Read Online The Hawley Book of the Dead by Chrysler Szarlan - Free Book Online Page B

You’d think over the years some teenagers would figure to use the houses for a hangout. Destroy stuff, torch the furniture for campfires, maybe. But when we went in, it was all just as if it was left maybe a few weeks before. Stuff was dusty, that’s about it. Tables still set for dinner, a bed or two still unmade. What wasn’t auctioned off was cleared out and hauled to the dump.”
    Of course, by the time Jolon and I discovered the Five Corners, the buildings were empty. I had always assumed that the abandonment had been gradual, one family dying out, another moving, leaving the houses unclaimed. My family among them, leaving Nan holding the bag eventually. What Carl told me put a different spin on things.
    “Why was so much left?” I asked. Carl was closing the barn door. I turned back because he hadn’t answered, was still fiddling with the latch. “Carl?”
    “Huh?” He finally turned toward me, a little reluctantly, I thought. “Did you ask me something?”
    “I was wondering why so much was left. When people moved away, why did they leave their things?” I sensed more story, something I was good at, digging the dirt of the past, digging nuggets of magic or of fact. None of Nan’s tales had featured the abandonment of the town. I had always figured it had happened long before she was born.
    Carl scuffed his loafered foot at a big shiny beetle on the gravel, smashing it to a slimy pulp. Then he shoved his hands in his pockets, peered up at the blue of the sky. “Well, I couldn’t exactly say. Maybe they were in a hurry to get somewhere. To get to a job. Probably moved to cities and lived in small apartments.” He looked at me appraisingly, looked away. “Hey, that’s some spiffy tow package you got on that 4Runner.”
    I had no idea why he was trying to distract me, but I was charmed by the mystery. “You’d think they would have sold the furniture before they moved.”
    “You have horses, right? I’d expect you’ll want to think about a real truck if you’re going to do any serious towing.” His face was shiny with sweat, although the day was drawing in, the air cooling. I didn’t bother replying. I knew we were done with the subject of the abandonment of Hawley Five Corners. He wandered over to his own truck, tucked behind the barn. He got in, closed the door, looking sheepish, as if he’d done something wrong and I’d caught him at it. “I’ll be sure to get back to you about getting the rest of the junk out of the barn.”
    “That will be fine, Carl. Just call my cell.”
    He started the truck, and I waited for him to drive off. Instead, hesurprised me. He bent his head out the window toward me, almost whispered, “About the town. It’s just stories. Don’t mean anything. I wouldn’a opened my fat mouth, but I forgot for a minute you’re not from here.” He pounded the truck door in farewell, and I waved him off.
6
    When I returned to the house, the girls were still running from room to room, exclaiming over all the fireplaces, the white moldings with their deeply carved grapes. The same things I’d loved about the house when I was young myself and peeking through windows.
    “Hey, look at this cool fireplace. It has Noah’s Ark all around it!” Caleigh crowed.
    “No way!” I heard Grace pounding into the parlor. “OMG, she’s right. Fai, c’mere!”
    “There’s giraffes, and a lion …”
    “Cats and bears, and a monkey!”
    “What are those things?”
    “Anteaters. See, their long tongues are sticking out,” Fai chimed in. “But, you guys, you have to come see this thing in the kitchen. It’s a huge iron thing with a horse pulling a sleigh on the side of it … oh, I can’t describe it, you have to come look.”
    I heard more pounding feet, then Caleigh saying, “Didn’t you all ever see a woodstove before? Even I know what a woodstove looks like.”
    “That’s a
wood
stove? It looks more like the wicked witch’s oven. And where’d you ever see