Old Bones: A Collection of Short Stories Read Online Free PDF Page A

more sense than believing that he and his dogs froze to
death, or that Cathleen jumped to her death at the bottom of
Widow’s Ravine.”
    Lenny glanced at where a trickling stream
separated the two properties. A half-mile away to his left, the
stream fell into a steep-sided gorge called Widow’s Ravine, a place
that the rest of the legend claims Cathleen Myers jumped to her
death after she found her husband and his dogs frozen. He told Vree
about the legend and added, “Her screams can be heard whenever her
ghost relives the suicide and plunges into the ravine.”
    “For the record, none of us have ever heard
anyone screaming from Widow’s Ravine,” Amy said. “And I’ve never
seen any ghosts.”
    “Well, I have,” Dave said.
    “Whatever.” Amy popped a peppermint Life
Saver candy into her mouth and offered Vree and Lenny some.
    “And I’m not the only one,” Dave said before
swallowing the last of his hotdog. “Our cousin Ricky says Alan
Baker was driving up here one night after the fire when he saw a
pack of wild-looking dogs on the Myers property. When he aimed a
flashlight at them, they vanished. Then, as he was driving away, he
felt the weight of invisible animals jumping on the hood of his
truck. He hurried home and discovered that something had scratched
the truck’s paint and dented the hood.”
    Amy shook her head and said, “I wouldn’t
believe anything Alan Baker says.”
    “I’m just saying what Ricky told me, is
all.”
    “Whatever.”
    They quieted and Lenny cooked his hotdog and
ate it without a bun or any dressing, just the way he liked them,
and snuck glances at quiet Vree cloud gazing. He looked up once or
twice and wondered what she saw there.
    A stick snapped behind Amy’s tent and caused
him turn partway to the left. The dark shape of a human figure
stepped around the tent and into their midst.
    “Who are you?” Dave said, almost shouting,
which drew Vree’s and Amy’s attention. “This is private land.”
    Fiery hues of the campfire revealed a
stunning woman. Flame glinted from her long black hair, her bronze
face, and her long, sweeping black dress tied off at the waist. A
white lace collar hung around her neck, and pearl buttons sparkled
in a row between her ample breasts. Tall and curvy, she looked at
the four teenagers with mesmerizing and penetrating eyes—blacker
than either her hair or dress, or the rubies set in the gold rings
that she wore on eight fingers and two thumbs.
    “This parcel of land is owned by Margaret
Evans,” she replied as she strolled to stand next to the fire
between Dave and the rest of them.
    “She’s our grandmother,” Dave said. “Our dad
lives here now.”
    “Yes, I know of your family, David,” she said
to him. “And Amy.” She smiled and looked kindly at Amy, beaming
those mysterious charcoal eyes. Then she looked at Lenny and
lingered with a puzzled, yet bewitching gaze.
    He held her gaze until Dave asked, “How can
we help you?”
    She looked away and said, “I must rest a
moment. The journey here has tired me.”
    She sat with a grace that made her seem to
glide to the grass. There, she tucked her legs delicately beside
herself and covered her bare feet beneath her dress. Her gaze
shifted back to Lenny, then to Vree, and then to him again.
    “I don’t know you two,” she said.
    “I’m Lenny Stevens,” Lenny said. “This is
Vree.”
    “My full name is Verawenda Erickson,” Vree
said. “Well, actually, Verawenda Renee Erickson. My friends started
calling me Vree because of my initials.”
    “I am Ademia Consuela Ramona Cathleen
Savakis,” the woman said to her. “I have been called all of these
names and more. But you can call me Ademia.” Her eyes narrowed and
the corners of her mouth lifted for a moment as she smiled at Vree.
Then she asked, “Do you and your family live on the ridge,
too?”
    “Yes. My parents and I moved just down the
road almost sixteen months ago … from Pittsburgh.”
    “My parents and I