This story is completely fictional. Any resemblances to names of people and/or places is purely coincidental.

by Peg Pellerin

Click here for the previous installment.

THE BIG REVEAL

As the police and medical examiners were led closer to the possible gravesite they could feel the sponginess of the ground. On a whim, Dave backed off and started walking toward the Jebediah Hodges statue. The ground felt solid. He informed all of his findings. “I guess that we were all centered on the possibility that Ian could have been buried near his statue that we didn’t think about his father.”

“I checked with the Midia’s cemetery office and both Mr. & Mrs. Hodges are buried there, but no one else from the family is there, so there is a very good possibility that the child was buried here,” Jake stated.

As Chief Meuller shifted his weight around the softened ground, he scooched down to see where Miri’s foot had sunk in. “It does look like there might be some void under the ground. It would make it much quicker to find out if anything or anyone is buried there if the state owned a ground penetrating radar, but we can get a loan of GPR from a private company, which takes time to get and is also expensive. We don’t get one unless we feel it is necessary.”

Jake said, “We were about to start digging ourselves until we felt it might be necessary to call in law enforcement. This ground doesn’t look like it would be difficult to dig up. Dave and I can go back to the carriage house to get shovels and a wheelbarrow, if that’s okay with you.”

Chief Meuller glanced over to the forensic technicians to see what they thought and they nodded their approval. “If a child was buried here over 150 years ago, there won’t be much, but enough for us to bring back to the lab. By the feel of the ground, I think you guys can do it and if you have extra shovels, we can help,” said Technician Simpson, referring to himself and the chief of police.

“Depending on what you find, I can start sifting through the dirt for any signs of bones and other artifacts that may have been buried. Alan, come back to the van with me to get the equipment we’ll need while they go get their tools,” said Miss Maitland.

Everyone went off in their own direction while Miri and Amy stayed in the garden sitting on the granite bench. “I can’t wait until this is over,” said Miri. “I thought it was over after the Christmas event. I told Jake but I didn’t say anything to either you or Dave but I’ve been hearing Ian, maybe in dreams, asking to be brought to his father.”

“Maybe he has been contacting you since you were the first one to sense his presence back in June. He trusts you,” replied Amy as she put her arm around Miri’s shoulders consoling her.

As everyone returned to the potential grave site, Miri and Amy offered their services, and when it looked like they weren’t needed, they went back to the house to prepare sandwiches and beverages for the working crew. It took less than twenty minutes to get down to what appeared to be a rotted wooden box. The more they uncovered it, the more it looked like it was once a casket about five feet in length. This was where the forensic technicians became more involved, slowly taking the wooden container apart, they handed it over to the gloved men to be put aside on a laid out tarp.

“Oh my stars,” said Connie as Alan let out a whistle. Chief Meuller, and the others looked down the hole where the forensic experts were to see a well laid out small skeleton. Miri started to weep uncontrollably. Ian had been found.

“Tom, thank you for coming to help me. Please bring me to my father.” The Chief asked if anyone heard what he had just heard or was it his imagination.

The forensic people didn’t hear anything, but the other four did! “Welcome to being included in Ian’s circle,” said Jake. “He apparently thinks you’re the handyman of his time since you look so much like him.”

It was a cool fall day but Chief Meuller took out a handkerchief to wipe the perspiration from his forehead. “If I hadn’t believed you folks before, I certainly do now.”

Several days had gone by since the exhumation had been completed. While everyone waited to find out what the lab could deem was the cause of death and if, in fact, the remains were that of a child, Jake and Miri made arrangements with the cemetery officials to have Ian buried with his parents. When the townsfolk got wind of what was found many came forward to offer to help pay for the burial and a marker. Through the ages it was known that if it had not been for Mr. Hodges, their town probably would not have survived. He had been very generous in helping the businesses and several of the townsfolk in the area. About three weeks later the news from the state forensics lab came back to Chief Tom Meuller who in turn brought the news to the foursome. From the pieces of fabric that were found with the body’s remains, as well as the thorough examination of the bones, it was found that this was in fact a child between twelve to fifteen years of age and had died around the 1840s. What they hadn’t expected to find was a dent in the back of the small skull. It appeared that the cause of death was a blow to the back of the head.

“I can’t believe that this was anything else but accidental,” Miri said. “Even though Emma was eccentric, she seemed to love her son.

“I don’t know,” replied Dave. “From what we saw through those years of Christmases her axis wasn’t placed centrally. She seemed to have a mean streak in those last few years.”

“No, I don’t think she would have harmed Ian, not intentionally anyway. We saw how much weaker he was getting and he couldn’t even climb the stairs anymore. Maybe he tried to go get one of his toys that she had hidden upstairs and he fell,” said Miri “Either way, Ian will be at rest and next to his father soon.”

A small graveside service was planned but it seemed as if the entire town showed up to pay their respects and to give Miri, Jake, Amy, and Dave some type of support after they had heard of some of the things they had gone through since they purchased the house back in June. As everyone was leaving the cemetery snow bugs, as Miri and Jake remembered their father calling the little bit of snow flurries, were descending upon everyone. It seemed that Ian wouldn’t be spending another winter alone. He was now between his mother and father.

THE STEWART B&B IS NOW OPEN

Six months after the Stewarts purchased the loan for the B&B, the first Christmas was celebrated. Two weeks prior to the holiday, a somewhat familiar scene took place. Miri was able to find a recipe for Wassail, tea cakes and raspberry tarts. The home had a marvelous scent to anyone coming in. There was a knock at the door and when Amy opened it, there stood two guys covered with snow carrying in a six foot balsam. “Shake yourselves off before coming in and the tree as well,” she instructed.

Jake and Dave sighed, did as they were instructed and Jake asked where they wanted the tree to be placed. Miri, coming out of the kitchen said, “Where do you think? Right where we saw it and once it’s placed in the stand I put in that corner, I have warm refreshments for you.”

“Smells like that vision we saw,” said Dave.

“That’s because I made what Emma had made.”

“It smells delicious,” commented Jake as his stomach also made a comment.

After everyone was sated, and the tree had time to dry out, decorations were brought out. Pictures, rather than memory, was what they needed to make replicas of what they saw on the Hodges tree so they Google searched decorations for Christmas trees of the Victorian era and specifically looked up Christmas in Pennsylvania since it was the Germans who brought that tradition to the United States. Once the tree was decorated, Dave, being the tallest, was asked to put the final piece onto the tree. Ian’s star was placed on the top. “This is for you Ian,” Miri said with a bit of a leak of the eyes. When she looked at the others, their eyes were leaking as well.

By April Dave was able to complete the renovations required to make the B&B ready for opening. In the meantime, Jake was able to find buyers of the antique furniture they weren’t going to utilize and used the money to purchase items to make the B&B functional. Someone in town was very interested in setting up a small museum dedicated to the Hodges. The items that brought several exciting adventures for the foursome plus the spectral child were donated to the museum with no chance of any more hauntings happening. Ian told Miri that once he was at rest with his parents he would leave them alone, and he did. Other items from the house were also placed there.

It took a lot of exertion to groom the garden to a beautiful area for folks to roam around in or just sit and relax. Since the statues of Mr. Hodges and his son weren’t part of Jake’s and Miri’s plans for the garden, Jake asked if the curator of the new museum would want the statues of Mr. Hodges and his son. He didn’t have the room but had an idea that he brought up to the town, who loved his idea. The statues were carefully moved to the town park where a couple of granite benches and an arbor were placed, somewhat imitating the garden. Amy was going to use the garden often to photograph special events that might take place at the B&B as well as high school senior pictures and the statues just didn’t seem to fit in. With the B&B renovations completed, Dave now had time to spend on the carriage house which he wanted to recondition so the outside looked the same but there would be a spacious modern apartment on the second floor, and the tack room on the main floor would be renovated to become Amy’s photography studio.

The opening of the B&B was set for May 6 with its first event, a wedding, the wedding of Dave and Amy. They wanted a small wedding so guests of the wedding that required a place to stay were the first to use the inn. Weather permitting, the wedding would be held in the garden, but if not, the B&B could handle it in the spacious living room. The spacious dining room would handle the reception and the small sitting room, turned into the inn’s guests’ breakfast area, could handle the overflow. Miri’s vision of the porch came to life with beautiful flower baskets hanging in several areas.

June 20 was the last day of school and Miri’s last day as a third grade teacher. Her time would be spent managing the B&B with help from her husband when he wasn’t performing his principal duties and Amy would also be helping in between her photography appointments.

A year had gone by since the purchase of this beautiful Victorian home and much had happened in that year. The death of a child long ago allowed the occupants to better understand the place but also brought it life. Stewart’s B&B was finally open and bustling.

THE END

Author’s comments: I hope you enjoyed this story. I would not have been able to accomplish this feat without my own personal editor, my boyfriend, Edgar Cormier. Thank you Roland Hallee, managing editor of this newspaper for allowing me to have this story published. I had so much fun writing this story and am now trying to think of another topic to write about.

This story is completely fictional. Any resemblances to names of people and/or places is purely coincidental.

by Peg Pellerin

Click here for the previous installment.

Excitement started to show on the boy’s face. He seemed to always enjoy anything to do with his father, especially whatever his father would give or send him. He quickly unwrapped the package and found a toy replica of the train engine Tom Thumb. He immediately tried to push it across the floor and his mother reprimanded him to not scratch the flooring. You can tell that she, yet again, was displeased with her husband’s choice of gift. Actually she never seemed pleased with anything to do with her husband and did not hold back how she felt about her son. “Why your father gets you those types of gifts is beyond me.” Ian did his best to ignore her.

“Wow, what a grump!” commented Dave in a hushed tone, thinking that the people in the visions would hear him. He remembered sitting in the cramped spaces on the train ride that were pulled by the real Tom Thumb style engine.

The vision changed, once again, to another Christmas with Ian not looking much older, probably only another year. The tree was much smaller with less decorations but the star was still the major attraction of the room. There were less gifts under the tree. Another set of mittens and hat as well as stockings. There was no coat since Ian probably didn’t need another one. He hadn’t grown much if at all since the last coat his mother had made for him. He looked much weaker as he sat in his chair beside the table that held his cookie and cup of wassail, which looked to not have been touched. “Here’s a gift from your father. He apparently had it shipped from India, where he’s too busy hunting down tigers rather than being here with his family,” barked Mrs. Hodges.

As usual, Ian tried to ignore her but you could tell her demeanor wasn’t good for him at all. Ian quickly took the wrapping off the package. A thin dark leather box was before him. He carefully opened it and found the content to be a brass and leather spyglass. It took some time before he decided to take it out of the beautiful box. His eyes shone with cheer or were those tears he was trying to hold back. In a barely audible voice, he said, “I miss my father.” He picked up the object and started looking around the room through its lens. Tom happened to come in and the boy immediately called out to him to show what his father had sent him.

Tom showed happiness for the boy, “I bet you’ll be able to see a lot of things in the trees looking through that spyglass. It’s mighty pretty.” In the absence of his father, Tom came to pay Ian more attention feeling he needed to have some manly or father figure in the house and Mrs. Hodges didn’t seem to mind since while her son was occupied she could go about doing her business within the house.

“Well, this is the first time I think your father gave you something you can actually use. Tom is right, you’ll be able to look at many things outside in the distance without leaving the house, especially in these cold times.”

“Ahoy matey,” whispered Dave to the other three, all recalling the time on the cutter with a pirate ship not far away.

The last vision was a very somber one. There was no tree, no tea cake or tart and no wassail. Ian was probably around eleven years old. He was sitting in the chair with the star in his hands. Tears were rolling down his cheeks. “I miss you so much father,” he said to no one in particular.

The four weren’t sure if Ian was allowing them to see this next vision but they saw him when his father was brought home after being attacked by a tiger in India, he was placed in a bed in one of the upstairs rooms.

Ian was ordered by his mother to not visit his father because his father needed a lot of rest due to the injuries, which were severe. Every so often, the boy would sneak into the room to talk with his father. While his father still had any strength he would tell him about his adventures in hunting wild game. “Ian, I’m so sorry that I wasn’t always here for you, especially last Christmas. Please forgive me. I love you very much.” They both held hands and wept.

I told you to never come into this room to bother your father,” She yelled as she grabbed him by the arm and pulled him out of the room.That was the last time Ian saw his father. The vision returned to the boy sitting in the living room.

Tom walked by with what appeared to be a tubular object wrapped in heavy paper. “It isn’t much, but I came across this and I know you like horses.”

Ian carefully removed the paper and asked Tom to help him unroll the object. It was a poster of an Equestrian show that had occurred in New York the past summer. It showed a beautiful stallion with a rider in costume sitting on a saddle holding onto the reins as the stallion was vaulting. “I thought you could hang it in your room and look at the horse whenever you like,” explained Tom of the present.

“Thank you so much Tom. I love it and the horse is beautiful. Will you hang it in my room for me?”

“I would be glad to, Ian.”

“What have you there,?” cried out Mr. Hodges. She looked at the poster and asked Tom why he would give something like that to her son. He explained that he knew her son liked horses and when he happened to come across the poster, he thought of Ian and got it for him.

“I asked Tom to hang it in my room so I can look at the horse.”

I don’t care what you do with it, just don’t put it where I’ll see it, ” she demanded and walked out of the room.

Ian gave Tom an extra special hug and thanked him.

“Why is she so mean?” Asked Ian. I think she hates me. She has taken all of the things my father gave me and has hidden them. When I asked what she did with them she said she put them away for safekeeping. I think since I’m not strong enough to climb the stairs to go play in the rooms, she has hidden them up there. Ian looked around to make sure his mother wasn’t close enough to see or hear what he was about to do or say. “Tom, would you do me a large favor and hide this star somewhere in my old room upstairs? I’m afraid that she’ll take that away from me as well and I don’t want her to destroy it. I hope, someday, someone worthy of it will find it and put it on their tree.”

Tom replied, holding back tears for the boy, ” I don’t think she hates you, Ian. I think she hates how her life has turned upside down. When she and your father married, she was very spoiled. He bought her many things and brought her to many places. When he started becoming more involved with his business and venturing to meetings as well as game hunting, he left her alone often. She wasn’t getting things she wanted and started becoming resentful. I was hoping as time went on she would become accustomed to how things were, especially once you came into her life. She spent so much time with you, enjoying doing things for you. I thought she had turned a new leaf, but I saw she’d have to turn over a new tree. I’ll take care of the star for you,” Ian put the star back into the box and gave it to the kind man who had befriended him in his father’s absence and watched him go up the stairs.

The vision ended. There were no further Christmas visions.

The four found themselves in the large bedroom where they had found the star. All faces were wet with tears and felt for the spectral boy that had given them grief while unknowingly they had given him joy. “I wonder what would happen if we kept this star, maybe to put it on our Christmas tree,” said Jake.

Miri wiped her eyes and said matter of factly, “Ian wants us to keep it and there will be no further events.”

THE BEGINNING OF FALL IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE

A new school year had begun. Jake greeted new students and staff as well as welcoming back the old ones to his high school. Miri received twenty new students to her third grade. It was a large class but she looked forward to getting to know every single one of them. It would be a welcome change after the harrowing events she, and the others, at the house went through during the summer. Meanwhile, Dave continued with the renovations of the individual bedrooms at the house to bring them up to par for a B & B guest room and Amy, his fiancee, continued with her photography business, and looking forward to helping Miri with the B&B once it was opened. She would still continue her photography business hoping that the B&B would bring her more business from weddings and reunions. Once the B&B renovations were completed, Dave hoped to get to the renovations of the carriage house, turning the second floor into a spacious apartment for he and Amy. All in good time.

All appeared to be getting back to a normal routine for the four, however, every so often, Miri would have dreams of Ian calling out to her stating that he was cold and wanted to be closer to his father. The dreams were confusing but she tried to put them out of her mind. There were no visions, only the child’s voice. This went on for about a month, and finally, on a Friday evening in October she finally broke down and told her husband. “I really thought after the last event we had that all of this would be behind us; behind me,” she said, appearing to be in a melancholy mood.

“Maybe it’s still bothering you because you were the first to be aware of the child, after reading those diaries,” Jake said trying to console his wife. “We need a diversion. I know what we can do! Since it’s a long weekend thanks to Indigenous Peoples’ Day on Monday We could go apple picking. I recently read in a local paper that a favorite fall activity in the Poconos, without a doubt, is apple picking with many varieties to choose from. It’s such a fun way to spend some quality time with friends and family while enjoying that fresh autumn air and hearing that crunch of leaves under your feet. So, why don’t we go spend some of that quality time at the local orchard. I bet Dave and Amy would love to join us. It’s supposed to be a beautiful weekend, why don’t we go tomorrow.”

“Sounds like a great idea and I hope it helps me put Ian to the very back of my mind; so far back that he never comes forward again.” said Miri hopefully.

The four visited a couple of nearby orchards, each with delicious varieties of apples. The two women could be heard talking about which apples would be best for pies and other pastries that they would love to make for the B&B once opened. “Hey, don’t forget we two love being your guinea pigs,” laughed Dave. “They would need some work, but I think you have some type of apple trees on your property in the back of the garden, which by the way, I’d love to start clearing once I get the renovations to the house completed.”

To be continued