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Speaker 1: Hullo. I'm welcomed stories all the time. Glad you are here.

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Let's get into it. I'd driven up from Lexington to

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spend a few days with my cousin Bryn. She and

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her husband Mallow had just bought this creaky old house

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way up in the Allegheny Hills, in a town so

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small you could miss it even if you were trying

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to find it. It was the first week of October,

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that time when air still feels warm at noon but

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by nightfully start looking around for an extra blanket. In

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these parts, fall isn't just a season, it's practically religion.

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Pumpkins on every porch, scarecrows leaning against mail boxes, and

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handmade signs pointing toward hayrides and haunted trails. Brynn, never

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want to miss an opportunity, decided we might as well

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turn the clean up into a yard sail. They'll buy anything,

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she said, thumbing through a box of cracked Mason jars,

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rusted tools, busted lambs, even old light switches. You'd be amazed.

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She was right. By eleven, there were cars parked all

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down the gravel shoulder. People wandered in an out picking

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through paths of dusty things like they were mining for gold.

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A woman in her sixties bought a whole crate of

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bent forks and didn't blink. One guy bartered down the

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price of a broken radio, then gave us a bag

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of apples as thanks. Some people just stood around, slipping

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side her and swapping stories about whose cousin used to

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live where. But then there was this one man came alone,

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didn't speak or a faded green flannel buttoned all the

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way to the top like he was bracing for snow,

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and a trucker hat pulled so low you couldn't see

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much of his face. He didn't look at anything in particular,

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just drifted slowan and out of the same patch of grass,

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ket stopping by this old sun faded dollars in a

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bin of tangled Christmas lights. He never touched them, never

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touched anything. I tried being polite after if he was

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looking for something. He didn't respond, not even in ad,

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just turn calm, deliberate, and walked off the property, straight

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into the tree line, like he'd never been there. I

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looked at Brynn. She was holding a chip ceramic rooster,

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and just raised her eyebrows mountain ard. She said like

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that explained it. Maybe it did. By dusk, things slowed down.

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We packed what didn't sell into the garage, slid the

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door shut and latched it. There was a slight shell

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in the air, and I remember thinking how still everything

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felt once the last car left, like the trees themselves

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were listening. That night, the house grow more than usual.

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Old floeboards, old pipes, typical for a place as age

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where room was at the back facing the yard, the

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same yard we just spent all day stomping through, sorting

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two boxes, and brushing spiders off lampshades. I closed the curtains,

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but not all the way. They didn't quite fit the window.

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One side drooped, and honestly I didn't care enough to

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fix it. I was beat. We read a chilly in

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front of the TV. Some show but Survivalists was on,

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but we weren't really watching, just noise. By ten we

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were both half asleep. Brinn disappeared down the hallway and

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I turned a Not long after, I couldn't stay asleep though.

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It started with the knocking, not loud, not the kind

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of knock heeded at the front door. This was softer, slower,

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one knock, a pause, then another. It didn't sound like

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it came from the door at all. I lay there

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for a second, eyes opened hard, doing this weird, slow

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panic thump. The knock came again, same rhythm, pat pawstap

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pau's tap. I got out of bed and went to

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the window. The yard look normal, nothing moved. That folding

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table was still up there, one leg bent, listing sideways

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like a drunk sailor. I waited a minute, maybe longer.

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Then I went back to bed, half convinced it had

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been a dream. I barely pulled the blanket up when

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I heard it, Lenin. It wasn't loud, it was almost careful,

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stretched out, like someone trying to speak through sleep, and

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it was definitely inside the house. I sat straight up.

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The hallway was pitch dark. Brine's room was on the

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far end, and her door always squealed when it I

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hadn't heard it. I held still, listening, trying to convince

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myself i'd imagined it. Then I heard it again. This

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time it sounded almost unsure, Lenin. It came from the kitchen.

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I got up again, walk slow. The coal from the

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tiele hit me immediately, sharp, like the floor was punishing me.

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For getting up. I rounded the corner. There was some

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one standing in the kitchen, right by the fridge, not moving,

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just standing there, facing the wall. I couldn't make out

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the face. Figure was tall, taller than me by a

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few inches, and broad in the shoulders too broad Brin's

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five foot four on a good day. And this wasn't her.

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No chance, Rain, I asked, more out of desperation than logic. Nothing.

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That's when I saw the boots mud crosted, and the

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soles and trailing and thick smerrors behind him, the kind

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of muggy get near creaks, sticky and gray and coal

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definitely not from our yard. I backed up, slowed, and

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make a sound. I don't know how I managed that.

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My heart was slamming so hard I was half sure

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it was going to echo. The figure turned its head,

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just the head, not the body, not fully, not fully,

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just enough to let me nor heard me. I couldn't

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see the eyes, but I didn't need to. The motion

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alone sent this wave of coal panic through me. And

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then it crouched, Not like some one dropping down casually, No,

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this was deliberate, slow, nizzard. I could hear the creak

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of joints, the sound of knees folding over themselves. It

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went down into a squat and just stayed there waiting, watching. Thus,

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when I moved, I turned and walked straight to Brine's room,

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not fast, not running, just moving. I opened her door

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and she sat up like she'd already been halfway there.

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I didn't say anything, just pointed. Her face changed like

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her brain skip right past confusion and went straight to you.

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We have to deal with this. She grabbed the aluminum

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bat by her dresser, the one she kept for just

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in case, and we walked back toward the kitchen together.

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It was empty, no boots, no crouching figure, no sign

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of anything at all except the back door was cracked,

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not wide open, just enough to let in a sliver

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of air. The screen door swayed gently, ticking against the

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frame like a lazy metronome. We stepped outside. In the

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damp grass. Leading away from the porch were muddy footprints,

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wide deep in space, like someone had been crouching. Then

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stood and walked off Baver on the porch wing was

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the green flannel shirt, folded like someone had taken it

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off and left it there intentionally, as if to say

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I was here. We went back inside and locked every door,

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every window. Didn't say much. What was there to say.

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We didn't call the copse. What would we even report?

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Nothing was stolen, nothing was broken, No one was technically

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inside the house, but we both knew something had happened.

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I was thirty seven when I finally gave in and

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decided to sell some of the old stuff line around.

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It was a Saturday in mid October. I'd been dragging

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my feet about it for years, but something pushed me

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that week. I got up a round eight, brewed a

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pot of coffee, and by nine I was out by

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the gravel drive, setting up three folding tables on the

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flat as patch of ground I could find. The set

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up was pretty standard. A few buckets of rusty tools,

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some of mom's old figurines and dusty candle holders, A

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couple crates of paperbacks I hadn't touched in years, and

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a wobby stack of faded clothes that smelled faintly like

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cedar an old detergent. Nothing valuable, nothing rare, just stuff

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that had piled up in closets and coroners and somehow

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hung around long after its usefulness had ended. We live

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outside Merriser, barely their town in central Palatia. Blink and

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you've passed it. It's a kind of place where the

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only gas dish also sells baiton coffins. My family's house

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is always out from the center of closer to the

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Tennessee border than anywhere with cell service. We've had the

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place in the family for over six decades. It's weathered, solid,

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full of stores no one ever wrote down, but until

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that we can I never sawd a single thing out front.

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It just wasn't something we did. The idea came from

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someone I didn't know, a woman who knocked on my

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front door three nights before the sail. It was just

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after dark, maybe a little past seven. I was in

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the living room going through a box of old extension

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cords when I heard the knock. Two soft taps, not hesitant,

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just light. I opened the door, expecting some one lost

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or maybe a neighbor with caught trouble. But she just

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stood there, looking at me like she already knew me.

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She was in her fifties, maybe short, gray hair, playing close,

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kind of hard to place. Her face was tired, but

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not unfriendly. She didn't introduce herself, didn't ask for anything.

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She just said, you ought to clear out some of

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it don't belong here. That was it, one sentence, no context.

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Then she turned and walked away down the gravel drive,

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heading toward the road. I didn't stop her. I didn't

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ask what she meant, and I don't know why, but

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I didn't feel alarmed or even confused, just quiet. It

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was like I understood her, even if the words didn't

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make sense yet. The next morning, I started digging through

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the attic. Saturday morning started off slow. A few cars

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pass but nobody stopped at first. Around ten point thirty,

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a couple in their sixes pulled in and flipped through

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the books. The woman asked if I had any old

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good books, which I didn't. They left without buying anything.

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I stood out there, watching the sky cloud over, thinking

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maybe I'd give it another iron then pack it up.

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That's when the blue truck rolled in. I heard the

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engine before I saw it, something wheezy and irregular. The

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trip pulled half way up the drive and stopped in

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a patch of dirt and weeds. Engines still run for

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a moment before it cut off. The thing looked tenchin.

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The blue paint had gone chalky and pale, and there

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was so much rust in the back end I couldn't

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make out the license played at all. The driver sat

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there for a bit long enough that I started wondering

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if he was having second thoughts. But eventually he opened

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the door, stepped down slowly, and started walking, not toward me,

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but straight for the table at the far end, the

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one with the old picture frames and loose photo wraps.

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He looked like he worked with his hands, maybe fifty something,

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wiry framed, sunburnt neck. His boots were worn so thin

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at the toes they curled slightly, like old leather trying

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to remember its shape. He wore a green truck a

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cap that was pulled down low on his forehead, and

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his shoulders were tense, like someone walking into a place

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they'd already been once before. He didn't say a word,

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just reached down and picked up a small silver frame

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with a crack corner. It hit a black and white

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photo in it, a little girl in a lawn dress

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standing in a field with her arms by her sides.

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I didn't recognize it. It wasn't labeled, and I didn't

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remember ever seeing it before. Figured it must have come

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from one of man's boxes. He stared at a long time,

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maybe a full minute. Then he looked up and asked,

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where'd you get this? I shrugged, no idea. It was

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in the attic. He nodded slowly, still looking at the

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photolike he was reading something in it no one else

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could see. Then, without saying anything else, he turned and

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started walking toward the porch. Hey, I started, but he

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was already half way up the steps. I followed him,

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keeping a few feet back. You can't go in there.

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He wasn't listening. He stood just outside the screen door,

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whispering something I couldn't hear. His lips were moving, but

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the words were too soft. His eyes were locked in

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the door frame, like he was seeing through it. Then

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he stopped, turned toward me and said, you keep the

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crawl space locked. That threw me off. There's no craw space,

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full foundation. It was poured in sixty four. He shook

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his head. No, there's a crawl space, there's always been one.

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I told him again he needed to leave, and this

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time he did no argument, just turned, walked down the stepps,

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got in his truck and pulled away like nothing happened.

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I barely slept that night. I kept thinking about that photo.

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About what he saw in it. Around one in the morning,

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I went up to the attic with a flashlight and

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started digging around. I didn't find anything like that picture.

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But near the back, under ELA's floorboard, I found the key.

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It was old, rusted. It small but heavy in a

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way that felt wrong, like something made to lock up

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something permanent. I tried it on every door in the house.

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Didn't fit a single one. Still, I went back out

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the next morning, set up the same three tables, told

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myself I'd give it one more day, then pack it

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all away for good. A few people from town stopped by.

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One woman asked if we'd ever had tenants, said she

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remembered some one living out back. I told her there

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wasn't anything back there. She gave me this look like

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I was trying to hide something. Then she walked around

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the house like she didn't believe me. I didn't follow.

236
00:11:50,960 --> 00:11:53,720
Just before before noon, the girl showed up. She came

237
00:11:53,759 --> 00:11:55,919
walking up the hill from the woods, not the road.

238
00:11:56,559 --> 00:11:59,480
Couldn't have been older than eight or nine. Haile skin

239
00:12:00,240 --> 00:12:02,960
long brown, had tied with a ribbon bright blue against

240
00:12:03,000 --> 00:12:06,159
the plain white dress. Her clothes didn't match the season.

241
00:12:06,759 --> 00:12:09,879
It was maybe fifty one degrees and she didn't look cold,

242
00:12:10,200 --> 00:12:12,799
no shoes. She walked right up to the table with

243
00:12:12,840 --> 00:12:14,960
the photographs, pointed at the same frame the man had

244
00:12:15,000 --> 00:12:18,440
picked up. That's mine, she said. I crouched a little,

245
00:12:18,519 --> 00:12:22,519
kept my voice calm. What's your name? She didn't answer,

246
00:12:23,039 --> 00:12:26,559
Did some one come with you? Your parents? Not? Then

247
00:12:27,360 --> 00:12:30,799
just kept her finger on the photo. That's mine. I

248
00:12:30,840 --> 00:12:33,159
told her she could take it. I didn't mind, but

249
00:12:33,240 --> 00:12:36,000
she had to tell me who she was. She didn't move,

250
00:12:36,720 --> 00:12:40,360
didn't blink. After a few seconds, she turned around and

251
00:12:40,399 --> 00:12:44,559
walked back toward the woods. Not a word, not a glance,

252
00:12:45,360 --> 00:12:47,519
just disappeared into the trees the same way she came.

253
00:12:48,080 --> 00:12:50,919
I tacked up the photo again. This time I flipped

254
00:12:50,960 --> 00:12:53,679
it over. The backing was walked a little soft at

255
00:12:53,679 --> 00:12:55,320
the edges, like it had been wet at some point.

256
00:12:56,039 --> 00:12:58,480
I peeled it off and found something tucked behind the photo,

257
00:12:58,799 --> 00:13:02,279
A folded grap of newspaper, all yellowed, brittle, like you

258
00:13:02,279 --> 00:13:05,159
would fall apart if I breathed too hard. I unfolded

259
00:13:05,159 --> 00:13:08,600
it slowly. It was an obituary, no photo, just a name.

260
00:13:08,720 --> 00:13:12,679
Marla Jane died October fifteen, nineteen sixty six. Aged nine.

261
00:13:13,240 --> 00:13:16,399
That night, the house felt off, still not silent exactly,

262
00:13:16,440 --> 00:13:19,840
but muffled, like the air had wait. I couldn't stop

263
00:13:19,840 --> 00:13:24,240
thinking about that man's voice. There's always been one. Around midnight,

264
00:13:24,320 --> 00:13:27,399
I grabbed my flush light again and went outside. I

265
00:13:27,440 --> 00:13:31,360
circled the house, nothing but behind the shed, just passed

266
00:13:31,360 --> 00:13:34,240
where the woods start. I noticed something, a square patch

267
00:13:34,240 --> 00:13:38,639
of ground leaf covered a little sunken. I knelt and

268
00:13:38,639 --> 00:13:43,200
brushed the leaves aside. It was a hatch, wooden nearly

269
00:13:43,240 --> 00:13:45,799
flushed with the ground. I hadn't seen it before, and

270
00:13:45,840 --> 00:13:48,919
I had lived there my whole life. I tried the key.

271
00:13:49,600 --> 00:13:52,200
It turned. The hatch creaked open with a sound that

272
00:13:52,240 --> 00:13:55,919
made my stomach tighten. The smell hit me first, mouled

273
00:13:56,759 --> 00:14:00,240
rotting wood, white plaster in something else underneath it all,

274
00:14:00,799 --> 00:14:04,679
something older. The cross space was shallow, three feet deep

275
00:14:04,759 --> 00:14:08,879
maybe five y dout floor, a couple of broken boards,

276
00:14:09,600 --> 00:14:13,679
nothing else except in the corner a small child's shoe

277
00:14:14,240 --> 00:14:18,000
turned on its side. That was all. I shut the hatch,

278
00:14:18,720 --> 00:14:22,799
locked it the next morning. I nailed it shut. That afternoon,

279
00:14:22,879 --> 00:14:26,320
I pack up everything, burned what didn't sell, hauled the

280
00:14:26,360 --> 00:14:28,919
tables to the dump. I took the furt or frame

281
00:14:29,000 --> 00:14:30,720
down to the river and washed it drift away until

282
00:14:30,720 --> 00:14:33,639
it sank. I've lived in that house my entire life.

283
00:14:34,039 --> 00:14:36,000
But the next week I signed a lease on an

284
00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:39,039
apartment in town. The yard sale was out past Marlow,

285
00:14:39,120 --> 00:14:41,440
half way up a hollow that barely shows up on GPS.

286
00:14:42,039 --> 00:14:44,279
I'd seen the flyer a couple days before, stuck on

287
00:14:44,320 --> 00:14:47,320
the bulletin board at Rennie's Market. Most of the flyers

288
00:14:47,320 --> 00:14:50,559
there were the usual stuff, local events, fire withver sail,

289
00:14:50,679 --> 00:14:54,480
lost dogs, but this one caught my eye. Block marker

290
00:14:54,480 --> 00:14:57,360
on yellow paper, tight for the most part, but someone

291
00:14:57,399 --> 00:14:59,720
had written across the bottom in thick and even handwriting,

292
00:14:59,759 --> 00:15:02,720
close out everything left of the family. I just figured

293
00:15:02,759 --> 00:15:05,159
maybe someone passed away and the relatives were clearing out

294
00:15:05,200 --> 00:15:07,960
what was left. I had a quite Saturday morning and

295
00:15:07,960 --> 00:15:11,200
figured I take the drive. Worst case it was a bust.

296
00:15:11,960 --> 00:15:14,480
Best case its gore, sturdy table, some old tools I

297
00:15:14,480 --> 00:15:17,200
could clean up. I like restoring things when I can.

298
00:15:17,799 --> 00:15:20,440
There's something calming about sounding down an old surface, giving

299
00:15:20,440 --> 00:15:23,320
something beat up a second life. The road narrowed after

300
00:15:23,360 --> 00:15:26,120
the cattle gate, one of those old wire and pipe

301
00:15:26,120 --> 00:15:28,799
types you have to open be hand. I climbed out,

302
00:15:28,840 --> 00:15:31,240
unlatched it, and swung it open, careful not to catch

303
00:15:31,279 --> 00:15:33,759
my leg on the russet edge. The hinges groaned in

304
00:15:33,799 --> 00:15:36,000
a way that sounded more like a warning than anything.

305
00:15:36,559 --> 00:15:38,399
I eased the carth through and closed it behind me

306
00:15:38,519 --> 00:15:40,240
like I was supposed to, But the sound of a

307
00:15:40,279 --> 00:15:43,000
climbing shut linger longer than it should have. Maybe it

308
00:15:43,080 --> 00:15:45,039
was just the echo in the tight little stretch between

309
00:15:45,080 --> 00:15:46,759
the trees. After that, it was about half a mile

310
00:15:46,799 --> 00:15:48,879
of winding gravel, though which pressed in hard. You couldn't

311
00:15:48,879 --> 00:15:50,759
see more than twenty feet off the roady the side,

312
00:15:50,799 --> 00:15:53,039
just shadow and underbrush. Then, just as they started wondering

313
00:15:53,080 --> 00:15:54,919
if I mis to turn, the trees opened up a little,

314
00:15:54,919 --> 00:15:56,480
and though it was the trailer, it looked like it

315
00:15:56,519 --> 00:15:59,399
hadn't been moved or touched in decades. Ame was peeling

316
00:15:59,399 --> 00:16:02,480
in long strip. The porch sagged on one side, propped

317
00:16:02,519 --> 00:16:05,480
up by a couple of bricks. An American flag, the

318
00:16:05,559 --> 00:16:07,840
kind that comes from a gas station. Impulse rack was

319
00:16:07,919 --> 00:16:10,480
duct taped to the railing. It was stiff in the wind,

320
00:16:11,080 --> 00:16:14,919
didn't flop or ripple, just stayed frozen like plastic. There

321
00:16:14,919 --> 00:16:16,919
were no other cars parked around except for an old

322
00:16:17,000 --> 00:16:20,480
ripicupoff to the side, engines still running. The driver was

323
00:16:20,480 --> 00:16:24,000
sitting inside, motionless, hands on the wheel, didn't look at me,

324
00:16:24,039 --> 00:16:26,519
didn't acknowledge anything. I remember thinking he was maybe just

325
00:16:26,600 --> 00:16:28,120
out with someone, all waiting for a friend. But he

326
00:16:28,159 --> 00:16:30,360
never glanced over, just staired ahead, like he was watching

327
00:16:30,399 --> 00:16:32,440
something that hadn't happened yet. The yard was scattered with

328
00:16:32,480 --> 00:16:34,679
all kinds of stuff. Folding tables bout under piles of

329
00:16:34,759 --> 00:16:37,240
nick ACKs in what looked like tulls kitchen were broken electronics,

330
00:16:37,240 --> 00:16:39,039
a few boxes were half crushed into the grass, And

331
00:16:39,080 --> 00:16:40,679
sitting in the middle of it all was a woman,

332
00:16:40,879 --> 00:16:43,879
maybe late seventies, thin in a flimsy plastic chair that

333
00:16:43,919 --> 00:16:46,440
looked like it had seen better use. She had a

334
00:16:46,440 --> 00:16:48,879
green cast box resting on her lap, and hands that

335
00:16:48,960 --> 00:16:51,559
didn't look like they'd moved in a while. What stood

336
00:16:51,639 --> 00:16:54,159
up most was her eyes. They were so pale they

337
00:16:54,200 --> 00:16:57,080
looked almost silver. For a second I wondered if she

338
00:16:57,120 --> 00:16:59,440
was blind, but as a stepped closer, she looked directly

339
00:16:59,480 --> 00:17:03,519
at me, no hesitation, just straight eye contact. You're here

340
00:17:03,519 --> 00:17:06,599
for the sale, she said. It wasn't a question. I

341
00:17:06,640 --> 00:17:09,079
nodded to gave a quick polite smile and walk past her.

342
00:17:09,680 --> 00:17:12,119
The longer I stood there, the less comfortable I felt.

343
00:17:12,640 --> 00:17:14,640
The air was colder than it should have been for October,

344
00:17:14,759 --> 00:17:17,119
even in the shade, and everything around me smelled faintly,

345
00:17:17,240 --> 00:17:21,680
like wet paper and old wood. Not rotting exactly, just tired.

346
00:17:22,400 --> 00:17:24,960
Most of the stuff was drunk, the kind of clotty

347
00:17:25,000 --> 00:17:26,880
you expect from some one who didn't fir much away,

348
00:17:27,400 --> 00:17:30,839
blade rusted to their handles, paperbacks too mildy to detach,

349
00:17:31,640 --> 00:17:34,960
a busted microwave with a wasp's nest inside. I saw

350
00:17:34,960 --> 00:17:37,240
an old baby carriage with the doll in it. The

351
00:17:37,319 --> 00:17:39,799
eyes had melted or been burned, one half of the

352
00:17:39,880 --> 00:17:42,759
face walped down like candle wax. Next to that was

353
00:17:42,799 --> 00:17:46,480
a bird gage filled with bones. They looked small, too

354
00:17:46,480 --> 00:17:48,720
small for anything but something like a squirrel or a cat.

355
00:17:49,279 --> 00:17:52,200
Then I saw the chest. It was half buried under

356
00:17:52,240 --> 00:17:54,400
a stack of old blankets and faded fabric lakes. Some

357
00:17:54,400 --> 00:17:56,680
one had tried to hide it, or more likely forget.

358
00:17:57,279 --> 00:18:00,759
The thing didn't match anything else out there. Rod iron handles,

359
00:18:00,880 --> 00:18:03,400
cracked leather straps, and a brass lock right in the center.

360
00:18:04,079 --> 00:18:09,000
Heavy duty stuff, old, not fancy, but solid, you could feel.

361
00:18:09,000 --> 00:18:11,759
It wasn't something someone would just toss out. There was

362
00:18:11,759 --> 00:18:14,559
no key inside. I glanced around to ask the woman

363
00:18:14,559 --> 00:18:17,680
how much she wanted for it. She was gone, Her

364
00:18:17,720 --> 00:18:22,039
chair was empty. The cash box was gone too. No footsteps,

365
00:18:22,720 --> 00:18:25,079
no sound of her getting up, Just no one there

366
00:18:25,119 --> 00:18:28,680
any more. I called out, once, quiet and surer, then

367
00:18:28,720 --> 00:18:32,359
again louder at nothing. The man in the truck still there,

368
00:18:32,440 --> 00:18:34,440
still not looking at me. I shall have left then,

369
00:18:34,519 --> 00:18:37,839
but I didn't. I was too curious. I went back

370
00:18:37,839 --> 00:18:41,480
to the chest. Something about it had shifted. It didn't

371
00:18:41,519 --> 00:18:43,960
just look old now, it felt heavy in the air

372
00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:46,599
around it. I knelt down and pulled on the lid,

373
00:18:46,680 --> 00:18:52,279
expecting resistance. It opened immediately, no creak, no stuck hinges.

374
00:18:52,920 --> 00:18:57,680
Inside were photographs, hundreds, all black and white, bundled into

375
00:18:57,680 --> 00:19:00,440
stacks and tied with string. Some were curled with age,

376
00:19:00,480 --> 00:19:03,359
others sharp like they had just been developed. Every single

377
00:19:03,400 --> 00:19:07,759
photo had the same man, same blank expression, same straight posture.

378
00:19:08,400 --> 00:19:11,279
In some he stood in front of Barnes Fields porches.

379
00:19:11,920 --> 00:19:14,200
Others showed him next to cars or on de at roads.

380
00:19:15,000 --> 00:19:17,079
Some were old enough that the edges had once offt

381
00:19:17,839 --> 00:19:20,680
others looked nearer sharper detail, more contrasts, but it was

382
00:19:20,720 --> 00:19:23,480
always him, always facing the camera, always staring straight into

383
00:19:23,480 --> 00:19:26,079
the lens. In one he was leaning on a truck

384
00:19:26,079 --> 00:19:28,119
parked in front of a trailer, the exact trailer I

385
00:19:28,200 --> 00:19:31,519
was standing behind. I didn't even realize how still everything

386
00:19:31,559 --> 00:19:35,279
had gotten. The wind had stopped, no birds, just the

387
00:19:35,279 --> 00:19:38,000
low purr of that idlingd truck engine. When I looked up,

388
00:19:38,079 --> 00:19:41,039
a trailer's front door was open. It hadn't been before.

389
00:19:41,720 --> 00:19:46,039
I found myself moving toward it. Not fast, just moving,

390
00:19:46,680 --> 00:19:48,880
like my body had decided on something before my brain

391
00:19:48,960 --> 00:19:51,359
had caught up. Each step felt like I was being

392
00:19:51,359 --> 00:19:54,599
guided by the space itself, pushed by something just behind me,

393
00:19:54,960 --> 00:19:57,559
just out of reach. I stepped on to the porch.

394
00:19:58,319 --> 00:20:01,480
The flag still didn't move. Inside the trailer was dark

395
00:20:01,480 --> 00:20:04,000
and freezing. The windows were all covered with the same

396
00:20:04,039 --> 00:20:06,759
blankets from outside, pin tight, like they were hiding from something.

397
00:20:07,319 --> 00:20:11,839
The floor was soft, too soft, too soft. I looked

398
00:20:11,880 --> 00:20:15,920
down and realized it wasn't flooring at all. It was soil, loose,

399
00:20:16,079 --> 00:20:19,000
damp soil under a layer of carpet, like someone had

400
00:20:19,079 --> 00:20:21,680
ripped out the foundation and replaced it with dirt. There

401
00:20:21,680 --> 00:20:27,480
were photographs inside, hundreds maybe more, lining the walls, filling

402
00:20:27,519 --> 00:20:30,079
the shelves, taped to the ceiling. All of them, again,

403
00:20:30,119 --> 00:20:32,119
were of that man, and they were telling a story.

404
00:20:32,720 --> 00:20:34,839
In one he stood at the edge of a tree line.

405
00:20:35,400 --> 00:20:38,359
Next he was closer on the same path, then outside

406
00:20:38,359 --> 00:20:41,279
a window, then inside a hallway. In one photo, I

407
00:20:41,319 --> 00:20:44,240
swear he was standing in this very trailer. I turned

408
00:20:44,240 --> 00:20:46,960
around to leave and saw him outside at the bottom

409
00:20:47,000 --> 00:20:49,119
of the porch steps, standing right in front of my car.

410
00:20:49,799 --> 00:20:53,640
No movement, no expression, just staring up at the trailer

411
00:20:54,359 --> 00:20:57,240
at me. I didn't breathe. I backed away from the door,

412
00:20:57,319 --> 00:21:00,200
keeping low. I moved into the hallway, hot, ponding so

413
00:21:00,279 --> 00:21:02,519
loud it felt like it was in my throat. The

414
00:21:02,519 --> 00:21:05,759
bedroom at the end had no furnisure, just photos floor

415
00:21:05,759 --> 00:21:09,240
to ceiling. I looked out the window. He was gone.

416
00:21:09,680 --> 00:21:14,000
I ran back through the trailer, out the door, across

417
00:21:14,079 --> 00:21:17,200
the yard. The woman was back in the chair. The

418
00:21:17,200 --> 00:21:19,119
man in the truck now at his head, turned eyes

419
00:21:19,160 --> 00:21:21,200
following me like a slope pivot on a camera mount.

420
00:21:21,759 --> 00:21:24,720
I reached my car. The back seat door was wide open.

421
00:21:25,319 --> 00:21:29,039
I never leave it unlocked. I slammed it shut. Locked.

422
00:21:29,079 --> 00:21:33,160
Everything started the engine with shaking hands. As I pulled away,

423
00:21:33,200 --> 00:21:34,920
I caught one last look in the rear view mirror.

424
00:21:35,480 --> 00:21:38,519
The old woman was holding a photograph. It was of me,

425
00:21:39,359 --> 00:21:42,440
taken from behind, looking down at the chest. I didn't

426
00:21:42,440 --> 00:21:45,319
say another word, didn't even check my mirrors. As I

427
00:21:45,319 --> 00:21:48,519
sped down that narrow gravel path, wheel skating on the curves,

428
00:21:48,839 --> 00:21:50,759
I didn't stop until I saw the town line sign.

429
00:21:51,400 --> 00:21:53,319
I was up in White Hollow, a tiny spread out

430
00:21:53,319 --> 00:21:55,839
patch and run county, helping clear out my aunt's place.

431
00:21:56,559 --> 00:21:59,319
She passed the previous winter. She left me to house

432
00:21:59,359 --> 00:22:01,440
in the land in her will, which honestly surprised me.

433
00:22:01,519 --> 00:22:04,359
I barely knew her. I mean I remember seeing her

434
00:22:04,400 --> 00:22:07,920
once or twice as a kid holidays. Mostly she wasn't unfriendly,

435
00:22:08,240 --> 00:22:10,960
just distant. By noon, I had a few plastic tubs

436
00:22:10,960 --> 00:22:13,720
out on the lawn, felt with old kitchen junk books, frame,

437
00:22:13,799 --> 00:22:15,640
need le point quartes, stuff that looked like it had

438
00:22:15,640 --> 00:22:18,160
come straight out of a church basement. I taped a

439
00:22:18,240 --> 00:22:20,720
cardboard sign to the back of a folding chair. The

440
00:22:20,799 --> 00:22:25,240
yard sail cash only. Honestly, I didn't expect much traffic,

441
00:22:25,319 --> 00:22:27,319
but you'd be surprised how many people will slow down

442
00:22:27,319 --> 00:22:30,119
for a yard sail out here, especially when the trees

443
00:22:30,160 --> 00:22:32,160
start to turn. There's something about autumn that makes people

444
00:22:32,240 --> 00:22:34,519
nostalgic for crap they don't need. First few people were

445
00:22:34,559 --> 00:22:36,720
exactly what you'd imagine old a couple's two guys and

446
00:22:36,759 --> 00:22:38,799
comma looking for tools. A woman who spent ten minutes

447
00:22:38,839 --> 00:22:40,599
going through a box of dollies like they were made

448
00:22:40,640 --> 00:22:42,319
of lace spun from gold. She asked if I had

449
00:22:42,319 --> 00:22:44,400
an AsSalt shakers shit like necks, and I didn't, but

450
00:22:44,519 --> 00:22:46,200
she boiled a chip tea but anyway, and told me

451
00:22:46,200 --> 00:22:48,000
to check the added just in case. Around to this

452
00:22:48,039 --> 00:22:51,880
white rolled in an old Ford rust all on the bumper,

453
00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:54,279
paint faded to a dull cream. The engine made a

454
00:22:54,359 --> 00:22:56,319
grinding noise like it was about one mile away from

455
00:22:56,359 --> 00:22:59,279
dying completely. I figured it was just another local looking

456
00:22:59,359 --> 00:23:02,039
for vintage junk. The guy who got out wasn't what

457
00:23:02,079 --> 00:23:05,319
I expected. Midman a stoed as maybe thin and wiry,

458
00:23:05,400 --> 00:23:08,160
like someone who'd skipped a few too mini meals. He

459
00:23:08,200 --> 00:23:10,160
had those thick, square glasses people used to wear in

460
00:23:10,240 --> 00:23:12,640
the atis, and it looked like smiling was a concept

461
00:23:12,680 --> 00:23:18,119
he hadn't practiced in a while. Not angry exactly, just stiff, hollow.

462
00:23:18,559 --> 00:23:21,119
He didn't say a word, just walked up to the

463
00:23:21,119 --> 00:23:23,359
table and started going through one of the kitchen boxes

464
00:23:23,400 --> 00:23:25,680
like he already knew what he was looking for. He

465
00:23:25,720 --> 00:23:27,720
picked up this old dig tamer shape like a chicken,

466
00:23:28,160 --> 00:23:30,880
metal with faded red paint in the comb. I found

467
00:23:30,920 --> 00:23:32,759
it in the back of a drawer earlier that morning.

468
00:23:33,279 --> 00:23:35,920
I told him it was a dollar. He didn't respond,

469
00:23:36,160 --> 00:23:39,079
just nodded slightly and set it aside. Then he looked

470
00:23:39,079 --> 00:23:43,000
straight at me and said, caught any mechanicals. I blinked.

471
00:23:43,319 --> 00:23:48,920
What kind? He said, clocks, wind up stuff, things with gears,

472
00:23:49,240 --> 00:23:52,720
not electric. I told him maybe there were a few

473
00:23:52,759 --> 00:23:55,000
boxes I hadn't gotten to yet, still stacked in the

474
00:23:55,039 --> 00:23:58,200
back room. I offered to check for him. He followed

475
00:23:58,200 --> 00:24:00,359
me into the house without another word, and I him.

476
00:24:00,880 --> 00:24:04,160
I can't really explain that part. It didn't feel threatening

477
00:24:04,200 --> 00:24:07,000
at the time, just inevitable like saying, nor was it

478
00:24:07,000 --> 00:24:09,240
even on the menu. The back room used to be

479
00:24:09,319 --> 00:24:13,160
a den. I think wood paneling over kliner boxes piled

480
00:24:13,160 --> 00:24:16,400
against the walls. It smelled like old paper and mopples.

481
00:24:17,079 --> 00:24:19,200
I started digging for a couple of boxes, trying to

482
00:24:19,240 --> 00:24:21,440
remember if I'd seen any wind up clocks or music

483
00:24:21,480 --> 00:24:25,079
boxes or anything. He didn't wait. He walked over to

484
00:24:25,079 --> 00:24:27,559
one of the shelves, scanned it for maybe three seconds,

485
00:24:27,640 --> 00:24:29,640
and reached up like he already knew what was there.

486
00:24:30,279 --> 00:24:33,119
He pulled down a small wooden box looked like a

487
00:24:33,119 --> 00:24:37,519
cigar box, only older brass hinges, faded carvings around the edge.

488
00:24:37,960 --> 00:24:40,799
I don't remember seeing you before. Mind if I open it?

489
00:24:40,839 --> 00:24:45,119
He asked? Sure, I said, go ahead. He flipped a

490
00:24:45,160 --> 00:24:47,880
latch and lifted the lid. Inside was a deck of

491
00:24:47,920 --> 00:24:51,279
cards he yellowed like old newspaper. They were wrapped in

492
00:24:51,319 --> 00:24:54,319
wax paper with a little tear down one side. Beneath

493
00:24:54,359 --> 00:24:56,720
them was a small cloth pouch, faded green, with a

494
00:24:56,759 --> 00:24:59,160
draw string that looked like it hadn't been pulled in decades.

495
00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:02,240
Opened the pouch carefully and tipped out what looked like dyes,

496
00:25:02,359 --> 00:25:06,079
six of them, but they weren't normal, no pips. Each

497
00:25:06,119 --> 00:25:08,920
side had a strange hand carved symbol. One looked like

498
00:25:08,960 --> 00:25:11,559
a jagged triangle and another like a spiral, and one like

499
00:25:11,559 --> 00:25:13,880
a hook with a lion running through it. Nothing that

500
00:25:13,960 --> 00:25:16,680
made sense. He stared at them for a long moment,

501
00:25:16,759 --> 00:25:21,720
then asked how much I shrugged five bucks. He nodded,

502
00:25:21,759 --> 00:25:24,359
pulled out a five, and lighted on the floor, not

503
00:25:24,480 --> 00:25:27,799
the table, the floor. Then he picked up the cards

504
00:25:27,839 --> 00:25:30,519
in the pouch, curdled them against his chest, and walked out.

505
00:25:31,119 --> 00:25:35,440
Didn't say goodbye, just left. Later that night I found

506
00:25:35,440 --> 00:25:40,640
the box again, same box, same chaf, same crease back's paper,

507
00:25:41,279 --> 00:25:44,359
same pouch. For a second I thought maybe they were two.

508
00:25:44,880 --> 00:25:47,680
I went back to check the rest of the shelves. Nothing.

509
00:25:48,319 --> 00:25:52,079
I opened it again. Cards still there, I still there.

510
00:25:52,640 --> 00:25:54,960
I checked the floor of the back room. The five

511
00:25:55,039 --> 00:25:57,839
dollars bill was still sitting there. I brought the box

512
00:25:57,920 --> 00:26:00,599
upstairs with me and left it in the hallway. Thought

513
00:26:00,599 --> 00:26:04,000
maybe I was overtired and imagining things. When I came

514
00:26:04,079 --> 00:26:06,039
down in the morning, it was back on the shelf.

515
00:26:06,680 --> 00:26:09,519
I moved it again, left it on the porch that time.

516
00:26:09,759 --> 00:26:12,400
Next morning, back on the shelf. There a time. I

517
00:26:12,440 --> 00:26:14,680
locked it in the glove box of my truck. It

518
00:26:14,799 --> 00:26:17,279
was back the next day. By the fall time I

519
00:26:17,319 --> 00:26:21,240
gave up, told myself I throwed away. When I left Monday,

520
00:26:21,279 --> 00:26:24,400
I loaded everything up, took one last look around, locked

521
00:26:24,400 --> 00:26:27,240
a door, started the engine before I pulled out. I

522
00:26:27,240 --> 00:26:29,920
glanced in the rear view mirror. The box was sitting

523
00:26:29,920 --> 00:26:32,400
on the porch. I didn't go back for it didn't

524
00:26:32,440 --> 00:26:34,880
want you. But when I got back to my apartment

525
00:26:34,880 --> 00:26:36,960
in Richmond, I walked into the living room, set down

526
00:26:36,960 --> 00:26:39,559
my bag, turned on the light. There it was in

527
00:26:39,559 --> 00:26:41,359
a corner, like it had been waiting for me. I

528
00:26:41,440 --> 00:26:44,359
let alone, always half. I locked a door behind me.

529
00:26:44,400 --> 00:26:48,160
Every time windows were shut and latched. This time the

530
00:26:48,160 --> 00:26:51,000
pouch was open. The dice were on the floor, scattered

531
00:26:51,480 --> 00:26:54,519
alsike showed the same symbol, a spiral roughly carved, the

532
00:26:54,559 --> 00:26:57,519
edges uneven, like some one had done it blindfolded. I

533
00:26:57,559 --> 00:27:00,440
didn't touch them. Instead, I wrapped the hole thing in

534
00:27:00,480 --> 00:27:02,759
newspaper and shoved it into the bottom drawer of my desk.

535
00:27:03,480 --> 00:27:05,880
I told myself, maybe I'd accidentally taken it with me.

536
00:27:06,559 --> 00:27:10,519
Maybe I was just tired, stressed as weird things. That night,

537
00:27:10,640 --> 00:27:13,480
my smoke alarm went off at free a m. No smoke,

538
00:27:13,680 --> 00:27:16,759
no fire. But when I opened the drawer I smelled

539
00:27:16,799 --> 00:27:20,599
something sharp, burned paper, bitter and achered like old insulation,

540
00:27:21,200 --> 00:27:24,359
and something else, something so I own, almost sweet, like

541
00:27:24,359 --> 00:27:27,400
fruit left too long in a sealed jar. The newspaper

542
00:27:27,480 --> 00:27:30,240
was gone. Ashes clung to the inside of the drawer.

543
00:27:30,839 --> 00:27:33,559
The box was sitting there and touched. The dice were

544
00:27:33,599 --> 00:27:36,319
arranged in a line, and this time the symbols went abstract.

545
00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:40,000
They looked like letters, not in any language I knew,

546
00:27:40,039 --> 00:27:44,519
but still letters. I stayed up until morning, just sat

547
00:27:44,559 --> 00:27:47,319
there watching them. The next day I boxed the whole

548
00:27:47,359 --> 00:27:48,680
thing up and mailed it to a guy and you

549
00:27:48,759 --> 00:27:52,240
in Cincinnati who collects weird antiques. Didn't tell him anything,

550
00:27:52,920 --> 00:27:55,880
just wrote thought of you. A week pass Then he called.

551
00:27:56,480 --> 00:28:00,440
His voice was flat, no greeting, just said where did

552
00:28:00,440 --> 00:28:04,759
you get this? I told him some mountain house belong

553
00:28:04,839 --> 00:28:07,519
to my aunt. He asked, did you open the crards?

554
00:28:08,160 --> 00:28:12,400
I told him now, He said, good, don't. I asked why.

555
00:28:12,680 --> 00:28:15,960
He said, they don't shuffle, they move. You don't want

556
00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:19,000
to know what this spell. Then he hung up. That

557
00:28:19,160 --> 00:28:21,400
was the last time I ever heard from him. His

558
00:28:21,480 --> 00:28:24,799
numbers stopped working. I never saw the box again. The

559
00:28:24,880 --> 00:28:28,559
YDD sale was my idea. Around here, otber means two things.

560
00:28:29,279 --> 00:28:31,400
Leaf peepers and terists will pay twenty bucks for a

561
00:28:31,440 --> 00:28:34,319
rusty lantern. A few call at vintage, the trees were

562
00:28:34,319 --> 00:28:36,640
on fire, with color, and I fake oed. If I

563
00:28:36,680 --> 00:28:38,799
played my car's right, I could clear out the garage

564
00:28:38,799 --> 00:28:41,319
and make enough cash to not freeze through December. The

565
00:28:41,319 --> 00:28:43,480
house had belonged to my uncle, a quite guy who

566
00:28:43,559 --> 00:28:46,880
kept himself and didn't talk much about anything personal. After

567
00:28:46,920 --> 00:28:49,799
he passed, I moved him, mostly out of necessity. I

568
00:28:49,920 --> 00:28:52,200
was broken out of options and started fixing it up

569
00:28:52,200 --> 00:28:54,440
with what little I had left to my account. The

570
00:28:54,480 --> 00:28:56,359
place sits up a hill in the edge of fern, said,

571
00:28:56,400 --> 00:28:58,359
a patch of gravel road the dead ends into woods

572
00:28:58,400 --> 00:29:02,119
that nobody really walks through. It's quiet out here two

573
00:29:02,200 --> 00:29:05,640
quite Sometimes I could go days without hearing anything but

574
00:29:05,720 --> 00:29:08,720
birds in my own footsteps. So I hauled everything out

575
00:29:08,759 --> 00:29:11,720
into the yard, tolls, furniture, old signs, even a broken

576
00:29:11,799 --> 00:29:13,960
down fishing rod, and set it all up on folding

577
00:29:13,960 --> 00:29:16,640
tables in the gravel. I'd even made a cardboard sign

578
00:29:16,680 --> 00:29:18,559
with the yard sail in black marker and nailed it

579
00:29:18,599 --> 00:29:21,839
to the tree out by the road. Classie. The first

580
00:29:21,880 --> 00:29:25,039
couple iurs were slow, which I expected. A sweet couple

581
00:29:25,039 --> 00:29:26,759
from a Hio picked up an antique mirror with a

582
00:29:26,799 --> 00:29:30,359
cracked edge. They said it had character. A college kid

583
00:29:30,359 --> 00:29:32,039
from down and Brawnford tried to talk me done on

584
00:29:32,079 --> 00:29:35,200
a chain so that didn't even run. He offered fifteen bucks,

585
00:29:35,319 --> 00:29:36,920
and I almost took it, just so I wouldn't have

586
00:29:36,960 --> 00:29:40,079
to carry the thing back inside. Nothing out of the ordinary.

587
00:29:40,640 --> 00:29:43,599
Then around eleven, a red super returned unto the drive.

588
00:29:44,319 --> 00:29:46,160
It slowed like the driver Roll wasn't sure if this

589
00:29:46,279 --> 00:29:48,200
was the right place, then pulled up and parked at a

590
00:29:48,119 --> 00:29:50,960
slight angle in the grass. The woman who stepped up

591
00:29:51,039 --> 00:29:54,839
was like the other browsers. She was tall, lean, almost

592
00:29:54,839 --> 00:29:57,160
burtal looking, with white brays tucked neatly beneath the black

593
00:29:57,160 --> 00:29:59,960
shoulder hung past her hips. She didn't make ey con

594
00:30:00,400 --> 00:30:02,559
didn't say a word, just drifted through the tables like

595
00:30:02,640 --> 00:30:05,319
she was walking through falk. She stopped in front of

596
00:30:05,359 --> 00:30:07,880
a ben I'd almost thrown out the night before, just

597
00:30:07,920 --> 00:30:10,920
a random mess have junk, half frosted drill bits, dentitins,

598
00:30:11,119 --> 00:30:13,720
lio screws, rolling around the bottom, little stuff that didn't

599
00:30:13,720 --> 00:30:16,400
fit anywhere else. Her hand have it over the mislike

600
00:30:16,480 --> 00:30:18,319
she was waiting for something to jump out at her.

601
00:30:18,920 --> 00:30:21,279
Then she reached in, slow and steady and pulled out

602
00:30:21,279 --> 00:30:25,039
a box, small square maybe four inches on each side.

603
00:30:25,519 --> 00:30:28,039
It looked wooden, smooth, like some one had just sounded it.

604
00:30:28,599 --> 00:30:32,960
No hinges, no latch, no seams, no reason it should

605
00:30:32,960 --> 00:30:36,279
have been in there. How much, she asked, I didn't

606
00:30:36,279 --> 00:30:39,960
even think. I just said it's not for sale. It

607
00:30:40,079 --> 00:30:42,440
came out fast, without a second thought, and as soon

608
00:30:42,480 --> 00:30:45,759
as I said it, her face changed. Not angry exactly,

609
00:30:45,960 --> 00:30:49,000
more like disappointed, like I'd failed some tests I didn't

610
00:30:49,000 --> 00:30:51,279
know I was taking. You shouldn't have it sitting out.

611
00:30:51,279 --> 00:30:53,880
Then she placed it back in the bin, turn around

612
00:30:53,920 --> 00:30:56,680
and walked back to her car. Didn't buy anything, didn't

613
00:30:56,720 --> 00:30:59,720
glance back after she left. I picked up the box.

614
00:31:00,400 --> 00:31:03,680
It was lighter than it looked, felt like nothing was inside,

615
00:31:04,359 --> 00:31:08,160
no markings, no texture, just smooth beerwood. I turned it

616
00:31:08,200 --> 00:31:11,799
in my hands a few times, tried to open it. Nothing,

617
00:31:12,519 --> 00:31:15,599
no give, no seems. It didn't feel like a live

618
00:31:15,680 --> 00:31:18,799
was even part of the design, just a single solid block.

619
00:31:19,559 --> 00:31:21,839
I set it down on the back table and ket selling.

620
00:31:22,319 --> 00:31:25,799
But every hour or so someone asked about it. Not casualty,

621
00:31:25,960 --> 00:31:29,559
like really asked. One guy offered me fifty bucks cash.

622
00:31:29,920 --> 00:31:32,599
A woman lean in real clothes and whispered, is that soapstone?

623
00:31:33,160 --> 00:31:34,920
A teenage girl in ripped jeans and a hood. He

624
00:31:34,960 --> 00:31:36,960
picked it up and wouldn't stop staring at it, like

625
00:31:37,039 --> 00:31:39,799
she was listening to something I couldn't hear. I kept

626
00:31:39,839 --> 00:31:41,839
saying it wasn't for sale, and the weird thing was,

627
00:31:42,000 --> 00:31:44,759
I still didn't know why. There was no reason not

628
00:31:44,799 --> 00:31:47,039
to sell it, but I couldn't bring myself to part

629
00:31:47,079 --> 00:31:48,720
with it. Like something I might got told me that

630
00:31:48,759 --> 00:31:50,839
once it left, I'd never be able to undo whatever

631
00:31:50,880 --> 00:31:54,400
came next. By four, the traffic dried up. I packed

632
00:31:54,440 --> 00:31:57,599
everything that didn't sell and brought it inside, including a box.

633
00:31:58,119 --> 00:31:59,880
I left it on the kitchen counter and didn't give

634
00:31:59,920 --> 00:32:02,000
it another thought, just something odd in a day full

635
00:32:02,000 --> 00:32:05,160
of little oddities. Then after sundown, I went out to

636
00:32:05,160 --> 00:32:07,319
cover the firewood, one of those quick little tasks you

637
00:32:07,400 --> 00:32:10,160
do before calling at a night. When I turned back around,

638
00:32:10,160 --> 00:32:12,599
the front door was open. I know. I closed it.

639
00:32:13,319 --> 00:32:16,119
I always do. This isn't the kind of neighborhood where

640
00:32:16,160 --> 00:32:18,640
you get surprised guests, and even if it were, nobody

641
00:32:18,680 --> 00:32:21,319
had walked past me. My first thought was the wind,

642
00:32:22,039 --> 00:32:24,279
second thought some one had come back for the box.

643
00:32:25,000 --> 00:32:28,480
I walked inside, checked the counter. It was gone. In

644
00:32:28,559 --> 00:32:30,440
its place was a note. Just a torn piece of

645
00:32:30,440 --> 00:32:32,279
brown paper with writing that looked like it had been

646
00:32:32,279 --> 00:32:34,839
scratched in with the end of a nail. Don't follow it.

647
00:32:35,400 --> 00:32:37,119
I stood there for a long minute, trying to decide

648
00:32:37,160 --> 00:32:39,319
if I was being pranked, but there wasn't anyone around

649
00:32:39,319 --> 00:32:41,400
to prank me. I don't even talk to my neighbors much,

650
00:32:41,599 --> 00:32:44,480
and they are a quarter mile away. I checked every room,

651
00:32:45,119 --> 00:32:49,599
nothing missing, nothing disturbed except the box. I went outside

652
00:32:49,599 --> 00:32:52,200
with a flasklight, checked the yard, under the porch, even

653
00:32:52,240 --> 00:32:56,480
in the shed. Nothing around ten I gave up, locked

654
00:32:56,480 --> 00:32:59,640
every window, dead bolted the door, closed the blinds. That

655
00:32:59,799 --> 00:33:01,480
night I dreamed I was in the shed, except it

656
00:33:01,480 --> 00:33:04,680
wasn't a shed any more. It was bigger, deeper. The

657
00:33:04,759 --> 00:33:06,920
walls were covered in shelves, and on every shelf set

658
00:33:06,920 --> 00:33:11,079
a box, same shape, same smooth wood, endless rose. And

659
00:33:11,160 --> 00:33:13,640
the woman was there, standing dead center, running her fingers

660
00:33:13,680 --> 00:33:15,720
along the edges, humming under her breath, like she was

661
00:33:15,720 --> 00:33:18,079
picking the right one. When I woke up, I went

662
00:33:18,119 --> 00:33:21,720
to the shed. It looked normal, smelled like old oil

663
00:33:21,720 --> 00:33:25,119
and mouse droppings, same clotter, same rusted hands or hanging

664
00:33:25,119 --> 00:33:28,000
on the pegboard, but right there, sitting on the work bench,

665
00:33:28,119 --> 00:33:30,960
like it had never left. Was the box. I didn't

666
00:33:30,960 --> 00:33:33,400
touch it, just stared at it, then turned around and

667
00:33:33,440 --> 00:33:36,720
went back inside. About ten minutes later, I heard a thump.

668
00:33:36,759 --> 00:33:39,240
Looked out the window. One of the porch chairs had

669
00:33:39,279 --> 00:33:42,640
tipped over her No wind, no animals inside. A few

670
00:33:42,640 --> 00:33:45,920
minutes later, another one tipped. Then a bird flew straight

671
00:33:45,920 --> 00:33:48,640
into the kitchen window. Hard feathers stuck to the glass.

672
00:33:49,319 --> 00:33:52,359
Another hit ten minutes after that. That night I dreamed

673
00:33:52,359 --> 00:33:56,599
the same dream, same shed, same shelves. That this time

674
00:33:56,640 --> 00:33:59,119
the woman turned toward me. Her eyes were pale, and

675
00:33:59,160 --> 00:34:01,640
she said, you let it out. The next morning I

676
00:34:01,640 --> 00:34:03,559
found coal marks on the inside of the front door,

677
00:34:04,160 --> 00:34:07,839
three long scratches, deepened space wide. Not from a raccoon,

678
00:34:08,519 --> 00:34:11,119
not from any dog I know. I took the box

679
00:34:11,119 --> 00:34:13,800
into town, figured i'd let some one else make sense

680
00:34:13,800 --> 00:34:16,239
of it. Brought it to her an antique shop on Maine,

681
00:34:16,719 --> 00:34:19,039
the kind that sells typewriters and tikups for a hundred

682
00:34:19,079 --> 00:34:21,960
bucks apiece. The woman behind the counter took one look

683
00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:24,320
and shook her head, said she'd never seen anything like it,

684
00:34:24,920 --> 00:34:26,800
but the way her hands tensed and the fake smiles.

685
00:34:26,840 --> 00:34:29,800
She plused and told me everything she wanted it gone,

686
00:34:30,119 --> 00:34:32,880
wouldn't even let it sit on the counter back home.

687
00:34:32,920 --> 00:34:35,400
I tried to burn it, built a proper fire and

688
00:34:35,440 --> 00:34:37,559
a pit up back, let it get nice and hot.

689
00:34:38,280 --> 00:34:42,679
Tossed the boxin and watched nothing. It didn't blacken, didn't crack,

690
00:34:43,480 --> 00:34:45,719
just sat there until the fire burned down to ash.

691
00:34:46,280 --> 00:34:49,079
So I buried it late at night near the edge

692
00:34:49,079 --> 00:34:50,679
of the woods, deep enough I had to stop for

693
00:34:50,679 --> 00:34:54,719
breath twice, didn't mark the spot, didn't tell us all

694
00:34:55,400 --> 00:34:58,639
next morning it was back sitting on the kitchen table,

695
00:34:58,719 --> 00:35:02,239
same as before. I live alone. There's no one else

696
00:35:02,239 --> 00:35:05,920
with the key. The doors were locked, the windows latched.

697
00:35:06,639 --> 00:35:09,440
Since then, the box moves. I don't see it move.

698
00:35:10,079 --> 00:35:13,599
I just find it in different places, sometimes in the stairs,

699
00:35:14,360 --> 00:35:17,039
sometimes by the bed, once right in the middle of

700
00:35:17,039 --> 00:35:19,599
the hallway, like it was waiting. I wake up tired.

701
00:35:20,280 --> 00:35:23,320
My hands are dirty. In the mornings. Sometimes there's much

702
00:35:23,360 --> 00:35:26,119
back through the house, and I don't remember going outside.

703
00:35:26,559 --> 00:35:29,440
About a week ago a man showed up, not twice

704
00:35:29,480 --> 00:35:31,880
in step back, like can you I'd be cautious. He

705
00:35:31,960 --> 00:35:34,920
was soaked to the bone, cloths clinging to him, water

706
00:35:35,000 --> 00:35:39,000
dripping from his sleeves, He didn't say his name, just asked,

707
00:35:39,000 --> 00:35:42,159
do you still have the box. I didn't answer. He

708
00:35:42,239 --> 00:35:45,320
gave a slow nod. When it's ready, he said, you'll

709
00:35:45,320 --> 00:35:48,119
take it back. Then he walked off into the trees.

710
00:35:48,920 --> 00:35:52,159
Last night I heard voices beneath the floorboards, not whispers,

711
00:35:52,800 --> 00:35:57,360
full on conversations, laughter, someone asking someone else to pass

712
00:35:57,400 --> 00:36:01,199
the salt. My cabin doesn't have a basement. This morning

713
00:36:01,280 --> 00:36:07,000
I tore up two planks, just dirt underneath, no crawl space, nothing.

714
00:36:07,679 --> 00:36:11,239
The box is still here. I've tried everything. I can't

715
00:36:11,320 --> 00:36:13,719
leave with it. Draw five miles out of Fern said

716
00:36:13,760 --> 00:36:16,079
once before my truck died like the engine just gave up.

717
00:36:16,719 --> 00:36:20,440
I walked home, took two iyars. The box was waiting

718
00:36:20,519 --> 00:36:22,480
on the porch when I got back, right in front

719
00:36:22,480 --> 00:36:25,719
of the door. I don't know what it wants. I've

720
00:36:25,760 --> 00:36:28,480
never opened it. I'm starting to think that's the point.

721
00:36:29,119 --> 00:36:31,679
It doesn't want to be opened. It wants me to

722
00:36:31,760 --> 00:36:34,519
keep it. And now every morning it's just a little

723
00:36:34,519 --> 00:36:37,199
closer to my bedroom door to night, I'm not going

724
00:36:37,199 --> 00:36:39,760
to sleep at all. I'm sitting outside with the lights off,

725
00:36:39,800 --> 00:36:42,239
in the fire that stuck like a barricade, and the

726
00:36:42,280 --> 00:36:45,760
box is still inside. I gotten up late, had some cuffee,

727
00:36:45,840 --> 00:36:48,360
scrolled my phone for longer than I meant to. Then

728
00:36:48,400 --> 00:36:50,599
I saw a post about a community yard sail happening

729
00:36:50,599 --> 00:36:53,920
out near hell Callo. Supposedly a big one, multiple sellers

730
00:36:54,039 --> 00:36:57,159
heading treasures, that kind of thing. I figured i'd check

731
00:36:57,199 --> 00:37:00,400
it out. I like wandering through other people's junk. I

732
00:37:00,480 --> 00:37:02,519
ended up stopping at a few places along the way,

733
00:37:02,800 --> 00:37:05,760
normal stuff. One had a kid's bike with a bent wheel,

734
00:37:06,320 --> 00:37:08,639
Anetta had those ancient VHS work out tapes with the

735
00:37:08,639 --> 00:37:12,400
neon lithides. Then I saw the sign. It was hand painted,

736
00:37:12,519 --> 00:37:16,320
nailed crookedly to a tree. Communities Ale one day only.

737
00:37:17,000 --> 00:37:21,039
Then here no arose, noballoons, just a dirt roabe with

738
00:37:21,079 --> 00:37:24,320
gravel soluce. It felt like driving on marbles. There weren't

739
00:37:24,320 --> 00:37:27,519
any other cars that should have tipped me off. I

740
00:37:27,559 --> 00:37:29,480
didn't even see a house. Just to break in the

741
00:37:29,480 --> 00:37:31,400
trees and sitting wearily alone at the edge of a

742
00:37:31,440 --> 00:37:34,719
clearing one folding table. Behind it was a sagging red

743
00:37:34,719 --> 00:37:37,280
barn with half the roof missing. The whole place looked

744
00:37:37,320 --> 00:37:39,519
like it hadn't seen life in decades. But the table

745
00:37:39,599 --> 00:37:42,960
was packed, not clotted. Each item was space apart, way

746
00:37:43,039 --> 00:37:45,039
too far, like they want meant to be near each other.

747
00:37:45,519 --> 00:37:49,079
I know that sounds weird. It was weird. Some one

748
00:37:49,119 --> 00:37:52,079
had arranged them with serious intengent, like display case level care.

749
00:37:52,800 --> 00:37:55,320
There were ceramic dolls, the fragile kind of glassy eyes

750
00:37:55,360 --> 00:37:58,800
and those eyelashes that somehow still flick old photos and

751
00:37:58,840 --> 00:38:03,119
curled frames, a tarnished prosper a flet that had no holes,

752
00:38:03,960 --> 00:38:06,519
just smooth wood, and right in the dead center of

753
00:38:06,559 --> 00:38:08,119
the table, like it had been put their last on

754
00:38:08,159 --> 00:38:12,760
purpose was this mirror. It wasn't flashy, just hold the

755
00:38:12,880 --> 00:38:15,480
kind of old that makes he want squint. The glass

756
00:38:15,480 --> 00:38:17,840
had gone that cloudy silver around the edges, so the

757
00:38:17,880 --> 00:38:21,320
reflection was warped and dull. The frame though, That's what

758
00:38:21,400 --> 00:38:24,800
stuck with me. It was heavy, carved wood, darkened, dense

759
00:38:25,559 --> 00:38:27,800
all over it, with his little straight line marks, carved

760
00:38:27,840 --> 00:38:30,960
shallowly but deliberately, like some one had taken a knife

761
00:38:31,000 --> 00:38:33,679
and dragged it down a hundred times, always the same direction.

762
00:38:34,280 --> 00:38:38,239
They looked like tally marks, not neat ones, more like

763
00:38:38,280 --> 00:38:40,559
some one had done them fast, maybe while thinking about

764
00:38:40,559 --> 00:38:45,559
something else. I wasn't even into antiques, definitely not old mirrors,

765
00:38:46,159 --> 00:38:48,760
but I picked it up anyway. The wood felt dry

766
00:38:48,760 --> 00:38:51,639
and brittle under my fingers. There were little slivers poking

767
00:38:51,639 --> 00:38:53,639
out in a few places, like it had been handled

768
00:38:53,679 --> 00:38:56,599
a lot and never cared for. There was no price tag.

769
00:38:57,360 --> 00:38:59,760
I turned around to ask someone about it, expecting maybe

770
00:38:59,760 --> 00:39:01,840
an old man with a color of bottled water or

771
00:39:01,840 --> 00:39:04,920
someone fiddling with a cash box, but there was no one,

772
00:39:05,480 --> 00:39:08,360
no sounds, just the creaking of the trees behind me

773
00:39:08,400 --> 00:39:10,880
and the faintick of my car engine cooling down. I

774
00:39:10,920 --> 00:39:14,400
don't know why I didn't just leave idor I could

775
00:39:14,440 --> 00:39:17,159
have just walked away, but instead I pulled the five

776
00:39:17,199 --> 00:39:19,360
dollars built from my wallet, set it down on the table,

777
00:39:19,400 --> 00:39:21,039
and carried the mirror back to my car like it

778
00:39:21,079 --> 00:39:23,239
was mine a home, I said it on top of

779
00:39:23,239 --> 00:39:25,719
the cabinet in the hallway. It didn't look right there,

780
00:39:25,760 --> 00:39:27,760
too big, too grim, looking for the light wood and

781
00:39:27,800 --> 00:39:31,199
bhite walls. I kept telling myself I'd move it, maybe

782
00:39:31,199 --> 00:39:33,360
store it in the attic, but every time I walked by,

783
00:39:33,400 --> 00:39:35,840
I just kept not doing it. That night, I had

784
00:39:35,840 --> 00:39:38,559
the same dream three times. In each version, I was

785
00:39:38,599 --> 00:39:40,880
walking back up that same gravel river, but this time

786
00:39:40,920 --> 00:39:43,519
the barn was a falling apart. It was glowing from

787
00:39:43,519 --> 00:39:46,239
the inside, pulsing yellow like there was firelight flickering through

788
00:39:46,280 --> 00:39:49,039
the slats. I couldn't see what was inside, but I

789
00:39:49,039 --> 00:39:52,079
could hear it creak softly, like wood adjusting underweight. And

790
00:39:52,199 --> 00:39:53,920
every time I got close to the doorway before I

791
00:39:53,920 --> 00:39:56,920
could peek in, i'd wake up. The next morning, there

792
00:39:56,960 --> 00:39:58,960
was a thin red scratch on my forearm, ran from

793
00:39:58,960 --> 00:40:01,760
my wrist almost to my elm. It didn't hurt much,

794
00:40:01,920 --> 00:40:04,800
just felt tight. I figured it'd scraped myself and loading

795
00:40:04,800 --> 00:40:06,719
the mirror abump something. But when I looked at the

796
00:40:06,719 --> 00:40:10,199
mirror again, the frame looked different, not dramatically, but those

797
00:40:10,239 --> 00:40:12,880
little marks I could have sworn there were more. Over

798
00:40:12,960 --> 00:40:16,119
the next few days, it kept getting stranger. One night,

799
00:40:16,199 --> 00:40:18,440
while brushing my teeth, I caught movement behind me in

800
00:40:18,440 --> 00:40:22,000
the bathroom mirror, a shadow or a figure. Maybe. I

801
00:40:22,039 --> 00:40:25,440
spun around so fast I dropped my teeth brush. Nothing there,

802
00:40:26,199 --> 00:40:30,199
no open doors, no windows. I tried to laugh it off.

803
00:40:30,760 --> 00:40:33,960
My brain gave me the whole speech. Reflections are tricky,

804
00:40:34,519 --> 00:40:38,519
you're tired, probably just your own shadow, except the mirror.

805
00:40:38,559 --> 00:40:40,559
I sold the movement and wasn't the one in the bathroom.

806
00:40:41,079 --> 00:40:43,599
It was the Hollway mirror, the one that shouldn't have

807
00:40:43,599 --> 00:40:47,840
been visible at all. Next morning, new scratch. This rad

808
00:40:47,960 --> 00:40:50,079
always in places I'd never reach in my sleep, and

809
00:40:50,119 --> 00:40:53,679
definitely not by accident. Then came the dreams again, Only

810
00:40:53,719 --> 00:40:57,320
they weren't really dreams any more, more like flashes, quick images.

811
00:40:57,880 --> 00:40:59,679
A woman with a mouth too wide, smiling with her

812
00:40:59,719 --> 00:41:02,880
eyes closed. A man standing just behind the mirror's frame,

813
00:41:03,000 --> 00:41:06,039
only his eyes visible and blinking. Sometimes it was just

814
00:41:06,079 --> 00:41:08,280
the mirror itself, play somewhere it wasn't supposed to be

815
00:41:08,960 --> 00:41:10,760
my kitchen counter, at the foot of my bed, the

816
00:41:10,760 --> 00:41:13,119
back seat of my car. It started to feel like

817
00:41:13,159 --> 00:41:15,679
I was dreaming about the mirror, but through it. By

818
00:41:15,719 --> 00:41:17,599
the end of the week, I couldn't take it any more.

819
00:41:18,199 --> 00:41:20,199
I wrapped it in a blanket, shoved it into the

820
00:41:20,199 --> 00:41:22,199
shed and locked the door with a thick pad. Look

821
00:41:22,800 --> 00:41:25,480
my hands were shaking by then. I told myself I

822
00:41:25,519 --> 00:41:27,880
was being ridiculous, but I still triple checked the lock.

823
00:41:28,559 --> 00:41:31,360
The next morning, it was back, sitting on the whole

824
00:41:31,400 --> 00:41:34,840
way cabinet like it had never moved. I actually ran outside,

825
00:41:34,920 --> 00:41:37,719
yanked the shed door open, and found the blanket still there, folded,

826
00:41:38,400 --> 00:41:42,840
no mirror, no footprints, no signs of break in. That

827
00:41:43,000 --> 00:41:45,599
was the first time I let myself panic. I looked

828
00:41:45,599 --> 00:41:48,559
at the frame again. The notches went just numerous. Now

829
00:41:49,199 --> 00:41:53,199
they were crowding up the sides, some overlapping, some deeper

830
00:41:53,199 --> 00:41:56,159
than others. I grabbed a box cutter, carved a little

831
00:41:56,159 --> 00:41:58,639
ex beside one of them, just to market, just to

832
00:41:58,719 --> 00:42:02,079
prove something to myself. Next day the ex was gone,

833
00:42:02,480 --> 00:42:07,320
replaced by a new notch, different spot, same size. He

834
00:42:07,400 --> 00:42:10,280
was tracking something. I went to an antique place in town,

835
00:42:10,920 --> 00:42:13,480
this tiny shop owned by a guy named Lowell. I

836
00:42:13,519 --> 00:42:17,039
sketched a Mirov from memory, showed him the drawing. He

837
00:42:17,119 --> 00:42:19,119
stared at it a long time, didn't say a word.

838
00:42:19,760 --> 00:42:21,679
Then he looked up and said, there's old stores from

839
00:42:21,679 --> 00:42:25,840
around here about returning items, things that won't be throna,

840
00:42:26,559 --> 00:42:28,920
things I keep their own camp. I asked him what

841
00:42:29,000 --> 00:42:31,719
it was counting. He didn't answer that part, just said,

842
00:42:31,800 --> 00:42:35,039
don't add to it. That's all I know. After that,

843
00:42:35,199 --> 00:42:38,159
I tried everything, left it at the country dump. Next

844
00:42:38,159 --> 00:42:40,360
morning it was leaning against my front door. Took it

845
00:42:40,400 --> 00:42:42,639
into the woods, hiked a mile off the trail, buried it.

846
00:42:42,719 --> 00:42:45,559
Under rocks. Two days later, it was buckled into the

847
00:42:45,559 --> 00:42:48,920
passenger seat of my car. I stopped sleeping. Altogether covered

848
00:42:48,920 --> 00:42:52,039
every reflective surface in the house. But even with all that,

849
00:42:52,239 --> 00:42:53,880
I kept seeing the frame, just the edge of it

850
00:42:53,880 --> 00:42:57,079
in my dreams. I gave up, took it back to

851
00:42:57,119 --> 00:43:01,360
that gravel road. The barn was gone, collapsed into itself,

852
00:43:02,119 --> 00:43:05,239
folding table was missing. All that remained was a rectangle

853
00:43:05,239 --> 00:43:07,480
of scorched grass, as if some one had burned a

854
00:43:07,480 --> 00:43:09,199
piece of the earth out and left it like that.

855
00:43:09,880 --> 00:43:12,679
I walked out to the center, so faint impressions in

856
00:43:12,679 --> 00:43:15,039
the ground, circular patches where the other items must have

857
00:43:15,119 --> 00:43:18,599
been let ghost place soldiers. I set the mire down

858
00:43:18,639 --> 00:43:23,360
dead center. Didn't look back. After that, everything stopped, no dreams,

859
00:43:24,079 --> 00:43:27,599
no scratches. I felt like myself again. The town of

860
00:43:27,679 --> 00:43:30,119
Danning Hollow throws this huge odd sail every four called

861
00:43:30,159 --> 00:43:33,000
the Hollow Trail Sail. I just moved out there, renting

862
00:43:33,039 --> 00:43:34,920
a place in the woods a few miles outside of town.

863
00:43:35,559 --> 00:43:37,679
Not a proper house, just an old hunting cabin some

864
00:43:37,760 --> 00:43:40,079
one had sort of half returned into her home. It

865
00:43:40,119 --> 00:43:42,559
had running water, heat when the generator behaved, and a

866
00:43:42,599 --> 00:43:44,840
front door of the stuck in the rain. I'd only

867
00:43:44,880 --> 00:43:46,880
been there a few weeks still hadn't really talked to

868
00:43:46,880 --> 00:43:49,639
any one except the guy who handled the keys. I

869
00:43:49,679 --> 00:43:51,719
figured checking out the art call might help me feel

870
00:43:51,719 --> 00:43:53,639
a little more rooted, or at least help me see

871
00:43:53,639 --> 00:43:56,159
who lived around me. So I got him a cart

872
00:43:56,239 --> 00:43:58,480
just after sunrise with a thermis of coffee and followed

873
00:43:58,519 --> 00:44:00,559
the paper map they gave out at the groy store,

874
00:44:00,559 --> 00:44:04,239
hand draw loops with arrows, circles, and spots labeled like

875
00:44:04,280 --> 00:44:07,679
smith Barn records on Nora books plus dolls. I didn't

876
00:44:07,719 --> 00:44:10,320
have anything specific I was looking for, just figured it'd

877
00:44:10,360 --> 00:44:12,519
be good to get out the roads up their wine

878
00:44:12,599 --> 00:44:15,559
like crazy one second year, between corn fills the next

879
00:44:15,639 --> 00:44:17,800
year on a gravel curve with no guardrails and nothing

880
00:44:17,800 --> 00:44:21,159
but woods on either side. Some stops were decent toolboxes,

881
00:44:21,280 --> 00:44:23,880
mason jaws, old fishing gear, but most of them wore

882
00:44:23,880 --> 00:44:27,239
a word mix of baby clothes, mishmschmuks, broken chairs, and

883
00:44:27,239 --> 00:44:29,480
those old metal tints that smell like crust and regret.

884
00:44:30,039 --> 00:44:32,440
About half way through I noticed something that wasn't on

885
00:44:32,440 --> 00:44:34,519
the map. There was a break in the trees near

886
00:44:34,559 --> 00:44:36,639
a bend in the road right before the bridge at

887
00:44:36,679 --> 00:44:40,719
Carrick's Hollow. No sign, no balloons, no marker, just small

888
00:44:40,760 --> 00:44:42,880
clearing with one folding table set up in the grass.

889
00:44:43,480 --> 00:44:47,519
Nobody else around, no cars parked nearby, just this one

890
00:44:47,559 --> 00:44:49,519
older woman sitting behind the table like should be in

891
00:44:49,599 --> 00:44:52,960
their day waiting. Sheered this look neatly combed gray hair,

892
00:44:53,000 --> 00:44:55,519
a pale yellow sweater that hung loose around the shoulders,

893
00:44:55,639 --> 00:44:58,320
and a lawnchair that looked like it belonged in a museum.

894
00:44:58,480 --> 00:45:01,159
I sawed the car, almost without thinking. There was just

895
00:45:01,199 --> 00:45:04,440
something about how still she was, no phone, no book,

896
00:45:04,880 --> 00:45:07,480
just watching the road. I parked on the shoulder and

897
00:45:07,519 --> 00:45:10,880
walked up. She didn't say alah, didn't even nod. She

898
00:45:11,039 --> 00:45:13,360
just watched me. I remember feeling kind of awkward, like

899
00:45:13,360 --> 00:45:16,199
I had walked into someone's back out uninvited. But there

900
00:45:16,239 --> 00:45:18,880
was this small cardboard box on the table, sitting by itself.

901
00:45:19,480 --> 00:45:22,360
I leaned over to look. It was full of polaroids,

902
00:45:23,039 --> 00:45:26,159
dozens of them, each one labeled in soft pencil with

903
00:45:26,199 --> 00:45:31,679
the name, different names. Every time Curry the lures fete,

904
00:45:32,440 --> 00:45:35,159
every photo showed some version of the same thing, a

905
00:45:35,280 --> 00:45:38,400
yard sale. Sometimes it was a rickety wooden table, other

906
00:45:38,599 --> 00:45:40,599
times it was just a blanket laid out on the grass,

907
00:45:40,679 --> 00:45:43,679
but always the same composition, someone standing behind it facing

908
00:45:43,679 --> 00:45:47,360
the camera. Some were smiling, some weren't. None of them

909
00:45:47,360 --> 00:45:50,199
looked stage. It wasn't just the sayeness of the shots

910
00:45:50,239 --> 00:45:52,199
that felt weird, it was the feeling they gave off,

911
00:45:52,440 --> 00:45:54,320
like none of these people had meant for their pictures

912
00:45:54,360 --> 00:45:57,480
to be taken. That's when the woman finally spoke. Her

913
00:45:57,559 --> 00:45:59,679
voice was dry, almost like it hadn't been used in

914
00:45:59,719 --> 00:46:02,440
a y. Well, people forget, she said, not looking at me,

915
00:46:02,920 --> 00:46:05,519
but the land. Don't I let out this plight laugh,

916
00:46:05,559 --> 00:46:10,000
half confused, hollow wisdom. I said that one's free. She

917
00:46:10,079 --> 00:46:12,880
didn't blink. I asked her how much for the box.

918
00:46:13,599 --> 00:46:16,800
She didn't enter that either. Instead, she picked out one

919
00:46:16,800 --> 00:46:19,239
photo and handed it to me. It was my cabin,

920
00:46:19,880 --> 00:46:23,599
clear as day, same sloping yard, same front porch, same

921
00:46:23,599 --> 00:46:26,639
busted's wing hanging by one chain. There was a card

922
00:46:26,639 --> 00:46:28,800
table in front of it, with a woman standing behind it.

923
00:46:29,519 --> 00:46:31,360
She was half turned, like she just looked up from

924
00:46:31,440 --> 00:46:34,639
arranging something. The photo was old, faded with that yellow

925
00:46:34,639 --> 00:46:37,519
Hay's polar roidskit when they've been run too long, but

926
00:46:37,599 --> 00:46:40,280
it was unmistakably the place I just moved into. I

927
00:46:40,320 --> 00:46:42,639
stared at it for a while. The woman in the

928
00:46:42,639 --> 00:46:46,079
photo wasn't familiar, not the previous tenant, not someone from

929
00:46:46,079 --> 00:46:49,400
the neighborhood, just a stranger standing where I drink my

930
00:46:49,440 --> 00:46:52,920
coffee in the mornings. When was this taken? I asked,

931
00:46:53,239 --> 00:46:55,519
Still nothing from her. She just motioned again to the box,

932
00:46:55,599 --> 00:46:57,159
like it was free to brass, no pressure, like it

933
00:46:57,199 --> 00:46:59,400
didn't matter whether I took something or not. I slid

934
00:46:59,400 --> 00:47:01,400
the foto back in the stack, mumbled thanks, and left.

935
00:47:01,400 --> 00:47:03,599
Her silence was the loudest part of the hull interaction.

936
00:47:03,679 --> 00:47:05,159
It hung over me all the way home that night.

937
00:47:05,199 --> 00:47:07,159
I kept thinking about the picture. When I pulled into

938
00:47:07,199 --> 00:47:09,000
my driveway, I sat in a coffer for a few minutes,

939
00:47:09,039 --> 00:47:10,800
staring at the yard eye, walked up the same path,

940
00:47:10,840 --> 00:47:14,639
stood on the same portch. Everything matched. I even found

941
00:47:14,639 --> 00:47:16,840
the spot where the table must have been, right down

942
00:47:16,880 --> 00:47:19,480
to a patch with a grass of grown thinner. Inside

943
00:47:19,519 --> 00:47:23,679
the cabin was quiet, too quiet, too quiet. It always

944
00:47:23,679 --> 00:47:26,199
had the stillness at night, but this time it felt deliberate,

945
00:47:26,360 --> 00:47:29,559
like something holding its breath. I started looking around, hoping

946
00:47:29,599 --> 00:47:33,320
I'd find some reasonable explanation. I checked the walls to corners,

947
00:47:33,400 --> 00:47:36,880
even behind the furniture. No hidden cameras, no old photos

948
00:47:36,880 --> 00:47:39,400
in the walls. But in the kitchen, tucked in the

949
00:47:39,400 --> 00:47:41,400
back of the drawer with some faded grocery lists and

950
00:47:41,400 --> 00:47:43,679
a box of matches, I found a stack of letters,

951
00:47:44,360 --> 00:47:47,400
not in envelopes, just bundled together with a rubber band.

952
00:47:47,559 --> 00:47:51,239
They were all addressed to someone named ELM. Reese. Neat handwriting,

953
00:47:51,880 --> 00:47:57,079
mostly short notes, grocery reminders, a few names I didn't recognize.

954
00:47:57,639 --> 00:48:00,000
The latest one had the date October twelve, nineteen nine

955
00:48:00,000 --> 00:48:04,920
ty eight. No return of ress, nothing official, just personal,

956
00:48:05,000 --> 00:48:08,840
quite correspondence. I stood there for a while, just holding them.

957
00:48:09,159 --> 00:48:12,360
The air in the kitchen felt heavier, not colder, just

958
00:48:12,480 --> 00:48:15,559
dnser like it wanted me out. I couldn't sleep that night.

959
00:48:16,199 --> 00:48:19,119
I kept hearing soft creaks from the porch. I told

960
00:48:19,119 --> 00:48:21,519
myself it was just the house settling. That's what all

961
00:48:21,559 --> 00:48:24,440
places do. Right then, around three in the morning, I

962
00:48:24,480 --> 00:48:27,840
heard a gravel crunching car tires. I sat up and

963
00:48:27,840 --> 00:48:31,880
went to the window. Nothing no headlights, no engine, just

964
00:48:31,920 --> 00:48:34,440
the faint sound of shifting stone. I growl a flask

965
00:48:34,519 --> 00:48:37,079
light and stepped outside. There in the middle of the

966
00:48:37,159 --> 00:48:40,119
yard was a folding table. I swear I hadn't been

967
00:48:40,159 --> 00:48:42,960
there earlier, and sitting on it one polaroid. It was

968
00:48:43,039 --> 00:48:46,000
me from behind, leaning over that woman's table olo that day.

969
00:48:46,599 --> 00:48:49,119
The ankle was exact like someone had stood just behind

970
00:48:49,159 --> 00:48:51,239
me and snapped the shot. But I hadn't heard a shudder.

971
00:48:51,880 --> 00:48:54,800
I hadn't seen anyone else on that rope. I backed

972
00:48:54,800 --> 00:48:58,000
away and went inside, locking every window, every door. I

973
00:48:58,039 --> 00:49:00,800
pulled the curtain's close and left the lights on. Then

974
00:49:00,840 --> 00:49:02,719
I dug up the flyer from the hollow trail sail

975
00:49:02,800 --> 00:49:05,159
and culled the number at the bottom some kind of

976
00:49:05,159 --> 00:49:07,559
infull line or maybe a hot line for lost items.

977
00:49:08,119 --> 00:49:11,119
A woman answered. I asked if she knew anything about

978
00:49:11,119 --> 00:49:13,280
the house with a single table near Carrack's Hollow, just

979
00:49:13,320 --> 00:49:17,239
passed the bridge. She went quiet. That house burned down,

980
00:49:17,280 --> 00:49:20,440
she said, eight years ago, nothing left but a concrete slab.

981
00:49:20,480 --> 00:49:24,000
Now next morning the table was gone. I went back

982
00:49:24,000 --> 00:49:27,639
out there anyway. I had to see it again, same bend,

983
00:49:27,679 --> 00:49:30,960
same clearing, but sure enough, just trees in a half

984
00:49:31,000 --> 00:49:35,639
swallowed foundation, concrete cracked and overgrown. No sign of chairs,

985
00:49:36,320 --> 00:49:39,679
no woman, just quiet. I tried to shake it off.

986
00:49:40,320 --> 00:49:42,880
Maybe I had stopped at the wrong bend. Maybe it

987
00:49:42,960 --> 00:49:45,920
was just a weird coincidence. But then that night the

988
00:49:45,920 --> 00:49:49,239
mail from the kitchen drawer vanished, not muss place gone,

989
00:49:49,760 --> 00:49:52,239
no trace of it in its place, and the kitchen

990
00:49:52,280 --> 00:49:54,960
counter was a new photo a man I'd never seen

991
00:49:55,000 --> 00:49:58,199
before standing on my porch, same pose as the others,

992
00:49:59,000 --> 00:50:01,719
just standing there, look looking at the camera, only his

993
00:50:01,800 --> 00:50:04,159
eyes were smutched out, wiped or rubbed, like someone didn't

994
00:50:04,159 --> 00:50:07,000
want them seene. The bax said el went last day.

995
00:50:07,639 --> 00:50:10,039
I left, I packed what I could and drove to

996
00:50:10,079 --> 00:50:13,079
a motel in another county. I didn't care about my Lisa,

997
00:50:13,119 --> 00:50:16,679
my deposit. I just kneeded out. A week later at

998
00:50:16,679 --> 00:50:18,760
the front desk, Click called my room, said I had

999
00:50:18,800 --> 00:50:22,400
a delivery. I hadn't told anyone where I was. No

1000
00:50:22,559 --> 00:50:26,039
name on the box, no label, just a cube of

1001
00:50:26,079 --> 00:50:29,480
cardboard sealed tight with black electrical tape. Inside were over

1002
00:50:29,480 --> 00:50:32,840
a hundred polaroids. Every single one showed a yard sail.

1003
00:50:33,519 --> 00:50:35,920
Everyone had a person standing behind a table looking into

1004
00:50:35,920 --> 00:50:39,760
the camera. Different people, different years, basin, the clothes and

1005
00:50:39,840 --> 00:50:42,840
the cars in the background, different places, but always the

1006
00:50:42,880 --> 00:50:46,880
same look. The last photo was blank, no picture, just

1007
00:50:46,920 --> 00:50:49,639
a label written in pencil, soft and small meath. I

1008
00:50:49,639 --> 00:50:51,480
took the whole box out to the motel firepit and

1009
00:50:51,519 --> 00:50:53,400
lit it up. Watched it burn all the way down

1010
00:50:53,480 --> 00:50:55,679
until the plastic snapped and curled and the ashes floated

1011
00:50:55,760 --> 00:50:58,719
up like dead leaves. I left the state the next morning.

1012
00:50:59,320 --> 00:51:02,119
I don't stop for roadside sales any more. I was

1013
00:51:02,119 --> 00:51:04,920
thirty two when it happened. There was this yard sail

1014
00:51:04,960 --> 00:51:06,920
off a back road near a place called Lionel, a

1015
00:51:07,000 --> 00:51:09,320
little no stop like town in eastern Kentucky where the

1016
00:51:09,360 --> 00:51:12,679
hills brass close and most roads don't even have names,

1017
00:51:12,920 --> 00:51:15,840
just directions like turn after the Green Barn. I was

1018
00:51:15,840 --> 00:51:19,440
out that way on Saturday morning, no real destination, just

1019
00:51:19,519 --> 00:51:21,679
needed to get out of the house. I did a

1020
00:51:21,679 --> 00:51:23,960
long week and figure a drive, maybe hit a flea

1021
00:51:24,000 --> 00:51:27,639
market or two, nothing serious. That's when I saw it.

1022
00:51:28,280 --> 00:51:30,679
The sign was barely a sign, just to walk piece

1023
00:51:30,679 --> 00:51:32,639
of cardboard duct tip to a leaning mail box that

1024
00:51:32,679 --> 00:51:36,079
said Saturday and Sunday ninium in faded black marker. It

1025
00:51:36,159 --> 00:51:38,719
wasn't even angle toward the road, more like someone stuck

1026
00:51:38,719 --> 00:51:41,679
it there as an afterthought. I wouldn't have stopped, except

1027
00:51:41,679 --> 00:51:43,360
sitting at the edge of the driveway was what looked

1028
00:51:43,360 --> 00:51:46,239
like an old Sennith console radio, the kind built like furniture,

1029
00:51:46,320 --> 00:51:48,360
all wood and brass trim, from the late seventis or

1030
00:51:48,360 --> 00:51:52,440
early eighties. It looked in surprisingly good shape. That's my thing.

1031
00:51:53,000 --> 00:51:56,360
I collect retroelectronics, not the flashy stuff every one wants,

1032
00:51:56,440 --> 00:51:59,920
but the weird off brown pieces, radios with strange dile pas,

1033
00:52:00,159 --> 00:52:02,519
and TV with burned in channels. Anything that hums was

1034
00:52:02,559 --> 00:52:05,119
old circuitry. I've got a little room at home with

1035
00:52:05,159 --> 00:52:08,239
shelves of the kind of stuff. It's not valuable exactly,

1036
00:52:08,360 --> 00:52:10,960
just comforting in a strange way. So I pulled into

1037
00:52:11,000 --> 00:52:13,719
the gravel tonau and stepped out. The house sat half

1038
00:52:13,719 --> 00:52:15,599
way up a small slope tout behind a screen of

1039
00:52:15,599 --> 00:52:17,840
trees that were just starting to go gold for the season.

1040
00:52:18,360 --> 00:52:20,599
It didn't look abandoned, but it definitely had that long,

1041
00:52:20,800 --> 00:52:22,920
empty feel, like someone came by once a season to

1042
00:52:22,960 --> 00:52:25,639
cut the grass but never stepped inside. The paint was

1043
00:52:25,679 --> 00:52:28,159
peeling around the windows, and one of the porch columns

1044
00:52:28,199 --> 00:52:30,639
was held up by a stack of bricks. There were

1045
00:52:30,639 --> 00:52:33,039
no people, no dogs barking, just me and a bunch

1046
00:52:33,039 --> 00:52:36,239
of stuff. The yard sale wasn't what i'd call organized.

1047
00:52:36,880 --> 00:52:38,880
The left side of the porch had two sun bleached

1048
00:52:38,920 --> 00:52:41,760
lawn chairs and a stack of old readers, digests magazines.

1049
00:52:42,440 --> 00:52:45,920
The right side was clotted with boxes, lamps, rusted tools,

1050
00:52:46,000 --> 00:52:48,559
a folding table with dollies and salt shakers, a few

1051
00:52:48,599 --> 00:52:51,800
bentoire hainers. Everything laid out like someone had been half

1052
00:52:51,840 --> 00:52:54,440
way through sorting and then just stopped. What caught my

1053
00:52:54,519 --> 00:52:56,239
eye was the sign on the door of prices as

1054
00:52:56,280 --> 00:52:59,760
emmarked c S only honor system. I've seen it a

1055
00:52:59,760 --> 00:53:02,400
few times before. Usually it states sales where the family

1056
00:53:02,400 --> 00:53:07,199
doesn't want to talk to strangers. Still, something about the handwriting, jaky, uneven,

1057
00:53:07,280 --> 00:53:09,119
like it had been painted with a brush too large,

1058
00:53:09,199 --> 00:53:12,159
gave me pause. Most of the atoms had masking tape

1059
00:53:12,199 --> 00:53:14,239
on them, which is normal enough, but instead of writing

1060
00:53:14,239 --> 00:53:16,920
the prices with marker, the numbers was scratched into the tape,

1061
00:53:17,400 --> 00:53:20,360
not printed. Scratched. You could actually see where a penn

1062
00:53:20,440 --> 00:53:23,719
or nailer dug into the surface, leaving fing outers, and

1063
00:53:23,800 --> 00:53:28,320
the prices were strange. Everything had sense, nothing rounded off.

1064
00:53:28,960 --> 00:53:31,559
A beat up recliner was tagged seventeen point ninety two.

1065
00:53:32,079 --> 00:53:35,199
A cracked toaster said eleven point thirteen, even a busted

1066
00:53:35,199 --> 00:53:37,440
garden hose at attack that read three point twenty seven.

1067
00:53:37,960 --> 00:53:40,400
It was like someone had calculated every item down to

1068
00:53:40,440 --> 00:53:44,599
the penny. It didn't feel quirky, it felt deliberate. I

1069
00:53:44,639 --> 00:53:47,960
didn't see anyone. I waited a minute, expecting maybe someone

1070
00:53:48,000 --> 00:53:50,519
would step out if they saw me poking around, but

1071
00:53:50,599 --> 00:53:53,760
no one did. I wanted the porch for a bit, though.

1072
00:53:53,840 --> 00:53:56,599
Was the usual garar sale weirdness, a cookie tinful of buttons,

1073
00:53:56,599 --> 00:53:59,079
as stackable VHS tapes with no labels, a hand made

1074
00:53:59,119 --> 00:54:02,280
colt that smelt faint like vinegar. One thing that stood

1075
00:54:02,320 --> 00:54:05,199
up was a ceramic rooster with no eyes, just smooth

1076
00:54:05,199 --> 00:54:08,639
indentations where the people should have been. Not scary, just thought,

1077
00:54:09,280 --> 00:54:12,199
but the radio kept drawing me back. It was cleaner

1078
00:54:12,199 --> 00:54:15,920
than everything else, no scratches on the panel, the speaker

1079
00:54:15,960 --> 00:54:18,840
cloth looked and touched. The knobs still had their little

1080
00:54:18,880 --> 00:54:22,760
chroom caps, no dust. It was the only item without

1081
00:54:22,800 --> 00:54:25,639
a price. I figured maybe it wasn't actually for sale,

1082
00:54:25,760 --> 00:54:28,039
just there for show. I walked up to the door

1083
00:54:28,079 --> 00:54:31,480
to ask. Before I could knock, the screen door moved.

1084
00:54:31,880 --> 00:54:35,320
It creaked open just a couple inches. I hadn't touched it.

1085
00:54:35,920 --> 00:54:38,840
There was no wind, no vibration under my feet. It

1086
00:54:38,880 --> 00:54:41,199
opened like someone on the other side had gently nudged it.

1087
00:54:41,840 --> 00:54:45,760
I stood there a second. Nothing moved inside. I couldn't

1088
00:54:45,760 --> 00:54:50,480
see past the mash. No voices, no footsteps, just stillness.

1089
00:54:51,199 --> 00:54:53,679
I said, hi there, just wondering if that oles in

1090
00:54:53,760 --> 00:54:56,920
it's for sale. Nothing, not even the sound of a

1091
00:54:56,960 --> 00:55:03,400
floorboard shifting. I knocked first, fleet, then louder, waited. Still nothing.

1092
00:55:04,000 --> 00:55:06,559
I should have walked away, but something about the whole

1093
00:55:06,559 --> 00:55:09,719
set felt and finished. Black eyes stumbled into the middle

1094
00:55:09,719 --> 00:55:12,760
of a transaction that had already started. I turned back

1095
00:55:12,760 --> 00:55:16,480
to the radio, walked over, squatted down in front of it,

1096
00:55:16,519 --> 00:55:19,760
and flipped open the top panel. Inside. Sitting neatly in

1097
00:55:19,760 --> 00:55:22,199
the tray beneath the dials was a small stack of coins,

1098
00:55:22,800 --> 00:55:30,239
not loose, stacked quarters, dimes, nickels, connas, all polished. I

1099
00:55:30,320 --> 00:55:32,360
leaned closer and saw a piece of that same masking

1100
00:55:32,400 --> 00:55:35,239
tape stuck to the inside of the lead, scratched into

1101
00:55:35,280 --> 00:55:38,760
it fourteen point ninety one paid paid by WHO. I

1102
00:55:38,840 --> 00:55:42,320
turned again toward the house, still no sign of life.

1103
00:55:42,880 --> 00:55:45,079
The radio didn't feel like an object at that point.

1104
00:55:45,679 --> 00:55:48,199
It felt like part of something like I was being

1105
00:55:48,199 --> 00:55:51,679
invited into I didn't quite understand. I pulled out my wallet.

1106
00:55:52,239 --> 00:55:55,079
I had a twenty A five and three ones I

1107
00:55:55,199 --> 00:55:57,920
left fifteen dollars exactly, folded it once and placed it

1108
00:55:57,920 --> 00:56:00,440
where the coins had been picked up the radio. It

1109
00:56:00,480 --> 00:56:04,039
was heavier than I expected, way heavier. It didn't feel

1110
00:56:04,119 --> 00:56:06,639
like it had speakers or a too bump inside. It

1111
00:56:06,679 --> 00:56:09,480
felt solid, like a block of wood. I carried it

1112
00:56:09,519 --> 00:56:11,239
back to my truck and set it gently in the bed.

1113
00:56:11,880 --> 00:56:14,639
That night, I didn't think about it much, went a bit,

1114
00:56:14,719 --> 00:56:18,800
watched a little TV, fell asleep. The static woke me up. Loud,

1115
00:56:19,519 --> 00:56:22,639
not loudlike volume, loud, loud like too close to your

1116
00:56:22,639 --> 00:56:26,639
ear loud. I came downstairs and there it was, sitting

1117
00:56:26,679 --> 00:56:29,440
in the corner of my living room, laring nothing, just

1118
00:56:29,559 --> 00:56:33,400
dick hissing static. It wasn't plugged in. I turned it

1119
00:56:33,440 --> 00:56:37,320
off and plugged it anyway, just to make sure. Next night,

1120
00:56:37,480 --> 00:56:40,400
same thing, but this time behind the static there was

1121
00:56:40,440 --> 00:56:46,239
something else, not a voice, not words, not words, more

1122
00:56:46,320 --> 00:56:48,840
like a pattern, like the shape of some one speaking.

1123
00:56:49,000 --> 00:56:51,360
But the sound had been carved away, a kind of

1124
00:56:51,400 --> 00:56:54,079
rhythm that made the hairs on my arms rise. I

1125
00:56:54,119 --> 00:56:57,119
opened the panel. The fifteen bucks i'd left were gone.

1126
00:56:57,480 --> 00:57:02,480
The coins were back, same stack, same order, polished. I

1127
00:57:02,480 --> 00:57:06,039
didn't tell anyone. I don't know why, maybe because I

1128
00:57:06,079 --> 00:57:08,840
already knew how insane it sounded. I just moved the

1129
00:57:08,920 --> 00:57:11,719
radio to the garage, wrapped it in a towel, tucked

1130
00:57:11,719 --> 00:57:14,559
it behind a pile of gardening stuff. Figured I deal

1131
00:57:14,599 --> 00:57:17,199
with it later. It turned on again the next night.

1132
00:57:17,880 --> 00:57:20,920
This time it wasn't just static. There was music, sort

1133
00:57:20,920 --> 00:57:24,840
of fiddle music, but ron too Fast two Shop played

1134
00:57:24,840 --> 00:57:26,880
in reverse with through a warp reel. It had this

1135
00:57:26,960 --> 00:57:28,760
anxious picture it like it was trying to raise the

1136
00:57:28,800 --> 00:57:31,280
head of itself. I could feel it in my spine.

1137
00:57:31,800 --> 00:57:34,360
That was when I decided to take it back. I

1138
00:57:34,440 --> 00:57:37,159
drove out on Sunday afternoon, but the house was empty,

1139
00:57:37,760 --> 00:57:41,039
no sign, no drunk porch, completely clear. The screen door

1140
00:57:41,039 --> 00:57:43,199
now had a rusted padlock across it, thick and old.

1141
00:57:43,760 --> 00:57:47,280
The chairs were gone, the rooster was gone, the radio

1142
00:57:47,400 --> 00:57:51,239
obviously was gone. Everything. I walked around the yard for

1143
00:57:51,280 --> 00:57:53,480
a bit, thinking maybe someone had packed up, but it

1144
00:57:53,480 --> 00:57:56,440
didn't feel like someone had left. It felt like nothing

1145
00:57:56,440 --> 00:57:58,880
had ever been there at all. Back in town. I

1146
00:57:58,880 --> 00:58:00,920
stopped at a gas station and asked a guy behind

1147
00:58:00,920 --> 00:58:03,159
the counter about the house up the hill. He gave

1148
00:58:03,199 --> 00:58:07,079
me a look that place. No one's lived there in decades,

1149
00:58:07,119 --> 00:58:10,320
he said, used to be a preacher, died in a

1150
00:58:10,360 --> 00:58:14,519
fire house, survived, but nobody's touched it since. People say

1151
00:58:14,519 --> 00:58:17,320
it's course, but I think it's just rot. The radio

1152
00:58:17,400 --> 00:58:20,920
kept turning on for three more nights, same time, every night,

1153
00:58:21,400 --> 00:58:24,960
three point thirteen a m not a minute earlier, not

1154
00:58:25,079 --> 00:58:27,840
a minute late. I stayed up to watch once, sat

1155
00:58:27,840 --> 00:58:30,000
in the dark with a flasklight, just staring at it.

1156
00:58:30,519 --> 00:58:33,280
I had exactly three point thirteen. The knobs started to turn,

1157
00:58:33,920 --> 00:58:36,960
not fast, just methodical, like someone was tuned in to

1158
00:58:37,000 --> 00:58:40,199
a frequency. Then the speaker paused and entered The static

1159
00:58:40,320 --> 00:58:43,079
ended up broken fiddle music. I heard my name, not yelled,

1160
00:58:43,159 --> 00:58:47,079
not whispered, just stated like someone was logging it. I

1161
00:58:47,119 --> 00:58:49,079
took it outside the next morning and smash it with

1162
00:58:49,119 --> 00:58:51,679
a hammer. I hit it until the case split open.

1163
00:58:52,239 --> 00:58:57,280
Inside wasn't a radio, no wires, no tubes, just dirt

1164
00:58:58,000 --> 00:59:01,000
dick packed in soil, the kind that smells like roots

1165
00:59:01,039 --> 00:59:04,639
and rust like crave dirt. I left the pieces by

1166
00:59:04,639 --> 00:59:07,360
the trash bins. The yard sale had been going since

1167
00:59:07,400 --> 00:59:10,239
Friday morning, and by the time Saturday afternoon rolled around,

1168
00:59:10,280 --> 00:59:12,760
I was almost out of stuff to sail. Most of

1169
00:59:12,800 --> 00:59:15,639
it belonged to my uncle Clay. He passed a winter before,

1170
00:59:15,679 --> 00:59:17,400
and no one else in the family wanted to deal

1171
00:59:17,440 --> 00:59:20,239
with what he'd left behind. His garage was pat water

1172
00:59:20,280 --> 00:59:23,440
wall with hotels, boxes of random junk, broken vans, religious

1173
00:59:23,480 --> 00:59:26,639
nick acts, you name it. By Saturday, the tables in

1174
00:59:26,679 --> 00:59:30,039
the driveway were mostly empty, just a few beat up ashtrays,

1175
00:59:30,159 --> 00:59:33,039
some rusted wrenches, and this porcelain angel statue that was

1176
00:59:33,039 --> 00:59:35,159
missing a thumb and leaning sideways like it had given

1177
00:59:35,239 --> 00:59:38,159
up on life. I was half heartily sweeping by needles

1178
00:59:38,199 --> 00:59:40,239
off the concrete, just trying to look busy, when the

1179
00:59:40,320 --> 00:59:42,519
last vehicle of the day pulled up. It was this

1180
00:59:42,599 --> 00:59:44,519
battered old pick, the kind that looked like it had

1181
00:59:44,559 --> 00:59:47,920
been held together with duct tape and sheer wolpar brownish red,

1182
00:59:47,960 --> 00:59:50,400
probably used to be moroon once, but freighted and scuffed

1183
00:59:50,440 --> 00:59:53,239
all over. No plates on it. That struck me as

1184
00:59:53,239 --> 00:59:56,480
odd but not alarming. Out in places like Sycamore Hollow

1185
00:59:56,519 --> 00:59:58,559
with this was happening, you see some odd things, and

1186
00:59:58,599 --> 01:00:01,760
you get used to not asking quos. The driver climbed out,

1187
01:00:01,840 --> 01:00:05,119
tall guy, maybe late fifties, maybe older. It was hot

1188
01:00:05,159 --> 01:00:07,159
to tell under the beard, which was thick and gray

1189
01:00:07,199 --> 01:00:09,639
and took up most of his face. He wore one

1190
01:00:09,679 --> 01:00:12,360
of those old sculbal coats piekle pels, giant buttons, the

1191
01:00:12,440 --> 01:00:14,320
kind my dad used to wear in the eighties, and

1192
01:00:14,400 --> 01:00:16,239
a hat with a low brim that kept his eyes hidden.

1193
01:00:16,639 --> 01:00:18,760
He didn't say anything to me, didn't give a nod

1194
01:00:18,800 --> 01:00:21,400
or even a polite wave, just walked over to the

1195
01:00:21,400 --> 01:00:24,320
tables like he was there to inspect something. Some people

1196
01:00:24,400 --> 01:00:27,920
just brows in silence, especially older folks around here, so

1197
01:00:28,000 --> 01:00:30,280
I didn't think much of it. He kept his hands

1198
01:00:30,320 --> 01:00:32,880
behind his back and moved real slowly, looking but never touching,

1199
01:00:33,079 --> 01:00:36,000
like he was walking through a museum. Eventually he stopped

1200
01:00:36,039 --> 01:00:38,440
in front of the angel statue. He stared at it

1201
01:00:38,480 --> 01:00:40,199
for what had to be a full minute, not moving,

1202
01:00:40,840 --> 01:00:42,760
not even shifting his weight, just locked in on it

1203
01:00:42,840 --> 01:00:45,480
like it had said something to him. That from your family,

1204
01:00:46,079 --> 01:00:49,280
he asked finally, without turning, I told him it was

1205
01:00:49,280 --> 01:00:52,159
my uncle's. Clay had a habit of picking up random

1206
01:00:52,199 --> 01:00:55,920
religious decor from auctions, closed churches, flea markets, wherever he

1207
01:00:55,960 --> 01:00:59,960
could find it. I never asked why he wasn't especially devout.

1208
01:01:00,639 --> 01:01:03,000
The guy nodded once, slowly, then turned his head just

1209
01:01:03,119 --> 01:01:05,519
enough for me to catch his mouth moving again. How

1210
01:01:05,639 --> 01:01:09,320
much I shrugged told him to take it. Honestly, I

1211
01:01:09,360 --> 01:01:11,400
was going to toss it if it didn't go. It

1212
01:01:11,480 --> 01:01:13,199
was chipped in a little creepy the kind of thing

1213
01:01:13,280 --> 01:01:14,760
you see in the corner of a room and think

1214
01:01:14,840 --> 01:01:17,639
is watching you. He didn't say thank you, just picked

1215
01:01:17,639 --> 01:01:20,320
it up like it was something fragile and irreplaceable, walked

1216
01:01:20,360 --> 01:01:22,880
back to his truck and sat in a cab engines

1217
01:01:22,880 --> 01:01:25,880
stole running, and then he just stayed there. Five minutes

1218
01:01:25,920 --> 01:01:28,800
went by, then Zig's I could hear the engine idling,

1219
01:01:28,920 --> 01:01:30,960
and I started wondering if maybe he did a stroke

1220
01:01:31,079 --> 01:01:32,880
or was about to fall asleep in the front seat.

1221
01:01:33,519 --> 01:01:35,239
I was half way to walking over to check when

1222
01:01:35,239 --> 01:01:37,079
he opened the door again and stepped out, this time

1223
01:01:37,079 --> 01:01:39,840
without the hat, and I finally saw his eyes. They

1224
01:01:39,840 --> 01:01:43,000
won't white exactly, but pale off white, milky like river glass,

1225
01:01:43,679 --> 01:01:47,119
not blind, not cloudy with canterrex, just faded like whatever

1226
01:01:47,199 --> 01:01:48,880
color used to be there had worn away, and they

1227
01:01:48,920 --> 01:01:51,199
locked onto mine with this quiet intensity that made much

1228
01:01:51,199 --> 01:01:53,760
ast field tight. He walked over and handed me a

1229
01:01:53,760 --> 01:01:57,840
piece of paper nearly folded. His fingers were rough, knuckle swollen,

1230
01:01:57,960 --> 01:02:00,519
like someone who done decades of manual work. If you

1231
01:02:00,559 --> 01:02:02,960
find the box it was in, he said, calm but deliberate,

1232
01:02:03,039 --> 01:02:06,920
don't open it, just burn it, all of it. He

1233
01:02:06,960 --> 01:02:09,800
didn't give me time to ask questions, turned round, got

1234
01:02:09,840 --> 01:02:13,320
in this truck and drove off. Not fast, not dramatic,

1235
01:02:14,199 --> 01:02:18,239
just gone. The paper was blankened outside, just one fold.

1236
01:02:18,880 --> 01:02:21,440
I didn't open it right away. I stood there for

1237
01:02:21,480 --> 01:02:24,280
a second holding that little square, wondering what the hell

1238
01:02:24,320 --> 01:02:27,079
that had been about. Then I went into the garage.

1239
01:02:27,639 --> 01:02:30,199
I hadn't touched the fur corner yet. There were three

1240
01:02:30,239 --> 01:02:32,599
moving boxes had stacked there when I first started sorting

1241
01:02:32,599 --> 01:02:35,719
through everything heavy. One s taped shut with clay basement

1242
01:02:35,760 --> 01:02:38,719
written on the sides in his handwriting. I remember thinking

1243
01:02:38,760 --> 01:02:40,440
he must have moved them out that before he got

1244
01:02:40,440 --> 01:02:43,159
sick and just never got round to unpacking them. The

1245
01:02:43,199 --> 01:02:45,960
first one was filled with books, some old paper backs,

1246
01:02:46,079 --> 01:02:49,320
some water damage hymnels. The second at a broken toaster,

1247
01:02:49,519 --> 01:02:52,360
some expired canned food, and a few family photo albums,

1248
01:02:52,480 --> 01:02:55,480
none of which I recognized, probably from Clay's side of

1249
01:02:55,480 --> 01:02:58,760
the family, which I barely knew. The third box was different.

1250
01:02:59,360 --> 01:03:01,639
It was heavy, and it should have been, not like

1251
01:03:01,679 --> 01:03:04,280
a few brooks. Heavy but wrong, dense in a way

1252
01:03:04,320 --> 01:03:06,760
that made me set it down gently without even realizing

1253
01:03:06,800 --> 01:03:10,440
I was being cautious. Inside there was another angel statue,

1254
01:03:10,960 --> 01:03:12,760
this one smaller than the first, but with the same

1255
01:03:12,800 --> 01:03:16,400
bowed head and folded hands, same word expression like it

1256
01:03:16,440 --> 01:03:19,599
was crimasing instead of praying. And under it was a box, wooden,

1257
01:03:19,719 --> 01:03:23,960
dark maybe oak, metal clasps on the sides, wrapped in

1258
01:03:24,000 --> 01:03:25,960
this brittle yellowed cloth. A crumbled a little when I

1259
01:03:26,079 --> 01:03:30,920
touched it. No markings, no labels, no reason for it

1260
01:03:30,960 --> 01:03:33,840
to be there. But I remembered what the man had said,

1261
01:03:34,480 --> 01:03:38,119
don't open it. I wish i'd listened. I picked it up.

1262
01:03:38,719 --> 01:03:41,800
The thing wasn't even locked. I peeled the cloth back

1263
01:03:41,800 --> 01:03:44,639
and opened the lid. The smell hit me first, earthy

1264
01:03:44,679 --> 01:03:47,840
in floral, but brawn, like lavender mixed with rod. It

1265
01:03:47,880 --> 01:03:50,119
clunked my nose and stayed there like something that got

1266
01:03:50,199 --> 01:03:52,840
under your skin. Inside was a layer of straw, or

1267
01:03:52,880 --> 01:03:56,840
what looked like straw, beneath that little wooden carvings, hand

1268
01:03:56,880 --> 01:03:59,519
carved animals, a moon, a couple birds, things like that,

1269
01:03:59,679 --> 01:04:02,639
and the bottom a small head, human shaped, not a

1270
01:04:02,679 --> 01:04:07,159
doll exactly, just a face, smooth wood, tiny glass eyes,

1271
01:04:07,800 --> 01:04:11,039
an open mouth. Its lips were stained, talk like someone

1272
01:04:11,039 --> 01:04:13,079
had tried to paint them ready years ago, and it

1273
01:04:13,079 --> 01:04:16,599
had mostly worn off. There were shallow scratches across its cheeks,

1274
01:04:16,679 --> 01:04:18,440
little gouges that made it look like it had been

1275
01:04:18,519 --> 01:04:22,119
dried across a wall. I touched it once. Instantly this

1276
01:04:22,199 --> 01:04:25,400
pressure started in my ears. Not a sound, just a

1277
01:04:25,440 --> 01:04:28,599
deep tunnel squeeze, like my own body was reacting. My

1278
01:04:28,719 --> 01:04:31,880
vision felt strange. I don't know how else to describe it.

1279
01:04:32,519 --> 01:04:34,239
I dropped the head back into the box and shut

1280
01:04:34,280 --> 01:04:37,639
it fast. I didn't sleep that night. I lay there

1281
01:04:37,719 --> 01:04:40,840
thinking I'd imagine hearing something, waiting for a knock or whisperer,

1282
01:04:41,519 --> 01:04:45,519
I don't know. But nothing came. Not that night. It

1283
01:04:45,559 --> 01:04:48,880
started three days later. The angel statue, the big one,

1284
01:04:48,920 --> 01:04:50,880
the one that man took, was back on my porch,

1285
01:04:51,639 --> 01:04:55,639
same one, no question, same crack in the rope, same

1286
01:04:55,719 --> 01:04:58,800
chip base, but the wings were gone, snapped clean off.

1287
01:04:59,360 --> 01:05:01,559
The pieces were laid neatly beside it, like some one

1288
01:05:01,559 --> 01:05:05,079
had tried to return it, broken but respectfully. I stood

1289
01:05:05,079 --> 01:05:07,280
there staring at it for a long time. Then I

1290
01:05:07,360 --> 01:05:10,519
walked the perimeter of the yard. No tire tracks, no footprints,

1291
01:05:10,920 --> 01:05:13,360
no sign any one had been for her. That night,

1292
01:05:13,480 --> 01:05:16,280
I found the garage door wide open. The wooden box

1293
01:05:16,320 --> 01:05:18,519
was sitting dead center on the floor, lid popped off,

1294
01:05:18,559 --> 01:05:21,159
and the carved head was gone. Everything else in the

1295
01:05:21,199 --> 01:05:25,159
house looked normal, windows locked, doors shut, nothing broken, but

1296
01:05:25,239 --> 01:05:27,519
the pressure in my ears was back, faint but constant,

1297
01:05:27,760 --> 01:05:30,320
like the hum of all power lines. The next night,

1298
01:05:30,440 --> 01:05:33,599
all the clocks were set, my oven, the microwave, my phone,

1299
01:05:33,679 --> 01:05:37,760
even my wristwatch. Midnight exactly, everything went blank for a

1300
01:05:37,760 --> 01:05:41,159
few seconds, then came back flashing zeros. I called the

1301
01:05:41,199 --> 01:05:44,840
electric company the next morning, no outages. I asked my

1302
01:05:44,880 --> 01:05:48,280
neighbor if they'd had any weird power surges. They light closed.

1303
01:05:48,239 --> 01:05:51,119
Tapping the back door, Max, my dog, jumped up and

1304
01:05:51,119 --> 01:05:53,440
stood rigid staring at the door with his ears pinned.

1305
01:05:53,840 --> 01:05:55,400
He led out a low growl I had never heard

1306
01:05:55,400 --> 01:05:58,119
from him before. I let him out, grout a flask

1307
01:05:58,159 --> 01:06:02,159
light followed him around the yard. Nothing but the next day,

1308
01:06:02,320 --> 01:06:05,119
there were claw marks in the door, three straight lines

1309
01:06:05,159 --> 01:06:07,639
lowed to the ground. The next night it was the

1310
01:06:07,679 --> 01:06:10,599
living room window. I didn't let Max out that time.

1311
01:06:11,119 --> 01:06:13,039
I turned off the lights and stood in the kitchen,

1312
01:06:13,199 --> 01:06:17,519
flushlight slide off, waiting. Nothing moved, But just before sun

1313
01:06:17,639 --> 01:06:19,679
rise the sound came again, this time from above me

1314
01:06:19,840 --> 01:06:23,079
in the attic. I didn't go up. I didn't go up.

1315
01:06:23,599 --> 01:06:25,679
I went to the hardware store and stead bought fire

1316
01:06:25,719 --> 01:06:28,719
startled logs, lighter fluid, a pair of long metal toms.

1317
01:06:29,199 --> 01:06:30,840
I hauled the box out to the fire pit and

1318
01:06:30,880 --> 01:06:34,519
dumped everything that seemed connected, both angels, every carving, even

1319
01:06:34,559 --> 01:06:36,480
the folded note the man had given me a sofd

1320
01:06:36,519 --> 01:06:39,519
in lighter flu The fire burned hotter than I expected.

1321
01:06:40,159 --> 01:06:42,559
Smoke curled up, thick and greasylike burning pine tarre and

1322
01:06:42,559 --> 01:06:46,360
with fabric. Max backed away, barking his head off. I

1323
01:06:46,400 --> 01:06:49,079
waited until it all turned ash, poured water over it,

1324
01:06:49,159 --> 01:06:51,800
then bared what was left behind the shed. That night,

1325
01:06:51,880 --> 01:06:55,000
I slept, but at three in the morning Max growled again.

1326
01:06:55,559 --> 01:06:57,280
He stood at the end of the bed, eyes fixed

1327
01:06:57,320 --> 01:07:00,559
in the hallway. The bedroom door was open. I know.

1328
01:07:00,639 --> 01:07:03,079
I shut it. I did another sweep of the house.

1329
01:07:03,800 --> 01:07:07,360
Every door still locked, windows tight, but the atticatchermatched. The

1330
01:07:07,440 --> 01:07:10,000
ladder had dropped halfway down. I shoved it up and

1331
01:07:10,039 --> 01:07:13,039
bolted it shut with new screws. That was two years ago.

1332
01:07:13,639 --> 01:07:16,440
I haven't seen the man's ends. There's this old mining

1333
01:07:16,440 --> 01:07:18,880
town tuck behind the hills, about forty miles from where

1334
01:07:18,920 --> 01:07:21,760
I live now. It's not on most maps, and GPS

1335
01:07:21,800 --> 01:07:24,800
gets confused around the last bend. You just follow this

1336
01:07:24,840 --> 01:07:27,079
creek road until the pavement gives up, first gravel, then

1337
01:07:27,119 --> 01:07:30,079
dear it, then just forro It's cutting free brush around here.

1338
01:07:30,119 --> 01:07:32,639
People only go that way during hunting season, and even

1339
01:07:32,639 --> 01:07:35,280
then only when the sun's out. I hadn't thought about

1340
01:07:35,280 --> 01:07:36,719
the place in years until I saw a fly I

1341
01:07:36,760 --> 01:07:39,599
taped to the post office bulletin board, just one sheet

1342
01:07:39,599 --> 01:07:41,480
of paper, yellowed like it had been sitting in some

1343
01:07:41,519 --> 01:07:46,480
one's attic too long, Multi family yards ail October fourteenth

1344
01:07:46,920 --> 01:07:51,679
only cash only, no early birds, Paul and Ridge. The

1345
01:07:51,719 --> 01:07:54,320
font looked like it came off an old typewriter. The

1346
01:07:54,360 --> 01:07:56,559
ink had bled a little, like maybe it got damp

1347
01:07:56,599 --> 01:07:59,119
at some point. But the word a state the credition

1348
01:07:59,159 --> 01:08:01,920
caught my eye. That's where the good stuff usually turns

1349
01:08:01,960 --> 01:08:05,320
up tools, furniture, bul gear. I buy and fix up

1350
01:08:05,360 --> 01:08:09,960
things to resell, mostly online. October is always slow, so

1351
01:08:10,199 --> 01:08:12,480
around ten that morning I packed some small bells and

1352
01:08:12,519 --> 01:08:15,119
a couple of tops and headed up. The rodent was

1353
01:08:15,199 --> 01:08:18,560
just like I remembered. No signs, no shoulders, no reason

1354
01:08:18,600 --> 01:08:20,920
to be there unless you had one. The last mail

1355
01:08:20,920 --> 01:08:23,039
box I passed had three bullet holes and the flag

1356
01:08:23,119 --> 01:08:25,520
was missing, but when I got there, it looked like

1357
01:08:25,520 --> 01:08:28,359
a proper sail. Five long folding tables set up in

1358
01:08:28,399 --> 01:08:30,560
a clearing next to what had clearly been a general store,

1359
01:08:30,600 --> 01:08:34,119
once woodsiding alts on, faded Coca Cola signs, porch roof

1360
01:08:34,159 --> 01:08:37,520
sagging like it was exhaling. A woman stood behind the tables,

1361
01:08:37,640 --> 01:08:42,359
maybe mid forties, long black braid, no smile, just gave

1362
01:08:42,399 --> 01:08:44,279
me a nod and went back to straightening a box

1363
01:08:44,279 --> 01:08:47,680
of glass ashtrays. I was the only one there. The

1364
01:08:47,680 --> 01:08:50,560
stuff was a strange mix. Some nearer things a microwave,

1365
01:08:50,600 --> 01:08:52,520
a worn out recliner, but most of it looked like

1366
01:08:52,600 --> 01:08:55,319
it had been sitting and touched for decades, while army blankets,

1367
01:08:55,319 --> 01:08:57,920
a butter chur old records, a box of thick hanpor

1368
01:08:57,960 --> 01:09:01,039
candles wrapped for twine. Everything melt like attic dust and

1369
01:09:01,119 --> 01:09:03,880
rude cellar air. I picked out a few things, a

1370
01:09:03,920 --> 01:09:06,840
solid brass carpenter's level, a cup of cast iron pans,

1371
01:09:06,960 --> 01:09:09,399
and this thy cunting my fin a leather sheath, no

1372
01:09:09,479 --> 01:09:11,880
price tag on it, so I held it up this

1373
01:09:12,039 --> 01:09:15,239
for sale. She didn't even look up, just said, if

1374
01:09:15,239 --> 01:09:18,000
you can carry it, it's yours. I thought she meant

1375
01:09:18,000 --> 01:09:20,479
it was heavy, but it wasn't. It sat easy in

1376
01:09:20,520 --> 01:09:25,520
my hand, ballanced. The sheath was real leather initials burned

1377
01:09:25,520 --> 01:09:29,079
into the back w C. I gave her thirty two

1378
01:09:29,119 --> 01:09:31,800
bucks for everything. She bowed it all in a plastic

1379
01:09:31,840 --> 01:09:33,800
sack from a store that's been gone since the nineties.

1380
01:09:34,520 --> 01:09:36,800
As I was walking back to the truck, she called out,

1381
01:09:36,800 --> 01:09:39,560
don't let it get warm. I turned, but she'd already

1382
01:09:39,560 --> 01:09:42,399
disappeared into the store. The knife was the only thing

1383
01:09:42,479 --> 01:09:45,119
I brought into the house right away. It looked hand made,

1384
01:09:45,159 --> 01:09:47,760
like someone forged it in a small shop. The blade

1385
01:09:47,800 --> 01:09:51,079
wasn't shiny, more of a duck dull finish, not rust

1386
01:09:51,159 --> 01:09:54,520
but not polished either. I didn't sharpen it. I just

1387
01:09:54,560 --> 01:09:57,359
said it all my dresser and left it alone. That night,

1388
01:09:57,359 --> 01:09:59,159
I had this dream, or I think it was a dream.

1389
01:09:59,680 --> 01:10:01,520
I will lying in bed, and I swore I heard

1390
01:10:01,520 --> 01:10:04,439
the front door open, just the soft click of the latch.

1391
01:10:05,159 --> 01:10:07,359
My bedroom door was shut, but I could hear movement,

1392
01:10:08,119 --> 01:10:10,880
not footsteps exactly, more like the floor creaking under slow,

1393
01:10:10,960 --> 01:10:13,359
careful shifts of weight. I got up and checked the

1394
01:10:13,399 --> 01:10:17,039
whole house. Nothing was touched, the door was locked, nothing missing.

1395
01:10:17,640 --> 01:10:19,039
The next day I had felt like it was in

1396
01:10:19,119 --> 01:10:22,239
a vice. I tried working on a shelf i'd been refinishing,

1397
01:10:22,239 --> 01:10:25,119
but my hands wouldn't stop tramping. Around dusk, while I

1398
01:10:25,159 --> 01:10:27,279
was cleaning up in the kitchen, I noticed muddy footprints

1399
01:10:27,279 --> 01:10:31,479
and the tile bare feet damper. But I had been

1400
01:10:31,520 --> 01:10:35,359
inside all day. I hadn't even stepped outside. They weren't mine.

1401
01:10:36,000 --> 01:10:37,960
That night, I moved the knife out of the garage,

1402
01:10:38,520 --> 01:10:41,159
told myself I was just spooted from the trip. All

1403
01:10:41,199 --> 01:10:44,239
places can have mold or weirved chemicals. Maybe something in

1404
01:10:44,279 --> 01:10:47,319
the blade messed with me. Still, I didn't sleep a second.

1405
01:10:48,079 --> 01:10:51,960
Next morning, the prints were back upstairs, this time a

1406
01:10:52,000 --> 01:10:53,800
single trail of damp foot prints right to the top

1407
01:10:53,880 --> 01:10:57,000
stairs and none coming back down. I didn't go up

1408
01:10:57,640 --> 01:11:00,560
just grabbed my keys and left. Came back you in,

1409
01:11:00,600 --> 01:11:04,479
thinking daylight might help. It didn't. The house felt thof,

1410
01:11:05,119 --> 01:11:09,279
not colder, exactly heavier, like even the silence had massed

1411
01:11:09,279 --> 01:11:11,680
to it. That afternoon, I went through one of the

1412
01:11:11,680 --> 01:11:14,520
boxes I'd picked up at the sale. Maybe i'd find

1413
01:11:14,520 --> 01:11:17,079
a clue. The knife sheath was in there, and the

1414
01:11:17,079 --> 01:11:19,840
initials were gone. There was a folded letter inside the

1415
01:11:19,840 --> 01:11:24,680
blanket box and pencil reel, shaky cursive, no greeting, no date,

1416
01:11:25,399 --> 01:11:28,800
just this. He brought it back after the war, buried

1417
01:11:28,800 --> 01:11:32,520
it three times. It still came back. If you take it.

1418
01:11:32,600 --> 01:11:36,479
Never cut living things, not even a weed. Don't warm it,

1419
01:11:37,039 --> 01:11:40,000
don't bleed near it. And if it starts humming, bury

1420
01:11:40,039 --> 01:11:42,760
it under running water. That's the only thing that slows

1421
01:11:42,760 --> 01:11:45,760
it down, eh McCall. I hadn't cut anything with it,

1422
01:11:46,279 --> 01:11:47,920
but I remembered I left it in the truck for

1423
01:11:47,960 --> 01:11:51,840
a while some was out. It had gotten warm. That

1424
01:11:52,039 --> 01:11:55,760
night it started humming. It was loud, more like a

1425
01:11:55,800 --> 01:11:58,079
low rhythm, almost a breath, tight and slow, like someone

1426
01:11:58,079 --> 01:12:00,760
breathing through their teeth. I figured it was a neighbor's

1427
01:12:00,760 --> 01:12:03,359
generator or something. But when I went out to the garage.

1428
01:12:03,479 --> 01:12:05,840
The knife wasn't where I left it. It was lying

1429
01:12:05,840 --> 01:12:08,319
in the middle of the floor. The sheaf was across

1430
01:12:08,319 --> 01:12:10,600
the room. I picked it up with a pair of tons,

1431
01:12:10,600 --> 01:12:13,039
shoved it into an old tin I used for oily rags,

1432
01:12:13,119 --> 01:12:15,399
sealed it in inside a locked tool box, and shoved

1433
01:12:15,399 --> 01:12:18,159
the whole thing in the back corner. The humming stopped,

1434
01:12:18,800 --> 01:12:21,560
but the next morning my garage door was open, the

1435
01:12:21,600 --> 01:12:24,319
toolbox was gone. I found it two days later at

1436
01:12:24,359 --> 01:12:26,079
the edge of the property, down in the creek bed.

1437
01:12:26,640 --> 01:12:28,840
The tin was wedged under a fallen log, like someone

1438
01:12:28,880 --> 01:12:31,840
had started to bury it but never finished. I pulled

1439
01:12:31,840 --> 01:12:34,600
it out and the humming came out back. That night,

1440
01:12:34,640 --> 01:12:37,600
I drove east, didn't pack a thing, just followed the

1441
01:12:37,640 --> 01:12:39,920
highway for about fifty miles until I found a bridge

1442
01:12:39,920 --> 01:12:43,720
over fast water. And that is the end. Thank you

1443
01:12:43,760 --> 01:12:46,800
for listening, and I will see you in the next one.