roll
top desk. She somehow felt freer to look than she had before she
knew for sure Uncle Cliff was dead. She had no trouble thinking of
the old man as her uncle. Even though she had never really known
him, it seemed as though she had. She did feel quite close to him
after looking through the family picture album and reading his
journal. And there was apparently no one else to care. She had been
searching for no more than half and hour when she discovered their
birth certificates and some other papers in the back of a drawer.
They were fastened together with a rubber band that snapped in two
as soon as she barely touched it. As she went through the little
bundle, she also found dates for Baby Cliffie’s short life. He had
lived just three days. Also, in the little handful of documents
were Aunt Lorraine’s death certificate and another official-looking
paper. As she unfolded it, she saw that it was Clifton Coy’s last
will and testament.
    As she read it, tears formed in her eyes. She
read:
    *
    I, Clifton Calhoun Coy, being of sound
mind, do hereby bequeath my entire estate and all the worldly goods
that I possess to my niece, Penelope Langley, if she can be found.
If she cannot be located, then I care not what becomes of any of my
belongings, except that I want Johnny O’Reilly to have my old
shotgun. He knows where it’s hidden. The only other thing I ask is
that I be laid to rest in a grave beside my lifelong sweetheart,
Lorraine, and our baby and that the little graveyard be shown the
respect and reverence a final resting place deserves. Witness my
hand this 14 th day of June, 2005.
    *
    Tears were flowing freely now and Penny could almost
feel the hopelessness in the last official words written by the old
man. The will was signed but it hadn’t even been witnessed, a
testament to his lonely and solitary existence as well as his last
wishes. Penny wished fervently that they might have arrived early
enough to alleviate some of that loneliness before the end
came.
     
    The next few weeks found the curtain closing on the
Coy family. Almost no one came to the funeral but the Wroes’
readings in Clifton Coy’s journal didn’t mention many friends. It
seemed that they had pretty much lived as hermits for the last
several years, keeping almost exclusively to themselves. Johnny and
his dog were about the only visitors that were referred to at
all.
    When the monument was set, the little graveyard
looked most presentable and Ed and Johnny built a picket fence
around the site. Penny made weekly trips up the hill to put fresh
flowers on the graves from the flower beds she was sure Aunt
Lorraine had made and loved.
    As autumn approached, the fruit in the little
orchard began to ripen and Ed carefully picked the apples and
peaches and a few pears. They gathered almost two full bushel
baskets of apples, carefully wrapped each apple in newspaper and
put them into a flat box to store under one of the beds. Those with
bad places, she turned into apple jelly. The cool, dark space there
should let them keep until Christmas. The peaches were peeled and
put into freezer bags with sugar and put into the big freezer in
the pantry. The pears they ate as they ripened except they froze a
few packages of them in freezer bags. They expected an even better
crop by next fall if Ed could take care of them better next
spring.
    Occasionally, Chrissy would wake up in the morning
to a beautiful little bouquet of flowers and she still didn’t know
how they got there; but somehow they always made her think of
Johnny. The bouquet was especially pretty this morning. And then
she remembered: she was nineteen years old today. With so much
going on for the last several weeks, it was entirely possible that
no one would remember that it was her birthday. She still couldn’t
begin to explain how Johnny got the