The Quarry Barn

“Y’all gotta promise to hear me out.”

David looked at his friends standing in a circle around the old water pump.

Tim, the oldest at thirteen, rolled his eyes and sighed deeply before saying “I promise.”

Adrian, the only girl and the youngest at ten, said “promise.”

Ken who was twelve, like David himself, said “get on with it shit stain.”

David shook his head slowly.

“Say it Ken… Pax or go… ya gotta promise turd boy!”

Ken scowled at the smaller boy but after a few tense moments he agreed.

“Fine… Pax… promise… whatever.”

Twenty steps away the barn stood with a bent and broken face, it’s body was twisted planks of lumber, now just silver-grey bones.

The door was missing, and the barn yawned at the kids with a throat full of shadows.

Folks in town told spooky stories about the barn but none could say who had built it or when.

Everyone in Acadia Parish knew one thing for sure, the barn near the quarry was unsafe and strictly off limits.

Now that he had everyone sworn to secrecy, David was ready to tell them why they had walked so far just to stand around an old water pump.

“Two weeks ago… on Saturday morning… I was killed by a crazy old crow.”

For a brief moment the trio watched David but when Adrian giggled all three began to bray!

“I’m serious” David said!

“You’re stupid” Ken said.

“Come on David” Adrian said.

“The bird or the Indian?” Tim asked, laughing at David and at his own joke.

David ignored the jabs and dove into his tale.

“I went up that old maple… in my back yard… to get my frisbee that had been stuck for two days. I was holding on with one hand and reaching for it with the other when this damn old crow flew right at my face… I fell on my head… hard.”

“So you think you died… when you fell… but you’re all better now… and I’m a monkey’s uncle…!” Tim said.

“This ain’t funny David” Adrian said.

“It happened Adrian… I was dead as dirt… saw the white light and everything!”

Ken rushed up and nose to nose with David he said.

“You’re a dirty liar and we all know it ya puke!”

David pushed Ken away and shouted.

“I freakin died that day and my daddy took me here and brought me back!”

Somehow the inclusion of a grownup in the story, gave the others pause.

The trio stared at David.

“Your daddy brought you here?” Adrian asked.

“Why?” Tim asked.

Ken just paced back and forth; his “face of rage” fixed on the smaller boy.

David told the rest of the story in a fast burst.

“Daddy saw me hit the ground and he came running… he scooped me up and saw I was dead… he screamed at momma to get the car and she did… she was fussing and crying, and he kept pushing her away as he told her where to drive. We bounced around and slid all over the road until we ripped in here.”

David took a step in and softened his tone.

“I saw all of this from about ten feet up… I was out of my body for the whole drive over… just surfing on top of the car as we tore up the road… I saw them take my body over to this here pump and start jacking the handle until water gushed out all over my dead face.”

David kicked at the pump.

“Once I was good and baptized daddy took my body and ran into the barn and laid me out in the dark.”

David pointed at the open doorway and his audience turned and took a long hard look into the mouth of the old barn.

“Under there’s a metal circle… a ring of gold I think… buried deep in the ground… something left here by the Incas I reckon… somehow… my daddy knew it was down there and he put my lifeless body right in the middle. Momma was on one side of me, and Daddy knelt on the other side and they both started praying really hard… “bring him back!” they were screaming over and over again!.”

David stopped speaking and the sudden quiet brought the others back to him.

He continued.

“I was floating above my folks and my own dead body. I felt a great power in the sky… like a tugging from way above the barn… and a whisper… a voice… saying common up son… follow the light. I kept looking back at mom and dad and I saw how sad they were, so I figured I’d stay and as soon as I thought that I was sucked down… into my body… and I woke up… right as rain.”

Ken and Adrian and Tim looked at the old pump and at David and then the barn like they were doing some kind of synchronized dance.

For a long moment no one spoke, then David said.

“I can do stuff now… like weird stuff… supernatural stuff… I guess.”

“What kind of supernatural stuff” Tim asked?

“Well… for instance…”

David looked at Ken and asked.

“Do you still have that lighter you took from your dads dresser?”

Ken took a step back from the group, his hands came up and balled into fist, ready to fight.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

David raised his hands and shook his head.

“Whoa Ken, calm down, I’m not trying to rile you up bud… but… you do have the lighter don’t you… in your front pocket?”

Ken touched the front of his jeans and nodded slowly… yes he did have a lighter in his pocket… yes, in fact, he had taken it from his father’s dresser drawer.

“How could you know that… I just found it this morning… right before we came out here.”

“Well…”

David said… drawing the word out while making a funny face.

“That was a year ago Ken.”

Ken took several steps backwards.

Tim looked at the younger boy and asked, “Is that right Ken?”

Adrian looked at Ken and then turned to David and asked, “what are you saying David?”

David raised his hands again, waving franticly.

“Okay… wait… hold on… I’m doing this all wrong.”

The three came together as a group and took a few steps forward, looking hard at David.

“Do I look different to you guys?”

This question halted the three and they each began looking David over… trying to see if he had changed somehow.

Tim was the first to see it… he walked up to David and stood shoulder to shoulder.

“You’re taller.”

He said and looked back at Adrian and Ken.

“He’s freakin taller you guys… like a lot taller!”

Ken and Adrian pushed past Tim and walked around David looking him up and down.

“You are taller” Adrian said.

“What the hell” Ken said.

The three stepped away from David… it was so obvious now… they couldn’t understand how they had not seen it before.

Their friend seemed much taller than he had been just moments before.

“We should go in the barn you guys.”

David said as he waved for them to follow him into the open mouth of the structure.

Tim looked at Ken and Ken looked at Adrian and they all looked at David.

A moment later the three slowly followed the tall boy into the cool shadows of the ruined barn.

“This is where daddy laid me on the ground… before I came back.”

They all looked at the spot in the dirt that David was pointing at, they saw no circle, not of gold, not of anything really, just a slightly raised area about ten feet across, as if a crown were slowly rising to the surface.

“I need you guys to all stand here please.”

Adrian, full of trust for her friend, immediately moved to the middle of the space.

Tim and Ken started to walk into the circle and then stopped and looked at each other… almost seeking permission from one another before stepping in next to Adrian.

It occurred to each of the trio that this was a very odd thing, David had commanded them into the circle and they simple did as they were told.

Tim took Adrian’s small hand in his own and looked at David.

“You’re scaring us David… what are you doing?”

Ken tried to step away but found that he could not move.

“David… what are you doing to us goddamn it” Ken demanded?

David looked at the ground between himself and his friends, he didn’t answer for a long moment.

“One of the weird things that I can do now… since I came back… is talking to ghosts.”

Without lifting his eyes, David motioned to the three in the circle and said… “like you guys.”

Tim began to speak but he could not move his mouth.

Ken tried to raise his arm but could not.

Adrian was looking at her feet and found she could not lift her face.

“It’s not your fault” David said.

“The bottle rocket didn’t cause the explosion at the widow ladies house.”

Tim and Ken and Adrian might have been wax figures as David began to pace in front of the trio.

“I’ve really missed you guys… every damn day… it was awful lonely… for me… after you all… were gone.”

David said as he wiped away a few unexpected tears.

“I was sick that day… damn flu bug kept me in bed… you remember… it was my bottle rocket, but I told you… Ken…”

David waved at the motionless boy.

“Go ahead and shoot it off without me… don’t wait on me… I told you.”

David had to rub his face with both hands before he could continue.

“I knew y’all were excited to shoot it. You went to the field behind the old ladies house and lit the rocket… the house exploded two seconds later.”

David stopped pacing and looked at the group.

“The widow fell asleep with the stove on… making dinner for herself… the burner went out and when she woke up she lit a smoke and blew herself to hell… y’all were caught in the blast… but it had nothing to do with the rocket… nothing at all… just the wrong place at the wrong time.”

David paused and took a breath.

“I walked passed the site a few days after I came back to life… I saw the whole thing… y’all lighting the rocket… her lighting a smoke… the scene kept happening over and over… I watched you guys blown apart and then suddenly you were back… like an instant replay… it was horrible.”

David started pacing again.

“In time I understood what I was seeing… the loop… the replay was your guilt… you guys…”

David pointed at the trio.

“In those last seconds… y’all thought the explosion was your fault… you felt guilty and couldn’t go to heaven… wouldn’t let yourself go.”

David stood before the three and looked at each in turn as he loudly proclaimed.

“It was not your fault… you can go now… you should go guys… follow the voice!!”

The shadows inside the barn began to retreat.

Adrian lifted her head very slightly and David saw a small smile on the little girls face.

Tim as well became reanimated and seemed to be doing a slow wink and nod at David.

Ken was in motion also and David began to laugh as he realized that the boy was, very slowly, flipping him the middle finger.

There was a snapping noise, and a bluish flash of light, and David was alone in the shadowed barn.

He walked around the space for a bit… looking into the shadows, both shallow and deep.

Finding nothing there to be afraid of, David left that magic place and began the long walk back to his home.

End