Chapter Three

Pap-pap’s body came back the next day. Tommy, who had been untied so he could attempt to do his morning chores with his weak and aching arms, watched Mr. Tanner, Luke, and Jeb unload the cheap pine casket from the back of Mr. Tanner’s truck. They carried it into the gray barn-church. Mr. Tanner was going to conduct the funeral the next day, and then they would bury Pap-pap in the yard next to the church.

Tommy went to bed before supper. He hadn’t gotten much work done, either, but nobody harassed him about it. They all acted like Tommy didn’t exist.

After going to bed so early, Tommy woke just after midnight, when he heard a floorboard squeak in the hall. Then another one. Someone was trying to sneak down the hall. Tommy could tell because he’d done it so many times, trying to go to the bathroom without waking anyone. Tommy loved the deep hours of the night, when he was the only one awake.

He looked at the other bed. In the moonlight, he could see all three boys were there. And Mr. Tanner wouldn’t be tiptoeing around, he’d be clomping and banging as always. So it had to be Mrs. Tanner. Or a burglar. Or a monster.

Tommy lay very still and listened. He heard the squeak on the third stair, then the seventh stair. It was someone leaving, not someone coming. It had to be Mrs. Tanner.

He slipped out of bed and walked to the room’s one small window, which looked out on the weed-and-dirt front yard. He watched Mrs. Tanner step down off the front porch and pull on a pair of boots.

A station wagon trundled up the front drive. Mrs. Tanner raced toward it, waving her arms. She leaned in at the driver’s side, and the driver immediately turned out the headlights.

Mrs. Tanner climbed into the back seat of the station wagon.

Tommy watched it drive along the rutted dirt track, towards the stables and barns, then around the corner of the house and out of sight.

Tommy pulled on a shirt and picked up his shoes. He followed after Mrs. Tanner, avoiding the squeaky spots in the hall, and the third and seventh step. She’d left the front door slightly ajar, so he did, too.

Tommy walked in the direction they’d gone, keeping himself to the shadows of the farm buildings as much as he could. The moon was bright overhead, leaving too little darkness.

The station wagon was parked next to the stable, with nobody inside. A crucifix hung from the rearview mirror. Tommy tracked them up to the church, where the barn door stood half open. Tommy circled around the barn, picked one of the knotholes on the side, and looked through.

Mrs. Tanner stood next to the pine casket, which was elevated on a pair of sawhorses. There were two other people with her. One was a very heavyset Mexican-looking woman in a loud dress, with bright scarves nested around her throat. She was shaking her head while Mrs. Tanner talked in a low voice.

The other person was the most beautiful girl Tommy had ever seen. She had deep, rich brown eyes and braided black hair, with skin that reminded him of butterscotch. She was about a year or two older than Tommy, dressed in jeans and a black T-shirt with a glittering butterfly on the front. She was chewing a giant pink wad of bubble gum.

“You bring us here, all the way out here,” the older lady was saying to Mrs. Tanner, “All this sneaking around, and you have only twenty dollars for pay?”

“There’s more,” Mrs. Tanner whispered. “A lot more. The old man told me. I just need to find out where. Then I can pay your fee.”

“What if he don’t really have the money?”

“He bragged about it. He said his son—my husband—had no idea. I need that money.”

“You going to keep for yourself?” the lady asked. “No telling you husband?”

“That’s between us,” Mrs. Tanner said. “I wiped this old man’s ass for the last four years. I want to get paid.”

The hefty lady sighed and eased herself down onto one of Mr. Tanner’s homemade pews. She spoke in Spanish to the younger girl. The girl blew a big pink bubble and shrugged.

“How much money?” the older Mexican lady asked.

“Lots,” Mrs. Tanner said. “Ten, fifteen thousand.”

“You pay one thousand,” the lady said.

“That’s too much!” Mrs. Tanner said.

“Maybe you find the dead man’s money yourself. Come on, Esmeralda. This lady is crazy.”

The girl shrugged and started for the open door.

“Wait!” Mrs. Tanner said. “Wait. Okay. If you can really do what they say, and you find the money, I’ll pay you a…a thousand dollars.” She almost choked on the words.

“Good.” The hefty lady pushed herself to her feet and approached the casket. “Open,” she said.

Mrs. Tanner took a deep breath. She lifted the lid of the cheap coffin and slid it to one side. The big lady looked inside the casket and curled her nose.

“How long?”

“About two days now,” Mrs. Tanner said.

“Is ripe.” She waved a hand in front of her face.

“Well, that happens,” Mrs. Tanner said. “Mr. Tanner doesn’t believe in embalming.”

The hefty lady sighed. “Esmeralda.”

The girl turned to face them, and she pouted. She said something in Spanish. Tommy couldn’t follow it, but from her tone and expression, she was obviously complaining.

The older lady—the girl’s mother, Tommy was guessing—snapped at her. The girl sighed and trudged over to the casket. She pinched her nose with one hand. Then she reached her other hand into the casket.

The girl closed her eyes.

“Wait,” Mrs. Tanner said. “She is the one who—?”

“Sh!” the lady snapped. “Silencio.”

Mrs. Tanner looked increasingly uncomfortable as the quiet minutes dragged on. She looked back and forth between the woman and the girl. She started clearing her throat every few seconds.

“Si, si,” the girl whispered. “I can hear him now. Questions?”

“The money,” Mrs. Tanner said. “Where did he hide the money?”

“The money…” The girl scrunched her eyes. She licked her lips. Tommy was already developing a serious crush on her.

“This isn’t working—” Mrs. Tanner said, but the lady cut her off with a glare.

“Yes, he hid the money,” the girl called Esmeralda said. “It’s in his duffle bag. From the Army.”

“And where is that?” Mrs. Tanner said.

“In the trunk of his car,” Esmeralda said. “In the barn. Not this barn, the one over there.” She pointed in the direction of the newer barns. “His car under a sheet. He used to fantasize about jumping in the car and driving away. With his money in the trunk. He dreamed he would escape.”

Tommy eased back from the barn. When he felt he was far enough away, he turned and ran.

Pap-pap’s old Buick was parked inside the same barn where Mr. Tanner kept the horse trailer. Tommy lifted the mildewed canvas sheet and pushed it back, revealing the Buick’s trunk. The car was a rusted heap, at least forty years old. It had been years since the car had its last chance of ever running again.

It was locked, and Tommy couldn’t find a way to open the trunk. He might be able to pry it open with a crow bar, but that would make a lot of noise.

“God damn,” Tommy whispered. He would have to go back into the house, up to Pap-pap’s room, find the car keys. All without making a sound, all before Mrs. Tanner and the others came from the church to check the car.

Tommy pulled the canvas back into place. He ran back towards the house, where he eased the front door open and left it ajar.

In Pap-pap’s room, he found the car keys next to the scum-filled denture jar. No one had bothered taking Pap-pap’s dentures out of them in over a year.

Tommy went out the back door, figuring Mrs. Tanner would soon be returning through the front, in search of the Buick keys.

Tommy jogged back toward the barn, but he heard a voice from inside. He ducked low against the building and listened.

“—can’t get this fucking thing open,” Mrs. Tanner grunted. “Christ. The keys are up in the house.”

Mrs. Tanner stepped out and Tommy hid himself around the corner. He held his breath. He forced himself to count to ten before peeking around. Mrs. Tanner had walked out of sight. The barn was silent.

Tommy ran into the barn. She’d left the canvas off the back half of the car. Tommy hurried to the locked trunk and began sorting through Pap-pap’s thick key ring.

“What are you doing?” a soft voice asked, and Tommy jumped.

It was the girl, Esmeralda. Tommy looked around, panicked, but didn’t see her mother or Mrs. Tanner.

“Nothing.” Tommy found two keys with the Buick logo. He tried the first one.

“You have the keys,” she whispered.

“Quiet.” The first key wouldn’t slide in, so he tried the other one. There was a rusty squeal that sounded as loud as thunder to Tommy’s ears. Then he lifted the trunk lid.

A green U.S. Army duffle bag lay inside, among assorted junk.

“We have to go tell—” Esmeralda started for the barn door. Tommy caught her bare arm in his hand, and she gasped.

“Don’t tell anyone!” he hissed.

“Okay!” She shivered. She was terrified of him. His touch was probably giving her nightmares, and he felt bad about that. “Don’t hurt me, okay?” she whispered.

“Stay right there.”

“Yes, yes, yes.” She nodded. “Whatever you say.”

Tommy frowned and let go of her arm. He watched her for a second, to make sure she didn’t run or scream, but she just trembled and stared at him.

“Are you the devil?” she whispered.

“Yes,” Tommy said. He unzipped the duffle bag.

It was full of bundles of cash, each secured with a rubber band, and each bundle had a scrap of paper with an amount scrawled on it. The amounts were all in the hundreds of dollars, and he saw one or two that were over a thousand. Loose change sat at the bottom of the bag—a big handful of silver coins, plus one gold coin featuring an Indian head and an eagle on the back. “2 ½ dollars” it said, but Tommy thought it looked a lot more expensive than that. Pap-pap’s life savings.

“That is her money,” Esmeralda whispered.

“My money.” Tommy zipped the duffle bag and hoisted it over his arm. “I need it because I’m leaving.”

“Oh, no,” Esmeralda said. “My mother will kill me.”

Tommy stared at the frightened girl. He didn’t want to cause her problems.

“I don’t have much time,” he said. He closed the trunk as quietly as he could and propped the duffle bag against it. He unzipped it part of the way, then he reached inside.

“This is for you,” he whispered. He gave her one of the thousand-dollar bundles.

She gaped at it.

“Put it in your purse!” he said. “Don’t tell your mother until you’re a long way from here. Don’t give any money to the Tanners. Okay?”

“Oh…I don’t…” She continued gaping at the money.

Tommy grabbed her arm and shook her. “Do what I say!”

“Yes!” She crammed the money into her beaded purse and zipped it shut. “Sorry. Don’t hurt me please.”

“I wouldn’t hurt you,” he said. He could feel her trembling, but he didn’t want to let go of her arm. She was warm. She almost seemed to glow.

“What are you?” she whispered.

“What are you?” he asked. “You can speak with the dead?”

“Sometimes,” she said. “Mostly I listen. But you are like a…a….”

“A nightmare,” he whispered. Tommy needed to run, but he couldn’t quite let her go yet. She was different, in the same way that he was different. He felt like if he touched her long enough, he would understand.

Then he thought of Mrs. Tanner, on her way back any second.

And he did something that he later wouldn’t believe he had the courage to do. He kissed Esmeralda, the mysterious Latin girl with the supernatural power, right on the lips. Then slipped the gold Indian-head coin into her hand.

She stared at it.

“That’s for you,” he whispered. “I love you.”

Then he ran out of the barn and away across the pasture, towards the distant, flat horizon. He planned to never see the Tanners, or any other foster family, ever again.

He looked back over his shoulder and saw the girl gaping after him. He waved at her, then lowered his head and ran faster.